That concludes today's live coverage of the Gaza war and its repercussions in the region — especially in southern Lebanon. Thanks for joining us, we'll be back tomorrow with more news updates, analysis, and coverage of another speech from Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, commemorating Jerusalem Day, the last Friday in Ramadan. Goodnight!
Palestinians queue to use lavatories at a tent camp for displaced people amid thick fog in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip early morning on April 4, 2024. (Credit: Mohammed Abed/AFP)
This afternoon in southern Lebanon:
• Israeli artillery fired three shells at the Hamamis heights, south of Khiam, in Marjayoun district, local residents reported.
• Hezbollah announced that at 3:50 p.m., it had targeted "an Israeli technical team” while it was “carrying out maintenance on technical and espionage equipment” at the Israeli “Bayad Blida” site using “appropriate” weapons.
A recent joint investigation by Israeli left-wing news and opinion online magazine +972 and a Hebrew-language news site Local Call exposes the existence of an AI-based program named "Lavender," developed by the Israeli army for identifying human targets.
Lavender, kept under wraps until now, is reported to have played a significant role in the targeting of Palestinians, particularly during the initial stages of the recent war in Gaza, despite making errors at least 10 percent of the time.
The investigation also found that the military authorized significant civilian casualties during targeted assassinations, including allowing the killing of up to 15 or 20 civilians for every junior Hamas operative marked by Lavender.
In a phone call that reportedly lasted less than 30 mins, US President Joe Biden told Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu that “an immediate cease-fire is essential,” according to a White House readout of the conversation. The statement says Biden urged Netanyahu to “empower” his delegation of negotiators to “conclude a deal without delay.”
Biden “made clear” that Israel needs to both announce and implement “specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm,” and that US policy regarding Gaza will be determined by Washington’s assessment of Israel’s “immediate action on these steps.”
The United States approved the transfer of thousands of additional bombs to Israel on the same day as an Isreali airstrike killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza, according to a Washington Post report published today, citing an anonymous Biden administration official. Among the seven killed by the Israeli attack on Monday was a dual US-Canadian citizen.
Upon learning of the strike, Biden wrote on X, saying he was "outraged and heartbroken" — words which have now been brought into question in light of his government's approval of lethal weaponry on that same day. A US official claims the transfer was approved before information of the aid team's targeting reached Washington.
The transfer, which includes 1,000 MK82 500-pound bombs, more than 1,000 small-diameter bombs, and fuses for MK80 bombs will not be delivered until at least next year and comes from authorizations granted by Congress several years ago, WP reports.
Hamas official Osama Hamdan says there has been no progress in Gaza cease-fire talks despite the movement showing flexibility, Reuters reports.
Hamdan said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was placing obstacles that hinder both parties from reaching an agreement and accused Netanyahu of being "not interested" in releasing Israeli hostages.
"The occupation government is still evading, and negotiations are stuck in a vicious circle," Hamdan said at a press conference held in Beirut.
Israel's military says there have been no changes in guidelines for home front preparedness, amid concerns of a possible escalation in violence after the killing of Iranian generals in Damascus this week drew threats of retaliation, Reuters reports.
"There is no need to buy generators, gather food and withdraw money from ATMs," Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagar posted on X.
"As we have done until today, we will immediately update any change, should there be one, in an official and orderly manner."
Oxfam released a report yesterday revealing that in northern Gaza, which has seen some of the most profound damage and the most desperate conditions for the displaced, the available food supply falls significantly short of the recommended daily intake.
The UK's National Health Service puts the recommended daily calorie intake at 2,100, but current food supplies in Gaza account for less than 12 percent of this requirement. Oxfam calculated these figures using demographic data, revealing that since the onset of the conflict in October, food deliveries into Gaza have only provided around 41 percent of the necessary daily caloric intake per individual.
According to Oxfam, the Israeli government possesses precise knowledge, dating back nearly twenty years, regarding the requisite daily caloric intake to avert malnutrition in Gaza, as outlined in its "Food Consumption in the Gaza Strip – Red Line" document, implying that its approval of only 41 percent of the daily food needs cannot be a matter of ignorance.
