CENTCOM Deputy Commander Admiral Brad Cooper visited Israel in recent days to coordinate the temporary port in the Gaza Strip announced by President Biden. During his visit, he met with senior Israeli officials to coordinate the port and its construction. US Secretary of State Antony John Blinken said in an interview that the port would be operational within a few weeks.
In Israel, it is estimated that its operation time will be longer: it is not yet clear how the goods and equipment arriving in the Gaza Strip through the port will be distributed. There has still been no response from the US Central Command. Finally, according to NBC, some of the IDF’s operational successes in the Gaza Strip are due to American intelligence assistance based on electronic interception.
Celeste Wallander, US Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs said: “The timing of the October 7 Hamas massacre was no coincidence. Iran perceived American efforts to establish military cooperation in the Middle East “as a threat to its freedom of action.”
The European Union at the current summit made the following statements: “We underline the importance of Israel implementing the decision of the International Court of Justice issued on January 26, which is legally binding. We condemn the decision to expand settlements in the West Bank and urge Israel to reverse this trend. We demand an end to the violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the guarantee of safe access to the Holy Places”.
According to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the path to peace between Israel and the Palestinians lies through the creation of two states, but the future Palestinian state should not have its own armed forces, the chancellor said. The German Air Force said it had dropped 8 tons of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip together with the US and Singaporean air forces.
French police complain that there has been a significant increase in hate crimes since the start of the Gaza war. In the whole of 2023, 8,500 cases of hate crimes were registered in France, double the number in the October-December period compared to the corresponding period in 2022.
Italy recognizes Israel’s growing isolation and warns it against the Rafah invasion. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she feared Israel’s growing isolation while warning of the disastrous effects of any ground military operation launched by Israel in Rafah.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz sent a letter to Jewish communities around the world, inviting them to unite and create a united global information front against the backdrop of a wave of anti-Semitism in many parts of the planet.
Channel 14 says there are instructions to the Israeli negotiating delegation not to accept a ceasefire as part of a swap deal. News also confirmed by Hamas.
The newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported the testimony of a settler: “In Galilee we are losing faith and hope that tens of thousands of evacuated residents will return to a reality different from the deadly one from which they fled; their eyes, on the southern front, observed how Hezbollah’s plans were being realized.
The Syrian Defense Minister made a surprise visit to Iran. The Iranian Defense Minister said that the agenda includes necessary and urgent measures and plans to counter Israeli aggression in Syria. Iran is ready to use all its capabilities to help Syria strengthen its defense capabilities and its deterrent power against the United States and Israel.
American-British raids carried out a raid on March 21st in the Dune area, west of the city of Hodeidah.
The Russian Federation and China have reached an agreement with the Houthis in Yemen that their ships can sail through the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea without fear of attack. Bloomberg: “The Houthis have reached an agreement with China and Russia on the safe passage of their ships near Yemen. Houthi spokesman Muhammad Abdel Salam told Russian and Chinese representatives at a meeting in Oman that their ships could continue sailing without fear of damage. In exchange, China and Russia will provide the Houthis with international political support, for example in the United Nations Security Council.”
Meanwhile, revenues at the port of Eilat have dropped by 80% since the Houthis began operating in the Yemen. No LNG carrier has transited the Suez Canal for 65 days now. On March 21, the Director General of the Port of Eilat said: “The port has completely stopped functioning due to the Yemeni attacks.” The port of Eilat is suffering its worst condition due to the siege imposed on it by the Yemeni armed forces, with the difficulty of guaranteeing it a complete alternative.
On the morning of March 21, the Ambre Maritime Security Company reports that “a commercial vessel reported being exposed to a fire 109 nautical miles off the coast of Yemen.”
And now a look at the front between Israel and Hamas.
The Iraqi Islamic Resistance said it attacked a power plant in Tel Aviv with a UAV stressing: “We will continue to destroy enemy strongholds at the end of the second phase of operations to resist the occupation and to support our people in Gaza, and in response to massacres against defenseless Palestinian civilians.”
For the first time since the start of the Gaza war in October, a significant deployment of Hezbollah forces, including the movement of heavy military equipment, was noted in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut, with checkpoints set up on main and secondary roads to check the identity of passers-by.
The Iraqi Islamic Resistance once again struck Metulla and the settlement of Avivim. Channel 12 reported several missiles fired from Lebanon towards the settlement of Doviv in the Western Galilee. According to the IDFn, a helicopter hit a Hamas cell in the Tayr Harfa area. Furthermore, IDF fighter jets hit three terrorist infrastructures in the areas of Yaroun, Yarine and Ayta ash Shab, as well as three military complexes in the area of Meiss El Jabal and Houla.
According to the Al-Manar correspondent: “Israeli planes launched an air strike with targeted missiles in the vicinity of “Panorama” at the eastern entrance to the city of Al-Adissah.”
More clashes recorded in northern Gaza. In the videos of militias linked to Hamas, Iraqi militias are seen managing the tunnels in northern Gaza.
In central Gaza, Israeli planes bombed the “Dhu al-Nourin” tower near the Saraya interchange in central Gaza City. Attacks against the Nuseirat refugee camp by Israel. At least ten people were killed as a result of the attack and rescue services continue to clear rubble. Israeli troops also destroyed the al-Qadissiya skyscraper in Gaza City.
In southern Gaza, the Al-Shifa hospital once again falls within the circle of Israeli targets, with a new attack on March 21st. In response, the militias carried out ambushes against the soldiers, killing an Israeli sniper. Israel appears to have blown up a building in the Shifa medical complex in Gaza. The outskirts of the city of Al-Qarara, south of the Gaza Strip, were also hit by Israeli soldiers, as well as violent raids in the Al-Matahin area, south of Deir Al-Balah.
According to IDF sources, senior Hamas officials have been arrested in Shifa, over 140 Hamas men eliminated in close combat and Islamic Jihad agents have surrendered: the IDF and ISA continue searches in Shifa hospital.
A drone attacked a car carrying a group of Palestinians to a refugee camp in Jenin: three dead. Arrests in the West Bank also occurred on March 21st.
Antonio Albanese e Graziella Giangiulio
