live blog
The US military has destroyed several missiles belonging to the Houthi militia. The first US airline is flying to Israel again. All developments in the live blog.
The Lufthansa subsidiary Brussels Airlines wants to resume flights to Israel. From March 24th there will initially be three flights per week from Brussels to Tel Aviv, says Brussels Airlines. United Airlines had previously announced that it would be the first US airline to fly to Israel again. Lufthansa has been flying to the country again for a few weeks now.
The Israeli Air Force has apparently once again increased its targeting of targets in the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. A journalist from the AFP news agency reported about ten air strikes on Rafah on Thursday night, particularly hitting the al-Shabura district. More than a million people have fled to Rafah, near the border with Egypt, since the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip began more than four months ago. According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the area in the southern Gaza Strip is home to the “last remaining bastions of Hamas.”
According to Israeli reports, three attackers with firearms opened fire on cars on a highway east of the city of Jerusalem. As the police announced on Thursday morning, three attackers were shot dead at the scene on a motorway. According to initial information from rescue workers, eight people were injured, several of them seriously. A spokesman for the emergency services spoke of one fatality.
The perpetrators got out of their vehicles during a traffic jam on the highway between the settler town of Maale Adumim and Jerusalem and began shooting with automatic weapons at people sitting in their cars, the police said. Two perpetrators were shot on site. A third tried to escape, but was caught and also killed. The background to the incident was initially unknown. Israel has been waging war against the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip for almost five months.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by the Palestinian and Israeli conflict parties cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
According to the military, there is an air alert in the southern Israeli port city of Eilat on the Red Sea. The Israeli army intercepted a missile near the Red Sea. “The object did not enter Israeli territory and did not pose a threat to the civilian population.” Eilat has in the past been the target of long-range missiles from Yemen’s Houthis, who have shown solidarity with the Palestinians since the Gaza war began in October.
UN emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths has called on foreign ministers at the G20 round of leading and emerging economic powers to work towards an end to the war in the Gaza Strip. “You have the power to make a difference. Use it,” Griffiths appealed in an opinion piece published on the Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera’s website. “Your silence and inaction will only result in more women and children being thrown into the open graves of Gaza.” Humanitarian organizations are doing everything they can to alleviate the immense suffering of the Palestinian population. The G20 foreign ministers continue their discussions in Rio de Janeiro today.
United Airlines is the first US airline to include direct flights to Israel in its flight schedule again. From March 6th, a Boeing 787-10 will again fly non-stop from Newark to Tel Aviv every day; the resumption of flights from other US cities is not planned for the fall of this year at the earliest, the Chicago-based airline said. The decision was made after a detailed security analysis in close cooperation with security experts and government representatives in the USA and Israel.
United, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines suspended their flights to Israel after the Hamas attack in early October. Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, Aegean and Air France have already resumed their flights to Tel Aviv.
The US military says it has destroyed seven anti-ship missiles, a rocket launcher and a drone in Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen. Missiles, the rocket launcher and the drone “posed an imminent threat to merchant vessels and U.S. Navy vessels in the region,” the U.S. military’s Central Command said.
Israeli Minister Gantz sees “promising” signs of a new deal to release hostages. Israel’s army says it has killed “dozens of terrorists” in Gaza City. Wednesday’s live blog for reading.