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October 7, 2023: Israel begins bombarding Gaza in retaliation to Hamas attacks
Israel resumes massive attacks on March 18, killing over 400 in a day — two months after ceasefire ending 15 months of relentless attacks began
Future governance of Gaza remains unclear as Trump suggests US takeover but Arab countries propose alternative plan, which UK, others back
Hamas and Israel exchange 25 hostages, bodies and 1,700 detainees in seven swaps
Over 50,000 Palestinians, 400 Israeli soldiers dead; nearly all of Gaza displaced
Multi-billion dollar challenges ahead to reconstruct decimated enclave
Egypt and Qatar emphasised their support for the Palestinian people in a joint statement after Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi met Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha, Al Jazeera reports.
“The two sides have expressed their grave concern over the continued escalation in the Gaza Strip and stressed the importance of continuing joint efforts to achieve an immediate and sustainable ceasefire, ensure the delivery of urgent humanitarian aid to civilians, and support reconstruction efforts to alleviate the suffering of the brotherly Palestinian people,” the joint statement said.
It added that the leaders emphasised the “centrality of the Palestinian cause for Arabs”.
The statement also backed efforts to “achieve Palestinian national reconciliation and the need to unify Palestinian ranks”, and affirmed support “for the Gaza reconstruction plan” proposed by Egypt and backed by the Arab League.
Israel has the right to defend itself, but its current actions go beyond proportionate self-defence, Al Jazeera reports quoting the European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas.
The comments follow the EU announcement that it will increase its financial support for the Palestinian Authority with a three-year package worth about €1.6 billion ($1.8bn).
France’s President Emmanuel Macron has called for “reform” of the Palestinian Authority as part of a plan that would see the West Bank-based body govern a post-conflict Gaza without Hamas, AFP reports.
“It is essential to set a framework for the day after: disarm and sideline Hamas, define credible governance and reform the Palestinian Authority,” Macron said on X following a phone call with his Palestinian counterpart Mahmud Abbas.
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and French President Emmanuel Macron called for an “urgent” ceasefire in Gaza during a phone conversation, AFP reports citing official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
“They emphasised the urgent need for a ceasefire, the acceleration of humanitarian aid delivery, the rejection of the displacement of the Palestinian people from their land and the Palestinian Authority assuming responsibility in the Gaza Strip,” the agency reported.
The National Assembly has passed a resolution condemning the latest round of atrocities in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military.
The resolution was moved by Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar and unanimously passed by the gathered lawmakers.
Palestinian and Egyptian sources have said that the latest round of talks in Cairo to restore the defunct Gaza ceasefire and free Israeli hostages has ended with no apparent breakthrough, Reuters reports.
The sources said Hamas had stuck to its position that any agreement must lead to an end to the fighting in Gaza.
Israel has said it will not end the fighting until Hamas is stamped out. The group has ruled out any proposal that it lay down its arms.
But despite that fundamental disagreement, the sources said a Hamas delegation led by the group’s Gaza Chief Khalil Al-Hayya had shown some flexibility over how many hostages it could free in return for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel should a truce be extended.
An Egyptian source told Reuters that the latest proposal to extend the truce would see Hamas free an increased number of hostages.
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The Gaza Health Ministry reports that 38 people were killed in the past 24 hours and one person was rescued from under the rubble, Al Jazeera reports.
This brings the death toll of Israeli attacks since the start of the conflict to 50,983 killed and 116,274 wounded.
Since March 18, when Israel ended the ceasefire by launching more attacks, at least 1,613 Palestinians have been killed and 4,233 wounded.
A large number of victims are still believed to be trapped under the rubble or otherwise missing and unreachable.
The Ramallah-based Union of Agricultural Work Committees urgently draws attention to the “deepening famine” in the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera reports.
It called this “a catastrophe deliberately manufactured through the Israeli genocidal war” as it has blocked all aid from entering since March 2.
The union reminded that in April, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reaffirmed the country’s commitment to enforcing famine in Gaza, declaring that “not even a grain of wheat” would be allowed into the enclave.
“This is not policy failure; this is a calculated campaign of mass starvation,” it said. “Today, the people of Gaza are starving by design.”
The European Union has announced a new three-year financial support package for the Palestinians worth up to 1.6 billion euros ($1.8bn), AFP reports.