Outgoing Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced his intention to declare southern Lebanon an “agricultural disaster zone,” today, in response to the devastating impact of nearly six months of Israeli strikes on the region.
Mikati described the scope of the damage during a Cabinet session at the Grand Serail and disclosed his discussions held earlier in the day in which he sought "immediate assistance" from UN representatives and ambassadors of countries that traditionally support Lebanon.
"The greatest disaster is in the agricultural sector, with 800 hectares completely damaged, 34,000 head of livestock killed and around 75 percent of local farmers having lost their last source of income," Mikati told Cabinet.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) published the findings of an investigation into the lack of a military target in an Israeli strike on a building in Gaza on Oct. 31, one of the deadliest strikes since Oct. 7, which killed at least 106 civilians, including 54 children, and "apparently amounted to a war crime," according to the NGO, reports AFP.
Among the victims were "children playing soccer, residents charging their phones in the ground-floor grocery store, and displaced families seeking safety," said Gerry Simpson, Deputy Director of HRW's Crisis and Conflict Division, quoted in the statement.
HRW reports that it has "found no evidence that a military target was in the vicinity of the building at the time of the attack, which means that it was an [arbitrary] and illegal strike under the laws of war", the NGO said in a statement. "Without warning, at around 2.30 pm, four air strikes hit the building in the space of ten seconds. The building was completely demolished," it adds.
The Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service, announced that it foiled an attack on a far-right minister and dismantled a "terrorist cell," reports AFP.
"The Shin Bet has dismantled a terrorist cell that was planning attacks in Israel, including against Minister Itamar Ben Gvir," the Shin Bet said in a statement. A joint investigation by its services, the police and the army, led to the arrest of eleven suspects, including seven Israeli Arab citizens, who have been questioned, according to the statement.
An update on the situation on the Lebanese-Israeli border:
- The Israeli army launched two airstrikes on the outskirts of the village of Yaroun (Bint Jbeil), a security source told L'Orient Today.
- The Israeli army launched airstrikes between the villages of Aitaroun and Ainata (Bint Jbeil), residents of the villages told L'Orient Today.
- The Israeli army struck the village of Maroun al-Ras (Bint Jbeil), residents of the village told L'Orient Today.
- Hezbollah announced that they attacked at 1:45 p.m. the "new headquarters of the Liman Battalion" facing the village of Naqoura (Sour) using artillery.
- The group also launched a "missile" strike against Israeli soldiers deployed at the "Jal al-Alam" site, also facing the border Lebanese village of Naqoura.
A suspected Hamas arms cache was discovered in Bulgaria as part of a German investigation into four alleged members of the Palestinian Islamist movement suspected of planning attacks against Jewish institutions in Europe, a judicial source was quoted by AFP as saying.
On Dec. 14, the German Federal Prosecutor's Office, which handles terrorism cases, announced the arrest of the four men suspected of having been tasked with gathering weapons in Berlin for possible attacks, including two born in Lebanon. By following this trail, investigators were able to locate a cache in southern Bulgaria. The Bulgarian police then seized the weapons, according to Der Spiegel.
The Israeli army announced its decision to temporarily suspend leave "for combat units," against a backdrop of war in the Gaza Strip and renewed tension with Iran. The army also said it would call up additional reservists for its air, intelligence and civil defense units.
So far today, only Israeli artillery fire has been reported on the outskirts of Wazzani (Marjayoun), by local residents.
Israel's High Court of Justice is due to hear a petition filed by five human rights organizations today, demanding that Israel "increase humanitarian aid" to the population of Gaza and "take all necessary measures for the survival of civilians," Haaretz reports.
The petition was submitted on Tuesday, before the strikes on World Central Kitchen aid workers and their decision to suspend operations in the enclave.
According to the petitioners, "the civilian population of the Gaza Strip, particularly in the north of the Strip, is in a state of acute distress." They believe that Tel Aviv is "violating the provisional instruction of the International Court of Justice to take effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian aid to the Palestinians of Gaza, given their dire living conditions."
