Palestinian children 'deprived of the most essential supplies and services', says Unicef
Palestinian children remain deprived of the most essential supplies and services, said the UN agency for children, as Israel continues to halt deliveries to the Gaza Strip amid a deadlock over a fragile ceasefire.
“Far too often, children in the State of Palestine are the victims of this relentless conflict. Nearly all of the 2.4 million children living across the [occupied] West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, are affected in some way," Unicef Middle East and North Africa regional director Edouard Beigbeder said on Sunday.
Mr Beigbeder, who concluded a four-day mission to the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, described the situation in the Palestinian territories as "extremely concerning".
“Without aid entering the Gaza Strip, roughly one million children are living without the very basics they need to survive – yet again," he said. Mr Beigbeder said more than 180,000 doses of essential childhood routine vaccines, enough to fully vaccinate and protect 60,000 children under two years of age, as well as 20 ventilators for neonatal intensive care units are stalled only a few dozen kilometres outside the Gaza Strip.
“Tragically, approximately 4,000 newborns are currently unable to access essential lifesaving care due to the major impact on medical facilities in the Gaza Strip," he said. "Every day without these ventilators, lives are lost, especially among vulnerable, premature newborns in the northern Gaza Strip."
Any further delays to the entry of aid risk further slowing or shuttering essential services and could quickly reverse the gains made for children during the ceasefire, he said.
Five Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks in central Gaza
At least five Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on Bureij refugee camp, in central Gaza, on Monday, the Wafa news agency reported.
Two were killed in an Israeli drone attack, it added. Four Palestinians, including a woman, were wounded by shrapnel from a drone and shots fired from tanks in Rafah, southern Gaza.
Large protests in Yemen after deadly US strikes
Tens of thousands of people held protests in Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen on Monday, the Iran-backed rebels' Al Masirah TV showed. The demonstrations came two days after dozens were killed in US attacks.
Protesters waved placards and assault rifles, chanting "death to America, death to Israel", in the capital Sanaa, while rallies were also held in Saada, Dhamar, Hodeidah and Amran.
Gaza strikes hit militants planting explosives, Israel says
The Israeli military announced it launched air strikes in central and southern Gaza on Monday against what it said were militants attempting to plant explosives near Israeli forces. One strike hit three militants in central Gaza as they were planting explosives, while another struck militants in Rafah, in southern Gaza, the military said.
Israel has carried out near-daily strikes on the enclave, although a fragile ceasefire that took effect on January 19 has largely held. On Saturday, nine people, including four Palestinian journalists, were killed in strikes on Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, the enclave's civil defence agency said, in the deadliest attack on a single site since January 19.
Israeli strike kills one and injures three in southern Lebanon
One person was killed and three were injured on Monday in an Israeli strike on the town of southern Lebanese town of Yohmor, the Health Ministry said. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Hezbollah operatives were the targets of a drone attack.
“The IDF just struck Hezbollah terrorists in the Yohmor area after they engaged in terror activities against Israel,” Mr Katz said in a statement. “Our policy is clear: zero tolerance for any ceasefire violation. We will not allow any breach of the agreement, nor will we allow Hezbollah to restore its capabilities. Any terrorist who tries to harm Israeli civilians is a dead man."
In November, a ceasefire was agreed on between Hezbollah and Israel, ending 14 months of fighting, including two months of devastating Israeli bombardment on Lebanon.
Despite the agreement, Lebanese authorities have reported hundreds of ceasefire breaches. In February, UN experts said that within 60 days of the ceasefire coming into force, at least 57 civilians had been killed by Israel and 260 properties had been destroyed.
Hamas insists Israel implement second phase of ceasefire agreement
Hamas has said it demands that the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement comes into effect and that it rejects any new side deals with Israel.
"What is required is to enter into the second phase of the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has disavowed, not to establish new side agreements," the group's spokesman Hazem Qassem said on Monday.
He said that enforcing the agreement with all its phases "ensures its goals and the language of threat will not result in anything positive, but will complicate the matters".
US bombs Yemen for second night as Houthis vow revenge
US planes bombed Yemen's Houthis for a second night as the US Defence Secretary pledged “unrelenting” attacks on the militant group. The Houthis earlier claimed to have fired rockets and drones at an American aircraft carrier, though US officials said all of the projectiles were intercepted.
