‘Inhumane horror’: Former UN official slams Israel’s attack on medics

Israel’s killing of 15 aid workers in Gaza is “almost certainly a war crime but it’s almost inhuman”, says Martin Griffiths, executive director of Mediation Group International.

“I don’t understand the culture within the [Israeli military] and those platoons for them to be able to do this. It’s a complete inhumane horror,” Griffiths told Al Jazeera. “It’s something to grieve, to observe, to record and to remind.”

Griffiths – former head of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) – also called on signatory nations of the Geneva Conventions to formally request an independent investigation.

The probe must be “one that most likely should go through the UN Security Council and should then presumably go through the International Criminal Court”, he added.

Israeli forces are deliberately and systematically targeting emergency workers

Israel has justified the attack on emergency and first responders as a response to suspicious movement by a number of those ambulances, and it added, later, that these ambulances were used by Hamas as operatives.

However, the latest video refutes the Israeli claims and justifications. They were all civilians, and they were wearing their uniforms when Israeli forces attacked them.

The sounds of the gunshots and last messages shared by these emergency responders are heartbreaking. One of them asked for forgiveness for his mum, and the other was trapped in the attack that was carried out with no warning.

We have heard horrific testimonies from one of the Palestinian paramedics who has survived the Israeli attacks in Rafah city. He said the Israeli military dug a huge hole in which they threw a number of Palestinians, who were later executed.

We just saw the bodies of the Palestinian paramedics that were recovered from the site of the attack. We can see clear signs of executions, and signs that they had their hands and legs tied, in a systematic and deliberate attack on those emergency workers.

Israeli army caught in lies over attacks on humanitarian workers

This is not the first time the Israeli army has been caught in a lie, especially when it comes to the targeting of emergency workers, UN and humanitarian aid staff.

Last year, there was the incident of Hind Rajab, the little girl trapped in her car who called for help and paramedics from the Palestine Red Crescent who tried to save her were attacked. It took days to find their bodies.

Then, there were attacks on the World Central Kitchen staff that killed international humanitarian workers. And they also killed UN local and international staffers.

Usually, the initial statement from the Israeli army says its soldiers acted in compliance with international law and targeted Palestinian gunmen. Then, when the truth comes out, it tries to walk it back and says there is an investigation under way.

But as we’ve heard from international human rights organisations, this is just talk because the Israeli army has become notorious for its impunity with which it carries out these deadly attacks.

‘Israel in fact has criminalized healthcare in Gaza’

Neve Gordon, a professor of international law at Queen Mary University of London, says the Israeli killing of the Palestinian rescuers is evidence not only of a war crime but also the more serious crime against humanity.

“The difference between a war crime and crimes against humanity is the systematic nature. And what we’ve seen over the past 18 months it that Israel has been systematically attacked healthcare units in the Gaza Strip, and systematically fabricated reasons why it attacked these healthcare units,” Gordon told Al Jazeera.

Clause 12 under international law clearly states, “medical units should be respected and protected at all times and should not be the object of attack”, he noted.

“Israel in fact has criminalised healthcare in Gaza.”

UN: 100 children killed, wounded in Gaza every day since war resumed

The United Nations says at least 100 children have been killed or injured every day in Gaza since Israeli strikes resumed on March 18. “Nothing justifies the killing of children,” Philippe Lazzarini, chief of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), posted on X.

Israel is turning the besieged territory into a “no land” for children and “young lives” are being “cut short in a war not of children’s making”, he said.

“This is a stain on our common humanity,” Lazzarini added.


Palestinian children suffer huge toll from Israel’s unrelenting war on Gaza

Children have been among the most severely affected by the continuing Israeli war on Gaza. Many of them have been killed, injured and orphaned and we can see that thousands of children have lost their limbs and they are suffering from severe trauma.

Palestinian groups call on UN rights chief Volker Turk to take action

The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC), made up of nine groups, has written to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk to demand action on Israel.

Israeli forces continue to kill Palestinians on a genocidal scale in Gaza and have created “conditions of life unfit for human survival,” the council told Turk.