The fresh aid pledge came just ahead of a meeting between Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Mustafa and EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
“We are stepping up our support to the Palestinian people. EUR1.6bn until 2027 will help stabilise the West Bank and Gaza,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas wrote on X.
“This will reinforce the PA’s (Palestinian Authority) ability to meet the needs of the Palestinian people in the West Bank and prepare it to return to govern Gaza once conditions allow,” Kallas said.
Brussels — the biggest international donor to the Palestinians — said the package would include 620 million euros in grants for the PA.
The funds will be linked to reforms on “fiscal sustainability, democratic governance, private sector development and public infrastructure and services”, the EU said.
The rest will be made up of 576m euros in grants for projects aimed at helping economic recovery in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
A further 400m euros in loans would come from the bloc’s lending arm, the European Investment Bank.
The EU’s new package follows on from the previous three-year support plan worth 1.36bn euros from 2021 to 2024.
Law and Human Rights Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar has blasted ongoing rights violations by Israel in the Gaza Strip with raids on hospitals and other vital infrastructure.
Addressing the National Assembly, he also reaffirmed Pakistan’s solidarity with Gaza.
Israeli soldiers have arrested a young man after storming the Jenin Governmental Hospital in the occupied West Bank, sources confirmed to Al Jazeera.
The incursion took place in view of a number of staff, civilians and patients, with the Wafa news agency reporting that a staff member was also detained before being let go.
Israeli occupation forces have killed at least 36 people and wounded or arrested dozens more since they launched their large-scale military incursion into Jenin and its refugee camp in January.
The Islamic Endowments Department in Jerusalem says at least 765 Israeli settlers have stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to perform religious rituals and celebrate Passover today, Al Jazeera reports.
This comes a day after nearly 500 settlers had come into the holy Muslim site in the occupied East Jerusalem under armed protection from Israeli soldiers.
The Jerusalem Governorate said the fact that some Knesset members and rabbis were photographed at the site “is a provocation to Muslims’ feelings and a violation of international law”.
The Israeli military claims that its warplanes attacked “sites for launching rockets and producing weapons” in the Rafah area in southern Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.
It said in a statement that it continues to work with internal security agency Shin Bet in Rafah, having destroyed a tunnel in the past 24 hours that was used by Hamas.
An Israeli air strike also targeted “a terrorist ambush” in northern Gaza, the army added without providing any evidence. It again claimed that air strikes on central Gaza targeted a “weapons production site”.
A senior Hamas official has said that the Palestinian group is prepared to release all Israeli hostages in exchange for a “serious prisoner swap” and guarantees that Israel will end the offensive in Gaza.
“We are ready to release all Israeli captives in exchange for a serious prisoner swap deal, an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and the entry of humanitarian aid,” Taher al-Nunu, a senior Hamas official, told AFP.
However, he accused Israel of obstructing progress towards a ceasefire.
“The issue is not the number of captives,” Nunu said, “but rather that the occupation is reneging on its commitments, blocking the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and continuing the war”.
“Hamas has therefore stressed the need for guarantees to compel the occupation (Israel) to uphold the agreement,” he added.
Israeli news website Ynet has reported that a new proposal had been put to Hamas.
Under the deal, the group would release 10 living hostages in exchange for US guarantees that Israel would enter negotiations for a second phase of the ceasefire.
At least three Palestinians were killed and more wounded after the Israeli military bombed an area of the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City in the northern part of the enclave, Al Jazeera reports.
Israeli forces are also claiming more casualties as they advance in southern Gaza and complete the so-called Morag Corridor to separate Rafah from Khan Younis.
Several people were wounded in Israeli air strikes on the Mawasi area of Khan Younis, while two more sustained injuries from Israeli bullets in Rafah.
Nine Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli military prisons have arrived at the Al-Aqsa Matyrs Hospital in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera reports.
Al Jazeera’s correspondent on the ground reported that the prisoners were handed over by Israeli authorities to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
More than 1,600 former Israeli army paratroopers and infantry soldiers have joined the band of military personnel demanding a deal to bring captives back from Gaza and end the offensive, Al Jazeera reports.
The group said they want the captives returned, “even at the cost of halting the fighting”, to save Israeli lives, according to Yedioth Ahronoth and other Israeli media.
