Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Israeli attack on Gaza police vehicle kills 9
Victims believed to be law enforcement officers tasked with protecting aid.
This live page is now closed. You can continue to follow our coverage of the war in Gaza here.
This live page is now closed. You can continue to follow our coverage of the war in Gaza here.
- Seven law enforcement officials tasked with protecting aid, and two bystanders, have been killed in an Israeli army attack on their vehicle in Gaza City, the Interior Ministry says.
- An Israeli air attack has destroyed a mosque and nearby homes in northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp with a large number of children and women wounded.
- Iran warns Israel it will face a “painful response” if it takes the “slightest action” to retaliate against Tehran’s missile and drone attacks. Israel urges 32 countries to impose sanctions against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its missile programme.
- Israeli settlers continue their deadly rampage in the occupied West Bank, and more Israeli troops are deployed.
- At least 33,843 Palestinians have been killed and 76,575 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from Hamas’s October 7 attacks stands at 1,139, and dozens of people are still being held captive in Gaza.
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A look at what happened today
We will be closing this live page soon. Here’s a quick recap from today:
- At least seven law enforcement officials tasked with protecting aid and two bystanders have been killed in an Israeli army attack on their vehicle in Gaza City, the Interior Ministry said.
- At least 11 people, mostly children, have been killed in an Israeli strike on central Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp, Wafa reported. The attack hit a children’s playground near a crowded market.
- Iran has warned Israel it will face a “painful response” if it takes the “slightest action” to retaliate against Tehran’s missile and drone attacks.
- The Israeli army said it has killed a senior commander of Hezbollah’s elite unit, the Radwan Force, in the Kfar Dounin area in southern Lebanon.
- Palestinian rights groups have warned that Israeli military and settler attacks in the occupied West Bank have “increased in intensity and scale”.
UNRWA’s Lazzarini expected to brief UNSC on situation in Gaza
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), is set to brief the UN Security Council (UNSC) on the situation in Gaza later today.
Lazzarini is expected to speak in person at a meeting requested by Jordan, a source at the UNSC told Al Jazeera’s Anade Situma.
NEW: A source on the #UNSC has confirmed to me that @UNLazzarini will at #UNHQ in New York to brief the #UNSC on #UNRWA in person tomorrow/Wed at 3pm, in a meeting requested by @JordanUN_NY
— Anade Situma (@Anade_Situma) April 16, 2024
Victims of Rafah attack arrive at hospital
A video obtained by Al Jazeera shows the arrival of at least five bodies, including of children, arriving at the Kuwaiti Hospital in Gaza’s southernmost city.
We reported earlier on this attack by the Israeli army on the Yabna refugee camp in Rafah, in which several Palestinians were killed. The attack was on the home of the Abu al-Hunud family, Al Jazeera’s correspondent reports.
Israeli drone plays sounds of children crying to lure Palestinians, witnesses say
A video verified by Al Jazeera taken from central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp yesterday documented the sounds of children crying, which were seemingly coming from an Israeli quadcopter plane.
Residents in the area say this is the Israeli army’s latest way to lure civilians and kill them. At least one man was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper when he came out of his home to inspect where the sounds were coming from.
“Yesterday, the area was subjected to Israeli shelling. Three hours after the raids, we heard the voices of children crying out and the voice of a woman,” one of the witnesses, Mohammed Nabhan, said.
“When we went out, we were subjected to heavy fire from the Israeli army and the sound was coming out of an Israeli quadcopter with four propellers,” he said.
Palestinian Journalists Syndicate says 100 journalists arrested since October 7
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate says Israeli forces arrested some 100 journalists since October 7.
At least 40 of them remain in Israeli custody, the syndicate said. Most of the journalists were beaten at the moment of arrest, it added.
According to the syndicate, many of detained journalists were held under administrative detention, a controversial and vague legal process that allows Israel to imprison Palestinians without charge or trial.