“The minute the Houthis say we'll stop shooting at your ships, we'll stop shooting at your drones, this campaign will end, but until then it will be unrelenting,” Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News late on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday launched large-scale military strikes against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen over the group's attacks on Red Sea shipping, in the largest military operation in the Middle East since he took office in January. At least 53 people were killed, including five children, and 98 others injured in the first round of strikes, the Houthis' Health Ministry spokesman Anis Al Asbahi said.
Opinion: Houthi intransigence has put Yemen's people in line of fire
The National editorial:
In the battle of wills between US President Donald Trump and Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, no clear winner has emerged. However, there is a clear loser: the country’s long-suffering civilian population.
As Yemenis awoke yesterday to news that Mr Trump’s large-scale military strikes against the militants had claimed at least 24 lives, they would be right to reflect on the disastrous chain of events and policy decisions that have led to one of the world’s most impoverished countries being again bombarded by a superpower.
The Houthis, who control a large part of the country – including Sanaa, the capital – have consistently put their own people in harm’s way by first over-turning the legitimate government and then persisting with prioritising Iran-guided policies even as proxies elsewhere falter and the geopolitical picture in the Middle East rapidly changes. Far from using the imperfect ceasefire in Gaza as an opportunity to de-escalate, the Houthis continued to menace international shipping in the Red Sea. Given that Mr Trump’s administration put the Houthis on notice by redesignating them as a terrorist organisation on March 4, threatening to keep up attacks in the strategic waterway was almost certainly going to draw a forceful response.
Netanyahu set to remove head of Shin Bet security service
The head of Israel's Shin Bet security service, Ronen Bar, could be forced out of the post this week.
Plans to remove him from the role are to be brought before the government, a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Sunday.
Last week, Mr Netanyahu urged Mr Bar to resign, but he refused, Israeli media reported.
Yemen's Houthis say they attacked US aircraft carrier in Red Sea
Yemen's Houthi rebels have said they launched ballistic missiles and drones at a US aircraft carrier and its warships in response to the American strikes on Yemen.
The USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier was among the targets in the attack, the group said on Sunday.
More than 47 air strikes in "the governorates of Sanaa, Saada, Al Bayda, Hajjah, Dhamar, Marib and Al Jawf, in which the American enemy committed a number of massacres, resulting in the martyrdom and injury of dozens", the Houthis said.
"In response to this aggression, the armed forces carried out a specific military operation targeting the American aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman and its warships in the northern Red Sea with 18 ballistic and cruise missiles and a drone."
The Houthis said they "will not hesitate to target all American warships in the Red Sea and in the Arabian Sea in retaliation to the aggression against our country".
It will maintain a "naval blockade" on Israel and vessels linked to the country "until aid and basic needs are delivered to the Gaza Strip", the Iran-backed group added.
Rubio defends arrest of Mahmoud Khalil
Willy Lowry reports from Washington:
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has defended the decision to act against former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil.
Mr Khalil was arrested this month as the Trump administration looks to crack down on pro-Palestinian protests at university campuses.
“When you apply to enter the United States and you get a visa, you are a guest,” Mr Rubio told CBC on Sunday.
"If you tell us when you apply for a visa, ‘I’m coming to the US to participate in pro-Hamas events', that runs counter to the foreign policy interest of the United States. If you had told us you were going to do that, we never would have given you the visa."
Mr Khalil’s arrest has raised concerns about free speech and what the Trump administration is willing to do to punish those who took part in demonstrations against Israel’s war on Gaza.
Israeli negotiators meet senior Egyptian officials for ceasefire talks
Thomas Helm reports:
Israeli negotiators are meeting “senior Egyptian officials” for talks on hostages held in Gaza, according to Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu's office.
The news on Sunday comes amid diplomatic efforts to keep alive a ceasefire agreement signed by Hamas and Israel in January.
The first phase of the deal expired weeks ago, with mediators now trying to get the sides to progress to a second stage during which they would work towards a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza war.
Earlier on Sunday, US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said the latest round of Hamas demands in the talks were “unacceptable”.
Hamas ceasefire demand 'unacceptable', says US Middle East envoy
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said Hamas’s latest ceasefire demand is “unacceptable” and a “non-starter”, as negotiations between Israel and Hamas continue in Qatar.
Mr Witkoff told CNN that the group’s response came after “really positive conversation” at a recent Arab summit that was “game-changing, but for Hamas’s response”.
