Israel’s war on Gaza updates: 6 months of war sees children deprived of aid

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We will be closing this live page soon. Here’s a quick recap of today:

• Israeli forces have raided Jenin city and refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, and have brought in bulldozers and destroyed essential infrastructure. Confrontations broke out soon after, according to local media.
• Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh has said the group remains committed to its demands for a potential ceasefire, including the Israeli army pulling out of Gaza.
• At least four Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air attack on a residential building in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah.
• The United States has said it wants to see the Israeli investigation into an attack that killed seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers in Gaza wrapped up as soon as possible, as international outcry over the incident mounts.
• Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has met Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Doha, where the two discussed the situation in Gaza and the region.

The US Central Command posted on X that it had conducted a combined humanitarian assistance airdrop into northern Gaza on Wednesday, along with the Royal Jordanian Air Force.

It said that “US C-130s dropped over 38,000 meal equivalents, providing life-saving humanitarian assistance in Northern Gaza”.

“During today’s mission, approximately four bundles landed in the sea. USCENTCOM does not assess civilian harm or damage to infrastructure at this time but continues to monitor the situation,” the post read.

In March, 12 Palestinians drowned attempting to retrieve aid from the sea.

Aid agencies have criticised the airdrops as a costly and ineffective way of delivering aid and have urged Israel to allow more aid to enter via the land border.

Dr Marwan al-Hams, director of al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, says that the killing of seven aid workers by the Israeli army is a wake-up call for the world’s governments to stop supporting the Israeli government and war effort with weapons.

Watch our video to hear more of what he said:

A Hamas leadership source told Al Jazeera that Israel is still “intransigent” in talks to secure a truce in Gaza and an exchange of prisoners.

“The occupation rejects the ceasefire, the withdrawal from the Strip, the return of the displaced and a real exchange of prisoners,” the source told Al Jazeera.

These positions have been core to Hamas’s demands during negotiations for weeks now.

Israeli PM Netanyahu “still puts obstacles to an agreement and is not interested in the release of [the] Israeli hostages”, the source said, adding that he is “trying to buy time and absorb the anger of the captives’ families and show false interest in continuing negotiations”. 

The Israeli military has now issued a statement regarding the AI ‘Lavender’ system that we reported on earlier, which was reportedly used to identify and clear Hamas targets in Gaza for strikes.

In it, the Israeli military said that its analysts must conduct “independent examinations” to verify that the identified targets meet the relevant definitions in accordance with international law and additional restrictions stipulated by its forces.

It refuted the notion that the technology is a “system”, but instead “simply a database whose purpose is to cross-reference intelligence sources, in order to produce up-to-date layers of information on the military operatives of terrorist organizations”.

“According to international humanitarian law, a person who is identified as a member of an organized armed group [like the Hamas military wing], or a person who directly participates in hostilities, is considered a lawful target,” the statement read.

The Israeli military procedures “require conducting an individual assessment of the anticipated military advantage and collateral damage expected” for each target, the statement said.

It added that it “does not carry out strikes when the expected collateral damage from the strike is excessive in relation to the military advantage”.

Open Arms, the Spanish NGO working with World Central Kitchen, whose aid workers were the victims of Israel’s attack, posted a tribute on X.

“The end of mission 110 arrives, the one we never could have imagined, the most painful. We miss Saifeddin, Zomi, Damian, Jacob, John, Jim, and James, but they will remain forever in our memory”

The NGO added that it will continue to speak up for the seven aid workers, the more than 32,500 people killed in Gaza, the hundreds of humanitarian workers, the destroyed hospitals, journalists and all the ‘isolated cases’ that are not just accidents, but “part of a structure of death and destruction”.

The end of mission 110 arrives, the one we never could have imagined, the most painful.
We miss Saifeddin, Zomi, Damian, Jacob, John, Jim, and James, but they will remain forever in our memory, and we will continue to speak up for them, for the more than 32,500 people killed in… pic.twitter.com/WySm6yY2LC

— Open Arms ENG (@openarms_found) April 3, 2024

Israeli forces have raided Jenin city and refugee camp, the Palestinian state news agency Wafa reported.

It cited security sources as saying a “large number of Israeli occupation forces” stormed Jenin. Soon after, confrontations erupted between armed Israeli soldiers and Palestinian residents.

Israeli forces raid the city regularly, often arresting and killing Palestinians while destroying essential infrastructure by levelling the streets with armoured bulldozers.

“Aid workers and journalists are indispensable and must be protected like all innocent civilians,” Hanke Bruins Slot says on X, referring to the incident on Monday in which seven World Central Kitchen aid workers were killed by an Israeli attack.