Israel’s “intent to eliminate and eventually destroy Palestinians across unlawfully occupied Palestine” is also evident in occupied West Bank, the council said.

The council called on Turk to clearly label Israel’s conduct as genocide, pressure the Israeli government to end its genocide, ensure accountability for Israeli perpetrators, and mobilise the UN to implement a plan to end genocide against Palestinians across the occupied territory.

PHROC members include:

📌PHROC address the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), @volker_turk to demand an appropriate response to Israel’s manifestly unlawful actions across the OPT, especially in the northern West Bank and #Gaza Strip! https://t.co/JtMx8PK38Q

— Al-Haq الحق (@alhaq_org) April 4, 2025

British Medical Association cancels Gaza speech, sparking protests

The British Medical Association (BMA) has cancelled a lecture on Gaza by Dr Ang Swee Chai, co-founder of Medical Aid for Palestine, which she was set to give at its annual Medical Students’ Conference.

The BMA has not provided a reason for the cancellation. The move has led to protests in London, with demonstrators condemning the move as silencing medical voices speaking out on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Detained student Mahmoud Khalil says Columbia laid groundwork for his ‘abduction’

In a letter published in student newspaper the Columbia Daily Spectator, Khalil accused the Columbia University administration of laying “the groundwork for my abduction” and implored his peers not to “abdicate their responsibility to resist repression”.

“Columbia has suppressed student dissent under the auspices of combating antisemitism,” said Khalil, who was arrested by immigration authorities in March for his role in pro-Palestine protests and is now being detained at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center.

“Anyone who has truly engaged with the movement knows that claims that its goals and purpose are rooted in antisemitism are mere fabrication,” he added.

Khalil said the crackdown by US immigration authorities on foreign students involved in pro-Palestine campus protests is “oddly reminiscent of when I fled the brutality of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria”.

“To the students who remain apathetic to Columbia’s disregard for human life and its willingness to discard student safety: As pressure from the federal government intensifies, know that your neutrality on Palestine will not protect you,” he said.

_{People attend a protest in support of Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil while a hearing takes place at a court in Newark, New Jersey, on March 28}

Lebanese president meets US envoy to discuss southern Lebanon

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun discussed the latest developments in southern Lebanon during his meeting today with Deputy US Envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus.

According to a statement from the Lebanese presidency, the two discussed issues related to southern Lebanon, the international monitoring committee working to ensure the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah does not return to all-out war, the Israeli withdrawal from the country and the situation in the south.

Aoun and Ortagus also discussed the situation on the Lebanese-Syrian border.

Lebanon resists calls for Israel talks, fears normalisation may prompt divisions across the nation

We know what the US and the Israelis want from Lebanon: They want the Lebanese authorities to agree to political negotiations, to sit down for direct talks with the Israelis and discuss outstanding issues like border demarcation.

But Lebanese authorities say they are not ready for that. They are ready for military talks, technical talks, because they believe political negotiations can lure this country into normalising ties with Israel, which is a very divisive issue here.

There’s also the issue of Hezbollah. [US Deputy Envoy to the Middle East] Morgan Ortagus visited Lebanon in February, and she was very clear when she said the United States expects Lebanon to fully disarm Hezbollah – she reiterated that before arriving in Lebanon.

But this time, she has made no statement, which is raising many concerns in the country on whether she has issued some sort of ultimatum to Lebanon’s new leaders.

There is a shift in the balance of power in this country, and the United States is the main player. Lebanon’s new leadership has said it is committed to disarming all non-state actors in Lebanon, but it needs time.

It cannot force Hezbollah into disarming because this could risk internal strife in the country, and Hezbollah has made clear it is not ready to hand over its weapons to the state. It is cooperating with the army in southern Lebanon, but it won’t hand over its weapons until Israel fully withdraws from Lebanese territory, and until what it calls a national defence strategy comes into effect.

Israeli military carries out more air attacks in southern Gaza

We have been reporting on the Israeli military’s overnight attacks across Gaza. An Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent in the Palestinian enclave now reports that at least two people have been injured following an Israeli air strike in the centre of Khan Younis in the south.

Israeli fighter jets have also carried out a renewed bombing campaign targeting areas west of Rafah, also in southern Gaza.

Israeli Gaza bombing video said to show people thrown above destroyed buildings

A video clip of the recent, intense Israeli bombing in Gaza is reported to show people thrown high into the air from the force of the blasts.

What appear to be the bodies of people can be seen in the clip, which was shared by local journalists in Gaza, hurled high above buildings in the far distance as plumes of smoke and dust rise from the sites of multiple Israeli strikes.

“US rockets used by Israeli occupation to send both SOULS and BODIES of children to heaven!” one Gaza-based journalist wrote in a post accompanying the video, which was shared on social media.

Just in Gaza, US rockets used by Israeli occupation to send both SOULS and BODIES of children to heaven! pic.twitter.com/ih6BFgIjdU

— Motasem A Dalloul (@AbujomaaGaza) April 4, 2025

Israeli military launches raids, arrests across the West Bank

The Israeli military has launched raids across the occupied West Bank over recent hours, including the following areas:

Israeli rights groups say Israel ‘committing war crime’ of forcible displacement in West Bank

Israeli human rights group Yesh Din along with Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) have released a new joint report on “Israel’s forcible transfer of Palestinians” in the occupied West Bank, particularly shepherding communities northeast of Ramallah.

Titled “Displaced Communities, Forgotten People”, the report found that more than 1,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from their homes in the area since January 2023, and that “Israel bears responsibility for committing the war crime of forcible transfer of Palestinians in the West Bank”.

“The systematic nature of these acts, and their repetition in different locations lead to the grave conclusion that in certain areas of the West Bank, Israel is implementing practices of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians,” they add.

In the West Bank, the forcible transfer has begun.

Yesh Din and @PHRIsrael are publishing a new report today. Over the past two years, our staff and volunteers have visited Palestinian shepherding communities east of the Allon road, northeast of Ramallah, dozens of times. These… pic.twitter.com/7GF8zVKtsu

— Yesh Din English (@Yesh_Din) April 4, 2025

Israeli offensive in Jenin, Tulkarem marks 75 days of destruction

The Israeli military offensive in the north of the occupied West Bank enters its 75th day in Jenin and 69th in Tulkarem amid the continuing destruction of Palestinian properties.

The UNRWA said on Friday that the scale of displacement caused by the Israeli assault is “unprecedented since the 1967 war”.

Israeli forces sent more troops into Tulkarem over the weekend and gunfire could be heard in the Nur Shams refugee camp, which has also been under siege for several weeks.

Elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces carried out raids on Sa’ir, northeast of Hebron, Kafr Nima, west of Ramallah, Kafr ad-Dik, west of Salfit and Beita, south of Nablus.

The daily raids, mass arrests and killings in the Palestinian territory have spiked since the Hamas-led October 7 attack:

‘Deeply concerning’: Two British MPs detained by Israel

Israel has detained two British members of parliament visiting the country as part of a parliamentary delegation, British Foreign Minister David Lammy says.

The move is “unacceptable” and “deeply concerning”, he added.

“I have made clear to my counterparts in the Israeli government that this is no way to treat British Parliamentarians, and we have been in contact with both MPs tonight to offer our support,” Lammy said.

It’s unclear what the lawmakers were detained for, but the foreign minister added, “The UK government’s focus remains securing a return to the ceasefire and negotiations to stop the bloodshed, free the hostages, and end the conflict in Gaza.”

Different ways to bring Israeli leaders to justice for Gaza crimes

The new evidence of Israeli military war crimes in Gaza should spur the International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Karim Khan to issue more arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, a legal expert says.

Neve Gordon, a professor of international law at Queen Mary University of London, says it’s not only the killing of the 15 medics but other mounting proof, such as the use of starvation as a weapon, cutting off drinking water, and severing electricity supplies.

