Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Famine already in north Gaza, says US
USAID’s Samantha Power agrees with UN-backed assessment, is first US official to publicly say famine happening in Gaza.
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- USAID chief Samantha Power has become the first US official to publicly say famine is happening in north Gaza, after she said she agreed with a UN-backed assessment on hunger in the enclave.
- Several people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza and on Rafah in the south, as six more were killed in an attack on a Gaza City market.
- A UNICEF aid convoy is hit by Israeli gunfire in the latest incident of humanitarian relief workers coming under attack in Gaza.
- Political chief Ismail Haniyeh says Hamas won’t change its position in ceasefire talks after Israel killed three of his sons and four grandchildren in an attack on the first day of Eid al-Fitr.
- At least 33,545 Palestinians have been killed and 76,094 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from Hamas’s October 7 attacks stands at 1,139, with dozens still held captive.
US predicts Iranian attack on Israel but does not expect to be drawn into war
The White House says it expects an attack by Iran against Israel but one that would not be big enough to draw Washington into war, reports Reuters news agency.
A US official said late on Thursday that Washington did not want a conflict to spread in the Middle East, and the US had told Iran it was not involved in an air strike on its consulate in Damascus, Syria.
The Israeli attack killed seven members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including two generals, on April 1.
The White House said it warned Iran not to use that attack as a pretext to escalate further in the region.
Majority of UN committee in favour of moving towards membership for Palestine: Maltese envoy
Vanessa Frazier, Malta’s Ambassador to the UN, said there was no consensus at the second meeting of the UN committee.
However, she said, the majority of members were in favour of moving towards membership for Palestine.
“Many countries outlined the fact that Palestine fulfils all the criteria that are required under the Montevideo convention and also of article four of the charter,” she said.
“As the chair of the committee, I have decided that I will be circulating our first draft of a report under the objection procedure, and we will see what happens next” Frazier said.
Malta currently holds the presidency of the UN Security Council.
UN Security council failed to reach consensus on whether to admit Palestine
The UN Security Council’s committee on the admission of new members has failed to reach a consensus on whether to admit Palestine as a full member of the UN.
Two-thirds of the committee were in favour. However, the group could not reach the consensus required to make a recommendation to the General Assembly.
Poll: Majority of Americans believe Israel committing genocide against Palestinians
A new survey conducted by YouGov says that 36 percent of Americans believe that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians, compared with 34 percent who do not and 30 percent who are unsure.
Sixty-three percent of respondents expressed support for reaching a ceasefire, and 58 percent expressed their disapproval of the way Joe Biden is dealing with the war between Israel and Hamas, compared with only 23 percent who approved of it.
Regarding whether the United States should increase or reduce its military aid to Israel, 18 percent said it should be increased, while more than twice as many (37 percent) said it should be reduced.
YouGov says this survey was conducted from April 6-9 and included approximately 1,800 adult American citizens.
At least 20 Palestinians killed across Gaza today, Gaza media office says
Gaza’s media office says Israeli attacks on mosques, schools and markets “packed with civilians” have killed at least 20 Palestinians across the enclave in the past 24 hours.
Here is the breakdown according to the office:
- Attacks on two mosques in the Nuseirat refugee camp killed one person.
- Attacks on a UN-run school and the Malaysian school in the Nuseirat refugee camp killed three people.
- Attacks on the Firas market in northern Gaza and another market in central Gaza killed another seven people.
- Attacks on several residential homes in central Gaza and in the southern city of Rafah killed at least nine people.
“We condemn and decry the ongoing crimes being carried out by the occupation army against civilians, women, and children,” the media office said.
Photos: Life among the ruins of Gaza City during Eid al-Fitr
Destruction in Khan Younis ‘disproportionate to anything one can imagine’: WHO
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), posted on X that the WHO and partners went to Khan Younis yesterday to assess the health facilities there.
He said the team described the destruction as “disproportionate to anything one can imagine”.
He said, “Attacks and hostilities have left Nasser Medical Complex, al-Amal and al-Khair hospitals non-functional. These facilities have no oxygen supply, water, electricity or sewage system”.
“The team saw that the Nasser Medical Complex warehouse – which supplies many hospitals in the south – was burning, and severely damaged. It is estimated that fire has destroyed the majority of supplies, including a substantial amount of essential medicines and medical and trauma supplies provided by WHO and partners” he said.
“The once robust health system in Gaza is broken. WHO and partners stand ready to support reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts, but we need a ceasefire,” he concluded, adding, “Nothing else can bring a lasting and humane outcome”.
.@WHO and partners went to Khan Younis yesterday to assess the health facilities there. The team described the destruction as "disproportionate to anything one can imagine". No building or road is intact, there is only rubble and dirt.
Hostilities in the vicinity of a WHO… pic.twitter.com/AbqmEabx6Z
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) April 11, 2024
What has been said about Iran’s threat of retaliation?
As tensions rise amid expectations of an Iranian retaliation to Israel’s deadly April 1 strike on its consulate in Syria, several countries have issued statements today. Here is a brief summary:
Russia
Russia’s Foreign Ministry told citizens they should not travel to the Middle East, especially to Israel, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.
