On March 30, the Israeli Army (IDF) said that three senior Hamas figures were killed in direct combat with IDF soldiers at Shifa Hospital in Gaza earlier that day.
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| Palestinians take cover after Israeli bombardment in central Gaza City, March 18. (Source: Getty) |
Among the dead were senior Hamas leaders Ra'ad Thabat and Mahmoud Khalil Ziqzouq. Currently, Israeli forces from Brigade 401 and Shayetet 13 continue to operate in the Shifa hospital area to search for Hamas members.
Israeli forces also found a number of weapons, including sniper rifles, Kalashnikov rifles, bullets and grenades at the Shifa hospital. Over the past few days, the forces have clashed with Hamas members outside the hospital building.
The IDF and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) stressed that they will continue to conduct operations in the hospital area, while avoiding harm to civilians, patients, medical staff and equipment.
On the same day, March 30, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and his two counterparts Stéphane Séjourné (France) and Ayman Safadi (Jordan) discussed in Cairo joint measures to achieve an “immediate and lasting ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip, as well as the release of all hostages held by Palestinian groups.
Speaking at a joint press conference, Foreign Minister Séjourné said that the French government will submit a draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to seek a political solution to the conflict in Gaza.
He revealed that the draft would include “all the criteria for a two-state solution” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a peace plan long supported by the international community but rejected by the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Host Egyptian Foreign Minister Shoukry warned that the people of the Gaza Strip “cannot bear any more destruction and suffering,” and called on Israel to open all land crossings with the Gaza Strip to bring humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.
Nearly all aid entering Gaza now flows through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, amid accusations by world leaders and the UN that Israel is blocking aid deliveries to the Palestinian people.
For his part, Jordanian Foreign Minister Safadi said that “international law no longer has any practical impact on Israel,” stressing that “the real disaster is the international community's inability to prevent” the humanitarian crisis.
Representatives of Egypt, France and Jordan also stressed the need to end the humanitarian crisis facing the people of Gaza. All three sides warned of Israel's planned ground offensive on the city of Rafah, located in southern Gaza.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has called a potential operation in Rafah a “disaster.” Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that any forced displacement of civilians from Rafah would constitute a “war crime.”
The meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Egypt, France and Jordan took place in the context of the 6-month conflict in the Gaza Strip continuing, despite the UN Security Council recently passing a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Also on March 30, a Turkish ship carrying humanitarian aid for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip docked at the Egyptian port of El-Arish.
This is Türkiye's eighth humanitarian aid shipment to the Gaza Strip, carrying 125,000 food packages sent from the Emergency and Disaster Management Authority (AFAD) and other charities, via the Sardes ship.
After arriving at El-Arish port on March 30, the goods were transported to Gaza by truck through Egypt's Rafah border crossing with the Palestinian territories.
So far, Türkiye has sent 13 planes and eight ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza.
In a related development, on March 30, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that the country had sent 46,000 food rations to people in northern Gaza. Two US Air Force C-17 aircraft, with the participation of special forces supporting airlift, distributed food rations to people in northern Gaza on March 29.
On the same day, international media reported that Washington approved the transfer of billions of dollars worth of bombs and fighter jets to Israel. These new weapons packages include more than 1,800 2,000-pound (907 kg) MK-84 bombs and 50,000 500-pound (227 kg) MK-82 bombs.
So far, the White House and the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC have refused to comment on this matter.
Notably, the US decision to transfer military weapons to Israel came after a visit to Washington by Israeli Defense Minister Yair Lapid.
The US is currently facing criticism for supporting Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's government in the war in Gaza.
According to statistics, Israel's attacks on Gaza since October last year have killed 32,552 Palestinians and injured 74,980 others.
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