US military begins construction of Gaza aid pier, says Pentagon

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Summary:

• The United States military has begun construction of a pier to boost deliveries of desperately needed aid to Gaza, the Pentagon said on Thursday.                               

• Between 80,000 and 100,000 Palestinians have crossed into Egypt from Gaza since the start of the war triggered by the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on Israel, the Palestinian ambassador to Cairo said Thursday.                                                                                   

• The leaders of the United States, Britain, France and more than a dozen other countries called in a joint statement Thursday for Hamas to release the scores of hostages it has been holding in Gaza for more than 200 days.                                                                       

• A Palestinian civil defence team on Thursday called on the United Nations to investigate what it said were war crimes at a Gaza hospital, saying nearly 400 bodies were recovered from mass graves after Israeli soldiers departed the complex.                               

• At least 34,305 Palestinians have been killed and an estimated 77,293 have been injured in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Some 1,170 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks that sparked the war and 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.

4:03am: Wave of pro-Palestinian protests at US universities meets forceful response

Renewed clashes between police and students opposed to Israel's war in Gaza broke out on Thursday, raising questions about forceful methods being used to shut down protests that have intensified since mass arrests at Columbia University last week.

Over the past two days, law enforcement at the behest of college administrators have deployed Tasers and tear gas against student protesters at Atlanta's Emory University, activists say, while officers clad in riot gear and mounted on horseback have swept away demonstrations at the University of Texas in Austin.

Prosecutors on Thursday dropped charges against 46 of the 60 people taken into custody at the University of Texas, citing "deficiencies in the probable cause affidavits".

At Columbia, the epicenter of the US protest movement, university officials are locked in a stalemate with students over the removal of a tent encampment set up two weeks ago as a protest against the Israeli offensive.

The administration, which has already allowed an initial deadline for an agreement with students to lapse, has given protesters until Friday to strike a deal.

Other universities appear determined to prevent similar, long-running demonstrations to take root, opting to work with police to shut them down quickly and in some cases, with force.

9:59pm: US State Department Arabic spokesperson resigns in opposition to Gaza policy

The Arabic language spokesperson of the US State Department has resigned, citing her opposition to Washington's policy related to the war in Gaza, in at least the third resignation from the department over the issue.

Hala Rharrit was also the Dubai Regional Media Hub's deputy director and joined the State Department almost two decades ago as a political and human rights officer, the department's website showed.

"I resigned April 2024 after 18 years of distinguished service in opposition to the United States' Gaza policy," she wrote on the social media website LinkedIn. A State Department spokesperson, asked about the resignation in Thursday's press briefing, said the department has channels for its workforce to share views when it disagrees with government policies.

Nearly a month earlier, Annelle Sheline of the State Department's human rights bureau announced her resignation, and State Department official Josh Paul resigned in October.

A senior official in the US Education Department, Tariq Habash, who is Palestinian-American, had stepped down in January.

9:23pm: Hamas official says Israel 'will not achieve' goals in Rafah

A senior Hamas official told AFP on Thursday that Israel would fail to meet its stated goals of defeating the Palestinian militant group and freeing hostages by invading the southern Gaza city Rafah.

"Even if (Israel) enters and invades Rafah, it will not achieve what it wants," Ghazi Hamad said in an interview over the phone from Qatar, where a number of senior figures from Hamas's political bureau are based.

Hamad said Israel had "spent nearly seven months in Gaza and invaded all areas and destroyed a lot, but so far has not been able to achieve anything of its main goals, whether eliminating Hamas or returning the captives".

8:55pm: US begins construction of Gaza aid pier, says Pentagon

The United States military has begun construction of a pier to boost deliveries of desperately needed aid to Gaza, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

"I can confirm that US military vessels ... have begun to construct the initial stages of the temporary pier and causeway at sea," Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder told journalists.

7:39pm: Israeli government seeks another extension on ultra-Orthodox conscription dispute

The Israeli government sought another deferral on Thursday of a looming Supreme Court-enforced deadline for it to come up with a new military conscription plan that would address mainstream anger at exemptions granted to ultra-Orthodox Jews.

The court, hearing appeals that described the decades-old waiver as discriminatory, had given March 31 as the original deadline. That was extended to April 30 at the request of the government, which argued it was busy waging the Gaza war.