But, he said, the ICC is “under immense pressure” from states allied with Israel, led by the United States.

Other forms of international justice also exist, Gordon told Al Jazeera, including the concept of universal jurisdiction, under which suspected war criminals can be arrested by individual countries.

“I know here in the United Kingdom, there are a few law firms that are already preparing files against Israeli commanders and soldiers who have been participating. And I would hope, in other countries, the same thing will happen.”

Israeli army admits ‘an error’ in initial account of medic killings

Israeli media are citing military sources about the initial investigation into the killing of the 15 Palestinian medics near Rafah last month. Here are the main news lines:

Even the BBC couldn't ignore this cold hard video evidence

Israel buried victims ‘to erase the truth’: Palestinian Authority

The Palestinian Authority says the footage showing the killing of 15 emergency workers in Gaza disproves Israeli army claims it does not purposely attack the healthcare system.

“This shocking video is not just a tragic scene, but irrefutable evidence of the occupation’s brutality, its blatant violation of international laws and conventions, and its deliberate attempt to cover up the crime by burying the victims in mass graves and erasing the truth,” the Foreign Ministry said.

“This is a fully documented crime, part of the ongoing genocide and forced displacement campaign against our people.”

And it's not an isolated incident by any means. Mass graves have been found all over Gaza, mostly at hospitals...

Israeli journalists question army account of deadly attack on medics

Israel is doubling down on the claim at least six of the emergency workers gunned down by Israeli soldiers were Hamas fighters.

They don’t address the fact that the Israeli troops were quite close to the paramedics. They could identify them. They could speak to them. None of the medics were armed. The explanation provided as to why they were buried in a shallow mass grave is also quite unconvincing in that it says it’s standard procedure.

There are demands for an independent investigation, and that’s because the investigations of the Israeli military into misconduct and possible war crimes of its soldiers have seldom resulted in accountability. Israel’s largest human rights organisation, B’Tselem, has long considered the military justice system to be a fig leaf of the occupation.

Even Israeli journalists, who don’t usually question the military, are raising a lot of questions and saying this discrepancy, this video, is very damning.

Houthi official denounces Trump boast over Yemen air strike video

A Houthi official has condemned US President Donald Trump for boasting about blowing up “Houthi fighters” in Yemen.

In a video, a group of people is struck by an air strike that leaves a large crater at the scene.

“These Houthis gathered for instructions on an attack. Oops, there will be no attack by these Houthis! They will never sink our ships again!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

In response, Abdulrahman al-Ahnomi, head of the Houthi-run General Corporation for Radio and Television, denied Trump’s claims, saying those targeted were simply Yemeni villagers.

“The US president is showing off his terrorism before the world,” he wrote on X. “Targeting a tribal gathering is not a victory, but a reflection of the US’s failure to identify any real targets.”

CENTCOM conducts round-the-clock attacks on Houthis

US Central Command (CENTCOM) says the Harry S Truman carrier strike group is launching “continuous 24/7 operations” against Yemen’s Houthi targets.

The US launched its latest military campaign in Yemen in March after the Houthis threatened to resume attacks on regional shipping, citing Israel’s blockade on aid entering the Gaza Strip.

Our dedicated service members of the Harry S. Truman carrier strike group are on station, launching continuous operations 24/7 against Iran-backed Houthis...#HouthisAreTerrorists pic.twitter.com/37K8ktC1QB

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) April 5, 2025

One killed, four wounded in US attack on northern Yemen: Report

Houthi-affiliated news outlet Al Masirah TV says one person has been killed in a US attack on a solar energy store in the Hafsin area, west of Saada city. At least four others were injured.

Yemeni media earlier reported four air strikes on Sadaa, the rebels’ stronghold in the northern mountains.

“Civil protection teams are fighting to put out the blazes and rescue the victims,” said Saba news agency.

Rebel-held areas of Yemen have seen near-daily strikes blamed on the United States since Washington launched an air campaign against the Houthis on March 15. The group has attacked commercial and military shipping in what it says is a response to Israel’s devastating war on Gaza.