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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
Gaza’s civil defence agency has said an Israeli strike on Gaza City killed at least four people and left “more than 30” feared buried under the rubble of a house.
“Our crews were able to recover four martyrs and five wounded following the attack,” which hit a family home in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood at dawn, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Bassal said that “more than 30” people are presumed missing under the rubble of the targeted house in Gaza City, in the territory’s north, and “our crews cannot reach them because of the lack of the necessary machinery”.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has condemned Israel’s more than seven week aid block on war-ravaged Gaza as “a man-made and politically motivated starvation”, AFP reports.
“The Government of Israel continues to block the entry of food + other basics,” Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X, hours after the World Food Programme said it had depleted its food stocks in Gaza.
“Nearly 2 months of siege. Calls to bring in supplies are going unheeded”, Lazzarini added.
The UN World Food Programme has warned that its food aid stocks are fully depleted in Gaza, where starvation looms as Israel continues a total blockade, according to Al Jazeera.
“To meet the basic needs of the population in Gaza, it is critical that we are able to resume food deliveries into Gaza immediately,” WFP’s Palestine country director Antoine Renard said in a post shared on social media.
WFP has more than 116,000 tonnes of food supplies already positioned and ready to enter Gaza through aid corridors, as soon as Israel reopens Gaza borders.
Michael Fakhri, the UN’s special rapporteur on the right to food, has spoken to Al Jazeera about Israel’s deliberate campaign to starve Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
“The United States is complicit in the genocide, in the starvation of civilians,” Fakhri told Al Jazeera.
“Let’s look at who controls the borders, who controls the flow of goods and humanitarian aid, who controls everything that goes in and out of Gaza. It is Israel,” he said.
“What we saw in the last month, one month alone, child acute malnutrition increased by over 80 per cent. So they are using children’s lives and the death of thousands in this negotiation process,” he said.
“Again, there is no condition, there is no political excuse to deny humanitarian aid to civilians, no matter what’s going on on the ground,” he added.
The Israeli army has said that a missile that was launched from Yemen was intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory, Reuters reports.
Sirens sounded in a number of areas in Israel following the launch, the Israeli army added in a statement.
There was no immediate comment from Yemen’s Houthis, who have been launching attacks against Israel as well as ships they perceive as affiliated with Israel, in what they say is to support the Palestinians in Gaza against the Israeli offensive on the enclave.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has urged Israel to allow the World Food Programme (WFP) to work in Gaza, saying food must not be used as a “political tool”, hours after the UN agency ran out of stocks due to a sustained Israeli blockade on supplies, Reuters reports.
“The UN World Food Programme just announced that its food stocks in Gaza have run out because of the Israeli Government’s blockade — food cannot be used as a political tool,” Carney said on X.
“Palestinian civilians must not bear the consequences of Hamas’ terrorist crimes,” Carney said. “The World Food Programme must be allowed to resume its lifesaving work.”
“We will continue to work with our allies towards a permanent ceasefire and the immediate return of all hostages,” Carney added.
The WFP said yesterday it had delivered its last remaining supplies to kitchens providing hot meals in Gaza and that the facilities were expected to run out of food in the coming days.
United States President Donald Trump says he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “we’ve got to be good to Gaza”, pressing him to allow food and medicine to enter the battered enclave.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, the US president was asked about whether access to food was brought up during a recent meeting with the Israeli PM.
“Gaza came up and I said ‘we’ve got to be good to Gaza’. Those people are suffering … we’re going to take care of that,” he replied. “There’s a very big need for food and medicine, and we’re taking care of it.”
When asked if the US is pushing Israel, Trump responded, “We are.”
He added that Netanyahu “thought a lot about” the request.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud hosted his French counterpart, Jean-Noel Barrot, holding discussions focused on several issues, including the situation in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.
“Regional and international issues of common interest were discussed, most notably the current situation in the Gaza Strip and the efforts being made for the conference to resolve the Palestinian issue and implement the two-state solution, scheduled to be held next June under the joint chairmanship of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the French Republic,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a post on X.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says “the situation is desperate” in Gaza as a result of Israel’s blockade, Al Jazeera reports.
“Humanitarian aid is being used as a bargaining chip and a weapon of war,” UNRWA said.
Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO network, has warned that community kitchens still operating in Gaza only have enough food to last them a few days.
“For 54 days, the borders were closed totally. Nothing entered,” Shawa told Al Jazeera from Gaza City.
“Now, we are in a collapse of the humanitarian system. Our capacity to respond to these huge needs became more limited day by day. We have no food — no milk, no eggs, no meat,” he explained.
Shawa called on the international community to take action “to pressure Israel to stop its war and at the same time, to open these crossings” to allow humanitarian supplies into the enclave.
The ministry in the enclave says 84 people killed and 168 injured were reported to Gaza’s hospitals in the last 24 hours, Al Jazeera reports.
The toll includes the bodies of six people killed in the previous days but recovered today.
The death toll from Israeli attacks since October 7, 2023 has risen to 51,439, with 117,416 injured, a statement on Telegram added.
The UN’s World Food Programme warns that it has depleted all its food stocks in Gaza, where the entry of all humanitarian aid has been blocked by Israel since March 2, AFP reports.
“Today, WFP delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meals kitchens in the Gaza Strip. These kitchens are expected to fully run out of food in the coming days”, WFP said in a statement.
The UN human rights office says Israel’s attacks on Palestinians have accelerated since the collapse of the Gaza ceasefire in March and during the past week in particular, Al Jazeera reports.