According to reports in the New York Times, American First Lady Jill Biden recently urged her husband, President Joe Bien, to "end it now," in reference to civilian deaths in Gaza. According to an article in the American daily, Joe Biden recently told guests at a White House meeting with representatives of the Muslim community that his wife was among those calling on him to take a stand to halt the steady rise in civilian deaths in the Palestinian enclave.
Joe Biden reportedly made the comment after one of his guests told the American president that his wife had "disapproved of his coming" because of Joe Biden's support for Israel. The head of state then reportedly recounted that his wife had also expressed disapproval of US support for Israel's military conduct.
The White House has assured us that there are no "differences between Biden and the First Lady" and that he is "as outraged" as she is about the heavy civilian toll of the Israeli offensive. According to White House officials quoted by the Times, Jill Biden "is not calling on Israel to end its efforts against Hamas."
Former French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian believes France should recognize a Palestinian state as a means of putting pressure on Israel to break the deadlock in Gaza. "On a personal level, I think it should be done," Le Drian said on Sud Radio, according to remarks reported by AFP. "We need to take action of this kind to make progress in Israel," he added, stressing that "we can't go on like this."
In February, French President Emmanuel Macron had already stated that recognition of a Palestinian state was "not a taboo."
The remains of seven Iranian servicemen killed on Monday in unprecedented strikes blamed on Israel on the consular annex of the Iranian Embassy in Damascus have been repatriated to Iran, a local media outlet reported last night, quoted by AFP. "The bodies of the martyrs from the Iranian embassy have arrived at Mehrabad airport" in Tehran, ISNA news agency reported, broadcasting a short video of the coffins being carried by a vehicle.
On Monday, air strikes destroyed the consular annex of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, according to Syrian and Iranian officials, killing 16 people including 7 members of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic.
The funeral ceremony for the slain IRGC members is scheduled to take place tomorrow, according to state media.
Gaza's health ministry said that 33,037 people have been killed in the enclave since Oct. 7.
It added that 75,668 people have been injured since the start of the war. In the last 24 hours, the ministry said that 62 people were killed and another 91 injured.
Here is what happened on the Lebanese-Israeli border last night:
- The Israeli army bombed the southern outskirts of Khiam (Marjayoun) and Khiam Valley as well as the outskirts of Kfar Kila and Taybeh (Marjayoun) at around 10 p.m.
- Hezbollah announced it attacked at 10:20 p.m. a building where Israeli soldiers were positioned at the Israeli position of Metula and claimed they inflicted casualties.
- The Israeli army shelled a house in Kfar Kila causing a fire in the house around 12 a.m.
- The Israeli army launched two airstrikes on the Maslakh neighborhood around Khiam as well as its southern outskirts around 1 a.m.
- A house was bombed in Kfar Kila around 1 a.m. and first responders affiliated with Hezbollah who were extinguishing a fire in a house that was struck earlier located nearby the strike survived the attack.
- The Israeli army struck Khiam again around 1:30 a.m. and shelled it again around 2 a.m.
According to this morning's daily update from the Gazan health ministry, which reported strikes on Khan Younis, Wadi al Salqa, Deir el Balah and Rafah, Israeli operations have claimed 61 lives in the last 24 hours.
On Wednesday evening, Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz, a member of the war cabinet and Benjamin Netanyahu's main rival, called for early parliamentary elections in September, endorsed by the Democratic majority leader in the US Senate, Chuck Schumer.
Netanyahu finds himself under increasing pressure from his own public opinion and facing repeated demonstrations by opponents and angry hostage families.
US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are due to speak on the phone today, three days after an Israeli strike killed foreign aid workers from the NGO World Central Kitchen in Gaza, further cracking relations between Washington and its ally, reports AFP.
The last conversation between the two leaders took place on March 18, against an already tense backdrop of worsening humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian territory, which has been under constant bombardment for almost six months.
Since then, relations have become even tenser, with Washington having enabled the UN Security Council to pass a resolution at the end of March calling for an "immediate cease-fire," which was rejected by Israel.
Make sure to read the Morning Brief so you are caught up with what has been happening.
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