Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Biden threatens policy change on Gaza
Biden to Netanyahu: US Gaza policy dependent on Israel’s ‘measurable’ steps on humanitarian disaster, aid worker safety.
The live page is now closed. You can continue to follow our coverage of the war in Gaza here.
The live page is now closed. You can continue to follow our coverage of the war in Gaza here.
- US President Joe Biden tells Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu that US Gaza policy is dependent on “measurable” steps Israel takes to address “civilian harm, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers” in Gaza.
- Residents of northern Gaza have been forced to survive on an average of 245 calories a day since January, the international charity Oxfam says.
- The Israeli military halts leave for all combat units, calls up reservists, and blocks GPS coordinates in the country as Iran threatens retaliation for deadly strikes on its consulate in Damascus, Syria.
- World Central Kitchen (WCK) founder says that Israeli’s army “systematically” destroyed the three vehicles carrying seven WCK aid workers and demands that nations involved launch an independent investigation into the April 1 killings.
- At least 33,037 Palestinians have been killed and 75,668 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from Hamas’s October 7 attack stands at 1,139, with dozens still held captive.
That’s a wrap from us
Thank you for joining us for updates on everything related to Israel’s war on Gaza. This live page is now closed.
A look at what happened today
We will be closing this live page soon. Here’s a quick recap of today:
- In a tense phone call, US President Joe Biden has told Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu that US Gaza policy is dependent on “measurable” steps Israel takes to address “civilian harm, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers” in the enclave.
- The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Quds Brigades, has fired rockets from Gaza towards Israeli cities, with Israeli media reporting two rockets were intercepted, while another hit a Sderot road.
- NGO Open Arms has said it and World Central Kitchen (WCK) are suspending attempts to get aid to Gaza via sea after seven WCK workers were killed in an Israeli air raid on Monday.
- At least four people, including a paramedic, have been killed in an Israeli air raid that hit a rescue team in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoon, according to a health official.
- The amount of food available to people in the north of Gaza is less than 12 percent of the recommended daily 2,100 calorie intake needed per person, Oxfam has said.
1,000 children in Gaza lost one or both of their legs: PRCS
The Palestinian Red Cresent Society (PRCS) has published several posts on X in honour of Palestinian Child’s Day.
“1,000 children in Gaza lost one or both of their legs,” read one post.
“4 children are killed every hour in Gaza,” said another.
US looking at reports Israel used AI to identify bombing targets in Gaza
The United States is looking into a +972 Magazine and Local Call 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 Israeli military’s reported use of the untested and undisclosed artificial intelligence-powered database called the ‘Lavender’ system, has alarmed human rights and technology experts who said it could amount to “war crimes”.
US army gives update on aid airdrops
The US army’s Central Command (CENTCOM) says on X that, as usual, it used four of its C-130 planes to drop aid over north Gaza today.
It said that of the packages it dropped today, containing 50,680 meal equivalents, “approximately 20 bundles landed in the sea near the shoreline”.
Last week, at least 12 Palestinians died while attempting to retrieve aid packages that had dropped offshore. The US did not claim responsibility for those airdrops.
“USCENTCOM does not assess civilian harm or damage to infrastructure at this time but continues to monitor the situation,” the army said in its X post today.
North Gaza continues to draw nearer to full-scale famine, as Israel is repeatedly accused of blocking aid into the Gaza Strip. Earlier this week, an Israeli attack killed seven aid workers, leading several humanitarian organisations to scale back aid operations in Gaza, driving fears in north Gaza that food shortages there could get worse.
WATCH: Why I’m protesting against my Israeli government
Gil Dickmann’s aunt was killed on October 7. His cousin is a captive. He’s leading the charge against Israel’s Gaza war.
Night after night, activist Gil Dickmann takes to a stage in Tel Aviv to rally his fellow Israelis in demanding their government change its approach to the war in Gaza. The 31-year-old believes a deal with Hamas is the only way to end the killing and bring Israeli captives back home.
For Dickmann, the situation is personal. On October 7, his aunt Kinneret Gat was killed in Be’eri, a kibbutz in southern Israel, and his cousin Carmel Gat is believed to be held captive in the Gaza Strip.
Watch Al Jazeera’s Close Up here:
More than 200 children held in Israeli jails, prisoners group says
There are currently more than 200 Palestinian children held in Israeli prisons, the Palestinian prisoner rights group Addameer says, including children from the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
Despite an uptick in arrests since October 7, the group said Israel has been “systematically arresting and abusing” Palestinian children for decades.
“Israel is the only state in the world that systematically prosecutes between 500 and 700 Palestinian children annually in military courts, lacking basic rights of fair trial,” it said, citing the group Defence for Children International – Palestine (DCIP).
According to Addameer, the period following October 7 is considered to be “the toughest and harshest” on prisoners in general, and particularly on children.
Freed Palestinian prisoners have reported physical and psychological abuse in Israeli jails. Many are denied adequate amounts of food and water and are also denied healthcare and medical attention, which has led to several deaths.
Thousands of detainees, including at least 41 children, are currently held under administrative detention, Addameer added, meaning they are being held indefinitely without charge or trial.
