Casualties
- 33091 + killed* and at least 75,750 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
- 456+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.**
- Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,139.
- 600 Israeli soldiers have been killed since October 7, and at least 6,800 injured.***
*Gaza’s Ministry of Health confirmed this figure on its Telegram channel. Some rights groups estimate the death toll to be much higher when accounting for those presumed dead.
** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to the PA’s Ministry of Health on March 17, this is the latest figure.
*** This figure is released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.”
Key Developments
- Israel kills 54 Palestinians, wounds 91 in the past 24 hours across Gaza, raising the death toll since October 7 to 33,091 and the number of wounded to 75,750, according to the Gaza health ministry.
- UK foreign minister says Israel will be “held accountable” for the killing of seven aid workers including three British nationals. Reports of pressure mounting for UK to halt arms sales to Israel.
- UN says 75% of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are displaced.
- According to UN estimates, more than 7,000 Palestinians who were killed by Israeli airstrikes are still under the rubble in Gaza.
- The UN human rights council passes a resolution calling to hold Israel accountable for violations in Gaza, with 28 votes in favor against six against.
- Israeli media: US support for Israel is at risk.
- Palestinian armed factions launch rockets from Gaza towards cities of Asqalan (Ashkelon) and Sderot in southern day Israel
- Israeli army releases 101 detainees from Gaza.
- Israel bombs the surroundings of the Shebaa village in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah attacks Israeli positions across the border.
- West Bank: Israeli forces kill a Palestinian in Tulkarm.
- Israeli police fire tear gas at worshipers at al-Aqsa mosque and arrest several Palestinians during the last week of Ramadan’s prayers.
Israel kills 54 Palestinians, wounds 83 in the past 24 hours
Israeli strikes on the Palestinian cities, towns, and refugee camps in the Gaza Strip continued for the 182nd day on Friday, April 5, causing further casualties among the civilian population.
The Gaza-based Palestinian health ministry announced in a statement on Friday that Israeli strikes killed 54 Palestinians and wounded 83 since Thursday, raising the death toll of Israel’s assault on Gaza since October 7 to 33,091, and at least 75,750 wounded.
Meanwhile, local media sources reported that in the northern Gaza Strip, three Palestinians were killed by an Israeli airstrike on Beit Hanoun, including a paramedic who was evacuating the wounded. More strikes were on the town of Sheikh in northern Gaza Zayed were reported.
In the central Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes and artillery conducted several strikes on Deir al-Balah, the Maghazi refugee camp, the Nuseirat refugee camp, and Zawaydeh, killing 15 Palestinians. Three more Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on the Houli junction in Deir al-Balah.
In the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli artillery and war planes continued to bomb the southern and western parts of Khan Younis, as Israeli ground troops demolished several houses in the Batn al-Samin area south of the city. Israeli strikes also hit an agricultural area near the Egyptian border, and the Abasan village. Four dead bodies were reported to be recovered.
Israel says it will ‘temporarily’ allow hundreds of aid trucks into Gaza
The Israeli cabinet said on Thursday that it will “temporarily” allow up to 350 trucks of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip through land crossings, including 250 trucks through the Rafah crossing and the rest through the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Israel. International pressure has been mounting on Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into the Strip, as only 50 to 80 trucks have been allowed daily according to observers. Prior to October 7, Israel allowed up to 500 trucks of food and supplies into Gaza on a daily basis.
The announcement arrived in the midst of a wave of intense international criticism of Israel, following the killing of seven aid workers of the World Central Kitchen by an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza on Monday. Australia, Canada, Poland, and the UK have condemned Israel for the killing of the WCK workers, who held citizenship of those respective countries.
Around 2 million Palestinians in the Strip are facing severe shortages of food and medical supplies, due to Israel’s imposition of a total blockade following October 7.
According to testimonies and media reports, thousands of families have been resorting to eating grass and animal feed. The WHO said on Thursday that as many as 15 new children are diagnosed with malnutrition daily. The UN has already warned that the Gaza Strip is on the brink of famine.
