Main events on April 3rd

PM’s move to fire Shin Bet chief ‘fundamentally flawed’: Israel attorney general

Israel’s attorney general has criticised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dismissal of internal security chief Ronen Bar saying it’s “tainted by a personal conflict of interest”.

“The decision to terminate the tenure of the head of the Shin Bet is fundamentally flawed, tainted by a personal conflict of interest on the part of the prime minister due to the criminal investigations involving his associates,” a spokesperson for Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said in a statement.

The move will lead to the “politicisation” of the position, it added.

Shin Bet chief accuses Netanyahu of acts ‘against the citizens’

The tumult between the head of Israel’s domestic security agency Shin Bet and Prime Minister Netanyahu continues with an explosive allegation that Israel’s leader pressured Ronen Bar to tell judges he couldn’t testify at his corruption trial.

In a letter submitted to the High Court, Bar said his firing was initiated after he refused Netanyahu’s request. Pressure was also exerted on him to carry out actions he described as “against the citizens of the state”.

Netanyahu and Bar have been at loggerheads for months amid tensions over a bribery investigation focused on the Prime Minister’s Office and recriminations over the failure to prevent the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks on southern Israel.

Bar previously said his removal was motivated by a desire to halt the “pursuit of truth” about the events leading up to October 7.

‘Full of lies’: Netanyahu hits back at fired Shin Bet chief

The office of the Israeli prime minister has hit back against Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet security agency that Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to dismiss.

Earlier today, Bar alleged in a letter to Israel’s Supreme Court that Netanyahu had asked him to tell judges that the prime minister must not testify at his own corruption trial because of “security reasons”.

“This statement is full of lies,” said the Prime Minister’s Office in a statement, adding Netanyahu has never “used the organisation’s powers inappropriately against Israeli citizens”.

The distrust towards Bar is rooted in “undermined professional trust”, particularly revolving around the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks, it said.

The Prime Minister’s Office said the Shin Bet chief is “the only one motivated by personal motives” because he insists on keeping his position despite “losing the trust of the entire government”.

UN Human Rights Council adopts two Palestine resolutions

The UN’s Human Rights Council has adopted two resolutions presented by Palestine that reaffirm the illegality of Israel’s occupation and support the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.

One of the resolutions recognises that Israeli occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is against international law and must be ended. It also calls for divestment from and boycott of entities operating within illegal Israeli settlements and holding perpetrators of Israeli settler violence to account.

It was approved with 34 votes in favour, 10 countries abstaining, and three opposing.

The other resolution expressed its backing for the inalienable right of Palestinians to determine their fate, encompassing their right to establish an independent state and to live in freedom, justice, and dignity.

It was adopted after getting 43 votes in support, with two countries abstaining and two opposing.

#HRC58 | Draft resolution A/HRC/58/L.32/Rev.1 (as orally revised) on Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan, was ADOPTED. pic.twitter.com/8W0y6XsrCm

— UN Human Rights Council (@UN_HRC) April 4, 2025

US completes sale of 20,000 assault rifles to Israel despite settler concerns

The Trump administration has reportedly finalised the sale of more than 20,000 US-made assault rifles to Israel despite concerns they may end up in the hands of violent settlers in the occupied West Bank.

The Biden administration delayed the shipment, but his successor sent a notification to Congress on March 6 for the $24m sale, Reuters news agency reported.

The end user will be Israeli police, Washington has argued, with the government claiming it has taken into account “political, military, economic, human rights, and arms control considerations”. The rifle sale is a small transaction next to the billions of dollars worth of weapons the US supplies to Israel.

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir oversees the Israeli police force. The Times of Israel newspaper reported in November 2023 his ministry put “a heavy emphasis on arming civilian security squads” in the aftermath of October 7 attacks.

Independent Palestinian state in West Bank ‘not possible’: Israeli FM

When Israel’s foreign minister was asked by the French daily Le Figaro if there are plans to annex the occupied West Bank, he described the area as “disputed territories, not occupied ones”.

“For us, these are disputed territories, not occupied ones. We have often been ready to negotiate. But that’s not possible with the current Palestinian Authority,” Gideon Saar told the outlet.

“We don’t want to lead them. But an independent Palestinian state today in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] is not possible, because it would be led by Hamas and would endanger Israel’s security.”

Palestinians in Gaza call on international community to ‘stop bloodshed’

A single Israeli air strike in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis area has killed more than 20 people, a medical source at Nasser Hospital says.

“My grandfather’s house was bombed … without warning,” said Ahmed al-Aqqad, whose family owned the building. More bodies may be buried “under the rubble, but we cannot get them out because of the lack of necessary equipment”, he said.

“We call on the entire world to stand together to stop the bloodshed,” his relative Diaa al-Aqqad said.

WFP says its Gaza programmes ‘shutting down’ due to aid blockade

The UN’s World Food Programme says that as food stocks in Gaza run out due to Israel’s ongoing blockade, its initiatives are “gradually shutting down”.

“We urgently need aid to enter Gaza,” the agency said.

As food stocks in #Gaza run out, WFP's various assistance programmes are gradually shutting down.

◼️All WFP-supported bakeries are closed
◼️Last food parcels were distributed this week
◼️Hot meals continue, but supplies are running low

We urgently need aid to enter Gaza. pic.twitter.com/kyhYc1tUVG

— World Food Programme (@WFP) April 4, 2025

Gaza City no longer able to provide water to citizens

The municipal authority has told Al Jazeera that Israeli attacks on water infrastructure have left it unable to provide potable water. A spokesperson for the municipality said that the rest of the Strip is facing similar struggles due to a lack of fuel to operate generators that power water-pumping stations.

Israel has completely blockaded the Gaza Strip for more than a month now, meaning essential supplies like food and medicine have not entered the territory in that time.

Qatar condemns Israel’s Gaza school bombing, Saudi centre attack

Qatar says it considers the Israeli shelling of the Dar al-Arqam School in Gaza City and the destruction of a warehouse east of Rafah belonging to the Saudi Center for Culture and Heritage a “blatant violation of international humanitarian law”.

The Foreign Ministry in a statement renewed its call for urgent action by the international community to stop “repeated crimes against civilians and civilian facilities, and to compel Israel to comply with international law”.

It condemned relentless Israeli attacks and called on the UN Security Council to assume its responsibility and stop the Gaza war.

_{Palestinians inspect damage at the Dar al-Arqam School that had sheltered families displaced in the war}

‘Legs cut off’: Witness tells of injuries to children from Israeli helicopter attack on tent shelters

A Palestinian man has told the UN of the horrific injuries to children and others following an Israeli Apache helicopter attack on people sleeping in makeshift tents in the al-Mawasi area of central Gaza.

“The Apache came in, we were so terrorised we couldn’t even hear a sound, everything was on fire,” Adel tells the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in a video shared on social media.

“Everything was melting on our little kids. We had to run away. We saw some kids here, some in pieces, some in tears. A woman with her leg cut off. A boy with legs cut off. Another kid with an eye popping out. A little girl whose foot flew off, bleeding,” he said.

The Israeli military had previously declared al-Mawasi a so-called “safe zone” for people it forcibly displaced from other areas of Gaza, while still attacking the area continuously.

‘We will complete the victory’ soon in Gaza: Netanyahu

At a meeting with Jewish community leaders in Hungary, Prime Minister Netanyahu said his military is winning “a war on seven fronts for the eternity of Israel” at a historic moment.

“With God’s help we will complete the victory in the near future,” Netanyahu said, according to his office. Victory will require the return of all captives held in Gaza, he said, adding “our soldiers are fighting and putting pressure on the Hamas monsters.”

Earlier, Israeli military chief Eyal Zamir met with families of the captives in Israel and said returning them is a “top priority” – despite expanding attacks and a ground invasion of Gaza.

The families have remained unconvinced, protesting at the government and calling for a resumption of the ceasefire deal with Hamas to release all captives.

Hamas: Half of living captives held in Gaza areas under Israeli siege

Abu Obeida, spokesman of the military wing of Hamas, has warned that some of the captives who are still alive in Gaza may be in imminent danger:

Eleventh MSF worker killed in Gaza, says medical charity

Doctors Without Borders (also known by its French acronym, MSF) says that another of its staff members has been killed in Gaza, in an Israeli air strike alongside his family members.

MSF said it was “appalled and saddened by the killing of our colleague Hussam Al Loulou by an airstrike on the morning of 1 April”. “Our colleague Hussam was killed along with hundreds of others across the Gaza Strip since the resumption of attacks by Israeli forces on 18 March,” the medical charity said.

The 58-year-old watchman at MSF’s urgent care unit in Khan Younis was killed along with his wife and 28-year-old daughter in the “horrendous attack” southwest of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, MSF said.

Al Loulou is the 11th MSF worker killed in Gaza since the start of the war on the enclave. The organisation hailed Al Loulou for his “selflessness, humility and genuine care for those around him”, adding that he was survived by two sons.

“We strongly condemn his killing and call yet again for the immediate restoration of the ceasefire and protection of civilians,” MSF said. “This bloodshed needs to end.”

Hundreds of aid workers have been killed in Gaza since the war began.

Houthis claim to target US aircraft carrier

In a statement, a spokesperson for Yemen’s Houthi rebels says they targeted the USS Harry Truman in an engagement that lasted “for hours”. He also said the group attacked other US surface vessels with “a number of cruise missiles”.

The Houthis also claimed to attack the USS Truman yesterday. However, no statement on these claims has yet been made by the US Army.

Continuation of our operations show ‘American failure’: Houthi leader

Houthi chief Abdel Malik al-Houthi says the fact that the Yemeni group is still capable of launching missiles and drones “at sea and deep within the enemy’s territory” shows that the US has failed.

In his latest televised speech, he said the “escalation of the American aggression” on Yemen in recent days has not eliminated the group’s military capabilities, and that the Houthis do not fear being in direct conflict with the US and Israel.

“We are not like those who watch the crimes of the Israeli enemy in Gaza. Rather, we are fulfilling our responsibility before God and will continue to support the oppressed Palestinian people,” al-Houthi said, calling on other Arab countries to take action as well.

“We will not be intimidated by America. We will continue our operations, and what matters to us is that God is pleased with us and that we escape his wrath while at the same time satisfying our human conscience.”

US spends almost $1bn on deadly Yemen strikes with limited results: Report

The Trump administration has spent nearly $1bn on attacks across Yemen since March 15 with limited impact on Houthi military capabilities, a news report says.

The Pentagon will likely need to request more funding from Congress to continue the deadly military campaign, but it may not receive it amid criticism from both sides of the aisle, one unnamed source told US broadcaster CNN.

US military and political officials have reportedly told Congress in recent days the Houthis have managed to fortify bunkers and maintain weapon stockpiles underground even though some of their military sites were destroyed.

The US has used long-range cruise missiles, GPS-guided glide bombs, and Tomahawk missiles in its attacks on Yemen while also utilising B-2 bombers out of Diego Garcia island in the Indian Ocean and bringing in a second aircraft carrier strike group to the region.

Israel’s army shoots down drone coming ‘from the east’

The Israeli military says its air defences intercepted a drone coming towards Israel “from the east”, without elaborating further. An initial assessment said the unmanned aerial vehicle was likely launched from Yemen, according to Israeli media.

The Houthis have not immediately commented, but the incident comes hours after the Yemeni group’s leader promised to continue attacks despite dozens of US air strikes across Yemen in recent days.


Yemen’s Houthis say they shot down F360 reconnaissance drone

The Houthi military spokesperson confirmed a single drone that Israel said was intercepted a few hours ago after coming “from the east” was launched by the Yemeni group.

The Houthis also shot down a Giant Shark F360 reconnaissance drone, Yahya Saree said in a televised speech.

The unmanned vehicle was “carrying out hostile missions in the airspace of Saada governorate” when it was brought down “using a locally made surface-to-air missile”, said Saree.

Palestinian teenager killed by Israeli forces near Bethlehem; medics blocked from providing assistance

The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the killing of Yusuf Bakr Zalou, a 17-year-old Palestinian teenager, who was shot by Israeli forces overnight, Wafa news agency reports. The killing took place in a village west of Bethlehem, the report said, adding that Israeli soldiers took away his body.

An official from the Palestinian Red Crescent told the news agency that his team was blocked by Israeli forces from approaching the scene, preventing medics from providing assistance.

In another attack earlier today, Israeli settlers assaulted a Palestinian in the village of Qira in the central occupied West Bank, local sources told Wafa. The settlers stormed the home of Mohammad Damin Abdu, the report said, physically assaulting him and setting his vehicle on fire.

Israel’s West Bank attack causes ‘largest displacement since 1967 war’: UN

The major Israeli military assault on northern areas of the occupied West Bank have caused the largest displacement of Palestinians in almost 60 years.

“It has resulted in systematic destruction, forced displacement, and demolition orders affecting Palestinian families and refugee camps,” the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA said in a post on X.

“The situation remains highly concerning.”

The Israeli army significantly intensified its incursions across the occupied territory two days after the Gaza ceasefire was reached on January 19. At least 40,000 people have been displaced so far.

Israeli settlers try to seize land, harass Palestinians in West Bank

Israelis from illegal settlements have begun ploughing Palestinian land with a tractor in the town of Sinjil, northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, in an attempt to take it, the Wafa news agency reports.

The Palestinian landowners are unable to access the area because Israeli authorities have declared it a military zone. The agricultural land north of Sinjil is reportedly estimated at 800 hectares (2,000 acres).

In a separate incident, Israeli settlers stormed the town of Beit Furik, southeast of Nablus, and were confronted by local Palestinian residents. There were no reports of casualties.

Israeli settlers assault Palestinian shepherds in West Bank

Illegal settlers attacked Palestinian herders in the southern West Bank, continuing their spree of violent assaults.

The settlers, under the protection of the Israeli forces, beat the Palestinian herders near the al-Maniya village, east of Bethlehem city, and tried to steal their sheep. As the confrontation erupted, Israeli troops intervened in favour of the settlers and fired tear gas at the Palestinians, witnesses said.

In February, the Israeli army carried out 1,475 attacks while settlers carried out 230 assaults against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to a report by the official Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission.

The International Court of Justice declared Israel’s longstanding occupation of Palestinian territories illegal in July. It demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Israeli army expands ground operation in north Gaza

In a statement on X, the military said its troops began operating in the Shujayea area in the northern Gaza Strip with the aim of “deepening control and expanding the security zone” in an apparent reference to Israel’s buffer zone along the Gaza fence.

As part of the operations, the army killed a number of “terrorists” and destroyed “terrorist infrastructure,” including a command and control centre used by Hamas, it said.

The Israeli army is allowing civilians “to evacuate the combat zone for their safety, via designated routes,” it added.

As we reported yesterday, at least 37 people were killed, including many women in and children, in Israeli attacks on north Gaza, specifically the Shujayea neighbourhood of Gaza City.

‘Apocalyptic’: Level of suffering in hospital ‘hard to imagine’

The inside of al-Ahli Hospital [also known as the Baptist Hospital] is nothing short of an apocalyptic scene. Just on the way here, on entering the hospital, we’ve seen crying fathers and collapsed mothers on one side of the hospital courtyard.

Crying their hearts out over the bodies of their loved ones and family members killed, as of yesterday, in the mass bombardment of Shujayea or the attack on the schools where people were sheltering. We are seeing bodies laid on the ground and they are counted in the 10s.

We’ve seen doctors, they are helpless. They don’t know what to do. They are unable to save lives given the dire situation inside the hospital. We’ve seen surviving family members inside the hospital who are very concerned, very worried. They don’t know if even this place is safe for them to stay in or not.

But above all they look traumatised because many of them were pulled from under the rubble of bombed homes inside Shujayea.

Israeli forces continue attacks on southern Gaza

Israeli forces have carried out attacks on residential buildings in the city of Rafah. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

At least 38 Palestinians have been killed throughout the Gaza Strip since dawn in Israeli bombardment with 30 of the dead in the south. At least 17 people, some from the same family, were killed after an air strike hit the southern city of Khan Younis, according to hospital staff.

The attacks came a day after Israeli bombardment killed at least 100 Palestinians.

Gaza residents say ‘no shelter left’ as displacement crisis worsens

Over the past two weeks, more than 280,000 people have been displaced in Gaza, according to the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA.

“I swear to God that I am staying in the street, there is no shelter here,” Hemam al-Rifi, 40, told Reuters news agency, noting that members of his family were killed when the Gaza City school complex they sheltered in was hit by Israel’s deadly strike on Thursday.

“My house was destroyed at first, and I stayed in a tent in a school, not a classroom, and now I don’t know where to go.”

Israel turns 60% of Gaza into ‘no-go’ zones: UN

Israel has now restricted Palestinians’ access to roughly two-thirds of Gaza either by declaring large areas as no-go zones or issuing forced displacement orders, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Among the restricted areas is a large swath of southern Rafah where Israel’s military issued a new displacement order on March 31, declaring it’s returning to “fight with great force”.

The restrictions also cover parts of northern Gaza City where Israeli troops launched a new ground offensive on Friday to expand their “security zone”.

Two-thirds of the #Gaza Strip are under Israeli displacement orders or in 'no go' zones.

All crossings are completely closed for incoming supplies - now for the 2nd month.

Humanitarian operations are obstructed.

Nowhere is safe. #CeasefireNow pic.twitter.com/z4i4H5jInk

— OCHA OPT (Palestine) (@ochaopt) April 3, 2025

Main events on April 4th

Footage shows PRCS ambulances clearly marked during Israeli attack on medics

As we previously reported, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has called for an independent investigation into the killing of 15 Palestinian medics and aid workers in Gaza by Israeli soldiers last month.

The aid workers disappeared on March 23 during a rescue mission in Rafah’s Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood after they came under attack by Israeli forces, who claimed the crew was “advancing suspiciously” without headlights or emergency signals.

A video recording – found on the cellphone of one paramedic and provided to The New York Times by a senior UN diplomat who requested anonymity – appears to directly contradict the Israeli military’s version of events.

The footage, the time and location of which was verified by The Times, shows that the PRCS ambulances and firetruck were clearly marked and had their emergency lights on before they were attacked by Israeli soldiers.

At least two rescue workers can also be seen wearing reflective uniforms as they exit their vehicles to tend to a stranded ambulance when Israeli troops open fire.

In the video recording by the paramedic – who was later found in a mass grave with a bullet in his head – he can be heard repeatedly saying the “shahada”, the Muslim declaration of faith recited when facing death.

Evidence suggests some of the men were killed execution-style by Israeli forces.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/05/middleeast/gaza-aid-workers-video-israel-intl/index.html

The video is filmed from the front of a vehicle and shows a convoy of clearly marked ambulances moving along a road at dawn, with headlights and flashing emergency lights on.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) asserted last week that “several uncoordinated vehicles were identified advancing suspiciously toward IDF troops without headlights or emergency signals. IDF troops then opened fire at the suspected vehicles.”

After the video emerged, the IDF repeated that the incident was being investigated.

The video shows the convoy stopping when it comes across another vehicle at the side of the road – which the PRCS says was an ambulance that had been sent earlier to help injured civilians. Two of the rescuers who get out of the vehicles are wearing uniforms. A fire truck and an ambulance at the scene are marked with the PRCS insignia.

Almost immediately there is intense gunfire, which can be heard hitting the convoy. The video ends, but the audio continues for five minutes.

PRCS president provides evidence of Israel’s slaying of 15 emergency workers in Gaza

We reported earlier that the president of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) Dr Younis al-Khatib has called for an independent investigation into the killing of 15 medics and aid workers by Israeli forces in Gaza last month.

Speaking during a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York, al-Khatib told reporters that he had presented audiovisual evidence to officials at the UN’s Security Council and asked for its support in launching an independent probe of the mass killing.

“I heard the voice of one of those team members who was killed. And his phone was found with this body. And he recorded the whole event. His last words, before being shot. Forgive me, Mom. I just wanted to help people. I wanted to save lives. And then he was killed.”

PRCS vice president, Marwan Jilani, also spoke at the news conference about the video evidence.

“This was the phone of one of our EMS members, of the paramedics who was killed. So, the phone was on his body. The phone was in his pocket. So, it was with him. That’s why we retrieved that video. There is a longer video,” Jilani said.

“I think the scale of this crime should force, that it should oblige the international community to do more and not to accept that this would be another incident that goes in the files and be forgotten after a few days,” he said.

‘Lone survivor’ describes Israeli attack on emergency workers

A Palestinian paramedic at the scene of the attack that killed 15 of his colleagues says he saw Israeli troops firing at emergency vehicles that he later saw stained with blood. Munther Abed, a volunteer for the Palestine Red Crescent, said he was responding to a call with two colleagues near Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip on March 23 when he was detained by the Israeli soldiers shortly before they opened fire on other emergency vehicles.

“I could see the vehicle of the civil emergency. The soldiers began shooting at the vehicles, they fired heavily,” he said. “It was dark and I couldn’t see what happened to the people there.”

The Palestine Red Crescent describes Abed as “the lone survivor” of the incident, with the fate of one missing paramedic still unclear. It was only after daybreak that the Red Crescent’s Munther Abed – who remained held by Israeli troops – was able to get a better idea of what happened to his colleagues.

“With the first light of day things become clearer. I saw the vehicles of the civil emergency and the Red Crescent. The doors of all the vehicles were open and there was blood on the vehicles,” he said. A bulldozer had dug four holes in the sand before crushing the wrecked vehicles and burying them. “At that time I had no clue about the fate of my colleagues,” he said.

Abed said he was held in detention by Israeli forces for about 15 hours during which he was interrogated and beaten. He said he saw the aid worker who is still missing, detained by Israeli soldiers.

“They asked me where I had been on October 7, they were saying Palestinians are terrorists, and that we are all terrorists.”

Eventually, he said, the soldiers made some checks on him before deciding to release him.