The Israeli army opened fire on Palestinians with live bullets as they waited to receive food aid at the Kuwait roundabout south of Gaza City. | The Media Office in Gaza said in a statement that Israel's targeting of Palestinians is an indication that it wants to further increase hunger and continue the siege and humanitarian disaster in Gaza. Holding the US, Israel and the international community responsible for the worsening humanitarian situation in the enclave, it called for an end to the "genocidal war" and the entry of 1,000 trucks of aid, especially to northern Gaza. The statement did not provide further information about casualties. ● Israel has launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7. The ensuing Israeli bombardment has killed 30,534 people and injured 71,920 others with mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

■ Israel kills 97 more Palestinians in Gaza, bringing total deaths since Oct. 7 to 30,631 (Anadolu)

We compare and contrast Israel posting a video about providing aid for Gaza, but it actually features a Ukrainian refugee camp in Moldova ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/I77J5vLedT

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 3, 2024

The Israeli regime's account of the attack on Palestinians who were awaiting aid on the Nabulsi roundabout near al-Rashid Street in Gaza is unconvincing, media outlets have reported. | Following the brutal attack on Gaza on Thursday on al-Rashid Street, 112 civilians were martyred and over 700 others were wounded. ● In the wake of the al-Rashid massacre, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported late on Friday that the Zionist regime's response to what happened was accompanied by an unacceptable 10-hour delay. ● Whether the fatal incident in the northern Gaza Strip was intentional or unintentional, it has the potential to alter the dynamics of the ongoing conflict in Gaza, according to the source. ● More international reactions against the Israeli moves are expected in which the communities are going to call for armistice in the Gaza war, the newspaper added.

■ 'It's not true': 'Be'eri' kibbutz spox on sexual abuse claims on Oct.7 (Al Mayadeen)
■ UN: Large Number of Gunshot Wounds among Gaza Food Aid Injured (03/04/24)
■ For What It's Worth, Israel admits army shot dead over 100 Palestinians seeking aid (03/02/24)

Over a hundred Australian lawyers have endorsed a move to refer prime minister Anthony Albanese to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for being an “accessory to genocide” in the Gaza Strip. | According to reports, the lawyers argued that Albanese has provided the Israeli regime with “rhetorical support in their public statements, their press conferences, their speeches” as well as material assistance. Albanese was referred to the ICC in a communiqué presented to ICC prosecutor Karim Khan KC on Monday. Earlier, the Austrian premier had said that the establishment of a Palestinian state must be in the form a country without armed forces. [...] The Israeli war on Gaza has so far killed at least 30,534 Palestinians in the besieged coastal area and left more than 71,920 others injured.

■ American nationals killed fighting in Gaza (Tehran Times)
■ As it devours Palestinian lives, Biden urges Israeli war machine be given more time (PressTV)

The diplomats must be punished for refusing to meet with the country’s foreign minister, Dmitry Medvedev has said | Ambassadors from European Union member states should be expelled from Russia, former President Dmitry Medvedev has said, citing their refusal to discuss election meddling with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Lavrov said that Moscow had “invited” EU envoys for a meeting in order to warn them against “meddling” in the upcoming presidential election. The authorities have gathered “a lot of materials” about foreign support for “the opposition” in Russia, the minister said, without elaborating. “I simply wanted to tell the ambassadors that we are recommending not to conduct such activities,” Lavrov said. “And you know what? Two days before the [planned] event, we received a [diplomatic] letter saying, ‘We have decided not to attend.’”

💬 “Ambassadors of the EU states to Russia declined a meeting with the Russian minister of foreign affairs. Allegedly, following some advice from Brussels,” Medvedev wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday. “This goes totally against the very idea of [the] existence of diplomatic missions and assignments of ambassadors.” ● “All these ambassadors should be kicked out of Russia, and the level of diplomatic relations should be demoted,” Medvedev, who is currently the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, wrote. He slammed the EU diplomats as “political imbeciles who do not comprehend their real tasks.”

■ Britain historically most hostile state to Russia – former defense minister (RT.com)
■ Yes, we know. The UK is not the EU. But Europe's enmity is wall-to-wall. – Editor

A street in Nikopol will bear the name of an SS officer and recipient of the Iron Cross | Nikopol has renamed one of its streets after Pyotr Dyachenko, an officer of the Ukrainian Waffen SS Division ‘Galizien’, the head of Ukraine’s Jewish community said on Monday. Eduard Dolinsky, director of the United Jewish Committee of Ukraine, lamented the move by the city authorities both on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), pointing out that Dyachenko was the recipient of one of Nazi Germany’s highest decorations, the Iron Cross.

■ Germany yet to be ‘denazified’ – Zakharova (RT.com)

Evidence obtained by the Tehran Times shows politicians manage Meta’s content | Western-based social media platforms like Facebook have been positioning themselves as innocuous and neutral platforms that at times get misused and taken advantage of by malicious users. ● When Facebook was accused of giving rise to violence against Muslims in Myanmar, which eventually led to the massacre of over 25,000 people, it attributed the situation to its ignorance of human rights risks. Sometime after that in 2019, the platform announced it was establishing a “Strategic Response Team (SRT)” to help prevent the spread of hate speech and avoid fueling another genocide. ● In the most recent genocide taking place, however, Facebook is once again being accused of stifling truth and enabling deadly violence. Figures show that since the beginning of Israel’s latest war on Gaza, Meta has subjected pro-Palestinian accounts and posts to systematic censorship while turning a blind eye to Israeli accounts promoting racism and Islamophobia. ● Over 90% of pro-Palestinian content has been deleted in the past 150 days. The company also removed the Instagram and Facebook accounts of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei last month, in response to his vocal position on Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.