Israel to expand offensive 'in most' of Gaza Strip | Live

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Hamas's military wing released a new video on Saturday of an Israeli hostage kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, alive in Gaza, in which he addresses the camera and criticizes the Israeli government for not yet securing his release.

The video, released by the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, lasts just over three minutes and shows him sitting in a cramped room. According to Haaretz, the hostage shown on screen is named Eden Alexander, an Israeli-American national.

Iran and the United States, which held rare nuclear talks in Oman on Saturday, are "very close" to an agreement on the content of future negotiations, according to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

"At today's meeting, I think we came much closer to a basis for negotiation," Araghchi told state television. "If we can finalize it at the next meeting, we will have come a long way."

The Israeli army said Saturday evening that its forces had begun operating in the Daraj and Touffah neighborhoods of Gaza City, in the north of the Palestinian enclave.

According to a statement published on X, the objective of this operation is to "strengthen security control in the area, dismantle terrorist infrastructure and expand the security zone," while the Israeli army claims to have authorized the evacuation of civilians.

Earlier in the day, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that "soon, operations will rapidly expand to other locations in most of Gaza and you [Palestinians in Gaza] will have to evacuate the combat zones," without specifying where the Palestinians were expected to go.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi said on Iranian state television that the next round of talks is scheduled for  Saturday, April 19.

He said he had "conveyed Iran's official positions to the United States through his Omani counterpart" and that "there is a chance of reaching an initial agreement," but only if the United States "enters the discussions on an equal footing."

"Both sides want a short-term agreement. These are not discussions for the sake of discussions," he stated.

At least 11 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the day, medical sources told Al Jazeera.

Areas hit by these airstrikes include the al-Mawassi humanitarian zone in southern Gaza, Gaza City and Jabalia in the north.

Iran and the United States will hold new talks next week on Iran's rapidly expanding nuclear program, Iranian state television announced Saturday, following the first round of negotiations between the two countries since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.

Iranian state television also reported that U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held brief talks in the presence of the Omani foreign minister after the talks, marking a direct interaction between the two countries.

The indirect talks, held via Omani intermediaries, lasted for more than two hours at a location on the outskirts of Oman, ending the discussions around 5:50 p.m. local time after they began at around 3:30 p.m. The talks were "positive" and took place in a "cordial atmosphere," the statement said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff "agreed to continue discussions next week," a statement from the Iranian Foreign Ministry said, without specifying the location. Araghchi and Witkoff spoke directly for "a few minutes," the statement added.

The first round of indirect talks between Iranian and American officials ended, the Iranian news agency Tasnim reported, with no official confirmation from Tehran yet. Negotiators from both sides spoke directly "for a few minutes," an Iranian official said, according to AFP.

The atmosphere of the ongoing negotiations between Iranian and American officials in Oman is "positive," according to Iran's state-run Tasnim news agency, while officials from both countries have so far been communicating indirectly through Omani intermediaries, Reuters reported.

A source close to the matter, quoted by the American news outlet Axio,s stated that "if the initial discussions on Saturday prove positive," direct discussions between Steve Witkoff and Abbas Araghchi could take place "later today or on Sunday."

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said the ongoing indirect talks were "just a beginning" and added that Tehran did not expect "this round of negotiations to be very long."

At least one Palestinian was killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a residential building on al-Thalathini Street in central Gaza City, Al Jazeera's local correspondents reported. The correspondents added that several other people were also injured in the attack.

This brings the human toll from Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip to at least six Palestinians killed since Saturday morning.

The nuclear talks between Iran and the United States, which began this morning in Oman, are not expected to last very long, according to an Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson.

"This is a start ... we do not expect this round of talks to be very long," Esmail Baghai told state television, adding that the two sides were exchanging "their positions of principle" through an Omani intermediary.

The Israeli army has issued new forced evacuation orders for residents of large areas of the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis.

