March 13, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

More children were killed during four months of war in Gaza than in four years of conflict worldwide, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini called the number "staggering" in a post Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter.

Lazzarini shared a graph comparing the number of children killed in conflicts around the world between the years of 2019 and 2022 to the number of those killed between October 2023 and February 2024 in Gaza, citing the UN and the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

According to the figures, a total of 12,193 children were killed between 2019 and 2022 globally, and a total of 12,300 children were killed in Gaza between October 2023 and February 2024. 

Death toll: According to numbers published by Palestinian health officials, the amount of children killed in Gaza since October 7 is greater than that shared by Lazzarini. The Ministry of Health in Ramallah in a report Wednesday said the number of children killed has reached 13,450. And the health ministry in Gaza said Wednesday that 72% of a total of 31,272 deaths are women and children.

CNN cannot independently confirm the numbers due to the lack of international media access to Gaza.

A 15-year-old suspected of stabbing security personnel at a checkpoint between Jerusalem and the West Bank on Wednesday has been confirmed dead, Israeli police told CNN.

In a statement released after the incident, the Israel Defense Forces says an Israeli soldier and security guard "neutralized the terrorist" following the stabbing incident. 

The two individuals wounded in the incident were security personnel, according to an update from police. 

The IDF said a "soldier at the scene was lightly injured" and taken to the hospital.

Police earlier said a 15-year-old arrived on his bicycle at the tunnel checkpoint around 8:15 a.m. local time and pulled out a knife while security forces at the crossing tried to check him. He began stabbing the forces operating there, police said. 

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.