She said the Netherlands calls on “all parties involved to agree on an immediate ceasefire leading to a sustainable cessation of hostilities, to release all hostages, and to alleviate the suffering by providing humanitarian access: unhindered and unrestricted”.

I am deeply worried about developments in Gaza. Continued suffering, media restrictions, looming famine and the death of @WCKitchen aid workers are of utmost concern. Aid workers and journalists are indispensable and must be protected like all innocent civilians. 1/3

— Hanke Bruins Slot (@HankeBruinsSlot) April 3, 2024

On Telegram, the group’s armed wing, the Quds Brigades, says that it “bombed ‘Sderot’, ‘Niram’ and the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip”.

Israeli media outlets confirmed the attack, saying air raid sirens sounded in the areas of Israel surrounding Gaza. Israeli website Ynet says that two rockets were fired, and that one was intercepted and the other landed in an open area.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and discussed “regional and international developments”, the Emiri Diwan has said.

The two talked about the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory and the Gaza Strip as well, it said.

During the meeting, Sheikh Tamim reiterated the need to de-escalate the situation in Gaza and to open safe corridors to allow humanitarian aid to enter, it added.

Earlier, Sanchez met Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani. The pair spoke at a news conference, where Sheikh Mohammed commended Spain on its position regarding Palestinian statehood.

Sheikh Mohammed called on the international community to ensure that the perpetrators of the attack on the World Central Kitchen aid convoy are held accountable. For his part, Sanchez said Israel’s explanation for the attack was “unacceptable and insufficient”.

Video verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking unit shows a crowd of hungry Palestinians racing to collect aid drops falling from the sky.

Aid drops over north Gaza, an area of the strip which a UN-backed report says is teetering on the brink of famine, have been much criticised for putting needy Palestinians at risk.

In one incident, only last week, several people drowned trying to retrieve aid drops that had fallen into the sea. This is only one incident in which Palestinians have died due to airdrops.

These airdrops are carried out by the US and its allies, and the US has said that they will continue despite the risk. Meanwhile, Israel continues to block aid from entering the Gaza Strip via land routes.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by عبد الرحمن ناصر | Abdulrahman Nasir (@abdulrahman_nasir7)

Translation: This is us every day in north [Gaza]. We don’t get food except by taking risks.

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation has said Israel’s Air Force is on high alert as it expects an Iranian response to the air raid on an Iranian embassy compound in Damascus on Monday.

Israeli media also reported that reserve forces operating air defence systems would be called up.

After the attack, which killed Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and six others, Israel put all its embassies around the world on high alert.

US officials have also expressed concerns that its troops stationed in the region could be targeted.

During a recent telephone call, the Iranian foreign minister told his Lebanese counterpart that the attack on its consulate in Damascus would not go unanswered and Washington must take responsibility for Israel’s attacks.

“When a leading member of Israel’s war cabinet calls for early elections and over 70% of the Israeli population agrees according to a major poll, you know it’s the right thing to do,” the Senate majority leader and top-ranking Jewish elected official in US history says on X.

Earlier, we reported that Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz said in a speech that Israel should have elections in September.

“Setting such a date will allow us to continue the military effort while signalling to the citizens of Israel that we will soon renew their trust in us,” he said.

Senator Schumer made waves about two weeks ago, when he slammed Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his handling of Israel’s war on Gaza, calling for him to be replaced.

When a leading member of Israel’s war cabinet calls for early elections and over 70% of the Israeli population agrees according to a major poll, you know it’s the right thing to do. https://t.co/yGCHknmr8M

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 3, 2024

Gaza’s media office says it released updated “key figures” to mark 180 days since Israel launched its deadly assault on the besieged enclave.

Here are some of the most notable figures, according to the office:

• At least 32,975 Palestinians have been killed, including 14,500 children.
• Thousands more remain missing or trapped under the rubble.
• At least 484 medical staff members have been killed.
• More than 75,500 Palestinians have sustained injuries.
• Around 17,000 children have lost either one or both parents.
• More than one million people have been affected by infectious diseases due to repeated displacement.
• More than 300 medical staff members and 12 journalists have been arrested by Israeli forces.
• At least two million Palestinians are now internally displaced in Gaza.
• 70,000 housing units have been completely destroyed.

The Israeli military posted a quote from its chief of the general staff on X in which he stated that the army is pressing to “initiate movement” in negotiations that could lead to the release of the captives held in the Gaza Strip.

Thousands of Israelis continue to stage daily protests against the government, demanding it secure a ceasefire deal and ensure the release of captives while also calling for early elections.