In a new request, the Justice Ministry asked for a deferral to May 20, citing a lag in appointing a government lawyer and "significant national-security events" of recent days which, it said, had halted government work on a conscription blueprint.

That appeared to refer to an unprecedented Iranian drone and missile salvo against Israel on April 13-14, a surge in fighting on the Lebanese front and Israeli preparations to invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah as part of the offensive to crush Hamas.

There was no immediate response from the Supreme Court.

The ultra-Orthodox conscription waiver has become especially charged as Israel's armed forces, made up mostly of teenaged conscripts and older civilians mobilised for reserve duty, are overstretched by the multi-front war now in its seventh month.

7:31pm: Egypt in renewed mediation push for Gaza truce, sources say

Egypt has asked for a follow-up meeting with Israel in renewed efforts to mediate a deal for a ceasefire and the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip, two Egyptian security sources said on Thursday.

Egyptian, Israeli and US officials held in-person and remote meetings on Wednesday that sought concessions to break a deadlock in months-long negotiations for a truce in the war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas that began on October 7, the sources said.

Egypt believed Israel had shown more willingness to allow displaced Gazans to return towards the north of the enclave in a way that limited security checks and procedures for those not suspected of militant activity, they added.

The ability of civilians to return to northern Gaza unimpeded and the pull-back or repositioning of Israeli forces have been sticking points in previous rounds of ceasefire negotiations in which Egypt and Qatar have acted as mediators.

A meeting between Egyptian and Israeli officials was expected to take place on Friday in Cairo, the sources said, with further meetings with the Hamas contingent on the result.

7:29pm: Pier site in Gaza came under fire during UN visit

A United Nations team in the Gaza Strip visiting the site for a pier and the staging area for maritime aid operations had to seek shelter in a bunker "for some time" on Wednesday after the area came under fire, a UN spokesperson said on Thursday.

Two rounds landed about 100 meters away, but there were no injuries and the team was eventually able to continue the tour, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

6:47pm: Northern Gaza still heading toward famine, says deputy WFP chief

The northern Gaza Strip is still heading towards a famine and a great volume of aid, more predictability in access and a sustained effort to get more diverse assistance into the area is needed, UN World Food Programme (WFP) Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau said on Thursday.

6:37pm: UK slaps fresh sanctions on Iran after Israel attack

The UK on Thursday joined the United States and Canada in announcing a fresh set of sanctions against Iran's drone and missile industries after its recent attack on Israel. 

The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office said the latest sanctions would target two individuals and four companies closely involved in Iran's network of drone production.

Trade sanctions against Iran would also be expanded by introducing new bans on the export of components used in its produce of drones and missiles, it added. 

"The Iranian regime's dangerous attack on Israel risked thousands of civilian casualties and wider escalation in the region," Foreign Secretary David Cameron said in a statement.

"Alongside our partners, we will continue to tighten the net on Iran's ability to develop and export these deadly weapons."

The UK already has more than 400 sanctions imposed on Iran, including designations against the IRGC in its entirety and many of those responsible for the attack on Israel.  

6:36pm: Britain says its navy shot down Houthi missile targeting merchant ship

Britain said on Thursday the Royal Navy warship HMS Diamond had shot down a missile fired by the Iran-backed Houthis from Yemen targeting a merchant vessel.

"The UK continues to be at the forefront of the international response to the Iranian-backed Houthis’ dangerous attacks on commercial vessels, which have claimed the lives of international mariners," British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said in a statement

6:30pm: Moroccan found guilty of UK murder motivated by Gaza war

A Moroccan asylum seeker who stabbed a random pensioner to death, telling British police he carried out the attack because Israel had "killed children" in Gaza, was convicted of murder on Thursday.

Ahmed Alid, 45, stabbed 70-year-old Terence Carney six times after a chance meeting in the street in Hartlepool, north east England, on October 15, 2023 – eight days after Hamas militants attacked Israel. 

Alid also attacked his housemate Javed Nouri, a Christian convert, and assaulted two police officers.

He shouted "Allahu Akbar", or "God is greatest", as he repeatedly wounded the sleeping Nouri in the chest, Teesside Crown Court heard at the start of his trial.

