Israel’s war on Gaza updates: South Africa asks ICJ to prevent famine

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You can read more about South Africa’s request to the International Court of Justice on additional emergency measures against Israel here.

And you can find more news, features and videos on the conflict here.

We will be closing the live page soon. Here’s a recap of the day’s main events:

• South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice to order additional emergency measures against Israel, which it says is breaching the measures already in place, citing imminent widespread famine in Gaza.
• At least two people have been killed in a Houthi attack on the cargo ship True Confidence in the Gulf of Aden.
• Two more people have died of starvation, the Gaza Health Ministry has said, bringing the official death toll of those who have succumbed to malnutrition and dehydration in the Palestinian territory to 20.
• Palestinian journalist Muhammad Salama has been killed with his family in an Israeli air raid on his home in the city of Deir el-Balah, according to the Gaza Media Office.
• An Israeli settlement-planning authority has pushed forward permits for 3,500 new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank, according to a government announcement.

After using its veto power three times to kill UN Security Council resolutions aimed at slowing the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, the US is now preparing a new measure that fits its conditions for a pause in the fighting in Gaza.

Watch our video to find out more:

The EU’s Humanitarian Commissioner says he’s seen first-hand how important the work of UNRWA is in the Palestinian territories and is glad to see the bloc reinstating funds for the aid agency.

Watch the video below:

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that many other Palestinians are injured and still missing as a result of Israeli attacks on homes in the Nuseirat refugee camp and Dier el-Balah in central Gaza.

Earlier, we reported that Palestinian journalist Muhammad Salama has been killed with his family in an air raid on his home in Deir el-Balah, according to the Gaza Media Office.

The US army’s Central Command  (CENTCOM) has given its full account of today’s attack, claimed by Yemen’s Houthis, on the Barbados-flagged ship, True Confidence.

“An anti-ship ballistic missile [ASBM] was launched from Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist-controlled areas of Yemen toward M/V True Confidence, a Barbados-flagged, Liberian-owned bulk carrier, while transiting the Gulf of Aden,” CENTCOM said in a post on X.

It said that the attack caused three casualties, adding one to the death toll previously claimed by US and UK officials, and caused “at least four injuries, of which three are in critical condition”, as well as “significant damage to the ship”.

“This is the fifth [ASBM] fired by Houthis in the last two days,” the statement adds.

In a statement reported by the Saudi Press Agency, the Foreign Ministry said there was a need to “provide hope for the Palestinian people, enable them to obtain their rights to live in safety, and establish their Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with the Arab Peace Initiative and relevant international resolution”.

We reported earlier that an Israeli settlement-planning authority has pushed forward permits for 3,500 new illegal settlement housing units in the occupied West Bank.

#وزارة_الخارجية: المملكة تُدين بشدة قرار الاحتلال الإسرائيلي المصادقة على بناء نحو 3500 وحدة استيطانية جديدة في الضفة الغربية، وتجدد التأكيد على ضرورة إنهاء المعاناة وتوفير الأمل للشعب الفلسطيني وتمكينه من الحصول على حقوقه في العيش بأمان، وإقامة دولته الفلسطينية بحدود عام 1967م… pic.twitter.com/nyHDwP2ZQp

— واس العام (@SPAregions) March 6, 2024

Translation: The kingdom strongly condemns the Israeli occupation’s decision to approve the construction of about 3,500 new settlement units in the West Bank, and reiterates the necessity of ending suffering, providing hope for the Palestinian people, enabling them to obtain their rights to live in safety, and establishing their Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who also serves as Qatar’s prime minister, has met with his British counterpart, the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said in a statement.

The two sides “discussed the latest developments in the Gaza Strip and occupied Palestinian territories; the efforts for reaching an immediate ceasefire in the Strip; protection of civilians; and ensuring continued and unhindered flow of humanitarian aid to those trapped in Gaza,” the statement read.

Earlier today, the UK foreign secretary met with Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz.

Israeli rights group HaMoked says that as of March, Israel is imprisoning 9,077 Palestinians, including more than 3,500 held without charge in administrative detention.