A statement by the agency stressed that attacks killed countless civilians and further risked the destruction of what little infrastructure remains in the enclave. It issued a reminder that Israel’s complete closure of Gaza, preventing lifesaving assistance from reaching civilians, including food and fuel, has entered its eighth week.
“Persistent Israeli military attacks on civilians and civilian objects have continued throughout Gaza in violation of the core principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack required by international humanitarian law,” the agency stressed.
It added: “Extremely high civilian casualties over 18 months do not appear to have prompted any changes in Israeli targeting practices and policies, a pattern indicating at the very least a complete disregard for the lives of civilians in Gaza.”
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says the multiple forced displacement orders issued by the Israeli military have left Palestinians “with less than a third of Gaza’s area to live in”, Al Jazeera reports.
“That remaining space is fragmented, unsafe, and barely liveable,” a statement on X said.
It added: “Overcrowded shelters are in a terrible condition, service providers are struggling to operate, and the last resources are being depleted.”
A child has succumbed to their wounds after an Israeli attack on a tent housing displaced people in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, Al Jazeera reports.
Since Israel restarted its attacks in March, it has issued several forced evacuation orders to Palestinians, calling on them to move to the al-Mawasi area, which the army has routinely targeted.
Gaza’s government media office says famine is spreading in the enclave, with “more than a million children at risk”, Al Jazeera reports.
“Vital sectors in Gaza are collapsing amid a stifling blockade and shameful international silence. We warn that the humanitarian catastrophe will continue to worsen at a frightening rate as the occupation continues to close the crossings,” the office said.
It added that famine has become a “reality” with at least 52 deaths, including 50 children, due to hunger and malnutrition.
Spain’s government has halted a controversial $7.5 million deal to buy ammunition from Israel, following criticism from far-left allies within the governing minority coalition.
The country’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, intervened to cancel the deal after Sumar, a group of left-wing parties, threatened to pull out of the governing coalition.
“After exhausting all routes for negotiation, the prime minister, deputy prime minister and ministries involved have decided to rescind this contract with the Israeli company IMI Systems,” a government source, who did not want to be named according to Spanish government practice, told Al Jazeera.
Read more here.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has condemned Israel’s attacks on Gaza’s refugee camps and displacement shelters amid its ongoing blockade of aid deliveries into the enclave, calling it a “concrete example of a war crime and a crime against humanity”, Al Jazeera reports.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ismail Baghaei also criticised the United Nations Security Council for its “inaction” and called the US and some European countries that supply Israel with weapons “accomplices”, according to a statement the Foreign Ministry posted on X.
“The Foreign Ministry spokesman stressed that the continued impunity of the Zionist regime and the continued killing of defenceless people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and the occupation of parts of Lebanon and Syria, severely threaten peace and security in the West Asian region,” the statement read.
It added that “serious measures” must be taken to prevent the “spread of insecurity and confront the expansionism of the apartheid regime”.
Gaza’s civil defence agency has reported that the death toll from an Israeli air strike the day before on a house in the north of the Palestinian territory had risen to 23.
“Civil defence teams recovered 11 bodies last night and this morning following the Israeli bombing that targeted a residential house … in Jabalia.”
“This is in addition to the 12 victims recovered at the time of the attack yesterday,” Mohammad al-Mughayyir, an official with the agency, told AFP.
Five members of the same family were killed when Israeli forces bombed their tent shelter in the Al-Mawasi area to the west of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Wafa reports.
According to Wafa correspondent, the airstrike targeted the tent of the Abu Taimah family, killing a man, his pregnant wife, and their three children.
Additionally, a 3-year-old child died from severe burns following a fire that broke out in a separate tent in the same area.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said that approximately half a million people have been newly displaced in the Gaza Strip over the past month due to repeated evacuation orders issued by Israeli forces, Wafa reports.
In a statement shared on X, UNRWA said the latest waves of displacement have confined Palestinians to less than one-third of Gaza’s original territory. The remaining areas, according to the agency, are “fragmented, unsafe, and barely livable”.
UNRWA stressed the dire humanitarian conditions in overcrowded shelters, describing the situation as catastrophic. It said service providers are struggling to operate amid a near-total depletion of available resources, the agency added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered condolences on behalf of Israel following the death of Pope Francis, AFP reports.
“The State of Israel expresses its deepest condolences to the Catholic Church and the Catholic community worldwide at the passing of Pope Francis. May he rest in peace,” Netanyahu’s office posted on X late Thursday.
It was Netanyahu’s first statement since the announcement of the pope’s death on Monday.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whose role is largely ceremonial, was among the first world dignitaries to respond to the Pope’s death, praising him as “a man of deep faith and boundless compassion”.
Israel’s forcible displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank is rising, the UN warns, with 14 more families ordered to leave Tulkarem city while tens of thousands are being prevented by the military from returning to their homes in the Jenin and Tulkarem refugee camps, Al Jazeera reports.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) also reports in its latest situation update that Israeli settler violence and home demolitions displaced seven families in Ramallah.
A Palestinian man suffered a fatal heart attack triggered by tear gas deployed by Israeli troops during an attack by settlers on a Palestinian village earlier this week that was aided by the Israeli soldiers.
In another settler attack, six Palestinians were injured include one who was shot and later had to have their leg amputated.
Between April 15 and 21, six Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces, including one child, in the occupied West Bank. Over the same period, two Palestinians died in Israeli custody in what the UN called “unclear circumstances”.
