Summary of the day so far
Here are all the key developments in the Middle East crisis from the past few hours:
The Israeli military said Friday that it dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others for their roles in drone strikes in Gaza that killed seven aid workers on a food-delivery mission, saying they had mishandled critical information and violated the army’s rules of engagement.
The UN Human Rights Council has demanded a halt in all arms sales to Israel, highlighting warnings of “genocide” in its war in Gaza, which has killed more than 33,000 people.
The United States was looking into a media report that the Israeli military has been using artificial intelligence to help identify bombing targets in Gaza, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told CNN in an interview on Thursday.
The World Central Kitchen (WCK) on Friday said the IDF deployed deadly force without regard to its own protocols, chain of command and rules of engagement, and has called for an independent commission to investigate the killing of 7 aid workers.
The Guardian has revealed the identity of the commander of Israel’s Unit 8200, which is a closely guarded secret. He occupies one of the most sensitive roles in the military, leading one of the world’s most powerful surveillance agencies, comparable to the US National Security Agency. Yet after spending more than two decades operating in the shadows, the controversial spy chief – whose name is Yossi Sariel – has left his identity exposed online.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he sincerely hopes Israel quickly and effectively boosts aid access to the Gaza Strip, describing the situation in the Palestinian enclave after six months of war as “absolutely desperate.” He was “deeply troubled” by reports that the Israeli military has been using artificial intelligence to help identify bombing targets in Gaza.
Poland’s deputy foreign minister handed a diplomatic note on Friday to Israel’s ambassador protesting the killing of a Polish aid worker in an attack earlier this week on a convoy of aid workers in Gaza.
AP reports:
After the meeting, Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Szejna told reporters in Warsaw that he handed the protest note to Ambassador Yacov Livne after he was summoned because of the deaths of the World Central Kitchen workers.
Szejna described the Polish stance during the meeting as “firm.”
At the beginning, the ambassador apologised for this unprecedented event in the history of the civilised world, that is the bombing of a car in a humanitarian convoy heading with humanitarian aid to the famine-affected Gaza Strip.
Livne said on social media that during the meeting he expressed his “personal deep sorrow and sincere apologies” for the deaths of the World Central Kitchen workers, including Polish citizen Damian Soból.
Livne said:
We share in the grief of the families from the bottom of our hearts. I assured the Deputy Minister that Israel is fully committed to a transparent and thorough investigation of this grave tragedy
He said findings from the Israeli military published Friday “show our ongoing commitment to investigate what had happened in Gaza and take all appropriate measures to prevent such tragedies in the future.”
The Israeli military said Friday that it dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others for their roles in drone strikes in Gaza that killed seven aid workers on a food-delivery mission, saying they had mishandled critical information and violated the army’s rules of engagement.
Szejna, who spoke to reporters before the dismissals were reported, said Poland expected a transparent investigation and compensation for the victim’s family if it wants it.
He also said Poland wants the district prosecutor’s office in Przemyśl, where the Polish aid worker was from, to be allowed to participate in the investigation “and in the entire criminal and disciplinary procedure against the soldiers responsible for this murder.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said he sincerely hopes Israel quickly and effectively boosts aid access to the Gaza Strip, describing the situation in the Palestinian enclave after six months of war as “absolutely desperate.”
Guterres told reporters:
When the gates to aid are closed, the doors to starvation are opened. More than half the population – over a million people – are facing catastrophic hunger. Children in Gaza today are dying for lack of food and water.
This is incomprehensible, and entirely avoidable. Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
The Israeli government has acknowledged mistakes. But the essential problem is not who made the mistakes, it is the military strategy and procedures in place that allow for those mistakes to multiply time and time again.
Fixing those failures requires independent investigations and meaningful and measurable changes on the ground.
196 humanitarian workers have been killed and we want to know why each one of them was killed.
Guterres also said he was “deeply troubled” by reports that the Israeli military has been using artificial intelligence to help identify bombing targets in Gaza. The Israeli military denies AI was used to identify suspected extremists and targets.
Updated
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that the US is carefully reviewing Israel’s inquiry into the strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers this week, adding that Washington will be looking very carefully at what steps Israel is taking.
He told reporters in Brussels:
It’s very important that Israel is taking full responsibility for this incident. It’s also important that it appears to be taking steps to hold those responsible accountable. Even more important is that steps are being taken going forward to ensure that something like this can never happen again.
Guardian uncovers identity of secret top Israel military commander
The identity of the commander of Israel’s Unit 8200 is a closely guarded secret. He occupies one of the most sensitive roles in the military, leading one of the world’s most powerful surveillance agencies, comparable to the US National Security Agency.
Yet after spending more than two decades operating in the shadows, Guardian reporters Harry Davies and Bethan McKernan can reveal how the controversial spy chief – whose name is Yossi Sariel – has left his identity exposed online.