The 31-year-old survived the assault but Carney died after being stabbed six times in the chest, abdomen and back.

5:22pm: World Central Kitchen workers killed by Israeli strikes will be honoured at memorial

A memorial at the National Cathedral in Washington on Thursday will honor the seven World Central Kitchen aid workers killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza this month.

José Andrés, the celebrity chef and philanthropist behind the Washington-based World Central Kitchen disaster relief group, is expected to speak at the celebration of life service and cellist Yo-Yo Ma will perform, organisers said. 

The Biden administration said Douglas Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, and Kurt Campnell, assistant deputy secretary of state, would be among those at the event. Diplomats from more than 30 countries were also expected to attend. 

The aid workers were killed on April 1 when strikes from Israeli armed drones ripped through vehicles in their convoy as they left one of World Central Kitchen's warehouses on a food delivery mission. Those who died were Palestinian Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha; Britons John Chapman, James Kirby and James Henderson; dual US-Canadian citizen Jacob Flickinger; Australian Lalzawmi Frankcom; and Polish citizen Damiam Sobol.

After an unusually swift investigation, Israel said the military officials involved in the attack had violated policy by acting based on a single grainy photo that one officer had contended – incorrectly – showed one of the seven workers was armed. The Israeli military dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others.

5:21pm: 80,000-100,000 Gazans crossed into Egypt since October 7

Between 80,000 and 100,000 Palestinians have crossed into Egypt from Gaza since the start of the war triggered by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, the Palestinian ambassador to Cairo said Thursday.

Ambassador Diab Allouh told AFP that they had made their way over the frontier, without specifying how. The Rafah border crossing is the sole entry and exit point to Gaza not directly under the control of Israeli forces.

Read moreThe Gaza-Egypt Rafah crossing explained: ‘It is not a normal border’

4:22pm: Hamas insists Gaza war end for any hostage deal, says won't be swayed by US pressure

Hamas reiterated on Thursday its demand that Israel end the Gaza war as part of any deal to release hostages held there, with Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior official in the Palestinian militant group, telling Reuters that US pressure on Hamas "has no value".

4:16pm: US issues new Iran-related sanctions, Treasury website shows

The United States on Thursday issued fresh Iran-related and Russia-related sanctions, according to the Treasury Department website.

The sanctions designations issued on Thursday affect Pouya Air, eight individuals, five vessels and 15 entities, according to the website.

3:20pm: Lebanon postpones local elections again as violence rocks south

Lebanon's parliament on Thursday delayed municipal elections for a third time in two years, state media reported, as militants in the country's south exchanged near-daily fire with Israel for over six months.

The powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah group has been trading fire with Israeli forces across the border since the day after its Palestinian ally Hamas carried out a deadly attack on Israel on October 7, triggering the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

Lebanon is supposed to hold municipal elections every six years, but cash-strapped authorities last held a local ballot in 2016.

Parliament approved "extending the existing municipal and elective councils' mandate until a date no later than May 31, 2025," despite objections from lawmakers opposed to Hezbollah, said the official National News Agency.

The bill cited "complex security, military and political circumstances following the Israeli aggression on Lebanon" and especially its south, near the border, as reasons for the delay.

Lawmakers did not set a new date for the elections, initially scheduled for 2022.

3:11pm: Belgium summons Israeli ambassador over aid worker's death

Belgium said Thursday that it would summon Israel's ambassador to explain the death in a Gaza airstrike of an aid worker with its Enabel development agency, as well as members of his family.

"Bombing civilian areas and populations is contrary to international law. I will summon the Israeli ambassador to condemn this unacceptable act and demand an explanation," Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said on X.

Enabel said in a statement that Abdallah Nabhan, 33, along with his seven-year-old son, 65-year-old father, 35-year-old brother and six-year-old niece, were killed "after an Israeli airstrike in the eastern part of the city of Rafah".

The airstrike hit the family home where 25 people were sheltering, including people displaced by the Israeli military operation in Gaza, Enabel said.

It said that Nabhan, who had worked on a Belgian development project helping young people find jobs, and his family were on a list Israel had of people eligible to exit Gaza, but that they were killed before being granted permission to leave.

