Source: Mondoweiss.net
Israel prepares for thousands of Palestinian arrests and has already begun obstructing access to Al Aqsa mosque. Gazans begin Ramadan amid constant Israeli attacks and severe food shortages.
Casualties
- 31,112+ killed* and at least 72,760 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
- 25 children in Gaza have died of malnutrition and dehydration since the beginning of March, according to the Gaza health ministry.
- 423+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.**
- Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,147.
- 589 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 3,221 injured.***
*Gaza’s Ministry of Health confirmed this figure on its Telegram channel. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to 40,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.
** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. This is the latest figure according to PA’s Ministry of Health as of March 6.
*** This figure is released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.”
Key developments
- Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh blames Israel for lack of truce agreement before Ramadan, says Palestinians want ceasefire.
- Netanyahu administration: Israel wants to clear up space in its prisons to be prepared for the arrest of “thousands” more Palestinians in Gaza and occupied West Bank.
- Survey: three-quarters of Jewish Israelis support attack on Rafah.
- Israeli military and Hezbollah continue to launch offensives and counter-offensives in border fighting.
- Gaza Ministry of Health: Exhausted medical personnel starving in northern Gaza.
- Euro-Med Monitor: Gaza’s elderly are dying at rapid rates.
- The Palestinian city of Jericho in the occupied West Bank names street after the late U.S. airman Aaron Bushnell, who self-immolated last month in protest of the genocide in Gaza.
- Gazans “celebrate Ramadan with no mosques,” says Palestinian Foreign Affairs Ministry.
- Israeli forces block entrance to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, attack worshippers, on the first evening of Ramadan.
- Yemen’s Ansar Allah stages military exercises on mock Israeli city, U.S. and UK forces.
- Israeli settlers establish a new illegal outpost in the occupied West Bank’s Jordan Valley, reports Wafa.
- U.S. charity ANERA demands independent probe into staff member’s killing in Gaza.
Ramadan with no mosques
Sunday evening marked the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, as Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza amid severe foot shortages continue. Instead of celebrating, Palestinians in Gaza are entering the month with heavy hearts.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Ramadan in the Gaza Strip this year is “unlike the holy month in previous years or anywhere else in the world,” especially in light of the destruction of all aspects of life in the Gaza Strip, including dozens of mosques.
Ramadan has arrived as “Palestinians have been suffering from the lack and scarcity of food and drinkable water for more than five consecutive months,” it continued.
Half of the besieged enclave population crammed into the southern city of Rafah, many living in plastic tents and facing severe shortages of food. …