The embarrassing security lapse is linked to a book he published on Amazon, which left a digital trail to a private Google account created in his name, along with his unique ID and links to the account’s maps and calendar profiles.
The Guardian has confirmed with multiple sources that Sariel is the secret author of The Human Machine Team, a book in which he offers a radical vision for how artificial intelligence can transform the relationship between military personnel and machines.
The full story is here:
Updated
Our US blog is covering the pressure on President Joe Biden to suspend weapons transfers to Israel.
US live politics blogger Chris Stein writes:
The fallout from Israel’s killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers is continuing, with several of Joe Biden’s top Senate allies pressuring him for a decisive change in course on supporting its invasion of Gaza.
In an interview with Politico, Chris Van Hollen demanded the Biden administration suspend weapons transfers if Israel does not better protect civilians, while Elizabeth Warren called for the planned sale of F-15 fighter jets to the country to be canceled.
Citing reports of famine in Gaza, independent senator Bernie Sanders, said yesterday “Israel should not be getting another nickel in military aid until these policies are fundamentally changed.” The mounting opposition could further complicate Congress’s approval of military aid package for Israel, Ukraine and other US allies, which has been deadlocked for months.
The two issues will intersect this afternoon, when Biden visits the site of the collapse Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore. Van Hollen, who represents Maryland and will attend the event, says he plans to bring up his concerns over his policies towards Israel when he sees the president.
You can follow everything as it happens here:
One of the hostages seized by Hamas gunmen during their attack on Israeli communities around Gaza on 7 October was probably killed by an Israeli helicopter gunship that was responding to the attack, the military said on Friday.
Reuters reports:
For several weeks, the military has been investigating reports that some of the 1,200 Israelis and foreign victims of the attack were killed by friendly fire during the chaos, in which more than 250 people were abducted as hostages.
It said an inquiry into the events around the kidnapping of Efrat Katz, a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the communities targeted by the attack, examined a variety of video evidence and testimony of witnesses.
It said the evidence showed that one of the helicopter gunships fired at a vehicle in which gunmen were travelling and which the evidence also suggested had hostages in it.
It said in a statement:
As a result of the fire, most of the terrorists manning the vehicle were killed, and most likely, Efrat Katz ... was killed as well.
The commander of the air force did not find fault in the operation by the helicopter crew, who operated in compliance with the orders in a complex reality of war
It said the investigation showed that the hostages could not be distinguished by existing surveillance systems.
Israeli military dismisses two officers over Gaza drone strikes
The Israeli military said Friday that it dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others for their roles in drone strikes in Gaza that killed seven aid workers on a food-delivery mission, saying they had mishandled critical information and violated the army’s rules of engagement.
AP reports:
The findings of a retired general’s investigation into the Monday killings marked an embarrassing admission by Israel, which faces growing accusations from key allies, including the US, of not doing enough to protect Gaza’s civilians from its war with Hamas.
The findings are likely to bolster widespread scepticism over the Israeli military’s decision-making. Palestinians, aid groups and human rights organisations have repeatedly accused Israeli forces of firing recklessly at civilians throughout the conflict — a charge Israel denies.
With pressure mounting on Israel to hold itself accountable, Hagari and other officials late Thursday shared with reporters the results of the investigation.
The speed of the probe and the swift punishment of five senior officers were extremely unusual. Such investigations are often slow and in most cases end without charges being filed. Human rights activists have long complained that Israeli forces operate in a climate of impunity, an allegation the military rejects.
The military’s spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, told reporters:
It’s a tragedy.
It’s a serious event that we are responsible for and it shouldn’t have happened and we will make sure that it won’t happen again.
An Israeli military commission of inquiry has blamed a series of “grave errors” by military personnel, including lack of coordination and misidentification, for its killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza drone strikes, the Guardian’s foreign correspondent Peter Beaumont writes.
The Israel Defense Forces said they had dismissed a brigade chief of staff with the rank of colonel and a brigade fire support officer with the rank of major and issued formal reprimands to senior officers, including the general at the head of the southern command.
The findings are likely to renew scepticism over the military’s decision-making. Palestinians, aid groups and human rights organisations have repeatedly accused Israeli forces of firing recklessly at civilians throughout the conflict – a charge Israel denies.
The WCK founder, José Andrés, said:
The IDF cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza. It’s not enough to simply try to avoid further humanitarian deaths, which have now approached close to 200. All civilians need to be protected, and all innocent people in Gaza need to be fed and safe. And all hostages must be released.
UN Human Rights Council demands halt to arms sales to Israel
The UN Human Rights Council has demanded a halt in all arms sales to Israel, highlighting warnings of “genocide” in its war in Gaza, which has killed more than 33,000 people.
AFP reports:
The resolution - which passed with 28 of the council’s 47 member states voting in favour, six opposed and 13 abstaining - marked the first time the United Nations’ top rights body has taken a position on the bloodiest-ever war in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, denounced the resolution as “a stain for the Human Rights Council and for the UN as a whole”.
