Morning Briefing: March 20, 2024

By Rabia Ali

ISTANBUL (AA) - Here is a rundown of all the news that you need to start your Wednesday with, including Israel targeting aid distribution in Gaza, Canada banning arm sales to Israel, and thousands of Palestinian children killed by Israel since Oct 7.

TOP STORIES

• Israeli airstrike targets aid distribution in Gaza City

At least 23 Palestinians were killed and several others injured late Tuesday in an Israeli airstrike targeting a gathering of people waiting for aid distribution at the Kuwait Roundabout in Gaza City.

Witnesses reported that Israeli warplanes targeted a gathering of committees formed to facilitate the transportation of aid to Gaza City, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

Local sources said a significant number of dead and injured were lying on the ground at the site after being directly targeted, according to the agency.

• Canada to ban arms sales to Israel: Report

Canada will ban all arms shipments to Israel, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly announced Tuesday.

The move comes after lawmakers voted 204-117 in favor of a non-binding motion to stop the weapons sales after a lengthy debate Monday.

“It’s a real thing,” Joly told The Toronto Star newspaper. The original motion was for a weapons sales suspension but that was changed to an outright ban.

• 14,000 Palestinian children killed by Israel

At least 14,000 children are among the at least 31,810 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since last October, the media office in the Palestinian enclave said on Tuesday.

It said the victims also included at least 9,220 women, while 7,000 remained under the rubble or were missing.

The report said 72% of the victims were women and children, while 27 people also died of malnutrition as Israel prevents the entry of much-needed humanitarian aid into the blockaded territory.

NEWS IN BRIEF

• Turkish security forces destroyed 27 PKK targets including hideouts, caves and shelters in northern Iraq, the country’s National Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
  
  
• The Israeli army announced late Tuesday that it has arrested around 300 Palestinians during its ongoing raid of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
  
  
• France is preparing some 2,000 troops to send them to Ukraine, head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service has claimed.
  
  
• US should immediately suspend arms transfers to Israel, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam said Tuesday, citing Israel’s violations of international humanitarian law including with US weapons and the blocking of US-funded humanitarian assistance.
  
  
• Israel is seeking to sabotage cease-fire negotiations underway in Qatar by targeting police officers and government agencies in the Gaza Strip, the chief of Hamas's political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, said Tuesday.
  
  
• "Human-made" famine in Gaza still preventable, the UN human rights chief Volker Turk said Tuesday.
  
  
• Norway demanded an urgent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, while reminding the world that the situation is a “man-made disaster,” Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said Tuesday.
  
  
• An elite South Africa police unit on Tuesday searched the Johannesburg home of the National Assembly speaker over corruption allegations.
  
  
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday claimed that Russia has used 130 different types of missiles on Ukraine since the beginning of March.
  
  
• Cholera outbreaks worldwide are deeply linked to climate change, a World Health Organization official said Tuesday after a meeting of a key advisory group on immunization.

SPORTS

• Former Turkish international footballer Ersen Martin dies

Former Turkish international footballer Ersen Martin has passed away at the age of 44, the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) announced Tuesday.

His former clubs Besiktas and Trabzonspor along with the TFF offered their condolences.

Martin, who previously underwent surgery for a ruptured aorta, had been receiving treatment for some time and was intubated on March 10.

• Russian, Belarusian athletes not allowed to attend Paris Olympics opening ceremony

The International Olympic Committee on Tuesday said Russian and Belarusian athletes competing in the 2024 Olympics in Paris will not be able to take part in the opening ceremony.

Athletes from both countries were banned after Russia's war on Ukraine in February 2022.

Those who qualify for the Games, however, can compete as neutrals.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

• Canada's annual consumer inflation slows to 2.8% in February

Canada's annual consumer inflation slowed down to 2.8% in February from 2.9% in January, the country’s statistical authority said Tuesday.

The consumer price index came in lower than market expectations of 3.1%.

The rate reflects a significant slowdown since the 8.1% figure in June 2022 — its highest level in 39 years.

• World Bank says more than half of Gaza’s population on brink of famine

The World Bank Group said Tuesday that more than half the population of Gaza is on the brink of famine, including children and the elderly.

The international organization called for urgent action to save lives, urging for “immediate, free, and unimpeded access of medical supplies, food and life-essential services through all available means at speed and scale to the people of Gaza.”