This month Israeli attacks on Gaza killed more than 2,635 Palestinians and injured at least 4,081 others. The attacks in March brought the comprehensive death toll in Gaza since 7 October to at least 32,782, including 13,400 children and 8,900 women, while 75,298 have been injured. Israel also killed 36 Palestinians in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), 9 of whom were children, bringing the comprehensive death toll in the West Bank since 7 October to 445 killed, including 112 children.
During the month, at least 34 Palestinians died of starvation, a higher number than in previous months. The actual toll is believed to be much higher because Israel continued to impose an array of severe restrictions on what, and how much, aid was allowed to enter Gaza. Israel prevented aid deliveries to all of northern Gaza and parts of southern Gaza without Israeli coordination, denying 75% of aid missions in areas in need of coordination this month. More than 7,000 aid trucks were stuck in the Sinai desert waiting to deliver aid. UNICEF said on 15 March that 31% of children under the age of 2 in Gaza were suffering from acute malnutrition while the UN warned that famine was expected in northern Gaza in May.
In response to the Israeli-enforced starvation crisis in Gaza, France and Jordan had begun airdropping aid at the beginning of the year, other countries like the UK and Egypt joined in February, and on 1 March the U.S. joined the airdrop mission, primarily dropping aid in northern Gaza. In addition, the U.S. said it would start building a floating pier in Gaza to facilitate aid deliveries by sea. In response, 25 NGOs pointed out in an open letter on 13 March that these efforts were vastly insufficient in preventing starvation in Gaza and were attempts to shield Israel from its responsibility under international law to facilitate unhindered aid to the population in Gaza. Moreover, the airdrops had proven deadly for Palestinians: at least 5 were killed and several others injured by aid packages with faulty parachutes, and at least 12 people drowned while trying to retrieve aid that had landed in the sea.
Amidst the ongoing man-made catastrophe unfolding in Gaza, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2728, demanding an immediate ceasefire during the month of Ramadan, leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire. The resolution also demanded the unconditional release of all captives. The resolution, proposed by the 10 elected members of the council, passed with 14 votes in favor and the U.S. abstaining. The PA and Hamas welcomed the resolution while the Israeli response was choleric. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled a delegation trip to the White House to discuss alternatives to Israel’s planned Rafah invasion, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called the UN and its Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “anti-Semitic,” and Israel withdrew its ceasefire negotiating team from negotiations in Qatar. U.S. ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield and the State Department falsely stated that the resolution was “non-binding.” The resolution was not implemented by the end of March.
Other important developments this month include:
Israeli forces raided and besieged al-Shifa Hospital for the second time, since the invasion of Gaza, on 18 March. During the siege, which ended on 1 April, Israeli forces killed at least 400 people, including at least 65 members of the Civil Defense, destroyed parts of the hospital and 1,050 homes in its vicinity, and arrested more than 800 people.
In the West Bank, Israel seized 2,000 acres of land near Fasayil in the Jericho Governorate for the expansion of the Yafit settlement. This land seizure brought the total amount of land seized during the first quarter of 2024 to 2,629 acres, more than the combined total land seized by Israel in the past 10 years.
Based on testimonies from Israeli officials, Haaretz reported that injured Palestinians held at the Sde Teiman detention camp were shackled to their beds and blindfolded 24 hours a day and were fed liquid formula as Israeli soldiers refused to feed the captives. Adalah said it had documented 19 clear cases of torture of Palestinians held in Israeli detention since 7 October 2023, including cases of sexual violence.
Israeli forces stormed and removed worshippers from al-Qibli Mosque at the Haram al-Sharif Compound on 2 occasions during the month of Ramadan, erected iron barriers at 3 of the compound’s gates, and imposed severe restrictions on Palestinian access to the holy site.
Palestinian parties concluded reconciliation meetings in Moscow, issuing a joint statement announcing plans for further dialogue to bring all parties under the PLO. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said Hamas has agreed to respect the PLO platform. Leader of the Hamas Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh later said in a speech on 10 March that Palestinian unity should be achieved by rebuilding the PLO and establishing a temporary national consensus government.
PA president Mahmoud Abbas appointed Palestine Investment Fund chairperson Mohammed Mustafa as the new PA prime minister, tasking him and his new government with creating plan for unified administration of Gaza and reforms of the PA. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PFLP, and the Palestinian National Initiative criticized the appointment of Mustafa for not being done by national consensus. Mustafa and the rest of the government were sworn in on 31 March.
U.S. president Joe Biden signed a spending bill into law on 23 March that included $3.3 billion in aid to Israel. The Washington Post reported that the U.S. secretly had approved and delivered more than 100 arms shipments to Israel since October 7, 2023, circumventing Congress by keeping the individual arms sales below the legal threshold for congressional oversight.
The International Court of Justice issued new provisional measures against Israel in the South African genocide case, including ordering the unhindered provision of aid, electricity, fuel, shelter, and medical supplies and ordering Israel to open up more crossings to Gaza.
UNRWA said some of its staff had been forced to give confessions to Israel under torture. Canada, Sweden, Australia, Finland, Germany, and Japan resumed UNRWA funding, but the U.S. passed legislation to ban UNRWA funding until March 2025.