The strongly worded text called on countries to “cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel... to prevent further violations of international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of human rights”.
It noted that the International Court of Justice ruled in January “that there is a plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza.
Friday’s resolution, which was brought forward by Pakistan on behalf of all Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states except Albania, also called for “an immediate ceasefire” and “for immediate emergency humanitarian access and assistance”.
The United States, Israel’s key ally, heeded its call to vote no, as did Germany, Argentina, Bulgaria, Malawi and Paraguay.
US ambassador Michele Taylor nonetheless voiced unusually strong criticism of Israel, saying it “has not done enough to mitigate civilian harm”.
But she said Washington could not support the text because of its “many problematic elements”, including failing to specifically condemn Hamas and its 7 October attacks.
While the rights council resolution did not name Hamas, it did condemn the firing of rockets at Israeli civilian areas and demanded “the immediate release of all remaining hostages”.
But the main focus was on Israel, with the text demanding that it end its occupation of all Palestinian territories, lift its blockade of Gaza, and end “all other forms of collective punishment”.
The text also expressed “grave concern at statements by Israeli officials amounting to incitement to genocide” and urged countries to “prevent the continued forcible transfer of Palestinians within and from Gaza”.
It warned in particular “against any large-scale military operations in the city of Rafah” in the south of the densely populated Gaza Strip, where well over one million civilians are sheltering.
The resolution also condemned “the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in Gaza”, where the UN has warned that famine is looming.
Two other resolutions targeting Israel also overwhelmingly passed at the rights council Friday.
One demanded a halt to Israeli settlements, calling on countries to do more to counter settler violence against Palestinians, including through sanctions, and on businesses to terminate activities in or with the settlements.
The other deplored Israel’s occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights and its “settlement policies and practices” there, in violation of the rights of Syrian inhabitants.
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, has become the latest senior party figure to urge an immediate ban on UK arms sales to Israel, as ministers face pressure to disclose the government’s official legal advice on the trade.
Sarwar told BBC Scotland that Israel had “clearly” breached international law in Gaza and that UK arms sales should be halted immediately.
On Thursday Sadiq Khan, the London mayor and the party’s other senior Muslim figure, made the same call.
Labour’s official policy is to await information on the legal advice provided to ministers and to only push for an end to arms sales if this says continued weapons sales could risk the UK breaching international law.
In March, David Cameron, the foreign secretary, said information about the advice would be published within days, but ministers have since backtracked and are refusing to say if and when this might happen.
These are the latest images coming across the wires from Gaza:
The US looking at report that Israel used AI to identify bombing targets in Gaza
The United States was looking into a media report that the Israeli military has been using artificial intelligence to help identify bombing targets in Gaza, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told CNN in an interview on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the Guardian reported on the Israeli military’s use of the AI system Lavender which at one stage identified 37,000 potential targets based on their apparent links to Hamas, according to intelligence sources involved in the war.
Intelligence sources told the Guardian that Israeli military officials permitted large numbers of Palestinian civilians to be killed, particularly during the early weeks and months of the conflict.
The report in +972 Magazine and Local Call was also published on Wednesday.
The IDF, in statements to the media on Thursday, denied that AI was used to identify suspected extremists and targets.
The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that the measures the Israeli government has announced to expand the flow of aid into Gaza are welcome but may not be enough to meet the Biden administration’s demands for dramatic improvements in humanitarian conditions in the territory.
Blinken said that opening more border crossings, if fully implemented, has the potential to surge assistance to Palestinians caught in the fighting between Israel and Hamas. However, the US also wants to see tangible steps to bolster the protection of civilians and aid workers, he said.
In addition, he called for an “independent, thorough and fully publicized investigation” into the recent killings of aid workers. Seven employees of the charity World Central Kitchen, including six international volunteers, were killed in multiple Israeli airstrikes on their three-car convoy in Gaza late Monday.
“We welcome that steps that have been announced by Israel,” Blinken said. “These are positive developments but the real test is results and that’s what we’re looking to see in the coming days and the coming weeks.”
At the same time, he said the U.S. wanted to see a “better system for de-confliction and coordination” so that aid can be safely delivered and distributed inside Gaza.
“All of these things are critical and that really needs to be measured by results,” Blinken told reporters in the town of Leuven, outside Brussels, where he was meeting with U.S. and European trade and commerce officials.
Updated
World Central Kitchen says without 'systemic change' there will be more military failures
The World Central Kitchen (WCK) on Friday said the IDF deployed deadly force without regard to its own protocols, chain of command and rules of engagement, and has called for an independent commission to investigate the killing of 7 aid workers.
The Israeli military said that it has dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others for their roles in drone strikes in Gaza that killed seven aid workers on a food-delivery mission, saying they had mishandled critical information and violated the army’s rules of engagement.
“Without systemic change, there will be more military failures, more apologies and more grieving families,” WCK said, calling the IDF’s disciplinary action against those involved and accepting responsibility “important steps forward”.
“We demand the creation of an independent commission to investigate the killings of our WCK colleagues. The IDF cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza.”
WCK said the IDF acknowledged the organisations’ teams followed proper communications procedures, and said the IDF’s video footage “fails to show any cause to fire on our personnel convoy, which carried no weapons and posed no threat.”
The investigation into Monday’s killings found officers failed to read messages alerting troops that cars, not aid trucks, would carry workers from the charity away from the warehouse where aid was distributed. As a result, the cars that were targeted were misidentified as transporting militants.
The army also faulted a major who identified the strike target and a colonel who approved the strike for acting with insufficient information. The army said the order was given after one of the passengers inside a car was identified as a gunman.
The aid workers were three British citizens, a Polish citizen, an Australian and a Canadian American dual citizen. Their Palestinian driver also was killed.
WCK founder José Andrés said:
It’s not enough to simply try to avoid further humanitarian deaths, which have now approached close to 200. All civilians need to be protected, and all innocent people in Gaza need to be fed and safe. And all hostages must be released.
Updated
José Andrés: the chef behind Gaza food aid charity who ‘moves towards disaster’ to help the hungry
When José Andrés accepted the challenge of delivering food aid to a famine-threatened Gaza last month, he declared – without a trace of overstatement – that he was “working with the urgency of now”.
“It’s worth trying. We have to try. If we succeed, everybody is helped,” the celebrity chef turned aid supremo said of his plan to use his non-profit World Central Kitchen (WCK) to help avert the looming humanitarian disaster.
On display was the same irrepressible can-do spirit that had enabled the Spanish-born Andrés, now a US citizen, to bring food relief to citizens stricken by natural disaster or war in numerous far-flung locations, from Haiti to Ukraine.
The killing of the aid workers, all of whom worked for World Central Kitchen, were condemned by Israel’s closest allies and renewed criticism of Israel’s conduct in the nearly 6-month-old war with Hamas.
The aid workers were three British citizens, a Polish citizen, an Australian and a Canadian American dual citizen. Their Palestinian driver also was killed.
The investigation into Monday’s killings found two major areas of wrongdoing.
It faulted officers for failing to read messages alerting troops that cars, not aid trucks, would carry workers from the charity away from the warehouse where aid was distributed. As a result, the cars that were targeted were misidentified as transporting militants.
The army also faulted a major who identified the strike target and a colonel who approved the strike for acting with insufficient information.
The army said the order was given after one of the passengers inside a car was identified as a gunman. It said troops became suspicious because a gunman had been seen on the roof of one of the delivery trucks on the way to the warehouse. The army showed reporters footage of the gunman firing his weapon while riding atop one of the trucks.
After the aid was dropped off at a warehouse, an officer believed he had spotted a gunman in one of the cars. The passenger, it turned out, was not carrying a weapon – the military said its possible he was just carrying a bag.
The army said it initially hit one car. As people scrambled away into a second car, it hit that vehicle as well. It did the same thing when survivors scrambled into a third car. Army officials claimed that drone operators could not see that the cars were marked with the words “World Central Kitchen” because it was nighttime.
The army could not say exactly where the communication about the convoy’s plans had broken down.
The army declined to answer questions about whether similar violations of rules of engagement have taken place during the war – in which Palestinians, aid workers and international rights groups have repeatedly accused the army of recklessly striking civilians.
The investigation was headed by Yoav Har-Even, a retired general.
The seven who were killed were distributing food that had been brought into Gaza through a newly established maritime corridor. World Central Kitchen said it had coordinated its movements with the military, and that the vehicles were marked with the organization’s logo.
“It was a direct attack on clearly marked vehicles whose movements were known by” the Israeli military, Andrés said on Wednesday.
More than 220 humanitarian workers have been killed in the conflict, according to the U.N.
“Let’s be very clear. This is tragic, but it is not an anomaly,” Scott Paul, of the humanitarian group Oxfam, said Thursday in a briefing with other relief organizations before the results of Israel’s investigation were released. “The killing of aid workers in Gaza has been systemic.”
Updated
Israel military sacks two senior officers over killing of aid workers and says strikes were a tragedy
The Israeli military said on Friday that it has dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others for their roles in drone strikes in Gaza that killed seven aid workers on a food-delivery mission, saying they had mishandled critical information and violated the army’s rules of engagement.
The findings of a retired general’s investigation into the Monday killings marked an embarrassing admission by Israel, which faces growing accusations from key allies, including the US, of not doing enough to protect Gaza’s civilians from its war with Hamas, AP reports.
The findings are likely to renew scepticism over the Israeli military’s decision-making. Palestinians, aid groups and human rights organisations have repeatedly accused Israeli forces of firing recklessly at civilians throughout the conflict — a charge Israel denies.
“It’s a tragedy,” the military’s spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, told reporters. “It’s a serious event that we are responsible for and it shouldn’t have happened and we will make sure that it won’t happen again.”
With pressure mounting on Israel to hold itself accountable, Hagari and other officials late Thursday shared with reporters the results of the military’s uncommonly speedy and detailed investigation.
It was unclear whether the punishments and the apology would calm an international outcry over the deaths of the World Central Kitchen workers or reassure international aid groups that it was safe to resume operations in Gaza, where nearly a third of the population is on the brink of starvation.
According to what spokespeople said were the Israeli army’s rules, targets must be visually identified as threats for multiple reasons before they can be hit. But the investigation determined that a colonel had authorized the series of deadly drone strikes on the convoy based on one major’s observation — from grainy drone-camera footage — that someone in the convoy was armed. That observation turned out to be untrue, military officials said.
The army said the colonel and the major were dismissed, while three other officers were reprimanded. It said the results of its investigation were turned over to the military’s advocate general, who will decide whether the officers or anyone else involved in the killings should receive further punishment or be prosecuted.
Updated
Turkish authorities, who have denounced Israel for its war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, have arrested two people suspected of spying for Israeli intelligence, interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Friday.
Since January, Turkish authorities have detained or arrested and charged dozens of people suspected of having ties to Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, Reuters reports. Six people were charged last month.
Turkish and Israeli leaders have traded public barbs since Israel’s war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas began in October. Turkey has warned Israel of “serious consequences” if it tries to hunt down Hamas members living outside the Palestinian territories, including in Turkey.
In a post on social media platform X, Yerlikaya said police had detained eight people believed to be collecting and selling information to Mossad about targeted individuals and companies in Turkey. Of those, two had been arrested and six released on parole, he said.
“We will never allow espionage activities that are carried out within our country’s borders against our people’s national unity and solidarity. We are in pursuit,” he said.
A Turkish security official said the raids, carried out in Istanbul, targeted a Turkish private detective and his wife, who were believed to have been involved with Mossad from 2011-2020.
The official said the detective had previously met Mossad members in Austria, Switzerland and Germany and used private communication channels to keep in touch with them.
The detective “earned significant income” from this and formed a network of nine people, the official said. Members of the network had confessed and the detective and his wife had been arrested, the person added.
There was no immediate comment from Israel.
A Turkish court in January ordered the arrest of 15 people and the deportation of eight suspected of having links to Mossad and targeting Palestinians living in Turkey.
Poland’s deputy foreign minister said on Friday that the Israeli ambassador to Poland apologised after an Israeli air strike killed a Polish aid worker in Gaza this week.
Israeli ambassador Yacov Livne would not be expelled from Poland, the deputy Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Szejna said.
On Friday a German foreign ministry spokesperson said attacks that killed seven food aid workers of the World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity group in Gaza “cast a bad light on the conduct of the Israeli army”.
Summary
Welcome to our latest live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and wider Middle East crisis. Here’s a snapshot of all the key developments so far.
Israel has approved the reopening of the Erez crossing into northern Gaza and the temporary use of Israel’s Ashdod port to increase humanitarian aid supplies into Gaza, a statement from the prime minister’s office said early on Friday.
It also approved expanded entry of aid from Jordan through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
The US secretary of state Antony Blinken has welcomed the steps announced by Israel on humanitarian aid to Gaza, but said “the real test is results”.
In other developments:
Since 7 October, 33,091 Palestinians have been killed and 75,750 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry on Friday. It was not possible to independently verify the figures.
The United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday adopted a resolution calling for Israel to be held accountable for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Gaza Strip. Twenty-eight countries voted in favour, 13 abstained and six voted against the resolution.
Iran held a funeral on Friday for seven officers killed in a suspected Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy compound in Syria this week, an unprecedented attack for which Tehran has vowed to take revenge.
The findings of an investigation into the aid worker killings may come in “the next few days”, an Israeli spokesperson suggested to the BBC, after officials signalled earlier that it could take weeks. WCK has called for an “independent, third-party investigation” into the Israeli strikes and asked Australia, Canada, Poland, the US and the UK – whose citizens were killed – to join them in demanding the inquiry.
A fourth former supreme court justice has put his name to a letter warning the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, that the UK is breaching international law by continuing to arm Israel, as the number of legal experts signing the letter rose to more than 750. Lord Carnwath joins Lady Hale, who was president of the UK’s highest court, and lords Sumption and Wilson in urging ministers to act to prevent the “plausible risk” of genocide in Gaza.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also said it again attacked what it described as “terrorist infrastructure” in Lebanon. It identified launches “crossing from Lebanon toward the areas of Betzet and Shlomi in northern Israel” and struck the sources of the fire, it said. As well, “IDF fighter jets struck terrorist infrastructure in the areas of Yaroun, Aynata, and Maroun El Ras”.
US forces destroyed an anti-ship missile in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen on Thursday, US central command said on Friday, adding there were no injuries or damage reported by US, coalition or commercial ships.
Israeli media reported a step up in GPS jamming inside the country, believed to be a preparation for a potential attack from Iran, which has vowed revenge after an airstrike on its consulate in Damascus killed several senior military commanders.
Former US president Donald Trump urged Israel in its war with Hamas to “get it over with fast”. In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Trump said Israel was “absolutely losing the PR war” and called for a swift resolution to the bloodshed. “Let’s get back to peace and stop killing people.”
A political row has developed in Israel over plans to allow members of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community, the Haredim, to be conscripted, ending a longstanding religious exemption from military service. Supporters of both sides of the argument are threatening to walk out of Netanyahu’s wartime national coalition if they do not get their way.
Here are the latest images coming across the wires from Gaza:
It is devastating that it took six months and the killing of six western aid workers for a tipping point to be reached for Israel to change course over the supply of international humanitarian aid, the chair of the UK foreign affairs committee has said.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Alicia Kearns said the government must suspend arms sales to Israel and claimed ministers were no longer saying that Israel was complying with international humanitarian law, merely that it had the capacity to do so.
“I believe we have no choice but to suspend arms sales and it is important that the public understands this is not a political decision as some people want to present it as,” she said.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, has said Israeli air strikes have turned southern Lebanon into a “devastated agricultural area”.
Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah have been trading fire across Israel’s northern border since war erupted in Gaza, with Hezbollah firing rockets and Israel launching air strikes and artillery shells.
The Israeli strikes have burned tens of thousands of olive trees and torched farmland across southern Lebanon, hurting herders and farmers already suffering from a deep economic crisis that has made it even more important for Lebanon to produce its own food.
“Eight hundred hectares have been completely damaged, 340,000 heads of livestock have died, and about 75% of farmers have lost their final source of income,” Lebanon’s National News Agency quoted Mikati as saying.
“This problem will extend to the coming years.”
Agriculture Minister Abbas Hajj Hassan sounded the alarm last month, saying the Israeli strikes were preventing farmers in villages and towns near the border reaching their fields, affecting up to 30% of Lebanon’s agricultural output.
UN rights body adopts resolution for Israel to be held accountable for possible war crimes in Gaza
The United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday adopted a resolution calling for Israel to be held accountable for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Gaza Strip.
Twenty-eight countries voted in favour, 13 abstained and six voted against the resolution.
#HRC55 | Draft resolution A/HRC/55/L.30 on the Human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the obligation to ensure accountability and justice was ADOPTED. pic.twitter.com/URttz9IFjv
— United Nations Human Rights Council | #HRC55 (@UN_HRC) April 5, 2024
The resolution stressed “the need to ensure accountability for all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in order to end impunity”.
It also expressed “grave concern at reports of serious human rights violations and grave breaches of international humanitarian law, including of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.
Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, accused the Council of having “long abandoned the Israeli people and long defended Hamas”.
“According to the resolution before you today, Israel has no right to protect its people, while Hamas has every right to murder and torture innocent Israelis,” she said ahead of the vote. “A vote ‘Yes’ is a vote for Hamas.”
The United States had pledged to vote against the resolution because it did not contain a specific condemnation of Hamas for the Oct. 7 attacks, nor “any reference to the terrorist nature of those actions”.
It did, however, said that its ally Israel had not done enough to mitigate harm to civilians.
“The United States has repeatedly urged Israel to de-conflict military operations against Hamas with humanitarian operations, in order to avoid civilian casualties and to ensure humanitarian actors can carry out their essential mission in safety,” said Michèle Taylor, U.S. permanent representative to the Council.
“That has not happened and, in just six months, more humanitarians have been killed in this conflict than in any war of the modern era.”
The U.N. Human Rights Council, which meets several times a year, is the only intergovernmental body designed to protect human rights worldwide. It can increase scrutiny of countries’ human rights records and authorise investigations.
Updated
Real test to Isreal's plans to increase humanitarian flow to Gaza 'is results', Antony Blinken says
The US secretary of state Antony Blinken has welcomed the steps announced by Israel on humanitarian aid to Gaza, but said “the real test is results”.
The statements come after Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has said his security cabinet has approved a series of steps to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, including the temporary reopening of a key crossing that was destroyed in the 7 October Hamas attack.
The announcement was made hours after a warning from US president Joe Biden that future US support for Israel would depend on it taking concrete action to protect civilians and aid workers.
Blinken also said the US will look at the number of trucks entering and getting around Gaza, and will also look at indictators of potential famine to see if they reverse, according to Reuters.
“These are positive developments but the real test is results,” Blinken said.
Since 7 October, 33,091 Palestinians have been killed and 75,750 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry on Friday.
