‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 158: Israeli airstrikes continue to pummel Gaza during the holy month of Ramadan

Casualties

• 31,184+ killed* and at least 72,889 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
• 423+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.**
• Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,147.
• 589 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 3,221 injured.***

*Gaza’s Ministry of Health confirmed this figure on its Telegram channel. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to 35,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.

** The death toll in West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to PA’s Ministry of Health on March 6, this is the latest figure.

*** This figure is released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.”

Key Developments

• UN chief says, “my appeal is to honour the spirit of the holy month by silencing the guns & removing all obstacles to the delivery of lifesaving aid.”
• Only 500 Palestinians perform Tarawih prayers at al-Awda Mosque in Rafah, few hundred others pray near destroyed a-Huda Mosque in al-Shabboura.
• UNRWA chief says Israeli forces turned back truck loaded with aid to northern Gaza “because it had scissors used in children’s medical kits.”
• Gaza’s Ministry of Health says very few aid trucks arrived in northern Gaza by land, and that “[Israeli] bombing of hungry people’s gatherings has become a daily routine.”
• World Central Kitchen sends ship from Cyprus bound to Gaza with “almost 200 tons of food — rice, flour, legumes, canned veggies and proteins.”
• Israeli navy boats fire at Palestinian fishermen near Nuseirat, killing brothers Muhammad and Youssef Adel Abu Riyala.
• Rescue teams recover bodies of 11 martyrs following Israeli airstrike on residential building in al-Qarara, north of Khan Younis.
• Palestinian Authority says Israel turned West Bank into “military barracks,” installing 750 military checkpoints and deploying thousands of soldiers.
• Lebanon’s Hezbollah fires over 100 missiles toward Israeli military sites in Upper Galilee and occupied Golan Heights on Tuesday morning, following Israeli bombing of Lebanese city of Baalbek.
• The Islamic Resistance in Iraq claims it launched drone attack on Ben Gurion Airport, near Tel Aviv, on Monday.

In Gaza, ‘the eyes of history are watching’

UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres called for the cessation of the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip on Monday, as Israel’s assault marks its 158th day since it started on October 7.

“My appeal is to honour the spirit of the holy month by silencing the guns & removing all obstacles to the delivery of lifesaving aid,” Guterres said on X. “The eyes of the world are watching. The eyes of history are watching. We cannot look away. We must act to avoid more preventable deaths.” 

Guterres appealed for an immediate ceasefire and the release of Israeli captives.

For Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the sounds of Israeli bombs and artillery fire drowned out the UN chief’s statement.

In the past 24 hours, Israeli forces committed eight massacres in various areas of the Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health on Telegram, killing at least 72 people and injuring 129. Since March, 27 children died of malnutrition and dehydration in Gaza’s hospitals.

Palestinians mark Ramadan in Gaza without food or water

The 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are marking the month of Ramadan without sufficient food and water. Most of them lost their homes in the Israeli bombardment, sheltering in plastic tents and miserable conditions. 

In northern Gaza, some Palestinian families are facing an acute shortage of food and aid supplies as Israel continues to hinder aid trucks from reaching Gaza City. In the southernmost Rafah district, conditions are not significantly better.

“There is only one tomato in the tent with a small packet of cheese and without any piece of bread,” a Palestinian woman who was displaced with her family from Khan Younis told Wafa, describing living in Burqa Stadium in Rafah refugee camp. “Everything is expensive. We cannot buy vegetables, and fruit is not even available. At Suhur [predawn meal before fasting begins], we ate a few pieces of canned meat as we could not buy anything. Even the simplest and most trivial needs have risen astonishingly.” 

“This is not life. There is no water to drink, wash our hands, or cook food,” she added. “Until now, we do not know what we will break our fast with. We used to buy Ramadan necessities a few days early. But now, even cheese is astronomically expensive.”

This year, thousands of Palestinians now hold family gatherings in tents instead of their homes for the breaking of their fast at sunset. However, finding food, water, and cooking fuel remains a daily priority for most. 

Very few mosques remain standing in the Gaza Strip for Palestinians to perform Tarawih prayers, which involve reading one part of the Quran each night of Ramadan.

Only 500 worshipers performed Tarawih in al-Awda Mosque, Rafah’s largest mosque, while a few hundred others prayed near the destroyed al-Huda Mosque in al-Shaboura.

No water or dates were distributed to worshippers as is customary during Ramadan, and the traditional festive Ramadan lights could not be lit this year due to the power outage. Amid the darkness of night, Palestinians had only their phone torches to make their way to pray.

Israel blocks aid to Gaza because of ‘medical scissors’

Philippe Lazzarini, the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) chief, said on Monday that “an entire population depends on humanitarian assistance for survival [in Gaza]. Very little comes in & restrictions increase.”

He added that Israeli forces had turned back a truck loaded with aid to northern Gaza “because it had scissors used in children’s medical kits.”

“Medical scissors are now added to a long list of banned items the Israeli Authorities classify as ‘for dual use’,” he wrote on X.

“The list includes basic and lifesaving items: from anesthetics, solar lights, oxygen cylinders and ventilators, to water cleaning tablets, cancer medicines and maternity kits,” the UNRWA chief said.

