‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 168: U.S. advances UN Security Council ceasefire resolution as al-Shifa Hospital siege enters fifth day

Casualties:

• 31,988+ killed* and at least 74,118 wounded in the Gaza Strip as of March 21, 2024.
• 435+ 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.
• 590 Israeli soldiers have been killed since October 7, and at least 3,221 injured.***

*Gaza’s Ministry of Health confirmed this figure on its Telegram channel on March 21, 2024. 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

• Several casualties as Israel bombs Gaza’s Shati refugee camp.
• Israeli airstrikes kill at least eleven people in Rafah and Khan Younis.
• Israeli military siege on al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City continues into its fifth day.
• Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is set to arrive in Washington DC with a “wish list” of weapons that Israel wants expedited to it immediately.
• Israel claims 8,000 acres of land in the Jordan Valley for settlement development.
• Israeli army raids home of Palestinian suspected of opening fire on a bus carrying Israeli settlers near Ramallah.
• Israeli protestors march near Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea (south of Haifa), demanding an early election.
• U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken set to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later today.
• U.S. introduces UN Security Council resolution calling for immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza.
• EU leaders issue first unanimous call for ceasefire in Gaza.
• Finland resumes UNRWA funding.

U.S. introduces UNSC resolution calling for ceasefire, Israeli Defense Minister prepares for trip to Washington

The United States has introduced a UN Security Council resolution that calls for a “permanent and sustained” ceasefire with the strongest language that the United States has used to date.

While the United States has voted against UNSC resolutions calling for a ceasefire as recently as February, this resolution marks a shift in priorities, bringing up concerns about famine and widespread conflict-induced epidemics in Gaza as well as a need for Hamas to release all Israeli hostages.

“[The draft resolution] is not calling for an immediate ceasefire now; it’s not demanding an immediate ceasefire,” Marc Owen Jones, associate professor of Middle East Studies at Hamid Bin Khalifa University, told Al Jazeera. “So, it’s still being slightly cautious with the language. But it certainly suggests that they believe that they could be getting one.”

U.S. Congress member Rashida Tlaib — the only U.S. Congressperson of Palestinian descent — has pointed out the necessity of a permanent, as opposed to a temporary, ceasefire. 

“This isn’t a tragic accident,” said Tlaib, pointing out that a temporary ceasefire would only prolong Palestinian suffering. “What we are witnessing, all around this world, is the Israeli government using starvation as a weapon of war. The starvation is a result of the total siege on Gaza and the international targeting of local food production, infrastructure and obstruction of aid convoys.”

European leaders have taken a cue from the United States to also re-evaluate their priorities, overcoming their differences for the first time since October to agree upon a statement that calls for an immediate humanitarian pause, with the idea that this will lead to a permanent ceasefire.

Many are cautiously optimistic that U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s flash visit to Israel might result in a ceasefire announcement — or at least, the furthering of negotiations with a goal of stalling or avoiding a catastrophic military invasion of Rafah.

However, Al Jazeera has pointed out that while the U.S.-drafted resolution calls for a “permanent and sustained” ceasefire, the phrasing remains nebulous as it leaves out calls of an “immediate” ceasefire. Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is set to visit Washington next week with a “wish list” of weapons to be delivered to Israel immediately—how Washington responds to the Defense Minister’s requests will set the tone on how serious they are about implementing lasting peace in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli siege on al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City continues, raids in the West Bank

Meanwhile, in Gaza, the Israeli military siege on al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City continues into its fifth day, as Israel threatens to blow up the building if those who are still inside do not surrender or evacuate. It has led to a situation of unprecedented hardship in northern Gaza.

The siege on al-Shifa comes in the context of Israel’s attempt to target civil employees and members of the police in Gaza who were based in al-Shifa, in an attempt to sow civil unrest and cause a breakdown in social order in the north. Claiming these civil employees to be “top Hamas operatives,” Israel assassinated the Director of the Operations of the Gaza Police, Faiq Mabhouh, who was an instrumental figure in successfully coordinating the delivery of humanitarian aid to northern Gaza in cooperation with international organizations, local tribes, and UNRWA. In light of the widespread compliance of the populace with the directives of Gaza’s civil employees, Israel has laid siege of al-Shifa where many of them are based, claiming them to be armed Hamas fighters.

“The fighting continues inside the hospital buildings,” Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a statement, adding that Hamas and Islamic Jihad “terrorists” were “barricading themselves inside of the emergency room.”

“We continue to call upon the terrorists in the building to surrender, those who will surrender will stay alive,” he continued, adding that the Israeli military is “evacuating” around 220 patients to another location. Given that there is no coordination between the Israeli military and international bodies, evacuating people is incredibly dangerous.

Israel claims to have killed 150 Hamas operatives and apprehended “hundreds of suspects” over the past twenty-four hours, which has come at the cost of killing at least 160 civilians and terrifying many others with air raids and violent arrests. According to eyewitnesses, Israeli soldiers beat and arrested all of the young men in al-Shifa Hospital, forcing them outside without clothes and blindfolding and interrogating them until they were freed.

Hamas denies using the hospital as a base and claims that all of those who have been killed have been civilians.

The humanitarian crisis across the Gaza Strip continues. While UNRWA was able to deliver fuel and medical supplies to northern Gaza, other humanitarian aid is arriving at a trickle, pushing northern Gaza closer to the precipice of famine.

Meanwhile, more and more people are fleeing southwards along the coastline towards Rafah — the last district that has not been invaded by the Israeli military. However, displaced Gazans in Rafah are experiencing increasing attacks from the Israeli army. Just last night, an air raid killed eight people.

Meanwhile, Israeli military raids and arrests across the West Bank continue, targeting Tubas, Qalqilya, and villages surrounding both Hebron and Jenin. Once again, the Israeli security forces have prevented hundreds of worshippers from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, restricting Friday prayers during the Holy Month of Ramadan.

On Friday morning, March 22, a Palestinian man was targeted and killed by an Israeli helicopter between the villages of Deir Ibzi’ and Kufr Ne’ma west of Ramallah, Wafa reported. The Israeli army alleges that the man, identified as Mujahid Mansour from Deir Ibzi’, had opened fire on an Israeli bus carrying settlers before escaping and being chased by Israeli soldiers and an attack drone, where he engaged in a firefight before he was targeted by the helicopter.

Israeli war crimes in Gaza could keep ICC ‘busy for the next five decades‘

UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese is calling upon the International Criminal Court (ICC) to devote more resources towards pouring over the enormous amount of evidence pointing towards war crimes in Gaza.

“The colossal amount of evidence concerning [international] crimes committed by Israel in Gaza just over the past six months could keep the [ICC] busy for the next five decades, especially at the current proceedings pace,” she said in a post on X, responding to graphic footage of four Palestinian men being killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.