Vigil for the Polish aid worker killed in Gaza held in his home city
Mourners have gathered to commemorate Damian Sobol in his home city of Przemysl, Poland.
The 35-year-old was in Gaza with the World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity to provide aid to Palestinians when he was killed in an Israeli air strike along with six other WCK workers on Monday.
The mourners, numbering several hundred by PAP news agency, gathered near the Przemysl train station. They lit candles at the place where he had begun his relief work path when he volunteered to help Ukrainians fleeing their country in February 2022.
Polish authorities called for an international investigation into the killing as well as an apology from Israel and compensation for Sobol’s family.
News of Sobol’s death “was like a blow to the head”, said his fellow local aid worker Stefan Moskowicz, also speaking to TVN.
US says Rafah never came up in Biden-Netanyahu call
A US official has told Al Jazeera the issue of Israel’s planned offensive on Rafah did not come up during today’s phone call today between Biden and Netanyahu.
The comment came after a source said that the US president had “refused” to talk about the expected Rafah operation with the Israeli prime minister.
Israel denies evacuating embassies amid Iran threat
A spokesperson for the Israeli Foreign Ministry has, according to the Times of Israel, denied reports in local media that it is shuttering embassies around the globe in anticipation of threats of retaliation from Iran for an Israeli attack on its consulate in Syria earlier this week.
The Times of Israel also said it spoke to an Israeli diplomat stationed “abroad”, who denied knowledge of any plans for evacuation.
This news comes as the Israeli military says it’s strengthening its defences, increasing manpower and drafting reserve soldiers to operate air defences.
Israeli forces raid Hebron in occupied West Bank
Israeli forces have raided several neighbourhoods in Hebron, making a number of arrests, Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.
In Beit Ummar, a town located north of Hebron, at least three teenagers were mildly injured after Israeli forces assaulted them, according to Wafa.
It said Israeli soldiers had stormed the town earlier today. They reportedly raided several homes and fired live bullets as well as tear gas.
Israel gives update on aid entry to Gaza
Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) office says 240 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip today.
Israel has been repeatedly criticised for blocking the entry of aid to Gaza, with several NGOs and rights organisations accusing it of deliberately blocking aid while warnings of famine in the besieged enclave rise.
The update also comes days after an Israeli attack killed seven aid staff working with the World Central Kitchen (WCK) food charity. The incident has led various humanitarian aid organisations, including WCK, to temporarily suspend operations in Gaza in order to assess the security situation.
Photos: The struggle to receive aid in Gaza
Jordanians again flood the streets of capital in support of Palestinians
Video verified by Al Jazeera shows mass demonstrations on the streets of Jordan’s capital for the 12th day in a row.
As always, the protesters marched to the Israeli embassy, demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, with some demanding a cancellation of Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel.
Watch our video on protests that occurred in Amman late last month:
Israel is ‘losing the PR war’: Trump
In an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt, former US President Donald Trump says Israel is receiving bad press and creating negative public sentiment because of its social media strategy, which includes posting images of destruction in the Gaza Strip.
“They’re releasing the most heinous, most horrible tapes of buildings falling down. And people are imagining there’s a lot of people in those buildings, or people in those buildings, and they don’t like it,” said Trump, who is a candidate in November’s presidential election.
“I don’t know why they released wartime shots like that. I guess it makes them look tough. But to me, it doesn’t make them look tough,” Trump added.
“They’re losing the PR war. They’re losing it big. But they’ve got to finish what they started, and they’ve got to finish it fast, and we have to get on with life.”
Quds Brigades claims rocket attack on southern Israel
The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad says it has fired rockets from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli cities.
On Telegram, the group said that it “bombed ‘Ashkelon’, ‘Sderot’, ‘Niram’, and the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip in response to the crimes of the Zionist enemy against our people”.
In an apparent confirmation of this claim, local media reported the Israeli army as saying two rockets were intercepted in southern Israel while another rocket hit a Sderot road, causing “minor damage”.
Air raid sirens sounded in Ashkelon and surrounding areas, the reports added.
Spanish NGO working with WCK stops using sea route to Gaza
NGO Open Arms said it and US charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) are suspending attempts to get aid to Gaza via sea after seven WCK workers were killed in an Israeli air raid on Monday.
The two charities had worked together in launching a maritime corridor of humanitarian aid to Gaza from Cyprus in March and had just completed unloading about a third of the shipped cargo when the convoy of WCK workers was attacked on April 1.
“This attack, perpetrated by the [Israeli military] last Monday, marks a painful turning point in our efforts to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” Open Arms said in a written statement.
“With the arrival yesterday of the Open Arms ship in Larnaca, Cyprus, the mission in alliance with WCK in the humanitarian corridor to the Gaza Strip is suspended,” Open Arms said.
It quoted Open Arms director Oscar Camps calling Gaza a “dystopian laboratory where people’s blood flows while war technologies are tested and perfected, directed by increasingly automated algorithms that allow all human responsibility to be diluted, using technology and trivializing evil.”
“Now states are rushing to extend their condolences to the families, but they are not showing the same rush to stop the shipment of weapons to this laboratory of destruction,” Camps said.
