Israel to relocate Rafah civilians to 'humanitarian islands' before offensive
Editor's Note: This page is a summary of news on the Israel-Hamas war for Wednesday, March 13. For the latest news on the conflict in the Middle East, view our live updates file for Thursday, March 14.
Displaced Palestinians will have to be on the move again, this time to "humanitarian islands.''
Israel plans to relocate a large portion of the 1.4 million people sheltering in Rafah to protect them from its anticipated major offensive in the southern Gaza city as it pursues Hamas militants, the Israel Defense Forces' chief spokesman said Wednesday.
“We need to make sure that 1.4 million people or at least a significant amount of the 1.4 million will move. Where? To humanitarian islands that we will create with the international community,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said at a press briefing.
The U.S., it allies and multiple aid organizations have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe if Israel invades Rafah, where more than 60% of Gazans are now located, the majority of them refugees from other parts of the territory trying to escape the war. Israel says it must destroy four Hamas battalions in Rafah to complete its mission of crushing the militant group.
Hagari said civilians would be redirected to central Gaza and provided food, water and shelter, though he didn't say when the mass mobilization might start. The U.S. and fellow mediators Qatar and Egypt worked to broker an extended cease-fire before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began this week, to no avail.
The Biden administration has pressed Israel to devise a workable strategy to spare innocent people in Rafah from the bloodshed that has left more than 31,000 dead and 73,000 injured in Gaza as Israel responded to Hamas' brutal attacks of Oct. 7.
“We need to see a plan that will get civilians out of harm’s way if there’s a military operation in Rafah,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Washington. “We’ve not yet seen such a plan.”
First aid ship heads to Gaza, where 2 million face threat of starvation: Live updates
Developments:
? Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas plans to soon name close ally and economic adviser Muhammad Mustafa as his new prime minister, resisting international calls for the organization's reform, the New York Times reported.
? Israel said one of its airstrikes around Rafah killed Muhammad Abu Hasna, describing him as an operations unit commander for Hamas. "Among other terrorist activities, Hasna was involved in taking control of humanitarian aid and distributing it to Hamas operatives,'' the Israeli military said.
? More children have been reported killed in just over five months in Gaza than died in four years of wars around the world combined, Lazzarini said. "This war is a war on children," he said. "It is a war on their childhood and their future." According to UNRWA, more than 12,000 kids have died in the conflict.
? Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor of South Africa, which has accused Israel of genocide at the U.N.'s top court, said any South Africans who fight for or alongside Israelis in Gaza will be arrested when they return home.
? A Congress-mandated group cut short a mission to Saudi Arabia after officials there ordered a Jewish rabbi to remove his kippah ? a head covering also known as yarmulke ? in public, highlighting religious tensions in the Middle East. Rabbi Abraham Cooper refused, and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom left. But Cooper said he sees progress, with the kingdom quietly allowing different faiths to worship privately.
Get the hostages out 'at any cost' former captive says
A young Israeli man who was among the 100-plus hostages released in November described living in "horrific conditions'' under "vicious'' captors as he pleaded for more efforts to free the remaining captives.
On a London visit to make a case for the hostages to British lawmakers, Itay Regev told the BBC he and his sister Maya were each shot in a leg while being abducted along with a friend from the Nova music festival Oct. 7.
Regev, who turned 19 this month, said throughout his nearly two-month-long ordeal he felt the stress of knowing he might be killed at any moment. "You don't really know ... if a missile is going to fall on you, if they're going to come in with a Kalashnikov (assault rifle) and start spraying us with bullets. The conditions are very, very difficult there," he said.
"We were very, very hungry. I didn't have a shower for 54 days. My captors were very, very vicious. They didn't care. I had wounds in my legs, big holes in my legs.''
Regev and his sister were among 103 hostages freed as part of a weeklong truce more than three months ago, but further attempts at a cease-fire and more hostage releases have failed as Israel and Hamas refused to relent on some of their demands. He said not enough is being done to get the captives out and feels they have been forgotten.
"I'm sure if anyone had their child kidnapped, they wouldn't really care about what price needed to be paid,'' Regev said. "We need to return the hostages at any cost."
Israeli solidarity over war shows cracks
Israeli solidarity over the war in Gaza showed signs of erosion Wednesday with the opposition leader claiming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s amended 2024 wartime budget “tears the mask off all the government’s talk of unity.” Yair Lapid said the plan provides insufficient help for soldiers returning from the fighting while increasing funding for government ministers and programs not directly associated with the war ? but popular with segments of Netanyahu's coalition government.
