Israel continues attacks while its forces turned back a 14-truck food aid convoy.

Fighting and humanitarian crisis

• On Wednesday morning, Israeli forces killed three civilians and injured an unknown number of others in an attack on a home in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
• Separately, on Tuesday, Israeli forces turned back a 14-truck food aid convoy bound for northern Gaza following a three-hour wait at a checkpoint, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).
• The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said it has distributed flour to some 370,000 families in southern Gaza.Video Duration 02 minutes 30 seconds02:30

Regional tensions and diplomacy

• The US has tabled a revised draft of a proposed UN Security Council ceasefire resolution that calls for “an immediate ceasefire of roughly six weeks in Gaza together with the release of all hostages”, the Reuters news agency reported.
• Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the government of Chile announced that Israeli firms will be banned from the International Air and Space Fair (FIDAE) in Santiago in April.
• The Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights (CLAIHR) group, the Palestinian organisation Al-Haq and four individuals filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the federal government to stop Canadian companies from exporting military goods and technology to Israel.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Israel would face “very serious consequences” if it blocked Palestinian Muslims from entering their holy sites during the coming month of Ramadan.
• The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) has said that it destroyed three Houthi antiship missiles and three unmanned surface vessels (USVs) on Wednesday in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
• Jordan also said on Tuesday that it carried out humanitarian airdrops with eight planes into Gaza along with the US, France and Egypt, marking the largest such operation to date.
• US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has met with Benny Gantz in Washington, DC, where the Israeli war cabinet minister and Netanyahu rival is conducting an unofficial tour.
• The Middle East franchisee of Starbucks said Tuesday it has begun firing about 2,000 workers at its coffee shops across the region after the brand found itself targeted by activists during the continuing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, affecting its sales in the region.

Violence in the occupied West Bank

• Local media and Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting on Wednesday that Israeli raids and arrests across the occupied West Bank have taken place in the following locations: the villages of al-Jalama, Arabbuna, Deir Ghazaleh, Arrana and Jalbun northeast of Jenin; the town of Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem; and the city of Nablus.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES