Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is calling for a “repeal” of the newly adopted Israeli law that paves the way for a ban on Al Jazeera and other foreign news networks.

In a statement, RSF said the new law “above all targets Al Jazeera”.

“Israel is using every possible method to try to silence Al Jazeera for its coverage of the reality of the fate of Palestinians” in the occupied West Bank and Gaza since October 7, Jonathan Dagher, the head of RSF’s Middle East desk, said.

The group said Israel has killed at least 103 journalists in Gaza – at least three worked for the Doha-based network.

“Israel already inflicted terrible losses on Al Jazeera before 7 October,” it added, referring to the killing of veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli forces in May 2022.

Palestinian American congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has decried Israel’s passing of a law that would allow it to ban Al Jazeera’s presence in the country, along with other foreign news networks.

“First they murdered journalists like Shireen Abu Akleh who were exposing the truth,” Democratic Representative Tlaib said in a post on X, referring to the veteran Al Jazeera journalist who was killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in May 2022.

“Now they want to completely shut down Al Jazeera to stop the world from seeing their war crimes,” Tlaib said.

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention says that the Israeli bombing strikes on the southern city where nearly 1.4 million people are sheltering “could be the opening salvo to Israel’s promised ground invasion of the town”.

“This bombing is a genocidal act conducted by Israel against a trapped civilian population,” the organisation says in a post on X.

“There is no way to ensure that protection in urban combat with an army that has proved to be motivated by genocidal zeal.”

The organisation warns that if the US president fails to act on his own words to prevent the further genocide of the people of Gaza “and to behave in accordance with the rules-based international order he purports to prize, his betrayal of humanity will be remembered by the world forever.”

The Palestinian Ministry of Education says in a statement that another 10,219 students have been injured in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip since October 7. The ministry says that the majority of the students, 5,994, were killed in the besieged coastal enclave, while the remaining 56 were killed in the West Bank.

At least 105 students have been detained in the occupied West Bank since October 7, the ministry adds.

Newborn mortality is rising sharply in the Gaza Strip, with babies being born underweight, the World Health Organization has said, citing medics on the ground.

“From different doctors, particularly in the maternity hospitals, they’re reporting that they’re seeing a big rise in children born with low birth weight, and just not surviving the neonatal period because they’re born too small,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said at a briefing in Geneva.

She said that at Kamal Adwan, the only paediatric hospital in northern Gaza, “at least 15 malnourished children are coming in per day, and the needs are just getting ever more severe”.




Damage to Gaza infrastructure estimated at $18.5bn

According to a new report released by the World Bank and the United Nations, that number is equivalent to 97 percent of the combined GDP of the West Bank and Gaza in 2022.

The report finds that damage to structures affects every sector of the economy. Housing accounts for 72 percent of the costs. Public service infrastructure such as water, health and education account for 19 percent, and damage to commercial and industrial buildings account for 9 percent.

“An estimated 26 million tons of debris and rubble have been left in the wake of the destruction, an amount that is estimated to take years to remove,” the report says.

The report also says:

• More than a million people are without homes, and 75 percent of the population is displaced.
• Eighty-four percent of health facilities have been damaged or destroyed.
• The water and sanitation system has nearly collapsed, delivering less than 5 percent of its previous output.
• The education system has collapsed with 100 percent of children out of school.

On its official Telegram channel, the Lebanese group says it fired a number of Katyusha rockets at the area of Nahariya, specifically at the Gesher HaZiv kibbutz.

It said that this attack was “in response to the Israeli attacks on the steadfast southern [Lebanese] villages and civilian homes, the latest of which was on the town of Yarin … wounding of a woman there”.

Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 says on X that air raid sirens were activated in the Nahariya area, and that MDA, Israel’s national emergency ambulance service, reported that no reports of damage or casualties from the rocket attack were reported.

World Central Kitchen (WCK) has shared the names and details of all seven of its staff killed in an Israeli attack on their convoy. “These seven beautiful souls were killed by the [Israeli army] in a strike as they were returning from a full day’s mission,” said WCK CEO Erin Gore.

“We have countless memories of them giving their best selves to the world,” said Gore. “We are reeling from our loss. The world’s loss.”

Their names are:

• Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha, 25, WCK relief team, Palestine
• Lalzawmi (Zomi) Frankcom, 43, WCK relief lead, Australia
• Damian Sobol, 35, WCK relief team, Poland
• Jacob Flickinger, 33, WCK relief team, United States and Canada
• John Chapman, 57, WCK security team, United Kingdom
• James (Jim) Henderson, 33, WCK security team, United Kingdom
• James Kirby, 47, WCK security team, United Kingdom
  

What does CNN drag back up

https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2024/04/02/hamas-israeli-hostage-sexual-violence-sheryl-sandberg-doc-lead-vpx.cnn

https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2024/04/02/sheryl-sandberg-israel-hostages-sexual-assault-documentary-hamas-war-the-lead-jake-tapper.cnn

CNN is just a mouth piece for Israel, like all US media.



Biden just asks for an investigation, he couldn't care less about the result.

Biden calls for accountability but not ‘direct condemnation’ of Israel over aid worker killings

Nightly raids by the Israeli military on Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank continue with soldiers reported to have entered the towns of Azzun and Kafr Qaddum, east of Qalqilya city, in the early hours of Wednesday.

A home was raided and tear gas canisters and stun grenades were used by Israeli forces in Azzun, the Wafa news agency reports.

Confrontations between Palestinian locals resisting the military incursions and Israeli soldiers erupted in the al-Far’a refugee camp, south of Tubas city, Wafa reports, adding that military bulldozers accompanied the soldiers into the camp.

Military bulldozers were also in operations in the village of Deir Sharaf, located to the west of Nablus, where the Israeli military destroyed roads as well as the village’s water supply network. The destruction blocked several roadways and cut water to homes in the west of the village, Wafa said.

Earlier in the evening, a Palestinian man was arrested while passing through a military checkpoint north of Ramallah.

Four Israeli police injured, suspect killed after ramming attack near West Bank’s Qalqilya

مشاهد أولية من موقع عملية دهس في بلدة كوخاف يائير قرب قلقيلية#حرب_غزة #فيديو pic.twitter.com/R2TOwFPPn8

— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) April 2, 2024

Israeli forces raid houses, arrest three Palestinians in occupied West Bank

Israel arrests 30 people in West Bank: Report

_{Israeli soldiers raid Al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on March 4}

Troops continue to engage in close-quarter combat and call in air raids against Palestinian fighters in al-Amal neighbourhood, killing a number of them, according to the Israeli military’s latest update.

Over the last day, Israeli air raids also took out extensive Hamas military infrastructure in Khan Younis, it said, including weapons depots, launch posts, and military compounds.

The Israeli military’s latest wave of attacks in Gaza also killed numerous civilians, including a child and two women in the Nuseirat refugee camp, reports the Palestinian Wafa news agency.

Overnight Israeli attacks kill, injure dozens in Gaza: Report

UNRWA: Israel continues to deny agency aid access to north Gaza

🔹176 @UNRWA staff were tragically killed since the beginning of the war in #Gaza

🔹In March over half of @UN supplies delivered via Rafah and Kerem Shalom were UNRWA's

🔹Israeli authorities continue to deny UNRWA access to the north with food assistance & other basic supplies

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) April 3, 2024

Gaza media office says number of journalists killed now stands at 140

Thousands of Israelis protested for a fourth consecutive day against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and in favour of an agreement to end Israel’s war on Gaza.

The demonstrators gathered with banners and torches near the parliament building in Jerusalem on Tuesday evening where they called for new elections and accused Netanyahu of standing in the way of a deal that would free Israeli captives held in Gaza.

The DPA news agency said that clashes between police and demonstrators broke out when protesters tried to march to Netanyahu’s private residence and break through a security barrier protecting the site.

Five protesters were arrested for “violating public order”, the police said.


_{Antigovernment protesters gather with signs and candles in Jerusalem on April 2, 2024, calling for the dissolution of the Israeli government and a deal that will see the return of Israelis held captive in the Gaza Strip}

Why Biden’s White House iftar unravelled amid Gaza war

UK healthcare workers protest against US company supplying Israel’s army

‘Plausible risk of genocide in Gaza’: UN eyes Israel arms embargo

The State of Palestine has written to UN Chief Antonio Guterres requesting renewed consideration of its application for full UN membership. The Arab Group, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Non-aligned Movement, representing dozens of UN member states, have also sent a letter in support of Palestine’s admission.

As we reported earlier, Palestine’s UN envoy Riyad Mansour said the aim was for the UN Security Council (UNSC) to make a decision at an April 18 ministerial meeting on the Middle East.

He said that although a vote had yet to be scheduled, a 2011 Palestinian application for full membership was still pending because the 15-member council never made a formal decision.

Palestine holds observer status at the UN and its application to become a full UN member needs to be approved by the UNSC – where the US can cast a veto – and then at least two-thirds of the 193-member UN General Assembly.

Supporters of Palestine’s bid for full UN membership have written a letter to the current presidents of the UN Security Council (UNSC), the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and UN Chief Antonio Guterres.

“We wish to bring to your attention that, as of this date, 140 Member States have recognised the state of Palestine,” signatories to the letter said.

The list of 140 countries shows that Palestine has the support of 72 percent of UN members, comfortably more than the two-thirds of the 193-member UNGA needed.

However, the decision will only go to a vote in the UNGA if it is first approved by the 15-member UNSC where the five permanent members, including the United States, have veto power.

Belgium’s Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib says the country will consider recognising Palestinian statehood “when the moment comes”.

Speaking at a NATO summit, Lahbib also expressed concern about the international response to the Gaza war, saying the UN Security Council Resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire” last month has been shown to be toothless.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the resolution “must be implemented without delay”.

As we reported earlier, Australian Prime Minister Antony Albanese has told journalists he conveyed “anger and concern” to the Israeli prime minister over the killing of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom.

Albanese has now shared a video of his remarks, which were made at a news conference at Parliament House in Canberra this morning. “These people are heroes,” Albanese said, describing Frankcom and the other aid workers killed.

Responding to questions from journalists, Albanese told journalists he was joining the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Nations in “a consistent demand for full accountability” over the attack. “We await that to occur,” he said.

Albanese noted that Australia had joined calls for a ceasefire at the UN, although he did not directly renew that call during the news conference. He also did not refer to Australia’s weapons industry, which activists say is linked to Israel’s war on Gaza.

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese said, based on an assessment, that she believes the Israeli military “intentionally killed” the seven aid workers in Gaza to scare donors of humanitarian relief and ensure the continued starvation of Palestinians.

Albanese, the UN’s envoy on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, said that having knowledge of the Israeli military’s operating procedures, the killings were carried out deliberately so that “donors would pull out & civilians in Gaza would continue to be starved quietly”.

“Israel knows Western countries & Arab countries won’t move a finger for the Palestinians,” she said on social media.

Earlier, the special rapporteur said the killings of the aid workers coincided with Israel’s bombing of a foreign embassy in Syria.

“Israel is crossing every possible red line, still will full impunity. Sanctions now. Indictments now,” she said.

Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), has called Biden’s criticism of Israel’s failure to protect aid workers in Gaza “empty words”.

Commenting on a news article quoting from a public statement by Biden, in which the president said he was “outraged and heartbroken” over the killing of seven aid workers in Gaza by Israeli forces, Roth noted that “Biden keeps arming and funding Israel anyway”.

The former longtime director of HRW also said: “Nor has Israel done enough to avoid killing and starving Palestinian civilians.”

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reports that sources in the Israeli military have blamed the killing of seven aid workers in Gaza “on a lack of discipline on the part of commanders in the field”.

Contradicting claims by Israel’s Ministry of Defence that “a lack of coordination” between the military and humanitarian organisations was to blame for the killings of the World Central Kitchen staff, military sources told Haaretz that “the problem lies in the activity of officers in violation of procedures”.

A source in Israel’s intelligence division told the newspaper: “In Gaza, everyone sets the rules for themselves”.

UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine Francesca Albanese said she believed the Israeli military “intentionally killed” the aid workers to scare humanitarian relief donors and ensure the continued starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.

US officials express doubt over Israeli claims on convoy killings: Report

Denouncement of deliberate attacks on humanitarian workers in Gaza

The Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) and seven Australian humanitarian aid organisations have issued a joint statement condemning the “rising aid worker death toll in Gaza”.

The organisations said Australian Zomi Frankcom, who was killed along with six World Central Kitchen colleagues on Monday, was one of “hundreds of humanitarian workers killed by this conflict”, including staff of some of the organisations that signed the joint statement.

“The World Central Kitchen workers were part of an international effort to address the food crisis threatening the lives of millions of Palestinians, created by blockages to the supply of aid, especially in the North of Gaza,” the statement said.

The organisations called on the Australian government to pursue diplomatic action in support of a permanent ceasefire and said polling showed four in five Australians (81 percent) are in favour of a ceasefire in Gaza.

The World Central Kitchen has said Israel was responsible for the strikes that killed its staff, but the joint statement from Australian organisations did not specify who was responsible.

Dennis Francis, the president of the UN General Assembly, is “outraged by the tragic killings of the World Central Kitchen aid workers by the Israeli strike”. “These were people who came to help others in the most dangerous and dire circumstances,” said Francis, who is also Trinidad and Tobago’s UN ambassador, in a post on social media.

“I simply have no words left,” he said.

The UNGA voted overwhelmingly in support of a ceasefire in December last year.

Despite the simplicity of their meal, and the rubble under their table, Khaled, Siham, and their children celebrate their Iftar during #Ramadan.

WFP is providing desperately needed food to 1.45 million people in #Gaza each month, but as #famine closes in, we need more access. We… pic.twitter.com/zPMgpq2goR

— World Food Programme (@WFP) April 3, 2024

A senior Canadian government official says several nations will soon file the formal rebuke, known as a demarche, to Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

On Tuesday, a top official with Canada’s Global Affairs department also made a formal representation to the Israeli ambassador to Canada, The Associated Press quoted the unnamed official as saying.

Among the aid workers killed late on Monday was a Canadian-American dual national, as well as a Palestinian, three British citizens, and Polish and Australian nationals.

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly has called for a full investigation into the killing of aid workers in Gaza, among them a Canadian citizen. Speaking on the sidelines of a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels, she said Israel needed to respect international law, adding Canada would make sure it does.