Israel says it’s taking steps to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, including reopening a key border crossing into northern Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced the plans Friday, hours after President Joe Biden told him that future U.S. support for the war in Gaza depends on Israel taking more action to protect civilians and aid workers. The announcement did not elaborate on quantities or types of items to be let in.
Still, despite their differences, the Biden administration has continued to provide Israel crucial military aid and diplomatic support for Israel’s six-month war against Hamas. Israel faces growing international isolation after its forces killed seven aid workers helping deliver food in Gaza.
The Palestinian death toll has passed 33,000, with another 75,600 people wounded, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.
The United Nations says much of the population in northern Gaza is on the brink of starvation. The top United Nations court has concluded there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza — a charge Israel strongly denies — and the U.N. Security Council has issued a legally binding demand for a cease-fire.
The war began Oct. 7, when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage.
Currently:
— After six months of war, Israel’s isolation grows with no end in sight
— Israel dismisses 2 officers for strikes in Gaza that killed aid workers
— UN Human Rights Council calls for halt to weapons shipments to Israel
— Israeli strike on building in October killed 106 in apparent war crime, rights group says
— Biden tells Netanyahu future US support for war depends on new steps to protect civilians
— Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Here’s the latest:
ISRAEL DISMISSES 2 OFFICERS FOR STRIKES IN GAZA THAT KILLED AID WORKERS
TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military said Friday that it has dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others for their roles in drone strikes in Gaza that killed seven aid workers on a food-delivery mission, saying they had mishandled critical information and violated the army’s rules of engagement.
The findings of a retired general’s investigation into the Monday killings marked an embarrassing admission by Israel, which faces growing accusations from key allies, including the U.S., of not doing enough to protect Gaza’s civilians from its war with Hamas.
The findings are likely to renew skepticism over the Israeli military’s decision-making. Palestinians, aid groups and human rights organizations have repeatedly accused Israeli forces of firing recklessly at civilians throughout the conflict — a charge Israel denies.
It was unclear whether the punishments and the apology would calm an international outcry over the deaths of the World Central Kitchen workers or reassure international aid groups that it was safe to resume operations in Gaza, where nearly a third of the population is on the brink of starvation.
UN HUMAN RIGHTS BODY CALLS FOR HALT TO WEAPONS SHIPMENTS TO ISRAEL
GENEVA — The U.N.’s top human rights body has called on countries to stop selling or shipping weapons to Israel in a resolution that aims to help prevent rights violations against Palestinians during Israel’s blistering military campaign in Gaza.
The 47-member-country Human Rights Council voted 28-6 in favor of the resolution on Friday, with 13 abstentions.
The sweeping measure, which takes aim at an array of Israeli actions such as impeding access to water and limiting shipments of humanitarian aid into Palestinian areas, also calls on U.N.-backed independent investigators to report on shipments of weapons, munitions and “dual use” items — for both civilian and military purposes — that could be used by Israel against Palestinians. It is not binding.
Western countries were divided, with the U.S., Germany and others opposing the resolution, several abstaining and some European countries voting in favor.
Israel — at times joined by the United States — has regularly and roundly criticized the council for an alleged anti-Israel bias. The council has approved far more resolutions against Israel for its actions toward Palestinians over the years than against any other country.
BLINKEN WELCOMES STEPS TO GET MORE AID INTO GAZA, BUT SAYS THEY MAY NOT BE ENOUGH
LEUVEN, Belgium — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the measures the Israeli government has announced to expand the flow of aid into Gaza are welcome but may not be enough to meet the Biden administration’s demands for dramatic improvements in humanitarian conditions in the territory.
Blinken said Friday that, if fully implemented, the opening of more border crossings could surge aid to Palestinians caught in the fighting between Israel and Hamas.
“We welcome that steps that have been announced by Israel,” Blinken said. “These are positive developments but the real test is results, and that’s what we’re looking to see in the coming days and the coming weeks.”
At the same time, he said the U.S. wanted to see a “better system for de-confliction and coordination” so that aid can be safely delivered and distributed inside Gaza. “All of these things are critical and that really needs to be measured by results,” Blinken told reporters in the town of Leuven, outside Brussels, where he was meeting with U.S. and European trade and commerce officials.
He also called for an “independent, thorough and fully publicized investigation” into the Israeli strikes that killed seven aid workers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced earlier Friday that Israel would act to improve conditions, including reopening a key border crossing into northern Gaza, just hours after President Joe Biden told him in a Thursday phone call that future U.S. support for the war in Gaza depends on Israel taking more action to protect civilians and aid workers.
IRANIANS MOURN GUARD MEMBERS KILLED AT CONSULATE
TEHRAN, Iran — Thousands of Iranians have held a funeral for Revolutionary Guard members killed by an airstrike at Iran’s consulate in Syria this week.
People at the funeral ceremony held Friday in Tehran protested the airstrike widely blamed on Israel that killed 12 people, including two elite Iranian generals.
Late Thursday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei performed the Islamic funeral prayer for seven Revolutionary Guard members.
The funeral took place on Quds Day, a pro-Palestine event that uses the Arabic name for Jerusalem, that is held on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
State TV showed people at the funeral waving Iranian and Palestinian flags and some chanting “death to America” and “death to Israel.” Similar rallies took place in other Iranian cities and towns.
ISRAELI POLICE DETAIN 8 PALESTINIAN WORSHIPPERS AT AL-AQSA
JERUSALEM — Israel police said they detained eight Palestinian worshippers for allegedly chanting inflammatory slogans at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa compound as thousands gathered at Islam’s third holiest site for dawn prayers marking the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The incident marks the first flare-up between Israeli forces and worshippers at the compound during this Ramadan, as the Hamas-Israel war rages on in Gaza.
The Islamic militant group Hamas, meanwhile, issued a call to Muslims around the world to participate in a “Friday of Rage for Palestine.”
Police said the eight had chanted in support of what it called “terrorist organizations,” an apparent reference to Hamas. The eight were taken away for questioning.
Israeli broadcaster Channel 13 TV said some of the worshippers were chanting in support of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas military wing.
Both Channel 13 TV and the Qatari network Al-Jazeera said Israeli forces also fired tear gas at worshippers.
Ramadan has passed mostly peacefully in Jerusalem despite the Gaza war in which more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to local health officials.
Israel declared war on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants invaded southern Israel and killed over 1, 200 people and took about 250 hostages.
The Al Aqsa Mosque compound has long been a deeply contested religious space. It’s on the Temple Mount, the most sacred site in Judaism where biblical Jewish temples once stood.
ISRAEL SAYS IT’S TAKING STEPS TO ALLOW MORE AID INTO GAZA, AFTER REBUKE FROM U.S.
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says his Security Cabinet has approved steps to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, including the reopening of a key crossing into hard-hit northern Gaza that was destroyed in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
A statement early Friday said the Erez crossing would be temporarily reopened for the first time since the Hamas attack. It also said Israel would allow its port in Ashdod to process aid shipments bound for Gaza, and to increase Jordanian aid shipments through another land crossing.
“This increased aid will prevent a humanitarian crisis and is necessary to ensure the continuation of the fighting and to achieve the goals of the war,” Netanyahu’s office said.
The announcement did not elaborate on quantities or types of items to be let in.
The decision came after President Joe Biden called on Israel, in a phone conversation with Netanyahu, to take steps “to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers.”
The United Nations says much of the population in northern Gaza is on the brink of starvation.
The heavily fortified Erez crossing for years was the only passenger terminal for people to move in and out of the territory.
U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL TO MEET ABOUT ATTACKS ON AID WORKERS IN GAZA
UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council will hold an emergency meeting about attacks on humanitarian workers in Gaza and the risk of famine in the territory.
The meeting for Friday was requested by Algeria, the Arab representative on the council, joined by Guyana, Slovenia and Switzerland. Israeli airstrikes earlier this week killed seven aid workers from the charity World Central Kitchen, which has demanded an independent investigation.
A U.N. aid convoy is scheduled to head out Thursday night after the U.N. paused night operations for 48 hours, said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric. He told reporters the convoy “will hopefully make it to the north.”
“Because of what happened to World Central Kitchen, we had to pause … and regroup and reassess all sorts of factors,” he said.
On the health front, Dujarric said, the World Health Organization reached two hospitals in Gaza City — Al Sahaba and Al Ahil — and delivered supplies and carried out assessments.
But he said Israel has still not given WHO permission to visit Shifa Hospital, and has not provided a reason. Israel’s military recently ended its second raid on the facility.
The WHO team spoke with patients who were able to leave Shifa afterward. ”They described dire conditions during the siege, with no food, water or medicine available,” Dujarric said. “One patient said that doctors there resorted to putting salt and vinegar on people’s wounds in place of antiseptics, which are non-existent.”
U.S. MILITARY SAYS PLAN TO BUILD PIER FOR GAZA AID IS STILL ON SCHEDULE
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is on schedule to build a pier off the Gaza coast to expand humanitarian aid deliveries, the Defense Department said Thursday, even as other agencies have pulled back after Israel killed several aid workers.
The pier will be on line by the end of the month or early May, said Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary.
“Everything is on track, on schedule at this point,” Ryder said. He said Israel has agreed to provide security on the shore as aid is transferred and distributed, but details are still being worked out.
On Thursday, several of the Army boats carrying soldiers and equipment for the pier construction were docked in the Canary Islands for fuel and maintenance and are expected to continue on into the Mediterranean Sea. And a ship operated by the Military Sealift Command, the USNS Benavidez is in the Mediterranean Sea, near Crete, carrying some of the larger equipment for the project.
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