A day after US President Joe Biden said ceasefire talks were imminent, Israel and Hamas downplayed the possibility of a breakthrough soon.
Here's what happened on Tuesday, February 28, 2024:
Combat and humanitarian crisis
- In its latest daily update, the Gaza Ministry of Health said 96 people were killed and 172 injured in the past 24 hours.
- The Palestinian Red Crescent also released footage of an ambulance team searching for survivors under rubble at the scene of an Israeli air raid in the city of Deir el-Bala in central Gaza.
- Meanwhile, in the northern Gaza Strip, a two-year-old Palestinian child named Khalid died after eating bread made from animal feed.
- Al-Helal Al-Emailati Maternity Hospital in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost town, reported that newborns were dying because mothers lacked prenatal and postnatal care, according to the United Nations Population Fund.
- The prospect of an invasion of Rafah has now raised global alarm over the fate of the approximately 1.4 million civilians trapped there. [I’m afraid we’ve been oscillating between 1.4 and 1.5 million]
Regional tensions and diplomacy
- This came after US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that Israel had agreed to suspend attacks during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan if a deal was reached to release some prisoners. Israel and Hamas have downplayed the possibility of an imminent breakthrough in Gaza ceasefire negotiations. .
- Negotiators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar are working to broker a ceasefire in which Hamas would release some of its prisoners in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners.
- And as the war continues, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and France sent supplies of food, medicine and other aid to Gaza on Tuesday, as a lack of safe passage hampers the delivery of aid by U.N. trucks. was airlifted.
- On the southern coast of Gaza, boxes of supplies dropped from military planes were washed down by parachutes, and thousands of Palestinians ran across the sand to retrieve them.
- Separately, in the United States, President Joe Biden renewed his call for lawmakers to approve a foreign aid bill that includes $14 billion for Israel and aid for Ukraine and Taiwan.
Violence in the occupied West Bank
- In the West Bank, Israeli forces attacked the city of Jenin and the Jenin refugee camp, Wafa news agency reported.
- Wafa said Israeli forces, supported by military vehicles and bulldozers, destroyed roads and other infrastructure both in the city and in the camps.