Day 163 - IDF secures first sea-drop of Gazan aid. Sustainable?

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world.

Today is day 163 of the war with Hamas. Military correspondent Emanuel Fabian joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode.

Palestinian sources have told a UK-based Saudi newspaper that Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing and the terror group’s third most senior official in Gaza, was at the location targeted in an Israeli strike last week. But Fabian explains that we still don’t know whether he was hit.

The Israel Defense Forces says a “suspicious aerial target” was intercepted over night over the maritime space in the area of the coastal northern city of Acre. Fabian suggests three possibilities.

The World Central Kitchen NGO offloaded about “200 tons of food” onto a Gaza shore yesterday. That aid now needs to reach civilians. We drill down into the IDF's role in securing its journey, especially after claims by the Hamas terror group that troops had opened fire on crowds of civilians waiting for aid at a square in Gaza City.

A Palestinian gunman opened fire Saturday at an Israeli settlement neighborhood in the West Bank city of Hebron, according to the military, before being shot dead by troops. Who was he and where did he shoot from?

A Bedouin Israeli man who crossed into the Gaza Strip in 2016 and allegedly joined Hamas before being detained while trying to cross back into Israel during the ongoing war, has died in custody, authorities said Saturday. Fabian tries to put the pieces of his story together.

For the latest updates, please review The Times of Israel’s ongoing live blog.

Discussed articles include:

Live blog March 17, 2024

NGO says 1st aid ship to Gaza is unloaded, supplies being readied for distribution

IDF probe: Palestinian gunmen killed Gazans waiting for aid, army did not fire

Palestinian gunman opens fire at Hebron settlement neighborhood, is killed by troops

IDF chief says Israel in ‘multi-front war,’ urges vigilance amid Ramadan tensions

Bedouin Israeli said to have joined Hamas in Gaza dies after found unconscious in cell

THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Civilians and soldiers killed in Hamas's onslaught on Israel

THOSE WE ARE MISSING: The hostages and victims whose fate is still unknown

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Check out the previous Daily Briefing episode:

https://omny.fm/shows/the-daily-briefing/day-162-who-was-senator-schumers-howler-speech-aim

IMAGE: A Palestinian woman sits on a cart next to a box of food rations provided by charity World Central Kitchen at a makeshift street market in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on March 14, 2024. (Mohammed Abed/ AFP) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.