Lapid also lashed out at Netanyahu for failing to have provided adequate security for the border communities ahead of the Hamas-led attack Oct. 7 that resulted in 1,200 deaths and the seizing of about 250 hostages, prompting the deadly military operation in Gaza.
“You don’t want unity, you want to be paid,” Lapid said during debate in the Knesset translated by the Times of Israel. “You messed up, you destroyed, and now you are giving us the bill. The public will pay ... for the war you are guilty of."
The Knesset later narrowly passed Netanyahu's budget, which the prime minister promoted as necessary to take care of reservists, their families, the self-employed, government ministries "and the needs of the public."
Israeli strike kills aid worker in Gaza, damages relief center
At least one aid worker was killed and 22 others wounded when Israeli forces struck a humanitarian aid distribution center in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, U.N. officials said Wednesday.
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians, said the agency provided the Israeli Army with coordinates of the facility a day earlier so it would not be hit.
“Today’s attack on one of the very few remaining UNRWA distribution centers in the Gaza Strip comes as food supplies are running out, hunger is widespread and, in some areas, turning into famine," Lazzarini said in a statement. "Every day, we share the coordinates of all our facilities across the Gaza Strip with parties to the conflict."
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a USA TODAY request for comment on the strike. Lazzarini said UNRWA has recorded an "unprecedented" number of violations against its staff and facilities, surpassing all other world conflicts. At least 165 UNRWA team members have been killed in the conflict, and more than 150 UNRWA schools and other facilities have been hit and in some cases destroyed, he said. He repeated his call for an independent inquiry and "the need for accountability."
"Since this war began, attacks against UN facilities, convoys and personnel have become commonplace in blatant disregard to international humanitarian law," Lazzarini said.
More aid shipments from Cyprus planned for Gaza
A day after the first ship carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza set sail from Cyprus, the island nation's foreign minister said more are coming soon.
Constantinos Kombos said Cyprus' proposal to send assistance from its ports to Gaza about 230 miles away gained traction in recent weeks, and a larger shipment of food and other goods will follow in a matter of days.
"The whole point is to try to offer much-needed assistance to the people who are in this horrible situation," Kombos told media outlets including Reuters on Wednesday.
Workers for World Central Kitchen, the nonprofit founded by Spanish chef Jose Andres that collected supplies for the first shipment, have been assembling a jetty to get the cargo into Gaza when it arrives in the next day or two.
"We are confident that when the aid gets to Gaza there will be a way to offload it and get it into the hands of Gazans who are starving and need this food aid urgently," Linda Roth, chief communications officer at WCK, told Reuters.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels fire missile at Navy ship
Houthi militants fired a close-range ballistic missile from Yemen toward the USS Laboon, a guided-missile destroyer in the Red Sea, U.S. Central Command said Wednesday. The missile missed and there were no injuries or damage reported, the U.S. military said in a social media post. Central Command and a coalition ship then destroyed two drones launched from a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen that "presented an imminent threat" to commercial and U.S. Navy ships, the post added.
The clash occurred one day after the Iranian-backed militants fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles toward the merchant ship Pinocchio, a Singaporean-owned, Liberian-flagged ship. No damage or injuries were reported. Central Command said it then conducted six "self-defense strikes," destroying an unmanned underwater vessel and 18 anti-ship missiles.
Houthi rebels have been attacking ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since November, saying they are showing solidarity with Palestinians in the Hamas-Israel war. The attacks have caused a 40% decline in shipping through the Red Sea and Suez Canal "in spite of successful defense measures by naval forces and attacks on (Houthi) missile, launch and command-control facilities," retired Vice Admiral Robert Murrett, deputy director of the Institute for Security Policy and Law at Syracuse University, told USA TODAY.
High-ranking Hamas militant killed in Lebanon
An Israeli drone strike Wednesday killed Hadi Ali Matzafa, a key Hamas operative who directed terror squads and promoted attacks against Israel, the Israeli military said. The attack targeted a vehicle in the Tzur territory of Lebanon near a refugee camp. Hamas confirmed Matzafa's death, and the Hamas radio channel described him as a primary leader of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Lebanon. Lebanese media said a passerby on a motorbike also was killed.
Hamas has a political and military presence in Lebanon based out of refugee camps where Palestinians have lived for decades. Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, has been engaged in military clashes almost daily with Israel since the war in Gaza began.
Contributing: The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Israel war live updates: 'Humanitarian islands' for Rafah civilians