Last week, Israel also denied the entry of 1,350 U.K.-funded water filters to Gaza, considering them “a threat.”

On Tuesday morning, Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported that very few aid trucks arrived in northern Gaza by land.

The ministry said that the trucks took two routes to deliver aid to Gaza: the first was Salah al-Din Street, where they ended up near the Kuwait roundabout, and the second was the seaside road, where they reached the al-Nabulsi junction.

“People gather near these places, al-Nabulsi junction and Kuwait roundabout, hoping to get food. [Israeli] bombing of hungry peoples’ gatherings has become a daily routine, while the international community watches it on their screens,” the ministry said in a message on Telegram.

“Hunger will kill all the residents of the northern Gaza Strip. Aid is very little… The world will witness the largest number of victims of hunger in the coming days. If you do not act today to save us, we will all die,” the ministry warned in an appeal for help.

For the past weeks, Israel has been engineering famine and pushing for man-made starvation in Gaza, a policy several UN and humanitarian officials warned of. They also agree that delivering aid through a land crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip is more effective than airdropping or sending it by sea.

On Tuesday morning, a ship bound for Gaza sailed from Cyrus loaded with 200 tons of food. It is the first test for the opening of a humanitarian sea corridor, which will also involve the building of a U.S. floating pier near Gaza’s shore to deliver aid.

“We dispatched almost 200 tons of food—rice, flour, legumes, canned veggies & proteins,” World Central Kitchen wrote on X.

Israeli forces bomb houses in Gaza and kill two fishermen

Overnight, Israeli forces bombed several areas of the Gaza Strip. Air raids on houses in Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood killed 10 Palestinians and injured 20 others, Wafa reported. 

Israeli artillery also shelled Gaza’s neighborhoods of al-Sabra, Sheikh Ejleen, and Tal al-Hawa, killing at least three people. In Jabalia refugee camp, an Israeli airstrike killed four Palestinians.

Israel also bombed Deir al-Balah, as well as the Nuseirat, al-Maghazi, and al-Bureij refugee camps, Wafa reported. The bombing of the Abu Sinjar family home in Deir al-Balah killed eight people and injured several others during the raid.

Israeli navy boats fired at Palestinian fishermen while at sea near Nuseirat, killing the brothers, Muhammad and Youssef Adel Abu Riyala.

In al-Qarara, north of Khan Younis, rescue teams recovered the bodies of 11 martyrs following an Israeli airstrike on a residential building, Wafa reported.

Israeli forces killed nine people and injured more than 20 others when it opened fire on Palestinians waiting for aid trucks to arrive at the Kuwait roundabout. 

Israel’s fortified highway reaches Mediterranean coast

Israel’s fortified road in the middle of the Gaza Strip has now reached the Mediterranean Sea, according to recent satellite imagery obtained by CNN.

Israel planned to finish the “Netzarim Corridor” before the start of Ramadan, which now cuts the Gaza Strip into two and blocks Palestinians or aid trucks from traveling north on Salah al-Din Street, the main central highway connecting northern Gaza with the south.

To finish the project, Israeli forces razed and demolished numerous houses and buildings to make way for a 1.2-kilometer buffer zone around the 4-mile-long “Netzarim Corridor,” named after a former Israeli settlement in Gaza and military checkpoint.

Israel kills two Palestinians, settlers storm al-Aqsa

Israeli forces killed two Palestinians north of the occupied West Bank on Monday. Tawfiq Fawaz Hussein, 25, succumbed to his wounds in Thabet Thabet Hospital in Tulkarem on Monday evening, after being shot by Israeli forces.

Hussein is a resident of Jordan but holds a Palestinian ID card and lives in the village of Kafirat, west of Jenin, Wafa reported. 

Early on Monday, Israeli forces killed Muhammad Jaafar Mustafa Jabr from the village of Arraba during a raid of the town of Tulkarem.

The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) Foreign Ministry warned that Israel has turned the West Bank and Jerusalem into “military barracks,” blocking and barring Palestinians from reaching the al-Aqsa Mosque.

The ministry said that there are nearly 750 Israeli military checkpoints in the West Bank, while 15,000 soldiers are stationed near Palestinian villages and main roads.

“The [Israeli] occupation’s military barriers and iron gates do not have any security function, but rather are used to impose collective punishment on Palestinian citizens, to torture and humiliate them,” the ministry said in a statement.

On Tuesday morning, hundreds of Israeli settlers stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Jerusalem. Wafa reported that on Monday, 275 settlers entered the compound accompanied by a security detail and Israeli police to celebrate the start of the Hebrew month of Adar.

These settler raids come at a time when Israeli authorities are blocking Palestinians in the West Bank under the age of 40 from entering Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Mosque during the holy month of Ramadan. Only 35,000 Palestinians performed Tarawih prayers on Monday night, a staggeringly low number for Ramadan.

The Israeli far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, is planning a provocative visit to the Israeli police point at the Mughrabi Gate in Jerusalem, which has access to the al-Aqsa Mosque, next Friday.

Israeli forces arrested dozens of Palestinians in the West Bank’s towns and cities of Urif, Ya’bad, and Jericho, as well as in Jerusalem. Since October, Israel has arrested 7,555 Palestinians, some of whom were later released, Wafa reported.