Gulf leaders exchange phone calls on Middle East tensions
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke with both the emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and the president of the UAE, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, today, the Saudi Press Agency says.
“The crown prince received a call from the President of the UAE during which they discussed the repercussions of the military escalation in the region and the seriousness of its repercussions,” the agency said, adding that the two “discussed the importance of exerting efforts to prevent the situation from worsening”.
Al Thani also called Prince Mohammed and “stressed the need to reduce all forms of escalation and avoid the expansion of conflict in the region”, the Qatari Amiri Diwan said.
Tensions in the Middle East remain high after Iran’s attack on Israel on Saturday night, which Israel has promised to respond to.
WATCH: Israeli air strike hits crowded Gaza refugee camp
Several killed in new attack on southern Gaza’s Rafah
Several people have been reported killed in an attack on Gaza’s most southern city of Rafah.
A strike hit a residential building in central Rafah, according to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.
Gaza’s Civil Defence said an Israeli jet attacked a house in the Yabna refugee camp, killing and wounding “a number” of people. Civil defence crews are still trying to pull out the bodies of those killed and injured from under the rubble, it said.
More than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pushed for a ground operation into Rafah, despite international calls saying such a move would be “catastrophic”.
Hezbollah attacks Israeli army vehicle
On X, the Lebanese group says it struck the Metulla site belonging to the Israeli army, “directly hitting” a military vehicle as it entered the army’s position.
US’s Blinken, Qatar’s Al Thani discuss Iran’s attack on Israel
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken to his Qatari counterpart Mohammed bin Al Thani to discuss Iran’s attack.
Miller says the pair also “underscored the importance of a coordinated diplomatic response and the need to avoid further escalation”.
.@SecBlinken spoke with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister @MBA_AlThani_ to discuss Iran’s unprecedented air attack on military facilities in Israel. They underscored the importance of a coordinated diplomatic response and the need to avoid further escalation.
— Matthew Miller (@StateDeptSpox) April 16, 2024
Israel holding bodies of 26 Palestinian detainees, prisoners’ group says
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society says Israeli authorities are holding the bodies of 26 Palestinian detainees.
The NGO said the figure stands after the body of 59-year-old Abdulhalim Abdulkarim Amer was released by Israeli authorities earlier today.
Amer died in Israeli custody on April 13. He is the 16th Palestinian to die in Israeli custody since Israel’s assault on Gaza began more than six months ago.
The father of seven was arrested with his son on March 17, for allegedly entering Israel for work without a permit.
Israel routinely withholds the bodies of Palestinians, which human rights groups say amounts to collective punishment of bereaved families. International law considers the practice a violation of human rights.
Israel says it kills Radwan Forces commander
The Israeli army says it has killed a senior commander of Hezbollah’s elite unit, the Radwan Forces, in the Kfar Dounin area in southern Lebanon.
In a situational update on Telegram, the army wrote that Muhammad Hussein Mustafa Shechory, commander of the rockets and missiles unit, was “eliminated” in an air strike
“As part of his role, Muhammad planned and promoted rocket and missile launches toward Israeli territory from the areas of Lebanon’s central and western regions,” the army said.
“During the strike, Mahmoud Ibrahim Fadel-Allah, a terrorist operative of Hezbollah’s Rockets and Missiles Unit, was also eliminated,” it said.
Iraqi PM: No reports of drones launched from territory during Iranian attack
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani says he has not received any reports or indications that missiles or drones were launched from Iraq during Iran’s attack on Israel.
“Our position is clear, and we will not allow Iraq to be thrown into the arena of conflict,” al-Sudani said in a statement.
Iraqi airspace was a main route for Iran’s Saturday night attack on Israel, and Iraqi officials say Iran informed them, as well as other countries in the region, before the attack.
