Netanyahu rebuffs Biden, says Israelis overwhelmingly back war: Updates

Editor's Note: This page is a summary of news on the Israel-Hamas war for Sunday, March 10. For the latest news on the conflict in the Middle East, view our live updates file on the war for Monday, March 11.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israelis overwhelmingly support his policies and rejected President Joe Biden's assertion that the war in Gaza was hurting Israel.

"If he meant by that that I'm pursuing private policies against the majority, the wish of the majority of Israelis, and that this is hurting the interests of Israel, then he's wrong on both counts," Netanyahu said in a social media post Sunday. "The vast majority are united as never before."

The prime minister said Israelis believe that if the country doesn't fight, it will see a repetition of the Oct. 7 attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel and saw the seizure of over 240 hostages. That, he said, would be "bad for Israel, bad for the Palestinians, bad for the future of peace in the Middle East."

More than 31,000 Palestinians have died, 70% of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israel says it has killed13,000 Hamas militants and blames the civilian deaths on militants using them as human shields.

Biden, in an interview with MSNBC, had urged Netanyahu to curb the death toll of civilians in Gaza but asserted that the U.S. has no plans to cut off the supply of weapons to the Israeli military. Biden, asked what “tough love” he would give Netanyahu, responded that Netanyahu has a right to defend his country but must "pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken. In my view, he’s hurting Israel more than helping Israel.”

Biden said Netanyahu's policies are "contrary to what Israel stands for, and I think it’s a big mistake. So I want to see a cease-fire.”

Developing:

∎ Thirteen Arabs from northern Israel have been charged with planning terrorist attacks on behalf of Hamas, the Israel Police and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) announced Sunday. The suspects had purchased weapons and were arrested over the past few months, the security services said.

∎ Fifteen people were killed by Israeli artillery fire on a tent camp for displaced Palestinians near the southern city of Khan Younis, their relatives told the Associated Press. In Gaza City, 10 people were killed Sunday in an Israeli airstrike on a family house, the Gaza Civil Defense Department said.

∎ The Netherlands National Holocaust Museum opened Sunday in a ceremony featuring Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whose presence drew thousands of demonstrators protesting the war in Gaza. The museum in Amsterdam commemorates the 102,000 Jews deported from the Netherlands and killed in Nazi camps.

∎ Around three-quarters of Jewish respondents are in favor of expanding military operations into Rafah, according to a new poll by the Israeli Democracy Institute. The U.S. and other nations have urged Israel not to invade the southern Gaza city, where more than 1 million people are seeking refuge from the war.

A personal battle: With no cease-fire, Muslims like me struggle with guilt and rage this Ramadan

Ramadan begins with no cease-fire in sight

The crescent moon appeared Sunday night in Saudi Arabia, home to the holiest sites in Islam, marking the start of the month of Ramadan and an end to hopes that a cease-fire deal would be reached before the Islamic holy season.

Efforts by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas remained stalled over two crucial demands, Hamas said in a statement Sunday. Hamas wants a pathway to a permanent end to the war and the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, the month when Muslims say God revealed the Quran to Prophet Muhammad. Muslims who have reached puberty and who are physically capable will fast from sunrise to sunset every day for about 30 days. Fasting means abstaining from food, drink, sexual relations and ill behavior, although those who are sick or traveling are exempt from fasting.

U.S. ship sets sail with equipment for Gaza pier

The U.S. Army has sent a logistics support vessel from Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia to the eastern Mediterranean to help build the temporary pier needed to ship in humanitarian assistance to Gaza, Col. Mary Ricks, an Army spokesperson, said Sunday in an email.

The Gen. Frank S. Besson Jr., a ship from the 7th Transportation Brigade, left Saturday with the first equipment needed for the pier, Ricks said. The operation is expected to take up to 60 days.

Biden announced plans for the effort Thursday in the State of the Union address.

There is a desperate need for food and other supplies in Gaza amid Israel’s war with Hamas. The U.S. and U.N. have said bringing in the aid through land routes is more effective, but restrictions imposed by Israel have created bottlenecks and slowed down the process.

− Tom Vanden Brook

Detained UN workers accuse Israel of abuses

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency said some employees released into Gaza from Israeli detention claim Israeli authorities pressured them into falsely accusing some staffers of taking part in the Oct. 7 attacks, Reuters reported. Claims of physical beatings, sexual violence, waterboarding and threats of harm to family members are included in a UNRWA report reviewed by Reuters dated February 2024. UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma said the agency plans to provide information in the 11-page, unpublished report to agencies documenting potential human rights abuses.

An Israeli spokesperson told Reuters the military follows international law, denying any claims of sexual abuse and saying freed detainees can be forced by Hamas to denounce Israel.

Reports that some UNRWA workers took part in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel led to the U.S. and more than a dozen other nations to cut off funding to the agency, which provides humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

UN Security Council to review report accusing Hamas of sexual assaults

An emergency U.N. Security Council session on Monday will review special envoy Pramila Patten's report on Hamas sexual violence that found “reasonable grounds” to believe Hamas committed rape, “sexualized torture” and other cruel treatment of women − and that the violence may be continuing with some hostages. Some family members of Israeli hostages are expected to attend the session.

“Across the various locations of the 7 October attacks, the mission team found that several fully naked or partially naked bodies from the waist down were recovered − mostly women − with hands tied and shot multiple times, often in the head,” the report said. It also addressed the treatment of hostages, finding “clear and convincing information that some have been subjected to various forms of conflict-related sexual violence including rape and sexualized torture and sexualized cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and it also has reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing.”

Turkish president 'firmly backs' Hamas leaders, compares Netanyahu to Hitler

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan compared Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler in a speech Thursday while rejecting claims by the U.S., the EU and several other nations that the militant group is a terrorist organization. Erdogan accused Israel of continuing to commit "massacres" in Gaza and said Hamas is not a terror group but the "resistance."

“Turkey is a country that speaks openly with Hamas leaders and firmly backs them," Erdogan said, adding that “Netanyahu and his administration, with their crimes against humanity in Gaza, are writing their names next to Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin, like today’s Nazis."

Netanyahu provided a sharp response, saying Israel observes the laws of war and will "not be subject to moral preaching from Erdogan, who supports murderers and rapists of the Hamas terrorist organization ... massacres Kurds in his own country and cracks down on regime opponents and journalists.”

The relationship between the countries has fluctuated in recent years. Both withdrew their ambassadors in 2018 when violence was sweeping Gaza, only to fully renew diplomatic ties in 2022. Weeks before the Hamas-led attack in October, Netanyahu and Erdogan had a cordial meeting in New York. But Israel's military response in Gaza quickly prompted Erdogan to compare Israel to the Nazis.

Humanitarian aid flow increases, still far short of need

The first six days of March saw an increase in the number of humanitarian trucks entering Gaza, with an average of 155 trucks per day crossing, the UNRWA said. The flow remained well below the target of 500 per day set by UNRWA, which said trucks continue to struggle to enter Gaza amid "inconsistent opening" of border crossings.

The U.S. and Jordan have begun aid airdrops, and efforts are underway to move aid to Gaza from ships.

“There’s still an awful lot of work that’s being done on this to flesh it out," John Kirby, the White House spokesman for national security issues, said last week. But he added that “the best and most efficient way to get aid in to people in a confined space like that in a very urban environment is on the ground.”

Contributing: Marina Pitofsky, USA TODAY; The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Israel war live updates: Netanyahu rejects Biden criticism of policies