In a message posted on X, the army's Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, said that residents of a dozen neighborhoods were to move "northwest, towards the al-Mawassi humanitarian zone," where an Israeli strike on a tent for displaced people killed at least one person and injured several others last night.

"This is a final warning before the attack" wrote the spokesperson, who claimed that Hamas had fired the rockets intercepted by the Israeli army a few hours earlier from this area. The same message was used during the evacuation of the city of Rafah two weeks ago.

On Telegram, the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility in a statement for launching three rockets into Israeli territory, stating that they had targeted the town of Nir Yitzhak from the Gaza Strip. The attack caused no casualties.

Talks between Iran and the United States are focused on de-escalating regional tensions, prisoner exchanges and possible easing of international sanctions against Tehran in exchange for control of Iran's nuclear program, an Omani source told Reuters on Saturday.

Iran and the United States began high-level talks in Oman this morning aimed at restarting negotiations on Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program, as U.S. President Donald Trump threatened military action against Iran if the talks fail.

The Israeli army called on residents of Khan Younis to evacuate, according to AFP.

The Israeli army will expand its offensive "in most of" the Gaza Strip, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced. These comments come as the troops announced on Saturday that they had taken control of a "key axis" between the two main cities in the south of the enclave, Khan Younis and Rafah, which was surrounded by Israeli troops and subsequently became a "security zone," according to the minister.

"Soon, operations will expand to other areas and most of Gaza … This is the last chance to banish Hamas and release all hostages, which will end the war," he continued, as a Hamas delegation is currently in Egypt to conduct negotiations on a possible new truce.

Haaretz reported earlier this week that the Israeli military was preparing to incorporate Rafah and its surrounding neighborhoods into the buffer zone it is establishing inside the Gaza Strip, along its entire border.

The government media office in Gaza accused Israel of using water as a "tool of genocide," saying Israeli authorities "deliberately cut off the water supply to the two Mekorot pipelines, east of Gaza City," in the center of the enclave.

The statement said the Israeli army also cut off power to the "Deir al-Balah desalination plant, causing a complete shutdown of drinking water production." These accusations are corroborated by recent reports from the U.N., which this week denounced "the destruction of more than 90 percent of water and sanitation infrastructure."

The press office added that technical teams were prevented from entering the enclave to carry out necessary work, while others were reportedly targeted during repair operations.

More than 1.7 million cases of waterborne diseases have been recorded in Gaza since the start of the war on Oct. 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of more than 50 Palestinians, mostly children, due to dehydration and malnutrition.

Israeli forces have completed the encirclement of the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, the force said in a statement Saturday. The army added that this move was part of an "announced plan to seize other areas of the enclave, accompanied by large-scale evacuations of the population."

Since resuming its offensive against Gaza on March 18, unilaterally breaking the cease-fire, the Israeli army has repeatedly issued evacuation orders to residents of the Rafah region, as well as the northern part of the enclave. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have since been forced to take refuge in a 60 sq km area bordering Egypt to the south, or in the "humanitarian zone" of al-Mawassi, near Khan Younis, which does not prevent it from being regularly targeted by Israeli strikes.

"Over the past 24 hours, troops from the 36th Division have completed the construction of the Morag road," the army said Saturday. On April 2, Israel announced that its troops had begun capturing an area called the "Morag axis," a reference to a former Israeli settlement located between the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.

The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas said it hopes for "real progress"  in talks planned in Cairo for a truce in the Gaza Strip, where deadly Israeli strikes continue unabated.

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli strike in the village of Khiam, southern Lebanon, on March 28, 2025. (Credit: Rabih Daher/AFP)

Most of Hezbollah's military sites in southern Lebanon have been placed under the control of the Lebanese army, a source close to the party told AFP on Saturday. 

"Of the 265 Hezbollah military positions identified south of the Litani River, the party has ceded around 190 to the army," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Israeli army announced that it had intercepted three projectiles fired from the southern Gaza Strip.

"After sirens were sounded recently in uninhabited areas near the Gaza Strip, three projectiles entering Israeli territory from the southern Gaza Strip were intercepted," the army said in a statement, adding that there were no injuries.