Israeli military and settler attacks ‘escalating in intensity and scale’: Rights groups
Three Palestinian human rights organisations have urged the international community, private actors and businesses to “respond to the widespread violent attacks” against Palestinians and their property across the occupied West Bank.
“Violent Israeli military and settler attacks have been escalating in intensity and scale,” Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said in a joint statement.
The violence, they said, escalated “significantly” on Friday when Israeli settlers raided a string of villages in the West Bank. Since then, at least four Palestinians have been killed and several injured.
Israeli settlers burned homes, cars and livestock pens and stole sheep during these “rampages”, the statement said.
Settlers along with the Israeli army closed off main roads and entrances to those villages “as part of these rampages”, it added, and imposed restrictions on movement.
As a result, Israeli forces “obstructed the passage” of ambulances for several hours, the statement said.
‘Mama, we’re dying’: Only able to hear her kids in Gaza in their final days
Hanan al-Qeeq sits next to a hospital bed in Beit Jala Hospital, her sad, pale face seconds away from tears at all times, even when she tries to muster up a smile of greeting.
Sitting beside the exhausted woman is her husband, Mazen, 56, a Gaza Ministry of Education employee who left his work to come to the occupied West Bank, where their son Fadi is being treated.
Fifty-year-old Hanan says she carries a heavy burden. As she and Mazen kept their vigil by Fadi’s bedside, praying for his healing, Israel’s war on Gaza took four of their other children from them.
“What can I say beyond what happened?” said Mazen, who did not want to, or perhaps could not, speak more.
Read more here.
WATCH: Will Israel respond to Iran’s first ever direct attack?
The smoke has cleared, and the dust has settled after Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel.
Israeli leaders have promised to respond – when the time is right, they say.
But fears are growing that this could escalate into a regional war.
Al Jazeera’s Inside Story speaks to experts about whether fears about a regional war are justified and what it could mean for the region.
Watch the discussion below:
EU working to expand Iran sanctions after attack on Israel, Borrell says
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says Brussels is starting work on expanding sanctions against Iran after Tehran’s attack on Israel.
Iran carried out the attack two weeks after a deadly April 1 strike on its embassy’s consular building in Damascus, which Tehran blames on Israel.
Speaking after an emergency online meeting of EU foreign ministers, Borrell said the bloc would look to toughen measures against Iran’s supplies of weaponry, including drones, to Russia and proxy groups around the Middle East.
“Some member states propose the adoption of expanded restrictive measures against Iran,” Borrell said.
The EU’s top diplomat said he was requesting his service “start the necessary work related to the sanctions”.
Google employees protest company’s ties with Israeli government
Groups of employees of the tech giant have entered two of the company’s offices, one in Sunnyvale, California, and one in New York City.
The protesters at the California office say they will not leave until Google pulls out of a $1.2bn contract it shares with Amazon, that would see it provide the Israeli government with cloud services and data centres.
Some at the company have long opposed the contract, known as “Nimbus”, but the conflict within the tech giant has expanded since Israel began its assault on Gaza.
BREAKING—DOZENS OF @GOOGLE WORKERS LEAD HISTORIC COAST TO COAST-INS AT @GOOGLECLOUD CEO THOMAS KURIAN’S OFFICE IN SUNNYVALE & @GOOGLE’s NYC 10TH FLOOR COMMONS. They refuse to leave until @google stops powering the genocide in Gaza
LIVESTREAM: https://t.co/uUiPbr3oDz pic.twitter.com/vCkInh0769
— No Tech For Apartheid (@NoTechApartheid) April 16, 2024
Spanish PM says he will ‘strive’ for a Palestine to become a UN member
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says an independent Palestinian state should be recognised as soon as possible.
“Spain will strive for Palestine to become a full member of the UN,” Sanchez said during a visit to Slovenia as part of a tour to boost EU support for recognising a Palestinian state.
Last month, Spain, Ireland, Malta and Slovenia signed a joint statement saying they stand ready to recognise a Palestinian state when the move could “make a positive contribution and the circumstances are right.”
