Security forces find new Hamas-linked terror group, Biden says Netanyahu hurting Israel

The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency is at "risk of death" after a string of donors suspended their funding over Israeli allegations some staff took part in the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas in southern Israel, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said.

"The agency is at risk of death, it is risking dismantlement," Lazzarini told Swiss broadcaster RTS in an interview aired on Saturday.

"What is at stake is the fate of the Palestinians today in Gaza in the short term who are going through an absolutely unprecedented humanitarian crisis."

Israel struck one of the largest residential towers in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, residents said, stepping up pressure on the last area of the enclave it has not yet invaded and where over a million displaced Palestinians are sheltering.

The 12-floor building, located some 500 meters from the border with Egypt, was damaged in the strike. Dozens of families were made homeless though no casualties were reported, according to residents. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the incident.

One of the tower's 300 residents told Reuters that Israel gave them a 30-minute warning to flee the building at night.

"People were startled, running down the stairs, some fell, it was chaos. People left their belongings and money," said Mohammad Al-Nabrees, adding that among those who tripped down the stairs during the panicked evacuation was a friend's pregnant wife.

A Rafah-based official with the Fatah party, which dominates the Palestinian Authority that has limited self-rule in the West Bank, another Palestinian territory, said he feared that hitting the Rafah tower was a sign of an imminent Israeli invasion.

Palestinians gather near a building damaged in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip March 9, 2024 (credit: MOHAMMED SALEM/REUTERS)

Five months into Israel's unrelenting air and ground assault on Gaza, Hamas-run health authorities said nearly 31,000 Palestinians had been killed, over 72,500 were wounded and thousands were trapped under rubble.

The offensive has plunged the Palestinian territory, already reeling from a 17-year Israel-led blockade, into a humanitarian catastrophe. Much of it has been reduced to rubble and most of the 2.3 million population have been displaced, with the UN warning of disease and starvation.

Calls for a ceasefire

Three Palestinian children died of dehydration and malnutrition at the northern Al Shifa Hospital overnight, said Hamas health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra. Qidra said this raised to 23 the number of Palestinians who had died of similar causes in nearly 10 days.

"This brutal war has ruptured any sense of a shared humanity," said Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

She called for an end of hostilities to allow for meaningful aid distribution in Gaza, for Hamas to release all hostages without conditions and for Israel to treat Palestinians in its custody humanely and to permit them to contact their families.

The war was triggered by an Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, where 1,200 people were killed and 253 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Negotiations on a ceasefire and the release of 134 hostages still in Gaza seemed to stall ahead of the hoped-for deadline, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins on or around March 10.

A Hamas source told Reuters that the group's delegation was "unlikely" to make another visit to Cairo over the weekend for talks. Hamas blamed the lack of progress on Israel, which has so far refused to give guarantees or commitments to end the war or pull out forces from the Gaza Strip.

In a speech marking Martyrs' and Veterans' Day in Egypt on Saturday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the cost of rebuilding Gaza could exceed $90 billion.

In a statement summarizing its operations in Gaza over the past day, the Israeli military said it conducted arrests, located weapons and killed over 30 fighters in Khan Yunis, including in the Hamad area, in central Gaza and in the area of Beit Hanoun in the north.

Gaza's health ministry said at least 82 people were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip in the last day.

In Khan Yunis, medics said at least 23 people were killed in military raids on homes and in Israeli shelling of a housing project in the Hamad area of the city. In the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli fire killed a Palestinian fisherman along the beach, medics said.

IDF troops fighting in the Khan Yunis eliminated over 20 terrorists in face-to-face battles and air force strikes during fighting over the past day, according to a statement on Friday.

IDF troops also engaged terrorists in the Hamad residential towns north of Khan Yunis and arrested a number of terrorists in the area. 

Terrorists in the area of Beit Hanon were eliminated after attacks were launched on Sderot overnight.

The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency is at "risk of death" after a string of donors suspended their funding over Israeli allegations some staff took part in the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas in southern Israel, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said.

"The agency is at risk of death, it is risking dismantlement," Lazzarini told Swiss broadcaster RTS in an interview aired on Saturday.

"What is at stake is the fate of the Palestinians today in Gaza in the short term who are going through an absolutely unprecedented humanitarian crisis."

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis targeted bulk carrier Propel Fortune in the Gulf of Aden, the group's military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a televised speech early on Saturday.

The Houthis have been attacking ships in the Red Sea since November in what they say is a campaign of solidarity with Palestinians during the war in Gaza.

Sarea also said on Saturday they targeted "a number" of US war destroyers at the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden with 37 drones."

US actions against Houthis

Early on Saturday, US Navy ships and aircraft shot down 15 uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) by Yemen's Houthis in the Red Sea area, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said.

The military was responding to a large-scale attack by the Houthis launched into the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden between 4 a.m. and 6:30 a.m (1300-1530 GMT), CENTCOM said in a post on social media platform X.

An aerial view of the Barbados-flagged ship True Confidence ablaze following a Houthi missile attack at sea, March 6, 2024, in this handout photo. (credit: DVIDS/Handout via REUTERS )

The UAVs were determined to present "an imminent threat to merchant vessels, US Navy, and coalition ships in the region," it said.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Wednesday the United States will continue to hold Yemen's Houthis accountable for attacks on international shipping.

Sarea said they would continue their attacks "until the aggression stops and the siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted."

IDF troops fighting in the Khan Yunis eliminated over 20 terrorists in face-to-face battles and air force strikes during fighting over the past day, according to a statement on Friday.

IDF troops also engaged terrorists in the Hamad residential towns north of Khan Yunis and arrested a number of terrorists in the area. 

Terrorists in the area of Beit Hanon were eliminated after attacks were launched on Sderot overnight.