Updated
UN Human Rights Council debating ban on arms sales to Israel
The UN Human Rights Council was on Friday debating whether to demand a halt in arms sales to Israel, whose war in Gaza has killed more than 33,000 people, mostly civilians.
The draft text calls on countries to “cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel”. This, it said, is needed among other things “to prevent further violations of international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of human rights”.
It stresses that the International Court of Justice ruled in January “that there is a plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza, AFP reports.
If the text is adopted, it would mark the first time that the United Nations’ top rights body has taken a position on the bloodiest-ever war to beset the besieged Palestinian territory.
Friday’s draft resolution, which was brought forward by Pakistan on behalf of all Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states except Albania, calls for “an immediate ceasefire” and “for immediate emergency humanitarian access and assistance”.
It comes after the UN Security Council in New York last week also finally passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire - thanks to an abstention from Washington, Israel’s closest ally and largest arms supplier.
The rights council draft resolution does not name Hamas but it does condemn the firing of rockets at Israeli civilian areas and demands “the immediate release of all remaining hostages”.
It demands that Israel end its occupation of all Palestinian territories and “immediately lift its blockade on the Gaza Strip and all other forms of collective punishment”.
The text, which was revised late on Thursday removing several references to genocide, continues to express “grave concern at statements by Israeli officials amounting to incitement to genocide”. And it urges countries to “prevent the continued forcible transfer of Palestinians within and from Gaza”.
It warns in particular “against any large-scale military operations in the city of Rafah” in the south of the densely populated Gaza Strip, where well over one million civilians are sheltering, warning of “devastating humanitarian consequences”.
The draft resolution also condemns “the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in Gaza”, where the UN has warned that famine is looming.
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Iran held a funeral on Friday for seven officers killed in a suspected Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy compound in Syria this week, an unprecedented attack for which Tehran has vowed to take revenge.
The funeral coincided with the annual Quds (Jerusalem) Day, during which Iran stages large state-sponsored pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel rallies nationwide. State television showed demonstrators carrying pictures of those killed and banners with slogans such as “Death to Israel” and “Death to America”, Reuters reports.
The leader of Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, Ziad al-Nakhala, took part in the rally in Tehran, Iranian media reported.
Among those killed in Monday’s airstrike on the Iranian embassy compound in the Syrian capital Damascus was one of Iran’s top soldiers, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC).
It was the boldest, and deadliest, in a series of attacks that have killed Iranian officials in Syria since December.
Iran vowed harsh retaliation, raising the spectre of a wider war and prompting the Israeli armed forces to suspend leave for all combat units on Thursday, a day after they said they were mobilising more troops for air defence units.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday his country would harm “whoever harms us or plans to harm us”.
The coffins of two of the killed officers were displayed in the capital, Tehran, to religious mourning chants. Some of those present waved the Palestinian flag. All seven officers were expected to be buried later on Friday.
Iran’s Jerusalem Day rallies are held annually on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in support of Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state in territories captured by Israel in a 1967 war.
Should the UK stop arming Israel?
The killing of six international aid workers and their Palestinian driver this week has brought new scrutiny of Israel’s conduct in its war in Gaza. Peter Beaumont and Patrick Wintour examine the growing backlash on Today in Focus.
They had told the Israelis they were there. Travelling along a coastal road in Gaza, six aid workers – from the UK, Poland, Australia and Canada – and their Palestinian driver. They had just unloaded more than 100 tonnes of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza for the millions of people at risk of famine when suddenly a drone appeared above them and struck not once but three times. There were no survivors.
As Peter Beaumont tells Michael Safi, the strikes on the team from the aid organisation World Central Kitchen have done what 33,000 Palestinians deaths apparently could not and outraged leaders in the UK and around the world. Israel says these strikes were an error, a tragedy, to be independently investigated.
As the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, explains, the mood at the highest level in the UK has noticeably shifted. Now there is an open debate among senior figures in the legal profession and at the top of politics about whether Britain should continue to arm Israel. Polling of the public suggests more than half of people believe it should stop.
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Israel announces it will allow 'temporary' aid deliveries into northern Gaza
Israel announced on Friday that it would allow “temporary” aid deliveries into famine-threatened northern Gaza, hours after the United States warned of a sharp shift in its policy over Israel’s war against Hamas militants.
In a tense, 30-minute phone call on Thursday, US President Joe Biden told prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that US policy on Israel was dependent on the protection of civilians and aid workers in Gaza, the first hint of possible conditions to Washington’s military support.
Just hours later, in the middle of the night in Jerusalem, Israel announced it would open more aid routes into the coastal Palestinian territory which Israel placed under siege at the start of the war nearly six months ago.
“Israel will allow the temporary delivery of humanitarian aid” through the Ashdod Port and the Erez land crossing, as well as increased deliveries from neighbouring Jordan at the Kerem Shalom crossing, Netanyahu’s office said.