“For Slovenia, the key question is when to recognize Palestine,” Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said, adding, “Not if but when.”
‘Avoid fuelling the spiral of violence’, says Italian defence minister
Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto says Iran “crossed a precise red line” with its attack on Israel and warns against spiralling violence.
According to a ministry statement, Crosetto spoke by telephone to his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, and expressed Italy’s continued friendship with Israel.
“The crossing of a precise red line with the direct attack on Israel, on its territory, is worrying but it is precisely now that we need to be mature and act according to the rules of international law to avoid fuelling the spiral of violence that would see us all defeated,” Crossetto told Gallant, according to the statement.
Crossetto’s call comes as Italy, which holds the current presidency of the G7, will host a meeting of foreign ministers on Wednesday, where possible sanctions on Iran are expected to be discussed.
Qatar responds to congressman’s threat to ‘re-evaluate’ US-Qatar relationship
The Qatari embassy in the US has issued a statement saying it was “surprised” by comments made by US lawmaker Steny Hoyer and his threat to “re-evaluate” the US’s relationship with Qatar.
Yesterday, Hoyer released a statement calling on Qatar to put pressure on Hamas to accept a ceasefire proposal that is acceptable to the Isralei government, and threatened to reassess ties between the US and Qatar if it does not do so.
“Hamas has also sought to use its intermediary Qatar – which has long helped finance, back, and house the terrorist organization – to exact greater concessions from Israel”, Hoyer’s statement read.
The Qatari embassy said that it “shares” Hoyer’s frustration at the slow progress of truce talks, but stressed that “Israel and Hamas are entirely responsible for reaching an agreement”.
“Blaming and threatening the mediator is not constructive, especially when the target is a friend and major non-NATO ally that presently hosts 10,000 US troops and America’s largest military presence in the Middle East”, the embassy’s statement added.
— Qatar Embassy USA (@QatarEmbassyUSA) April 16, 2024
Time for ‘calm heads’, says UK PM in call with Netanyahu
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has called for “calm heads” during a call with Netanyahu, stressing that any escalation in the region is in no one’s interest.
“[Sunak] stressed that significant escalation was in no one’s interest and would only deepen insecurity in the Middle East. This was a moment for calm heads to prevail,” Sunak’s office said in a readout of the call.
Sunak added that the UK wants to see a “massive step change” in the amount of aid being delivered to Gaza.
Israel has pledged to respond to an attack on its soil by Iran, which saw more than 300 drones and missiles fired at Israeli territory.
Children among several killed in attack on central Gaza’s Maghazi camp
At least 11 people have been killed in an Israeli attack on the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.
Most of those killed were children, Wafa said, adding that several people were also wounded.
The camp is densely populated and has become even more congested after thousands of families were forced to flee their homes in Gaza’s north after Israel began its assault on the enclave.
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah, said the attack on Maghazi took place during “rush hour”. He said the attack hit a playground that is frequently visited by displaced children.
“Dozens” of wounded people have been transported to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital, Mahmoud said.
Iranian missile weighing 450 kilograms found in Dead Sea: Report
Israel’s Channel 12 has published a video that has been verified by Al Jazeera, showing an Iranian ballistic missile weighing 450 kilograms that was taken out of the Dead Sea after falling during Iran’s attack over the weekend.
In the video, the rocket is seen at an Israeli military site with other Palestinian-flagged rockets next to it.
On Saturday night, Iran used more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, in an attack it said was in retaliation for Israel’s strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria.
450 ק"ג חומר נפץ: כך נראה הטיל שנורה מאיראן ונחת במרכז ים המלח@shapira_nitzan pic.twitter.com/CBKAsqxNFS
— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) April 16, 2024
(Translation: 450 kg of explosives: this is what the missile that was fired from Iran and landed in the middle of the Dead Sea looked like @shapira_nitzan)