2024-03-30 01:01:57
Israel strongly criticizes a UN report. Iran hosts a Hamas leader. More information in the news blog.
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Impending famine: Israel criticizes UN report
8:40 p.m.: Israel has strongly criticized a UN report regarding the threat of famine in the Gaza Strip. The report published last week, which caused international concern, contained inaccuracies, dubious sources and gaps in information, the Israeli authority responsible for civil affairs in the Palestinian territories (Cogat) said on Friday.
According to the UN report published last week, one in two residents of the Gaza Strip is in a “catastrophic food situation”. If no action is taken, famine in the northern areas is “imminent.” According to this, around 1.1 million people in the Gaza Strip are currently affected by a “catastrophic food situation” due to the war between Israel and the radical Islamic Hamas – the highest number ever recorded.
Iran’s Chief of General Staff receives Hamas leader Ismail Haniya
3:20 p.m.: Iran’s Chief of General Staff Mohammed Bagheri received Hamas leader Ismail Haniya in Tehran. Almost six months after the start of the Gaza war, the Iranian general praised the Islamist organization’s fight, the Iranian news agency Tasnim reported on Friday.
Referring to the October 7 Hamas massacre in Israel, Bagheri said: “This pride-bringing operation has dismantled the myth of the indestructible criminal Israel and made Palestine the priority issue in the Islamic and entire world,” the major general said.
Haniya, head of Hamas’ political bureau, is in Iran for talks for the second time since the Gaza war broke out. In the capital, Haniya also met with top politicians and Head of State Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Tehran is considered the main supporter of the Islamist organization, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the EU, the USA and Israel. Iran’s leadership rejects any direct involvement in the brutal attack on October 7th.
Israel reports killing of senior Hezbollah official in Lebanon
3:18 p.m.: The Israeli army has reported the killing of a senior member of the Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military said on Friday that the deputy commander of Hezbollah’s missile unit, Ali Abdel Hassan Naim, was “eliminated” in an Israeli Air Force strike in the southern Basuriye region. Among other things, he was “responsible for carrying out and planning attacks on Israeli civilians.”
The Lebanese state news agency (NNA) had previously reported that an attack by an “enemy drone” had hit a car in Basurije and killed at least one person. Lebanese military sources said the victim was a “Hezbollah official.”
The pro-Iranian Shiite militia said seven of its fighters were killed by Israeli fire – including one it identified as Naim. Hezbollah did not say when or where the fighters died. An AFP reporter reported a destroyed vehicle and scattered debris in Basuriye. The authorities cordoned off the area.
Netanyahu sends delegations to Egypt and Qatar
3:16 p.m.: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is sending delegations to Egypt and Qatar for talks on the possible release of hostages as part of a ceasefire. Netanyahu had previously exchanged ideas with the heads of the two secret services, Shin Bet and Mossad, his office said. He approved the sending of delegations.
Health authorities: Many dead after attacks on Gaza
2:56 p.m.: Scores of Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip on Friday. According to Palestinian health authorities, 17 people were killed in the suburb of Al-Shejayah in the east of Gaza City alone, while an airstrike on a house in the Al-Maghasi refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip is said to have claimed eight lives. According to the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, at least ten police officers who were responsible for caring for displaced people in the northern Gaza Strip were among the dead in Al-Shejaya, reports the Reuters news agency.