‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 172:  Israel continues raids on Gaza hospitals following UNSC ceasefire resolution

Casualties 

• 32,414 + killed* and at least 74,787 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
• 448+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.**
• Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,139.
• 594 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. Some rights groups estimate the death toll to be much higher when accounting for those presumed dead.

** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to the PA’s Ministry of Health on March 17, 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: Security Council passes resolution for “lasting” ceasefire without U.S. veto. Netanyahu says that Israel will continue the war until the release of Israeli captives.
• UNRWA: The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres reaffirms that UNRWA is a ‘lifeline’ for  Palestinians in Gaza. 
• Guterres’s remarks came after U.S. President Biden signed a government funding bill effectively banning  UNRWA from receiving U.S. funding until 2025.
• On Monday, UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini, said that 171 UNRWA employees had been killed by Israeli forces since October 7.
• Nine Palestinians were reported dead and five missing by Gaza authorities after drowning while attempting to retrieve air-dropped aid packages that had fallen in the sea north of the Gaza Strip. At least 27 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, mostly children, have been reported dead of malnutrition caused by the lack of access to food.
• Israeli forces wounded two Palestinians in military raids on Nablus city and the Balata refugee camp.
• Israeli forces also arrested 30 Palestinians across the West Bank, raising the number of Palestinians detained by Israel since October to 7,800. The total number of Palestinians in Israeli prisons has risen to 9,100.
• Over 100 Palestinians killed in Gaza in 24 hours.

UN Security Council passes ceasefire resolution with U.S. abstention

The UN Security Council passed a resolution on Monday calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, almost six months after Israel’s assault on the Strip began.  

The resolution was adopted after the U.S. abstained, in a marked shift from its previous positions, where it had vetoed three ceasefire resolution attempts in the past months.

Last week, Russia and China vetoed a proposed ceasefire resolution presented by the U.S. The resolution called for the unconditional release of the remaining Israeli captives in the Gaza Strip as a precondition for the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

The resolution passed on Monday also calls for the release of Israeli captives and the entry of humanitarian aid with the “removal of all obstacles” that prevent its entry. Notably, however, the wording of the resolution does not condition the two stipulations upon each other.  

Hamas welcomed the resolution, saying in a statement that it is ready to conduct a captive swap with Israel immediately. Since October 2023, Hamas has proposed numerous prisoner swaps with Israel, in which hundreds or thousands of Palestinians in Israeli captivity would be released in exchange for the Israelis being held in Gaza. 

The group, alongside other Palestinian factions, released some 50 Israeli captives in a swap with Israel during a temporary pause in fighting last November. In exchange, Israel released 240 Palestinian women and children from its prisons, though Israeli forces have since rearrested a number of the released Palestinian detainees.

Israel, for its part, rejected the resolution on Monday, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office saying in a statement that the U.S. had “abandoned” its previous position that linked a ceasefire to a hostage release. 

Netanyahu also announced the cancelation of an Israeli delegation visit to Washington, where it was scheduled to meet U.S. officials later this week. The Israeli Prime Minister added that he will not stop the war as long as Israeli captives are still held in Gaza.

On Monday, White House spokesperson John Kirby said that the U.S. was “perplexed” by Israel’s reaction, pointing out that the Biden administration “hasn’t changed its position.” Kirby added that the UN resolution “is not binding, so there is no impact at all on Israel’s ability to go after Hamas.”

Eleven massacres across the Gaza Strip

The Palestinian health ministry announced that 107 Palestinians were killed in 11 massacres committed by Israeli forces in the past 24 hours.

In the north of Rafah, Israeli bombings targeted the Abu Naqira family home, killing 21 Palestinians, including ten children.

Israeli bombings also struck Deir al-Balah and al-Maghazi refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip.

In Gaza City in the north, Israeli forces bombed the Abu Hasira family home in the vicinity of al-Shifa Hospital, killing 30 Palestinians. Israeli forces also continued their incursions in the surroundings of al-Shifa, with the military reaching the al-Shati refugee camp west of the hospital.

The al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said that its fighters continued to fight Israeli forces in the surroundings of al-Shifa.

The group released video footage of its fighters targeting Israeli troops with sniper rifles, saying that it was in the al-Shifa area. The Israeli army also admitted that its troops continue to clash with Palestinian fighters in the hospital’s surroundings.

Also on Monday, nine Palestinians were reported dead after drowning while trying to retrieve humanitarian aid from airdrops that fell into the sea in the northern Gaza Strip. Five others were reported missing.

The U.S., Jordan, Qatar, Belgium, and France continue to conduct aid airdrops on the besieged Gaza Strip as Israel continues to block the entry of aid trucks through regular land crossings. Gaza authorities have said that airdrops are dangerous and inefficient, with at least 18 Palestinians killed due to malfunctioning airdrops.

Israel forces raid al-Amal hospital as siege of al-Shifa enters ninth day

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) announced that the al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, was completely forced out of service on Monday by Israeli forces.

Israeli forces raided al-Amal and forced hundreds of Palestinians to leave the facility, including medical staff, patients, and families taking refuge in the hospital.

Al-Amal is one of four hospitals still operating in the Gaza Strip after some 30 hospitals have been effectively rendered out of service by Israeli attacks and the sustained lack of fuel and medical supplies after October 7. 

In Gaza City, Israeli forces continue to besiege al-Shifa hospital for the ninth day in a row. Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, was first attacked by Israeli forces in November under the premise that Hamas and other armed groups were operating from inside and underneath the hospital.

While many of the Palestinian patients and medical staff were forced out of the hospital, Palestinians began returning to al-Shifa in February after Israeli forces withdrew from the area.

The Israeli army announced last week that it had arrested hundreds of Palestinians in the vicinity of al-Shifa, claiming that they were members of Palestinian resistance groups. 

Since the latest attack on the hospital began, testimonies have surfaced of field executions, sexual assault, and the torture of civilians trapped in the hospital. 

On Monday, a Palestinian who was detained by Israeli forces in the surroundings of al-Shifa told Aljazeera that Israeli soldiers “were having fun with us.”

“They took my mother, my sisters, and their children away for three days, and they made us men lay on broken glass and stay out in the cold,” said the Palestinian man. “For three days, they didn’t verify our identities until the very end, right before letting us go.”

The Palestinian Civil Defence said on Monday that wounded Palestinians and dead bodies remain scattered around the hospital compound and that heavy Israeli fire has made it impossible for its teams to evacuate them.

Israeli arrest wave continues in West Bank amidst confrontations

Israeli forces raided Qalqilya and Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank and Bethlehem and Hebron in the south, arresting 30 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club.

In Nablus’s Balata refugee camp, Israeli forces were confronted by armed Palestinian resistance fighters in the vicinity of the local Fatah headquarters. Israeli forces demolished parts of the building in the camp, according to local sources.

The Israeli army had bombed the same building in November with an airstrike, killing five Palestinians at the time. 

PRCS reported that two Palestinians were wounded by live fire in Nablus, one of them in Balata refugee camp.

Israeli forces also raided the Rafidia and al-Makhfiya neighborhoods in Nablus and parts of Jenin city, where Palestinians confronted the military with stones.

Arrests also took place in Dura, southwest of Hebron, Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem, and in the Jalazone refugee camp, north of  Ramallah.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said in a statement that the number of Palestinians detained by Israeli forces has reached 7,800 prisoners since October 7. In total, Israel currently holds 9,100 Palestinians in its jails, including 51 women, 200 children, and 3,500 administrative detainees under Israel’s administrative detention system, which holds Palestinians in prison without charge or trial.