Israel’s war on Gaza updates: 40 dead in Israeli strikes on central Gaza

This live page is now closed. Follow along with our ongoing coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.

To read more about the case before the International Court of Justice in The Hague on the legality of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, you can access our explainer here.

You can also view our photo gallery on the bombardment of Rafah by Israeli forces amid a looming ground invasion here.

And, you can always read all our stories on the war here.

We will be closing the live blog soon. Here’s a recap of the day’s main events.

• At least 40 Palestinians were killed in a series of Israeli strikes across central Gaza, with civil defence workers searching through the rubble of collapsed buildings for bodies that remain trapped underneath.
• UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said that the Palestinian refugee agency is near its “breaking point” as funding cuts from Western nations take a toll on the beleaguered agency amid a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented scale in Gaza.
• Israeli forces carried out raids across the occupied West Bank, following a shooting attack near the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim earlier in the day. An Israeli strike on a vehicle in Jenin killed at least one person and injured about 15.
• The World Bank said that Gaza’s economy shrunk by more than 80 percent in the fourth quarter, underscoring the devastating toll that Israel’s assault has taken on all aspects of life in the Strip. The UN states that more than two million people in Gaza are facing extreme food insecurity, while Israel continues to block or delay large portions of humanitarian aid.
• Yemen’s Houthis say they carried out attacks targeting a US Navy destroyer in the Red Sea, as well as Israeli targets and a British vessel, promising to continue such attacks until the war in Gaza is brought to an end.

An independent panel selected to investigate Israeli claims of ties between UNRWA and Hamas members will focus on whether the agency has done enough to uphold UN standards of neutrality, former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, who is heading the panel, told reporters.

Israel has yet to provide evidence to substantiate allegations that a dozen UNRWA employees, out of about 13,000 working in Gaza, took part in the October 7 attacks on Israel. News outlets that have reviewed the Israeli dossier that is the basis for the allegations say it provides no evidence for its claims.

Speaking today, Colonna said she has been tasked with a “very sensitive and hopefully useful mission” to investigate if UNRWA “does everything it can to ensure neutrality”.

Nidal Naghnaghiyeh says the Israeli air raid earlier is a continuation of the Israeli targeting of the Jenin refugee camp and its residents as part of a systemic policy of killing young men there.

“What is happening in the northern West Bank, and especially in the city of Jenin and its refugee camp, aims to liquidate the Palestinian resistance,” Naghnaghiyeh said.

He added that occupation forces are trying to bend the will of young Palestinians and tame their alertness to convey a message that “there is no point to resistance”.

“But the occupation is facing persistence from various sectors of Palestinian society,” Naghnaghiyeh told Al Jazeera.

“We expect that before and during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Israel’s attacks will increase on cities and refugee camps – especially Jenin because Israel considers the Jenin camp to be the inspiration for young Palestinians and the core of resistance in the West Bank.”

With large swathes of Gaza’s population displaced and facing severe food insecurity amid Israel’s ongoing assault, education has become an afterthought as parents struggle to protect their children from hunger, displacement, and bombardment.

“There’s a total absence of education in Gaza right now. Almost no child is going to school, and instead, parents are focusing on their children’s survival. They want to make sure that they live another day,” Alexandra Saieh, head of humanitarian policy at Save the Children International, told Al Jazeera.

“Even if the war were to end tomorrow, education can’t just resume. More than half of Gaza’s schools have either been destroyed or are too damaged to even function,” she added.

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has announced that the Defence Ministry organ that authorises the construction of illegal Israeli settlements will convene, in order to advance the construction of 3,344 new homes for Israeli settlers, the Times of Israel reports.

The move, according to the newspaper, comes as a response to today’s shooting attack near the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim that killed at least one person and wounded five.

Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu met with Defence Minister Gallant earlier today to discuss the move as well.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has urged the US president to condemn comments by Israeli government minister May Golan who drew outrage earlier this week for saying she is “personally proud of the ruins of Gaza”.

CAIR director Nihad Awad said in a statement, “The Biden administration should condemn the sadistic, bloodthirsty rhetoric of this Israeli official and immediately stop bankrolling and arming the genocide the Israeli government is committing in Gaza.”