“How much more humanity must be lost in this genocide?”
WATCH: Famine stalks Gaza as aid deliveries now in question
Israel’s killing of seven World Central Kitchen workers in Deir el-Balah earlier this week has led many humanitarian organisations to express reluctance to continue operating inside the Gaza Strip for fear of repeat incidents.
This has driven fears among Palestinians that food shortages, which already have Gaza’s population on the brink of starvation, will get worse.
Watch our video to find out more:
US support for Israel’s defence ‘ironclad’ despite ‘frustration’: White House
US President Joe Biden’s tougher tone in a call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s war on Gaza reflected mounting “frustration” that Israel is not heeding demands to protect civilians, the White House has said.
“Yes, there’s been growing frustration,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters when asked whether the call reflected Biden’s frustration.
However, he added that the US’ support for “Israel’s self-defence remains ironclad”.
“They face a range of threats, and the United States isn’t going to walk away,” he said.
Biden refuses to speak with Netanyahu about Rafah invasion: Al Jazeera source
A source with knowledge of the phone call that took place a short while ago between Biden and Netanyahu has told Al Jazeera the following:
- Biden refused to talk about any details related to a possible Israeli military operation in Rafah.
- Biden urged Netanyahu to take immediate, even unilateral, action to stop civilian suffering in Gaza.
- Biden requested specific changes from Netanyahu, including increasing aid access, expanding the powers of the Israeli negotiating team to reach a ceasefire and stopping any Israeli arrangements regarding a future presence in Gaza.
- Biden told Netanyahu that the world had turned against Israel and Washington’s allies had informed it of a shift in their policy.
- Biden informed Netanyahu that he would temporarily suspend deliberations on a future arms deal with Israel in Congress.
- Biden requested a detailed report from Netanyahu on the killing of aid workers and called for an immediate investigation that includes comprehensive accountability.
- Biden said he would send his national security adviser to Israel to follow up on steps to change Israel’s policy.
Biden-Netanyahu call ‘will have implications’
Mahjoob Zweiri, director of the Gulf Studies Center at Qatar University, says there is nothing that so far indicates what Netanyahu’s response was to his call with Biden.
Netanyahu usually takes to social media or holds a press conference and “reflects on what happened in the phone call” because it’s his way to say he’s “challenging what has been talked about”, Zweiri said.
Biden is especially “frustrated and very upset” because he is reportedly a close friend to celebrity chef and founder of the World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity Jose Andres, Zweiri said.
An Israeli attack that killed seven WCK aid workers in Gaza this week “puts more pressure on Biden”, he added.
“I would argue that this phone call will have implications,” Zweiri said.
White House urges Israel aid action within ‘coming hours and days’
The White House says Israel must allow a “dramatic” increase of aid into Gaza within “hours or days,” after US President Joe Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that major changes are needed in the way the war is conducted.
“What we are looking to see and hope to see here in the coming hours and days is a dramatic increase in the humanitarian assistance getting in, additional crossings opened up, and a reduction in the violence against civilians and certainly aid workers,” US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.
A tense phone call between Biden and Netanyahu
This is a very strongly worded readout [from the Biden-Netanyahu call], much stronger than we typically see from the White House.
This is the strongest language we’ve seen publicly. We’ve never had a window into some of these private conversations. We know that there has been a lot of frustration on the part of the US president, and we have heard leaks that the president has had some very frank discussions.
Biden made clear the need for Israel to announce a series of specific, concrete and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers.
And he made clear that the US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by the assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps.
In other words, despite all the steps that Israel has taken to allow aid into Gaza, what the United States feels is that the results on the ground are unacceptable.
The feeling by the United States is that 100 percent of the population [in Gaza] is in need of assistance and that even as aid workers are trying to help and get that assistance, their lives are in peril.
UN says nighttime ‘aid movements’ have resumed in Gaza
UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric says that “aid movements resumed tonight” after a 48-hour pause in nighttime movements.
The United Nations had suspended movements at night in Gaza to evaluate security concerns following the killing of seven workers from the World Central Kitchen food charity.
The UN’s World Food Programme continued operations during the day, including daily efforts to send convoys to the north of Gaza, where famine is imminent, he said.
Dujarric also said teams with the World Health Organization (WHO) managed to speak to patients who were able to flee al-Shifa Hospital. The medical complex in Gaza City was raided by Israeli forces, who also besieged and heavily destroyed parts of it, before withdrawing earlier this week.
Survivors described “dark conditions during the siege, with no food, water or medicine available”, Dujarric said.
Patients and doctors resorted to “putting salt and vinegar in people’s wounds in place of antiseptics, which are nonexistent,” he said.
Blinken calls on Israel to protect civilians in Gaza
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called on Israel, as a democracy, to place the highest value on human life and increase the flow of aid to Gaza, adding that this week’s “horrific attack” on World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza must be the last such incident.
“Right now, there is no higher priority in Gaza than protecting civilians, surging humanitarian assistance and ensuring the security of those who provide it. Israel must meet this moment,” Blinken told reporters at a news conference in Brussels.