March 9, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Canada announced Friday that it will restart assistance for people in Gaza through the main UN agency in Gaza, UNRWA, after the organization set up "significant processes" to address allegations some of its staffers were involved in the October 7 Hamas attack.

Canada was among a host of countries to pull funding in the wake of the claims.

“Today, Ahmed Hussen, Minister of International Development, announced that Canada will be lifting its temporary pause on funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA),” the Canadian government said.

Canada said it is resuming funding so more can be done to respond to the urgent needs of Palestinian civilians.

Hussen did not say when exactly funding would resume. 

Juliette Touma, UNRWA's director of communications, welcomed Canada's decision and called on other countries that have suspended funding to reconsider.

Speaking during the UN General Assembly meeting Monday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said 16 countries paused funding despite "the unsubstantiated nature of the allegations." UNRWA has warned it is a facing a financial crisis.

The European Union hopes to launch an emergency maritime aid corridor from Cyprus to Gaza this weekend, citing the "dire" humanitarian situation in the enclave.

She added that for that reason, "the European Commission, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, the Republic of Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States announce our intent to open a maritime corridor to deliver much-needed additional amounts of humanitarian assistance by sea.”

Israel has welcomed the international plan and urged other countries to join the initiative. 

“The Cypriot initiative will allow the increase of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, after security checks are carried out in accordance with Israeli standards," Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat announced Friday on social media platform X.

Aid slows to a trickle: After the October 7 attacks, Israel put Gaza under siege. Getting any form of relief into Gaza is a long and arduous process, aid workers and the UN say, with the supplies that do get in are not enough to meet the needs of Gaza's population.

Israel maintains it is doing enough and there is "no limit" to the supplies that can be brought it.

US forces shot down 15 drones launched by the Iranian-backed Houthis over the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden Saturday morning, local time, according to US Central Command.

The action was taken after the Houthis conducted a “large-scale” drone attack.

CENTCOM said coalition forces identified the drones and determined they posed an immediate threat to merchant vessels, US Navy and coalition ships.

Coalition naval ships along with aircraft then took out fifteen drones. 

This came three days after the first fatal assault by the Iran-backed militant group in its ongoing assaults in the Red Sea. At least three crew members were killed and four others injured on Wednesday in the Gulf of Aden after a Houthi ballistic missile struck the M/V True Confidence, a Barbados-flagged, Liberian-owned bulk carrier.

Israel’s deadly military campaign in Gaza has exposed the entire population of more than 2.2 million people to severe hunger, dehydration and disease — with women in particular facing challenges finding food, sanitary products and maternity care.

Additionally, the number of people who have died of dehydration and malnutrition in Gaza has risen to at least 23, according to a spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the enclave.

Israel's bombardment has also wiped out educational infrastructure. Children in the enclave are expected to lose at least a year of schooling because of the war, according to the United Nations.

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Ultra-Orthodox Israelis have long held a privileged position in that society.

Their religious schools, or yeshivas, get generous government subsidies. And yet young men of the Haredim, as they are known in Hebrew, are in all practical terms exempt from mandatory military service.

That exemption has bedeviled Israeli society since its founding. But a legal deadline to come up with a more equitable social compact, at least in the eyes of the Supreme Court, now looms at the end of March.

Powerful members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have made clear they will not help him kick the can down the road without broad political support.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews view religious study as fundamental to the preservation of Judaism. For many of those who live in Israel, that means study is just as important to Israel’s defense as the military.

In Israel’s nascent days, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion agreed with Haredi rabbis to exempt from military service 400 men studying in religious schools, or yeshivas. In 1948, there were few Haredim in Israel – many were and remain opposed to the state on religious grounds – and the exemption had little practical impact.

In 1998, Israel’s Supreme Court ripped up the longstanding exemption, telling the government that allowing Haredim to get out of conscription violated equal protection principles. In the decades since, successive governments and Knessets have tried to solve the issue, only to be told again and again by the court that their efforts were illegal.

Read more about the brewing clash in Israel over conscription

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here.

Angry Israelis cut across a field of stubble to try to get around a police blockade to disrupt shipments of food and supplies intended for Gaza.

For weeks Israeli border officers allowed protesters to disrupt the critical aid convoys at Kerem Shalom, the country’s sole functioning border crossing with Gaza. But at the end of last month, with international pressure and condemnation mounting, authorities announced they were moving additional officers to the crossing to take back control. But even with the area now declared a closed military zone, protesters continue to arrive and try to outmaneuver the police.

The protests are being led by the “Tsav 9” movement, a grouping of demobilized reservists, families of hostages and settlers. Its name, meaning “Order 9,” is a reference to the emergency mobilization notices that call up reservists.

The protesters say they fear the aid is helping militants still holding their friends and relatives hostage, five months after the murderous cross-border raids led by Hamas that killed about 1,200 people in Israel with 200 more being taken prisoner.

They hope preventing food and supplies from entering Gaza will force Hamas to release them. A recent poll by the Israel Democracy Institute found that two-thirds of Jewish Israelis support their view opposing the transfer of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Read more about the protesters seeking to prevent aid getting to Gaza

The number of people who have died of dehydration and malnutrition in Gaza has risen to at least 23, according to a spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the enclave.

CNN cannot independently confirm the deaths or their causes, due to the lack of international media access to wartime Gaza.

Three more children died Friday at Al-Shifa Hospital due to malnutrition and dehydration, according to Ashraf al-Qidra, a health ministry spokesperson.

Officials with aid organizations and international bodies have warned for weeks that displaced Palestinians are struggling to feed their children as Israel severely restricts aid deliveries. The United Nations says hundreds of thousands of people are on the brink of famine.

US President Joe Biden on Friday cast doubt on the prospect of striking a deal that includes a temporary ceasefire paired with a release of hostages by Ramadan.

Officials had hoped to secure a deal by the start of the Muslim holy month, but talks remain stalled. CNN previously reported hopes had dimmed for deal before Ramadan, which starts early next week.

Medical NGO, Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), called the US plan to build a temporary pier to deliver aid by sea to Gaza a "glaring distraction" from the reality of what's happening there.

Benoît went on to say that US efforts should instead be placed on pressuring Israel to allow increased food and medical aid into Gaza by road. 

"This is not a logistics problem; it is a political problem. Rather than look to the US military to build a work-around, the US should insist on immediate humanitarian access using the roads and entry points that already exist," Benoît said. 

Benoît reiterated MSF's view that a ceasefire "is the only way to ensure a real scale up in emergency assistance" to Gaza. 

More than 30,000 Gazans have been killed and 70,000 injured since the start of the war, the enclave's health ministry says. Gaza's health ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters, but has said in recent updates that around 70% of the casualties are women and children.  

CNN reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for reaction to Benoît's comments, but has not yet heard back. 

Israel has previously rejected accusations that it has indiscriminately bombed Gaza, saying its air force has carried out a "precise" and "focused" campaign. Israel has also claimed its objective is to dismantle Hamas after the militant group carried out the October 7 attack that left over 1,200 dead.