The spokesperson of the UN Secretary General welcomed Israel’s announcement on Thursday, adding that the UN “will wait to see how it will be implemented”.
The US National Security Council also welcomed the announcement, adding that “the steps announced by Israel must be implemented quickly.” The US added that it is ready to coordinate with Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and the UN to ensure the entry of aid.
Israeli police arrest Palestinian worshipers at al-Aqsa mosque
Israeli police raided the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Jerusalem on Friday as Palestinian worshipers gathered to mark the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Local sources reported that Israeli police searched worshipers’ tents in the compound and arrested four Palestinians, while Israeli police drones fired tear gas to disperse worshipers.
Late on Thursday, some 50,000 Palestinians performed night prayers in the sanctuary despite Israeli restrictions on Palestinian entry to Jerusalem.
The month of Ramadan is historically a period in which Muslims from across Palestine make their way to Jerusalem to pray at al-Aqsa. In recent years, Israeli religious settlers have stormed the compound during Ramadan with the protection of Israeli police escorts that forcibly evacuate Palestinian worshipers.
In early March, Israeli intelligence and the military suggested to the Netanyahu government to ease restrictions on Palestinians’ access to the compound during Ramadan to avoid escalations in light of the ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza. The Israeli cabinet eased age restrictions on who is allowed to visit the compound while banning extremist Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir from entering the compound during the holy month.
Israeli army kills man in Tulkarem
Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man during a military raid on the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem in the northern West Bank.
The martyr was identified by the Palestinian health ministry as 31-year-old Saed Abu Alwiyah.
According to local sources, Abu Alwiyah was on the rooftop of his house in Nur Shams as Israeli soldiers surrounded a neighboring house when an Israel sniper, positioned on a nearby rooftop, shot him. Abu Alwiyah was taken to the Thabet Thabet hospital in the city, where he was pronounced dead hours later.
Israeli forces have increased their raids on West Bank cities since October 7, especially Tulkarem, Nablus, and Jenin.
With the death of Saed Abu Alwiyah, the number of Palestinians killed by Israel in the West Bank has risen to 455 since October 7, and to 140 since the beginning of the year.
How magnanimous of the war criminals.
I am, yet again, shocked by Israel’s decision, in this case to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, albeit temporarily! I thought, from what Bubi Satanyahu told us – and he’s NEVER wrong – aid couldn’t get into Gaza because Hamas was stealing either the contents in the trucks or the trucks themselves.
I truly wonder if the hardcore Zionists, who ‘stand with Israel’ no matter what, ever question nonsense like this! In my opinion, they are little more than squarers of round holes!
Temporarily? What does that mean? That they will stop it again when they want to collectively punish helpless civilians, as a means to punish Hamas?
This is cruel and inhumane treatment of helpless civilians, and it only proves that the UN and the experts are right, Israel is weaponizing starvation to make people they hate suffer this way.
Even Russia has not stooped to such vicious tactics, and we have imposed harsh sanctions against them. American policies are hypocritical.
Israeli Doctor Blows Whistle on War CrimesAn anonymous physician, in a letter viewed by Haaretz, has warned Israeli officials about what’s going on at a field hospital inside a notorious detention center.
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At first, the cuffs were plastic zip ties. Now they’re metal. The doctor said that more than half of his patients at the camp have suffered cuffing injuries, including some that have required “repeated surgical interventions.”
“Just this week, two prisoners had their legs amputated due to handcuff injuries, which unfortunately is a routine event,” he told Haaretz.
The whistleblower also alleged substandard medical care at the facility, where there is only one doctor on duty, who is sometimes a gynecologist or orthopedist.
“This ends in complications and sometimes even in the patient’s death,” he said. “This makes all of us — the medical teams and you, those in charge of us in the Health and Defense ministries, complicit in the violation of Israeli law, and perhaps worse for me as a doctor, in the violation of my basic commitment to patients, wherever they are, as I swore when I graduated 20 years ago.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/04/05/israeli-doctor-blows-whistle-on-war-crimes/