Iran, which began rare nuclear talks with the United States in the Sultanate of Oman today, is seeking a "fair deal" with Washington, Iran's top diplomat said.

"Our intention is to reach a fair and honorable agreement on an equal footing," Abbas Araghchi told Iranian state television, adding that there is "a chance" of reaching a compromise "if the other side" adopts the same position.

An Israeli reservist soldier was "seriously injured" this morning during military operations on the border with Lebanon, the Israeli army said in a statement reported by The Times of Israel.

According to a preliminary investigation, the soldier was "hit by a landmine after troops mistakenly entered an Israeli minefield on the northern border." The incident is under further investigation, the army added.

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Thank you for joining us for our live coverage today.

The Israeli army announced yesterday that it had intercepted a drone approaching Israel from the east, and a military source in neighboring Jordan reported the crash of a drone, the debris of which caused a fire, with Houthi rebels in Yemen claiming responsibility for launching two projectiles toward Israel.  No casualties were reported. No alarm sirens were sounded in Israeli territory, the army said in a statement announcing the interception.

Meanwhile, a Jordanian military source announced the crash of an unidentified drone in the kingdom, about 30 kilometers southwest of Amman. The debris caused a fire in a wooded area, which the army and Civil Defense managed to extinguish. According to several Jordanian media outlets, the drone was fired from Yemen, a report that has not been confirmed by official sources.

Protesters in support of Mahmoud Khalil gather outside a courthouse in Newark, New Jersey, on March 28, 2025. (Credit: Kena Betancur/AFP)

An immigration judge approved the right to deport a leader of the pro-Palestinian student movement, Mahmoud Khalil, who still has appeals to remain in the United States.

Lawyers for this figure of the protests at the prestigious New York University Columbia, son of Palestinians and born in Syria, said, even before this decision, their intention to appeal in the event of an unfavorable judgment.

The United States and Iran are beginning high-stakes talks on Iran's nuclear program today in Oman, following threats of a U.S. military operation if the deal fails. U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi are expected to hold the talks behind closed doors in Muscat, the capital of the Gulf country, which borders Iran.

The state-run Iranian news agency IRNA reported that the delegation led by Araghchi left Tehran this morning for Muscat.

The talks will be the first at this level between the two enemies since the U.S. withdrew in 2018, under Donald Trump's first presidency, from a 2015 agreement between Iran and major powers to curb its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.

The Palestinian Civil Defense announced the death of 14 people, including 10 members of the same family, in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip on Friday, with the U.N. denouncing the impact of these operations on civilians, particularly children and women.

Seven children were among the 1o Palestinians, aged between three and 58, killed in a night strike on Khan Younis in the south of the Palestinian territory besieged by Israel, Mahmoud Bassal, spokesperson for the Civil Defense, told AFP.

The Israeli army said it was examining the information.

A Hamas delegation is expected in Cairo today for talks with Egyptian mediators on a new truce in the Gaza Strip, a senior official from the Palestinian Islamist movement told AFP.

"We hope that the meeting will lead to real progress towards an agreement that ends the war and aggression and guarantees the complete withdrawal of the occupation forces from the Gaza Strip," the official said on condition of anonymity, referring to Israel.

At least eight Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip on Saturday morning, according to medical sources cited by Al Jazeera.

One person was killed in a strike targeting a tent in the al-Mawassi humanitarian zone in the south of the enclave, while the other victims died in Israeli attacks in the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, Khan Younis, Jabalia and Beit Lahiya.

The strikes come as the U.N. reported that 224 Israeli strikes have targeted residential buildings and tents for displaced people in the three weeks since the resumption of the Israeli offensive against Gaza on March 18, which broke the cease-fire. At least 1,500 Palestinians have died since then, according to estimates from the enclave's health ministry.

Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal said that at least 500 children are among the Palestinians officially killed by the Israeli army since that date, Al Jazeera added.