“Right now, it’s very important for everyone to maintain restraint so as not to lead to a complete destabilisation of the situation in the region, which doesn’t exactly shine with stability and predictability,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a news briefing.
Germany
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called on her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian to urge “maximum restraint” to avoid further escalation.
The German airline Lufthansa, one of only two Western carriers flying to Tehran, extended a suspension of its flights to the Iranian capital.
UK
British Foreign Minister David Cameron said he had made it clear to Amirabdollahian that Iran should not draw the Middle East into a wider conflict.
Cameron said on X, “I am deeply concerned about the potential for miscalculation leading to further violence.”
US
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Secretary of State Antony Blinken called counterparts, including the Turkish, Chinese and Saudi foreign ministers, “to make clear that escalation is not in anyone’s interest and that countries should urge Iran not to escalate”.
US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday Iran was threatening to launch a “significant attack in Israel” and that he had told Netanyahu that “our commitment to Israel security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is iron-clad”.
What’s the impact of Israel’s targeted killing strategy?
The three sons and four grandchildren of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh were assassinated in Gaza on Wednesday.
Their names have been added to a long list of people killed by Israeli-targeted operations worldwide.
But why does Israel pursue such a policy? And what impact does it have?
Listen to Al Jazeera’s Inside Story podcast to find out more:
The solidarity of shared trauma: De-exceptionalising Gaza
Since the Israeli bombing and invasion of Gaza began last October, a long-simmering global movement has emerged, particularly from the Global South, in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
At least tens of millions of people have marched through the cities of the world in protest of Israeli-perpetrated genocide.
In the US, the ruling class and closely linked media have typically portrayed such expressions of solidarity, if acknowledged at all, as simply a matter of vague ideological kinship or abstract anti-US or anti-Israel sentiment, often taking recourse to misleading accusations of anti-Semitism to explain it all away.
By doing so, they ignore its historical roots and the ongoing truth to which this movement testifies: There is a deep psychic and visceral connection that binds countless people from diverse backgrounds to the gruesome oppression of Palestinians and to the enabling indifference to it shown by so many North American and European observers.
Read more here.
Gaza Civil Defence says more bodies recovered from Khan Younis
The Civil Defence says on its Telegram channel that it recovered 13 more decomposing bodies in the al-Balad and al-Amal neighbourhoods of the southern Gaza Strip city.
On Sunday, the Israeli army announced that it had pulled out of Khan Younis after a months-long military occupation that saw both of the city’s major hospitals, al-Amal and Nasser, besieged by Israeli forces.
Here are some photos published by the Civil Defence of the recovery operation:
US restricts travel for staff in Israel
The United States has restricted its employees in Israel and their family members from personal travel outside the greater Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Beersheba areas amid Iran’s threats to retaliate over Israel’s April 1 air strike on its embassy compound in Damascus.
The Israeli attack killed seven members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including two generals.
Asked about the security alert at a press briefing, US Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller said, “We conduct ongoing assessments all the time about the situation on the ground.”
“I’m not going to speak to the specific assessments that led to us to restrict our employees’ and family members’ personal travel,” Miller said, “but clearly we are monitoring the threat environment in the Middle East and specifically in Israel.”
Photos: Protests in Tel Aviv
UN team witnesses ‘profound destruction’ in Khan Younis
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs posts on X that a UN team has visited Khan Younis and witnessed destroyed homes, schools and hospitals as well as unexploded ordinance.
Many residents of Khan Younis have returned to their homes in recent days after the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Gaza. Many of those homes have been destroyed.
🔺 Homes, schools and hospitals severely damaged
🔺 Roads reduced to dirt tracks
🔺 Civilians at grave risk of unexploded ordnance
🔺 Collapsed servicesYesterday, a @UN team visited #Gaza's Khan Younis where they witnessed profound destruction.
More ➡️ https://t.co/rNrXAQE7Kn pic.twitter.com/DxesCVsCYW
— UN Humanitarian (@UNOCHA) April 11, 2024
Gallant to Austin: Any strike on Israel would require a strike on Iran
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant says on X that he has spoken with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and discussed preparations for the “possibility of a direct attack from Iran”.
This would, in Gallant’s words, “require [Israel] to respond appropriately”.
Iran has blamed Israel for the April 1 strike on its consulate in Damascus, which killed senior members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Since then, the Iranian government has repeatedly said it will respond.
“The security cooperation between Israel and the USA is powerful and unquestionable,” Gallant said in his X post, echoing the words of Biden on Wednesday that the US “commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad”.
Iran should de-escalate, prevent further attacks: UK foreign secretary
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron says he has spoken to his Iranian counterpart and made it clear that “Iran must not draw the Middle East into a wider conflict.”
As we reported earlier, Amirabdollahian has stated that a response to Israel’s attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1 would be “legitimate”.
Today I made clear to Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian that Iran must not draw the Middle East into a wider conflict.
I am deeply concerned about the potential for miscalculation leading to further violence.
