‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 180: Israel calls killing of WCK workers ‘mistake,’ UN reports at least 195 aid workers killed since October 7

Casualties 

• 32,975 + killed* and at least 75,557 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
• 453+ 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.
• 600 Israeli soldiers have been killed since October 7, and at least 6,800 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 

• Israel kills 59 Palestinians and wounds 83 in the Gaza Strip in 5 massacres against families, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
• Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu says that Wednesday’s strike killing seven international WCK aid workers was “a mistake.”
• U.S. President Biden demands Israel says that Israel’s investigation into the killing of aid workers “must be swift, must bring accountability, and its findings must be made public.” Human Rights Watch chief calls Biden’s remarks “empty words.”
• UN: At least 195 international aid workers, including 175 UN staff have been killed in Gaza since October 7.
• Axios: U.S. – Israeli differences growing over Rafah invasion. The reports come days after U.S. media reported that Biden pressed the Congress to approve $18 billion military package to Israel.
• Journalists killed in Gaza since October 7 reaches 140, according to Gaza’s government media office.
• The U.S. says it had no information about Tuesday’s strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
• Thousands of Israelis protest in demand of a ceasefire to release Israeli captives in Gaza and calling for early elections.
• West Bank: Four Israeli police officers injured in car-ramming attack near Qalqilya.
• West Bank: Israeli forces arrest one Palestinian journalist during a night raid in Ramallah.

Israeli forces kill 59 Palestinians and wound 83 across the Gaza Strip

In the last 24 hours, Israeli forces killed 59 Palestinians and wounded 83, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza. During this period, the Israeli military also committed five massacres against Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement on Wednesday, the ministry added that medical teams are still unable to recover thousands more of dead bodies under the rubble.

Meanwhile, local sources reported that Israeli artillery shelled the Jabalia refugee camp, north of Gaza City.

In Gaza City, residents continued to recover bodies of killed Palestinians in the surroundings of al-Shifa hospital, where Israeli forces conducted a two-week-long raid before withdrawing on Monday. Medical sources’ testimonies have described total destruction of the hospital’s facilities and equipment.

In the central Gaza Strip, Israeli strikes on the Nusseirat refugee camp killed five Palestinians, including three children, while in Deir al-Balah, two Palestinians were killed in a strike on the Abul Ajeen neighborhood. More strikes were reported on al-Zahraa town and al-Mighraqa village, while Israeli warships opened fire on the Nusseirat and Deir al-Balah beaches.

In the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli forces detonated several residential buildings in the western part of Khan Younis, as Israeli strikes killed three members of the al-Farra family in the center of Khan Younis. Medical teams also recovered three more dead bodies across the city.

In Rafah, Palestinians buried 16 victims of Israeli strikes, 10 of whom belonged to the Zuurub family, killed by Israeli strikes on the east and west of the city.

Israel says the killing of workers in Gaza was “a mistake”

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the strike that killed seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen organization in Deir al-Balah was “a mistake.” Netanyahu’s comments came after Australia, Canada, Spain, and the U.S. demanded an investigation into the strike.

Meanwhile, Israeli daily Haaretz said on Tuesday that the international team was hit with three missiles “one after the other”, indicating the intentionality of the strike.

According to Haaretz, who reported from Israeli military sources, the WCK team was traveling in three separate vehicles, leaving a food warehouse in Deir al-Balah. The first vehicle was hit by a missile, and the Israeli drone saw passengers moving to the second vehicle, which continued driving.

The second vehicle was then hit, and passengers began to evacuate the surviving wounded to the third, which was hit by a third missile shortly after. The Israeli army claimed that they suspected that an armed man was in the convoy, and apologized for the killings.

On Tuesday, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Palestine, Francesca Albanese, said on social media “Knowing how Israel operates, my assessment is that Israeli forces intentionally killed WCK workers so that donors would pull out & civilians in Gaza could continue to be starved quietly.”

The WCK, which suspended its operations in Gaza following the strike, was one of several NGOs delivering food to Palestinians in Gaza by sea. Prior to October 7, food and other goods entered mainly through land crossings, and aid distribution was mainly carried out by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees – UNRWA, which Israel has called to shut down.

Shortly after October 7, the Israeli army imposed a total blockade of food, electricity, and fuel on all of the Gaza Strip. In recent months, Israel has been delaying the entry of humanitarian aid through long checking of aid trucks, which are often rejected entry. Egypt, which controls the other side of the Rafah crossing point, has also been accused of blocking aid entry.

According to the UN, some 195 aid workers have been killed in the Gaza Strip since October 7, including 175 UN staff.

U.S. tells Iran it had no involvement in the strike on its consulate in Damascus, Iran vows to retaliate

The Biden administration told Iran that it had no involvement or prior knowledge of Tuesday’s strike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus, which killed a top Iranian general, according to a U.S. official.

Iran, for its part, accused Israel of the strike. On Tuesday, Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei vowed to “punish” Israel for the strike on its consulate.

The attack on the consulate came one day after a Yemeni drone attack struck Israeli targets in Eilat. Israel and the U.S. have accused Iran of supporting Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Hezbollah said that its fighters attacked an Israeli military base across the border with rockets on Wednesday. Earlier, Israel had conducted six strikes in southern Lebanon, on the Lebanese towns of Bleida, Einata, Aitaroun, and Yarin.

Since October 7, Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in cross-border fighting, with mutual threats of full-fetched war. Israel, for its part, has been bombing targets in Syria since before October 7, including attacking Hezbollah and Iran-related targets.

Both Hezbollah and Yemen’s Ansar Allah have repeated that they will continue their actions until Israel’s assault on Gaza ends. Observers, however, have been warning of a potential major regional confrontation.

West Bank: Israeli police kills Palestinian after 4 policemen injured in car ram attack

Israeli police killed a Palestinian near Qalqilya, in the northwest of the West Bank, after he injured four Israeli policemen in a car ram attack, the Israeli police announced on Wednesday.

The Palestinian was identified as 26-year-old Wahb Shabita, from the town of al-Tireh in 1948 Palestine.

According to the police reports, Shabita rammed his car into a group of policemen at a checkpoint, then moved to another checkpoint where he attempted to stab Israeli soldiers, who shot him dead. Two of the injured policemen are in critical condition, according to the Israeli police.

Shabita’s car-ramming is the latest of a string of individual Palestinian actions against Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank.

Last week, three Israeli settlers were wounded in a shooting at an Israeli bus near Jericho. A week earlier, an Israeli soldier was killed and seven wounded in a five-hour-long gunfight with a member of the Palestinian security forces, who was eventually killed.

Meanwhile, Israel continued its raids on Palestinian cities and towns in the West Bank, arresting more than 7,800 Palestinians since October 7. On Wednesday before dawn, Israeli forces raided Ramallah, in central West Bank, and surrounded the city hall, while confronted by local youth throwing stones.

Israeli forces arrested several Palestinians, including journalist ِAsmaa Hireish, before withdrawing from the city. According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, Israeli forces arrested 30 Palestinians from across the West Bank overnight.

Since October 7, Israel has killed 453 Palestinians in the West Bank. Currently, some 9,100 Palestinians are held in Israeli jails, including 50 women, 200 children, and more than 3,500 detainees without charges.