The data, HaMoked says, was provided by the Israel Prison Service.

“Holding prisoners and detainees from the [occupied Palestinian territories] inside Israel constitutes a blatant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, prohibiting the transfer of prisoners and detainees outside the occupied territory, and also violates basic human rights enshrined, inter alia, in Israeli law,” the organisation says.

Houthi-affiliated media Al Masirah channel is reporting two air raids on Hodeidah Airport by US and UK jets.

Earlier we reported Houthi’s military spokesman Yahya Saree claiming an attack on US the cargo ship True Confidence, confirmed by both Washington and the UK, killing two people.

The Israeli army says that a 21-year-old sergeant was killed in battle in the Gaza Strip.

He was part of the Ekotz unit in the Hamor Brigade, the army said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation in the US, says it carried out the poll on March 5, during the Super Tuesday presidential primary elections.

The poll, it says, found that 72 percent of Muslim Super Tuesday voters were “disapproving” of Biden’s handling of the Israeli government’s war in Gaza.

The poll shows American Muslim voters are deeply concerned about the ongoing genocide in Gaza, said the organisation’s government affairs director Robert S McCaw.

“As November approaches, American Muslim voters are important political voices in key states, capable of deciding numerous races, including the presidency, and shaping the future of the nation,” he said.

Muslim and Arab-American voters represent a key constituency for Biden that he will need to court if he hopes to get re-elected to a second term during the US presidential election in November.

Israel’s UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, has warned of strict actions if UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres does not invoke Article 99 of the UN Charter regarding Israeli captives held in Gaza and initiate a UN Security Council discussion on alleged sexual crimes committed by Hamas.

“Israel should ‘break the tools’ and take severe actions, including closing the UN headquarters in Jerusalem, deporting senior UN officials from Israel and evacuating UNRWA compounds from Jerusalem,” he said in a post on X.

Article 99 allows the secretary-general to “bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security”.

In December, Guterres invoked Article 99, urging the UN Security Council to act on the war in Gaza. The US vetoed the resulting resolution.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron has said he pushed Israel to increase the flow of aid into Gaza, amid a dire humanitarian crisis due to Israel’s policy of blocking aid from getting into the strip and from reaching its most needy.

“We are still not seeing improvements on the ground. This must change,” Cameron said he told Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz during a meeting.

Israeli media is also reporting that Gantz met with the UK’s PM Rishi Sunak.

The United Nations last week described the likelihood of famine within the Gaza Strip as “almost inevitable” as aid into the small strip of land is choked off under Israel’s siege.

Meeting with @gantzbe today, I made clear the steps Israel must take to increase aid into Gaza, and the UK's deep concern about the prospect of a military offensive in Rafah.

These are tough but necessary conversations. pic.twitter.com/czIR7nPOBu

— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) March 6, 2024

Approximately 250 aid trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday through the Rafah and Karem Abu Salem border crossings, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.

“We need to see dramatically more go in,” Miller said, adding there has been some improvement in the distribution of aid but enough is still not entering Gaza.

The Foreign Ministry of Germany’s has called on the Israeli government to immediately withdraw the approval of further settlements in the West Bank, saying building settlements in occupied Palestinian territories was a serious violation of international law.

Commenting on Israel’s Supreme Planning Authority approving plans for constructing around 3,500 new housing units in the settlements of Maale Adumim, Kedar and Efrat, the ministry said: “We strongly condemn the approval of further settlement units in the West Bank.”

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters that the US will “continue” to hold the Yemeni group accountable for attacks on international shipping.

Earlier, the US and UK said that a missile attack on a cargo ship, the True Confidence, around 90km (55 miles) southwest of the Yemeni port city of Aden, killed two. The attack was claimed by the Houthis in a televised speech by the group’s military spokesman Yahya Sarea.

Miller declined to specify to reporters whether this attack would trigger a new round of US air raids on Houthi positions in Yemen, which have been ongoing throughout 2024.