The Biden administration should condemn the sadistic, bloodthirsty rhetoric of this Israeli official and immediately stop bankrolling and arming the genocide the Israeli government is committing in Gaza. This is not the first time the Israeli government has expressed its… https://t.co/Q5dUKbO3md

— CAIR National (@CAIRNational) February 22, 2024

The Israeli military has confirmed reports that it has built a large road cutting through the centre of Gaza, according to the Associated Press.

The military said it had built a road stretching from the east to the west of the Strip “to move logistics and soldiers”, but offered few other details. The road is the latest example of Israeli forces working to reshape the contours of Gaza, which Israel says will remain under its security control even after the war.

Israeli forces have also demolished entire neighbourhoods in an effort to create a “buffer zone” along the edges of Gaza, acts that experts have said may constitute war crimes.

While it is apparent that the conflict has decimated the economy in Gaza, the West Bank is also suffering under “collective punishment” from the conflict, says Palestinian economist Nasser Abdel Karim.

He told Al Jazeera that unemployment has been rising in the occupied territory, especially with the 200,000 Palestinians who worked inside Israel banned from their jobs after the outbreak of the war.

Abdel Karim said the revenues earned by these workers were spent in the West Bank, so the territory has lost that income. Moreover, the withholding of Palestinian Authority taxes by Israel has only deepened the problem.

“If Palestinian groups and Israel reach a deal to end the war, the economy in the West Bank needs between one and two years to return to its pre-October 7 levels. But Gaza will need years, as many as 20, to recover,” he added.

Israeli air raids flattened al-Farooq Mosque in the city of Rafah and destroyed several homes.

Find out in our video:

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini has informed the United Nations that the Palestinian refugee agency has reached its “breaking point”. Several key donor countries, including the United States, suspended aid to the agency, following Israeli claims that a small handful of its employees took part in the October 7 attacks.

Israel has not provided evidence for those claims, but the funding cuts have taken a severe toll on the organisation as it works to address a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented proportions in Gaza. Lazzarini says that UNRWA’s ability to carry out its duties is now “severely threatened”.

“In just over four months in Gaza, there have been more children, more journalists, more medical personnel, and more UN staff killed than anywhere in the world during a conflict,” Lazzarini said. “It is with profound regret that I must now inform you that UNRWA has reached a breaking point, with Israel’s repeated calls to dismantle it and the freezing of funding by donors at a time of unprecedented humanitarian needs in Gaza.”

In just over four months in #Gaza, there have been more #children, more journalists, more medical personnel, and more @UN staff killed than anywhere in the world during a conflict.

It is with profound regret that I must now inform you that @UNRWA has reached a breaking point,… pic.twitter.com/JbQVk72avu

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) February 22, 2024

The Lebanese armed group identified Hashem Abdullah, born in 1987, and Hassan Saleh, born in 1973.

As is typical with Hezbollah, no mention of where and how these men were killed was made in their death announcements.

Israeli attacks have killed dozens of Hezbollah fighters since the two sides started exchanging fire with the outbreak of the war on Gaza.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken struck a diplomatic tone when asked about the Brazilian president’s comments comparing the mass killings in Gaza to the Holocaust.

“On this particular question, obviously – the comparison of Gaza to the Holocaust – we profoundly disagree, but that’s also something that friends do,” Blinken told reporters from Brazil.

The top US diplomat added that the US and Brazil are working towards “shared objectives” on Gaza, which include securing an extended humanitarian ceasefire, freeing the Israeli captives, getting more aid to Palestinians and finding a lasting resolution to the conflict.

The number of Palestinians killed in a series of Israeli strikes in central Gaza is expected to rise even further as civil defence workers are trying to recover bodies from under the rubble, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reports from Rafah.

“These houses have been attacked without any prior warning,” Abu Azzoum said, adding that children make up the majority of the dozens of people injured in the strikes.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby has told reporters that US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk held productive meetings in Egypt and Israel.

He added that Washington remains fully committed to doing everything to achieve a hostage deal in exchange for an extended pause in the fighting in Gaza.

Kirby refused to confirm a media report saying that CIA Director Bill Burns was going to meet in Paris with Qatari, Egyptian and Israeli officials.

“I can’t confirm the specific reports about Paris but I can absolutely reassure you that discussions are ongoing,” he said.