March 13, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Ayman Al-Zanat, 28, worries that his young nephew, Fadi, will not make it through the night. 

The Palestinian boy, age 6, clutches his chest while lying on a blue hospital bed in Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. He is suffering from severe malnutrition and dehydration, according to the health ministry in Gaza. 

Israel’s severe restrictions of aid entering Gaza have condemned Palestinians to deadly hunger. At least 27 Palestinians in Gaza have died of malnutrition and dehydration, the ministry said on Tuesday. 

Fadi, who has cystic fibrosis, has been in the hospital for 10 days, according to Al-Zanat.

The boy's relatives say they are helpless. “The weakness and lack of energy in his body are increasing. ... We don't know what to do. Fadi does not sleep at night," added Al-Zanat.

Israel’s siege: Israel insists there is “no limit” on the amount of aid that can enter Gaza, but its inspection regime on aid trucks means relief is barely trickling in. Humanitarian workers and government officials overseeing aid distribution in Gaza previously told CNN a clear pattern has emerged of Israeli obstruction. They say the Israeli agency that controls access to Gaza has imposed arbitrary and contradictory criteria. 

Germany’s Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius has approved the country’s air force carrying out humanitarian airdrops over the Gaza Strip.

“The people in Gaza lack the most basic necessities,” Pistorius said in a statement Wednesday.

A statement published by the German defense ministry said Pistorius had signed a corresponding order to authorize the mission. It said aid drops could begin as early as the end of the week.

For context: While airdrops evade the often rigorous and lengthy examinations carried out at land checkpoints, aid agencies say their drawbacks overwhelmingly outweigh their benefits. They are more expensive, have limited delivery capacity and may culminate in chaos.

“Humanitarian workers always complain that airdrops are good photo opportunities but a lousy way to deliver aid,” according to Richard Gowan, the International Crisis Group’s United Nations director.

Qatar Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said Wednesday that he hopes a truce agreement will be reached between Israel and Hamas before the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan on April 9.

Qatar, a mediator in the negotiations, “seeks to push the two parties to reach an agreement,” he said in a post on X.

His statement comes a day after he told CNN’s Becky Anderson that “we are nowhere near a deal at the moment.”

Two security personnel were wounded on Wednesday in a stabbing near a checkpoint between Jerusalem and the West Bank, according to police. 

Police said a 15-year-old arrived on his bicycle at the tunnel checkpoint at about 8:15 a.m. and pulled out a knife to attack security forces as they tried to check him.

An Israel Defense Forces member shot and killed the attacker, police said.

The wounded personnel, a 25-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman, were in mild to moderate condition, Israel's emergency service Magen David Adom said in a statement. 

A ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza is en route from Cyprus, according to nonprofit World Central Kitchen, which said it was the first maritime shipment of humanitarian aid to the enclave.  

The departure comes after announcements that Cyprus, the European Union, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom were working to establish a maritime corridor to deliver aid to Gaza.

World Central Kitchen said it planned to distribute supplies for roughly 500,000 meals once the vessel reaches Gaza, including rice, flour, beans, lentils, and canned meats.

The UN welcomed the news of the shipment but stressed it was “not a substitute” for overland assistance to Gazans on the verge of famine. 

The UN World Food Programme said a food convoy reached Gaza City on Tuesday —the first to successfully access the northern part of the enclave since February 20.

Here's what to know:

The Houthis fired a close-range ballistic missile from Yemen toward the USS Laboon in the Red Sea on Tuesday, US Central Command said.

The missile did not hit the guided-missile destroyer, which is homeported in Norfolk, Virginia, CENTCOM said. There were no injuries or damage reported.

US forces and a coalition ship also destroyed two drones launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, CENTCOM said.

The Iranian-backed Houthis have been targeting ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since shortly after Israel's war with Hamas began, with the group trying to pressure Israel and its allies to stop its offensive in Gaza.

Six humanitarian trucks containing aid from the United Nations' World Food Programme entered the northern Gaza Strip using a new route, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

The IDF tried out a pilot program by bringing in aid trucks to Gaza through the "96th" gate on the security fence Tuesday.

Government officials will assess the pilot's results.

An Israeli border police officer fatally shot a 12-year-old Palestinian boy in Shuafat refugee camp located in occupied east Jerusalem, according to hospital officials and an Israeli police spokesperson.

In a video obtained by CNN, the boy – Rami Al Halhouli – can be seen holding a lit firework above his head before the crackling sound of a single gunshot is heard. The boy falls to the ground just as the firework launches from his hand into the sky.

Rami arrived at Hadassah Mount Scopus hospital's trauma unit in critical condition and was pronounced dead soon after, hospital officials told CNN.

No security forces are visible in the video of Rami holding the firework, but the boy appears to be standing in front of the West Bank separation barrier.

The Israeli police spokesperson said police forces responded to a “violent disturbance” at the refugee camp and a border police officer fired “towards a suspect who endangered the forces while firing aerial fireworks in their direction.”

The police spokesperson also claimed individuals on Tuesday night threw Molotov cocktails and fired fireworks directly at security forces. Israeli police said it was the second night in a row that Palestinians in Shuafat aimed Molotov cocktails and fireworks at police forces.

In a Telegram post, Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir applauded the soldier who fatally shot the boy.

The shooting came on the third night of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which has been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in previous years.

Also on Tuesday, Israeli troops fatally shot two other Palestinians at Al-Jib checkpoint in the northern outskirts of Jerusalem, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported.

A pier that will help deliver 2 million meals a day to Gaza is expected "to be fully operational in approximately 60 days," Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said at a press briefing Tuesday.

Ryder did not provide the location of the planned pier. Currently, there is no existing port in Gaza that could handle that level of aid, requiring the construction of a floating pier. The US plans to send more ships to the Middle East to help build the pier, the Pentagon said.

Four US Army vessels left Tuesday with equipment and supplies needed to construct a floating pier and causeway capable of offloading goods and meals into Gaza, Ryder said. The US ships include US Army Vessel SP4 James A. Loux, US Army Vessel Monterey, US Army Vessel Matamoros, and US Army Vessel Wilson Wharf.

Over the weekend, the US announced that the Army’s Gen. Frank S. Benson support vessel, a logistics and cargo ship, would be deploying to the Mediterranean Sea.

The US is also preparing to send the US naval ship Roy P. Benavidez — a cargo ship operated by Military Sealift Command — to assist with construction of the pier, according to a Navy spokesman.