Enabel's chief, Jean Van Wetter, called their deaths "yet another flagrant violation by Israel of international humanitarian law".

3:09pm: Leaders of 18 nations call on Hamas to release hostages

The leaders of the United States, Britain, France and more than a dozen other countries called in a joint statement Thursday for Hamas to release the scores of hostages it is holding.

Hamas seized the hostages during a shock October 7 attack that sparked the deadliest ever war between it and Israel, which has vowed to eleminate the Palestinian militant group.

"We call for the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza for over 200 days. They include our own citizens," the leaders said.

"We emphasize that the deal on the table to release the hostages would bring an immediate and prolonged ceasefire in Gaza, that would facilitate a surge of additional necessary humanitarian assistance to be delivered throughout Gaza, and lead to the credible end of hostilities," they said.

"We strongly support the ongoing mediation efforts in order to bring our people home."

2:50pm: Palestinian officials say Israeli forces kill teen in West Bank

Palestinian officials said Israeli forces killed a 16-year-old boy during a raid in the West Bank city of Ramallah early on Thursday.

Israeli police said "hits were identified" when forces responded to stone-throwing with gunfire but did not directly address the allegation.

The Palestinian health ministry said Khaled Raed Arouq was shot in the chest and "martyred by the occupation's live bullets".

Palestinian official news agency Wafa said Arouq died after being "shot by Israeli gunfire" early on Thursday morning.

2:09pm: Israel intensifies strikes on Gaza's Rafah ahead of threatened invasion

Israel stepped up air strikes on Rafah overnight, killing at least six Palestinians, medics said on Thursday, after saying it would evacuate civilians from the Gaza border city and storm it despite allies' warnings this could cause mass casualties.

In the seventh month of a devastating air and ground war against the Gaza Strip's ruling Islamist group Hamas, Israeli forces also resumed bombarding northern and central areas of the enclave, as well as east of Khan Younis in the south.

Israeli warplanes had hammered the north for a second day on Wednesday, shattering weeks of comparative calm there, and Israel said it was moving forward with plans for an all-out assault on Hamas holdouts in Rafah.

Escalating Israeli threats to invade Rafah, the last refuge for around 1 million civilians who fled Israel's offensive further north earlier in the war, have nudged some families to leave for the nearby al-Mawasi coastal area or try to make their way to points north, residents and witnesses said.

1:48pm: Palestinian authorities seek probe into mass graves at Gaza hospital

A Palestinian civil defence team on Thursday called on the United Nations to investigate what it said were war crimes at a Gaza hospital, saying nearly 400 bodies were recovered from mass graves after Israeli soldiers departed the complex.

"There are cases of field execution of some patients while undergoing surgeries and wearing surgical gowns at the Nasser Medical Complex," the civil defence forces said at a press conference, without presenting any evidence.

Palestinian authorities have this week reported finding hundreds of bodies in mass graves at Nasser Hospital, a main medical facility in southern Gaza, after Israeli troops pulled out of the city of Khan Younis.

Bodies were also reported to have been found at the Al Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, which was targeted in an Israeli special forces operation.

12:43pm: Hezbollah denies Israel's claim its forces killed half of the Iran-backed group's commanders in southern Lebanon

Hezbollah denied on Thursday an Israeli claim that it had killed half of the Iran-backed Lebanese group's commanders in the south of the country, saying only a handful were slain.

The Lebanese group has been exchanging near-daily fire with the Israeli army since the day after its Palestinian ally Hamas led unprecedented attacks on Israel on October 7.

Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday that "half of Hezbollah's commanders in southern Lebanon have been eliminated" in the months of cross-border violence sparked by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

"The other half are in hiding and abandoning the field to IDF (Israeli army) operations," he added, without specifying how many.

A Hezbollah source who spoke on condition of anonymity rejected the claim. The source told AFP that the number of slain Hezbollah members who "hold a certain level of responsibility does not exceed the number of fingers on one hand".

The source said Gallant's claim was "untrue and baseless" and designed to "raise the morale of the collapsed (Israeli) army".

11:43am: French police break up pro-Palestinian protest at Paris university campus

French police broke up a pro-Palestinian protest by dozens of university students in Paris, officials said Thursday, as Israel's bombardment of Gaza sparks a wave of anger across college campuses in the United States.