The White House quickly welcomed the moves - saying they came “at the president’s request” - and said they “must now be fully and rapidly implemented”.
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Here are the latest images coming across the wires from Gaza and elsewhere:
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How Spain and Ireland became the EU’s sharpest critics of Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that the Israeli military’s killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza on Monday night was “a tragic incident” did precious little to allay the fears of Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez. Nor did his assertion that “this happens in wartime”.
Sánchez, who has been one of the most outspoken and persistent European critics of the way in which Israel has prosecuted its war in Gaza after the terrorist atrocities of 7 October, described the Israeli prime minister’s “supposed explanations” as “totally unacceptable and insufficient”. He added that Spain was waiting for a full and detailed account of the killings before deciding “what action we’ll take with regard to the government of Prime Minister Netanyahu”.
Sánchez’s latest remarks – along with his announcement on Monday that Spain intends to recognise a Palestinian state by July – are a further example of how some of the more habitually taciturn members of the EU have found themselves compelled to speak up amid concerns that the bloc is failing to live up to its moral, political and humanitarian duties.
Read more by my colleagues Sam Jones in Madrid, Rory Carroll in Dublin and Lisa O’Carroll in Brussels here:
The Australian foreign minister, Penny Wong, has rebuked Benjamin Netanyahu for trying to “brush aside” the deaths of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom and six of her colleagues in an Israeli missile attack in Gaza, labelling his remark that these things happen in war as “deeply insensitive”.
Wong’s direct personal condemnation of Netanyahu comes as the Israeli military reveals it has completed its investigation into the incident and briefed ambassadors from the countries whose citizens died in the attack.
“I find that statement … frankly, for the family in particular, a pretty insensitive – deeply insensitive – thing to say,” Wong said of the Israeli prime minister’s initial response.
Opening summary
Welcome to our latest live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and wider Middle East crisis. Here’s a snapshot of all the key developments.
Israel has approved the reopening of the Erez crossing into northern Gaza and the temporary use of Israel’s Ashdod port to increase humanitarian aid supplies into Gaza, a statement from the prime minister’s office said early on Friday.
It also approved expanded entry of aid from Jordan through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
The Israeli move was announced shortly after a warning to Benjamin Netanyahu from the US president, Joe Biden, and as international pressure mounts on Israel after it took responsibility for a strike that killed seven workers with the World Central Kitchen (WCK) food charity.
In a tense call with Netanyahu on Thursday, Biden called for an “immediate ceasefire” and made clear that US policy would be determined by Israel taking “concrete and measurable steps” to address civilian harm and humanitarian suffering, according to the White House.
Right after Israel’s announcement, the White House welcomed the moves to “increase aid flow to Gaza” and called for them to be “fully and rapidly implemented”.
In other developments:
At least 33,037 Palestinians have been killed and 75,668 injured in the Israeli offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the territory’s health ministry said. The Hamas-led ministry said on Thursday about 62 Palestinians were killed and 91 injured over the past 24 hours. It was not possible to independently verify the figures.
The findings of an investigation into the aid worker killings may come in “the next few days”, an Israeli spokesperson suggested to the BBC, after officials signalled earlier that it could take weeks. WCK has called for an “independent, third-party investigation” into the Israeli strikes and asked Australia, Canada, Poland, the US and the UK – whose citizens were killed – to join them in demanding the inquiry.
A fourth former supreme court justice has put his name to a letter warning the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, that the UK is breaching international law by continuing to arm Israel, as the number of legal experts signing the letter rose to more than 750. Lord Carnwath joins Lady Hale, who was president of the UK’s highest court, and lords Sumption and Wilson in urging ministers to act to prevent the “plausible risk” of genocide in Gaza.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also said it again attacked what it described as “terrorist infrastructure” in Lebanon. It identified launches “crossing from Lebanon toward the areas of Betzet and Shlomi in northern Israel” and struck the sources of the fire, it said. As well, “IDF fighter jets struck terrorist infrastructure in the areas of Yaroun, Aynata, and Maroun El Ras”.
US forces destroyed an anti-ship missile in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen on Thursday, US central command said on Friday, adding there were no injuries or damage reported by US, coalition or commercial ships.
Israeli media reported a step up in GPS jamming inside the country, believed to be a preparation for a potential attack from Iran, which has vowed revenge after an airstrike on its consulate in Damascus killed several senior military commanders.
Former US president Donald Trump urged Israel in its war with Hamas to “get it over with fast”. In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Trump said Israel was “absolutely losing the PR war” and called for a swift resolution to the bloodshed. “Let’s get back to peace and stop killing people.”
A political row has developed in Israel over plans to allow members of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community, the Haredim, to be conscripted, ending a longstanding religious exemption from military service. Supporters of both sides of the argument are threatening to walk out of Netanyahu’s wartime national coalition if they do not get their way.