“We spent a good deal of time talking about a bridge proposal that would see the release of five live hostages that included Edan Alexander and also see the release of a substantial amount of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails,” he said.
Mr Witkoff, who played a key role in bringing about January’s ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, said he would not go into detail about why Hamas’s position was unacceptable.
“I thought the proposal was compelling," he said. "The Israelis were informed and advised about it beforehand and after waiting for two or three days from Hamas, which is their usual mode, we got an unacceptable response.”
Mr Witkoff also said overnight US strikes on Yemen’s Houthis “was to inform where we stand with regard to terrorism and our tolerance level for terrorist actions”.
“I would encourage Hamas to get much more sensible than how they have been,” he said.
US says several Houthi leaders killed in attacks
US strikes killed a number of Houthi leaders in Yemen, the White House said on Sunday. Iran has been "put on notice" to stop backing the rebel group and its attacks on Red Sea shipping, Washington added.
The military strikes on Saturday "actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out", National Security Adviser Michael Waltz told ABC News.
"We just hit them with overwhelming force and put Iran on notice that enough is enough." he said.
US strikes on Houthis send warning to Iran, experts say
Mina Aldroubi reports:
US strikes on the Houthi rebels send a warning to Iran, but will also prolong civilian suffering, which the Yemeni rebels will exploit, experts and officials told The National on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump ordered strikes on Houthi-held areas of Yemen late on Saturday, promising to use “overwhelming lethal force” until the Iran-backed rebels end their attacks on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The US is exerting "maximum pressure" on Iran and its proxies in the region. Mr Trump has increased sanctions on Tehran while trying to convince the regime to return to talks on its nuclear programme.
“The main message is for Iran. President Trump wants to tell them he can target them next. As he likes to say, ‘Negotiation through strength’,” Baraa Shiban, a Yemen expert and associate fellow at the Rusi defence think tank, told The National.
“It looks, from the intensity of the strikes, like this operation will continue, which will degrade their [the Houthis'] capabilities, similar to what happened with Hezbollah in Lebanon."
Aftermath of US air strike on Yemen's Saada
Hezbollah condemns US strikes against Yemen
Hezbollah condemned on Sunday large-scale military strikes by the US against Yemen and stressed its solidarity with the Yemeni people, according to a statement.
The strikes on Saturday against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis have killed at least 31 people, according to the Houthi-run Health Ministry.
At least 14 killed in Gaza in past 24 hours, says Health Ministry
At least 14 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza in the past 24 hours, the enclave's Health Ministry said on Sunday.
The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 48,572 since October 7, 2023, when the Israel-Hamas war started, with 112,032 injured, the ministry added in its latest daily update.
On Saturday Gaza's civil defence agency said nine people were killed in Israeli strikes in the north of the enclave.
The deaths included several journalists and a number of workers from a charitable organisation, civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal said.
Russian minister calls for end to 'use of force' after US operation against Houthis
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called for the need to immediately end the "use of force" and to "engage in political dialogue" after the US launched a military operation against Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis.
During a phone conversation with the US Secretary of State on Saturday, Marco Rubio told Mr Lavrov of the US decision to attack the Houthis, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"Sergey Lavrov .... stressed the need for all parties to immediately cease the use of force and the importance for all sides to engage in political dialogue so as to find a solution that would prevent further bloodshed," the ministry said.
Netanyahu instructs preparation for resuming Gaza ceasefire talks
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed his negotiating team to prepare to continue the Gaza ceasefire talks after the mediators' response to US envoy Steve Witkoff's proposal for the immediate release of 11 living hostages and half of those who died, his office said.
The decision came after an in-depth discussion on Saturday evening on the issue of the hostages, with the participation of the negotiating team and the heads of the security establishment, the office said.
That came after Hamas said it was ready to release a living Israeli-US hostage, Edan Alexander, along with the bodies of four Israeli-Americans in exchange for Palestinian detainees.
A Hamas delegation, which left Cairo for Doha where the movement is based, said the proposal to hand over the five had also been put forward by the US.
Following the discussion, the Prime Minister instructed the negotiating team to prepare for the continuation of the talks as per the mediators' response to the Witkoff proposal for the immediate release of 11 living hostages and half of the deceased hostages.
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) March 15, 2025