Iran should instead work to de-escalate and prevent further attacks.
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) April 11, 2024
‘I do not want to be a partner in the starvation of two and a half million people’: Israeli relative of captive
Ella Metzger, the daughter-in-law of Yoram Metzger, who has been in Hamas captivity in Gaza, has told the Israeli parliament that she does not want to be a partner in the starvation of 2.5 million Palestinians in Gaza.
“I did not raise Nazis in my house, and I personally am not a Nazi,” she said, adding that the state leadership must be removed “to find a solution and bring in the wise and sensible”.
Iran’s foreign minister says retaliatory response to attack on its consulate is ‘legitimate’
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian says he has spoken with his German, British and Australian counterparts about an attack on an Iranian consulate in Syria that Tehran blames on Israel.
Amirabdollahian said he emphasised that when Israel breaks “international law and the Vienna Conventions” by “violating” diplomatic and consular premises, then a retaliatory response is “legitimate”.
He referred to the April 1 attack in Damascus, which killed Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and his deputy, General Mohammad Hadi Hajriahimi.
Amirabdollahian said if the UN Security Council fails to condemn the attack, then a “legitimate defence with the aim of punishing the aggressor is a necessity”.
“I stated that Iran does not seek to expand the scope of the war but [seeks] the return of security in the volatile region,” he said in a post on X.
Blinken speaks to Turkish, Chinese, Saudi counterparts on avoiding escalation in Middle East
According to the US State Department, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken to the Turkish, Chinese and Saudi Arabian foreign ministers in the past 24 hours to make clear that escalation in the Middle East is not in anyone’s interest.
Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters at a news briefing that Washington continues to be concerned about the risk of escalation in the region, specifically after threats made by Iran towards Israel.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations suggested today that any Iranian military response to the deadly Israeli air raid on the Iranian consulate in Damascus could have been averted if the UN Security Council had denounced Israel’s attack.
Video shows moment Gaza City market was targeted by Israeli bombs
Video posted on Instagram by Palestinian journalist Mahmoud Zaqout – and verified by Al Jazeera – shows an earlier Israeli strike on Firas market in northern Gaza that killed at least six people.
Qassam Brigades surprises military analysts
Omar Ashour, a security and military studies professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, has spoken to Al Jazeera about how the performance of Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, over the past seven months has surprised many military analysts.
Here is a summary of his main points:
- The Qassam Brigades was completely outnumbered and outgunned in all domains – sea, air and land – as well as electronic and cyberwarfare.
- It created its own environment to be able to fight by constructing multilevel underground tunnels that doubled or tripled the size of Gaza.
- The tunnel network provided two of the three elements needed for combat effectiveness: protection from artillery and air strikes and mobility because the ground lines of communication are still connected.
- Many Hamas fighters remain, and Israel has killed only one of its three top commanders.
- If Israel wants to achieve its aim of destroying Hamas, the fight will take a lot longer than the Israeli military expected, and it may not even be possible.
White House says US told Iran it was not involved in Damascus attack
The United States has communicated to Iran that it was not involved in an air raid against a top Iranian military commander in Damascus, the White House said.
“We communicated to Iran that the US had no involvement in the strike that happened in Damascus and we have warned Iran not to use this attack as a pretext to escalate further in the region or to attack US facilities or personnel,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and his deputy General Mohammad Hadi Hajriahimi, were killed in the April 1 attack.
Demonstrators in Tel Aviv call for immediate prisoner swap deal with Hamas
There are currently large protests taking place in Tel Aviv with people calling for a prisoner exchange agreement with Hamas.
In videos posted on social media that were verified by Al Jazeera, demonstrators carried banners plastered with pictures of Israeli captives held in the Gaza Strip along with the words “Agree now” as they called on the Israeli government to work harder to come to an agreement in the long stalled negotiations.
A deal that includes the release of Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners has been discussed in the ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas and mediators from Qatar, the US and Egypt.
צועדים בשדרות רוטשילד "עסקה עכשיו" pic.twitter.com/QrVhtTxz2V
— לירי בורק שביט (@lirishavit) April 11, 2024
Translation: Walking on Rothschild Boulevard “Deal Now”
Hezbollah, Israeli military trade fire
We reported earlier that Hezbollah had claimed “direct attacks” on Israeli positions in the Kfarchouba area near the Israeli-Lebanese border.
The Israeli military now says its fighter jets attacked an observation post and three military buildings belonging to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Al Jazeera’s reporter in southern Lebanon, Ali Hashem, said the Israeli military attacked the Lebanese border town of Naqoura during the day with artillery fire.
Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and the Israeli military have traded fire since October 8, the day after Hamas’s attack on southern Israel and the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza. In recent months, tensions and fears of a regional conflagration have escalated.
Israeli raid targets central Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp
An Israeli raid has just targeted a residential home in Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp, Al Jazeera’s correspondent reports.
It is among several dense, built-up refugee camps in Gaza, and is near the Nuseirat refugee camp, where the Israeli army says it is currently conducting an “operation” on the outskirts of the camp.
We’ll bring you more on this soon.