More than 170 graduates from an elite tech leadership programme of the Military Intelligence Unit signed their names to a separate letter calling for an end to the offensive and the return of captives.
The calls are the latest among growing voices from within the military pressuring the government to end the offensive.
Air Force reservists, doctors, ex-Mossad members, navy reservists and military intelligence members have been among those signing similar letters.
The Israeli prime minister has told the parents of Eitan Mor, who is being held in Gaza, that the government is working on a deal to bring back 10 of the remaining captives, Al Jazeera reports.
Benjamin Netanyahu called Mor’s parents on Sunday night, according to Tikva Forum, a captive advocacy group.
Zvika Mor, the captive’s father and co-founder of the group, said he demanded Netanyahu reach an agreement that would bring back all captives at the same time. He warned against “selection” among the captives, and said that trying to return them in multiple exchanges would risk their lives.
Groups of Israeli settlers have once again entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to perform religious rituals, Al Jazeera reports.
The latest challenge of the status quo of the holy Muslim site comes as Jewish people mark the Passover holidays. Non-Muslims are allowed to visit the compound but are prohibited from engaging in religious rituals there.
Israeli settlers were also seen moving through the Qattanin Market area in the Old City around the compound.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has held a phone call with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, to discuss strengthening bilateral cooperation and the worsening situation in Gaza, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said, Al Jazeera reports.
A ministry statement said the two top diplomats addressed “developments in the Gaza Strip and the occupied Palestinian territories, along with several other topics of mutual interest” in the call on Sunday.
Sheikh Mohammed, who is also Qatar’s prime minister, welcomed recent US-Iran nuclear negotiations mediated by Oman, the ministry noted.
At least 200 Israeli military doctors have signed a petition demanding the return of captives from Gaza, even if it means ending the ongoing offensive, Al Jazeera reports, citing a Sunday report by Israel’s Channel 13.
“We, reserve doctors in the various units in the Israeli army, demand the immediate return of the captives and an end to the fighting in the Gaza Strip,” the doctors wrote in the petition.
The petition reflects mounting frustration within Israeli military ranks, with the doctors emphasising that the war has strayed from its stated goals.
“After more than 550 days of fighting that have already taken a heavy toll on Israel, we feel with pain that the continued fighting in Gaza is intended primarily to serve political and personal interests without a security purpose,” they said.
Israel has criticised the German Foreign Office for a social media post questioning its recent air strike on a hospital building in northern Gaza, saying the statement lacked key facts, Al Jazeera reports.
In a post on X, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the attack was a “precise strike” on a single building used by Hamas as a “command and control” centre, and not a general assault on a hospital. Israel did not provide any proof of Hamas’s presence in the hospital, which was also bombed in October 2023.
Since it launched its war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, Israel has repeatedly attacked medical facilities, schools and religious places in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
Israeli forces have bombed a home in the town of Khuza’a in Khan Younis, killing at least five Palestinians and wounding several others, Al Jazeera reports citing Wafa news agency.
Medical sources told the agency that the casualties were taken to the European Hospital.
A fisherman was reportedly injured by Israeli gunfire off the coast of Rafah, while Israeli soldiers blew up more residential homes in the northern areas of Rafah
An Israeli air strike hit one of Gaza’s few functioning hospitals, resulting in the death of a child according to the World Health Organisation, as Israel warned it would expand its offensive if Hamas does not release hostages, AFP reports.
Since the outbreak of the conflict, tens of thousands of Gazans have sought refuge in hospitals, many of which have suffered severe damage in the ongoing hostilities.
“A child died due to disruption of care” at the Al-Ahli Hospital in northern Gaza after a strike, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
“The emergency room, laboratory, emergency room X-ray machines and the pharmacy were destroyed,” he added. “The hospital was forced to move 50 patients to other hospitals. 40 critical patients couldn’t be moved.”
Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin has denounced Israel’s attack on Gaza’s Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, which forced the evacuation of dozens of wounded people and resulted in the death of a sick Palestinian child, according to Al Jazeera.
Martin wrote on X that he was “appalled by the missile strike on the Al-Ahli hospital, leaving northern Gaza critically short of emergency care”.
He described the attack as part of a “wider and deeper unacceptable development in modern warfare”.
“The wanton killing and targeting of civilians has to end.”