Police intervened as around 60 students gathered on a central Paris campus of the elite Sciences Po university on Wednesday evening, management said.

"After discussions with management, most of them agreed to leave the premises," university officials said in a statement to AFP, saying the protest was adding to "tensions" at the university.

But "a small group of students" refused to leave and "it was decided that the police would evacuate the site", the statement added.

Sciences Po said it regretted that "numerous attempts" to have the students leave the premises peacefully had led nowhere.

The protesters were demanding that Sciences Po "cut its ties with universities and companies that are complicit in the genocide in Gaza" and "end the repression of pro-Palestinian voices on campus", according to witnesses.

Read morePro-Palestinian protests sweep US universities, targeting financial ties with Israel

10:54am: Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war death toll at 34,305

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Thursday that at least 34,305 people have been killed in the territory during more than six months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants. 

The tally includes at least 43 deaths over the past day, a ministry statement said, adding that 77,293 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.

9:43am: Hezbollah source, state media say Israeli drone strike hits eastern Lebanon

State media and a Hezbollah source said one person was wounded Thursday in an Israeli drone attack on eastern Lebanon following a flare-up in cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israel.

It came a day after Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israeli forces were carrying out "offensive action" across southern Lebanon, as cross-border fire intensified.

The violence has fuelled fears of all-out conflict between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, which last went to war in 2006.

"An Israeli drone attack hit a truck carrying fuel" for Hezbollah in the village of Duris, just southwest of the Bekaa Valley city of Baalbek, a Hezbollah source told AFP.

The strike struck the truck driver, said the source, with the official National News Agency (NNA) confirming the report.

1:07am: US says it downed Houthi anti-ship missile, four drones

US-led coalition forces off the coast of Yemen shot down four drones and an anti-ship missile launched by Houthi rebels Wednesday, American authorities said, as the Iran-backed group's attacks on Red Sea shipping continued.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement on X that just before noon Sanaa time (0900 GMT) a coalition vessel "successfully engaged one anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM)" launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

The missile was likely targeting the MV Yorktown, a US-flagged shipping vessel, CENTCOM said, adding there were no injuries or damage.

CENTCOM also said it had engaged and destroyed four drones launched by the Houthis shortly after the missile launch. 

"It was determined that the ASBM and UAVs (drones) presented an imminent threat to US, coalition, and merchant vessels in the region," CENTCOM said.

12:38am: Malala Yousafzai vows support for Gaza after backlash

Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai on Thursday condemned Israel and reaffirmed her support for Palestinians in Gaza, after a backlash in her native Pakistan over a Broadway musical she co-produced with former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 

Yousafzai, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, has been condemned by some for partnering with Clinton, an outspoken supporter of Israel's war against Hamas.

The musical, titled "Suffs," depicts the American women's suffrage campaign for the right to vote in the 20th century and has been playing in New York since last week.

"I want there to be no confusion about my support for the people of Gaza," Yousafzai wrote on X. "We do not need to see more dead bodies, bombed schools and starving children to understand that a ceasefire is urgent and necessary."

She added: "I have and will continue to condemn the Israeli government for its violations of international law and war crimes."

Pakistan has seen many fiercely emotional pro-Palestinian protests since the war in Gaza began last October.

Yesterday's key developments:

• Hamas released a video showing a well-known Israeli-American man who was among hundreds of people abducted by militants in the attacks that ignited the war in Gaza.   

• The White House said it wanted "answers" from Israeli authorities about "deeply disturbing" reports of mass graves at the two main hospitals in the Gaza Strip. Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Tuesday that workers had uncovered hundreds of bodies allegedly killed and buried by Israeli forces. 
• Israeli forces are carrying out "offensive action" across southern Lebanon, defence minister Yoav Gallant said without specifying whether ground troops had crossed the border.
• US President Joe Biden signed foreign aid legislation that includes $26 billion in wartime aid to Israel and humanitarian relief for Gaza.
• Israel thanked the US Senate for first approving the legislation, which includes $13 billion in military aid.
• The head of Amnesty International said the post-World War II order is on the "brink of collapse", in particular due to US efforts to shield Israel from scrutiny for violations committed in Gaza.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)