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- UN chief Guterres says the aid Israel allowed into Gaza amounts to a “teaspoon”, says Israel continues to delay aid distribution.
- More than 50 Palestinians were killed or remain missing after an Israeli air strike on a residential building in northern Gaza.
- Gaza’s Health Ministry says 29 children and elderly people who died in recent days in Gaza have been registered as “starvation-related deaths”, and thousands more are at risk of starving.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 53,822 Palestinians and wounded 122,382, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The Government Media Office updated the death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.
Vast majority of Israelis support Palestinian displacement: Israeli poll
A new poll from highly regarded Israeli newspaper Haaretz says that no less than 82 percent of Israelis support the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza. Among those secular Israelis polled, 69 percent support the forced displacement.
Fifty-six percent of those Haaretz polled support the expulsion of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, the newspaper said.
Israeli attacks kill 66 people in Gaza since dawn
At least 66 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air attacks across the Gaza Strip since dawn today, Gaza’s Health Ministry reports.
Swiss NGO asks authourities to investigate US-Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
TRIAL International has asked authorities to investigate the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US-backed organisation that plans to oversee a new model of aid distribution in the Palestinian enclave that the UN opposes.
TRIAL International said it had filed two legal submissions asking Swiss authorities to investigate GHF, which is registered in Geneva.
“We’re asking Switzerland to exercise their own obligation under the Geneva Conventions to respect international humanitarian law … there are very grave issues at stake,” Philip Grant, the group’s executive director, told the Reuters news agency.
GHF, in turn, told Reuters it “strictly adheres” to humanitarian principles, and that it would not support any form of forced relocation of civilians.
The UN has criticised the GHF’s aid plan as one not impartial or neutral, and which forces further displacement and exposes thousands of people to harm.
Palestinians injured as settlers rampage through the West Bank
Israeli settlers have attacked a community of Bruqin in the occupied West Bank, setting fire to cars and houses.
Several Palestinians suffered burns.
‘Genocide must be stopped’: Colombia’s Petro
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has condemned Israel’s assault on Gaza and the recent warning that thousands of babies were at risk of starving to death in the territory.
“In the 21st Century, humanity cannot be a silent witness to a genocide,” Petro wrote on social media, warning that humanity will be lost if people do not speak out.
Petro is among a group of left-wing leaders in Latin America who have voiced criticism of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza since it began in October 2023.
Last year, Colombia announced it was seeking to join South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians.
‘People have been starved’: UNRWA chief says no surprise to see looting
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), says the aid trickling in to Gaza is “a needle in a haystack” amid dire conditions.
“The people of #Gaza have been starved + deprived of the basics including water & medicines for more than 11 weeks. Mothers and fathers have run out of food for their children. Older people died because of lack of medicines,” he wrote in a post on X.
“A meaningful & uninterrupted flow of aid is the only way to prevent the current disaster from spiraling further,” Lazzarini added.
As we’ve been reporting, the WFP said 15 of its trucks carrying food supplies were looted last night in southern Gaza. “Hunger, desperation and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming, is contributing to rising insecurity,” the UN agency said.
If you’re just joining us
Here is a recap of recent developments:
- UN chief Guterres stressed that Israel has obligations under international law to provide aid that is needed to people in Gaza.
- Eight people, including seven children, have been killed in an Israeli attack in the south of Khan Younis, Gaza’s civil defence says.
- At least 94 percent of all hospitals in Gaza are damaged or destroyed, with northern Gaza “stripped of nearly all healthcare”, according to the WHO.
- Hamas has welcomed a joint statement issued by 80 countries, which affirmed that Gaza is facing “the worst humanitarian crisis” since October 2023.
- More than 900 figures from the cinema world have signed an open letter denouncing “genocide” in Gaza.
- Israeli operations have killed 91 Palestinians in the besieged, occupied West Bank refugee camps, according to the Al-Haq rights group.
Israeli army says intercepted projectile fired from Gaza
In a brief statement, the military says no casualties were reported.
The projectile was intercepted after it crossed from Gaza towards Israeli territory, it said.
Guterres speech highlights ‘real frustration’ with Israel
We’ve heard the secretary-general say this before, but he again reaffirmed it today.
He was reminding the world that Israel has clear obligations under international law as the occupying power to not only provide aid to the population that they are occupying, but also not to forcibly displace any population.
We’ve heard this before but I think [we’re] sensing some real frustration not only from the secretary-general but from other UN officials, that their calls have so far gone unheeded.
The secretary-general once again was calling out to the world to do whatever they can – whichever nations have leverage, to use that leverage on Israel right now.
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More from UN chief
Here’s more from Guterres’s news conference at the UN:
- “We are working around the clock to get whatever aid we can to people in need, and we managed to distribute some wheat, flour, baby food, nutrition supplements and medicine.”
- The assistance authorised to enter Gaza up until now “amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required”.
- “Strict quotas are being imposed on the goods we distribute along with unnecessary delay procedures,” Guterres tells reporters.
- He says Israel’s military offensive is intensifying “with atrocious levels of death and destruction” and notes that four-fifths of Gaza’s territory is a “no-go zone” for Palestinians.
- He reiterates that the UN will not take part in any alternative aid schemes that do not adhere to humanitarian principles, and says the world body has the system and staff needed to deliver assistance in Gaza.
- “The big picture is that without rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access, more people will die and the long-term consequences on the entire population will be profound.”
Palestinian camps in Lebanon to begin disarming in June
The disarmament of Palestinian camps in Lebanon will begin next month, based on an accord with visiting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a Lebanese government official told the AFP news agency.
The report said the two sides have agreed to begin the process of removing weapons from the camps, beginning mid-June in the Beirut camps, with other camps to follow.
The deal came during the first meeting of a joint Lebanese-Palestinian committee announced yesterday to discuss the issue of the camps.
A statement from the committee released by the premier’s office said it agreed to “launch the process of handing over weapons according to a specific timetable, accompanied by practical steps to bolster the economic and social rights of Palestinian refugees”.
Abbas has been in Beirut since Wednesday for talks on disarming the Palestinian refugee camps, as Lebanon seeks to impose its authourity on all its territory.
Palestinians enduring ‘cruellest phase of this cruel conflict’: Guterres
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says “families are being starved and denied the very basics, all with the world watching in real time”.
Speaking to reporters at UN headquarters in New York, Guterres stressed that Israel has obligations under international law to provide aid that is needed to people in Gaza.
“Finally, a trickle of aid has crossed over. In recent days, almost 400 trucks were cleared for entry to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom [Karem Abu Salem] crossing. But supplies from only 115 trucks have been able to be collected, and nothing has reached the besieged north,” he said.
We’ll bring you more of his remarks shortly.
‘Hunger, desperation, anxiety’ see 15 WFP aid trucks looted
Fifteen World Food Programme (WFP) trucks, carrying food supplies, were looted late last night in southern Gaza, while en route to WFP-supported bakeries, the organisation said in a statement.
“Hunger, desperation and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming, is contributing to rising insecurity,” the organisation said.
“We need support from the Israeli authorities to get far greater volumes of food assistance into Gaza faster, more consistently, and transported along safer routes, as was done during the ceasefire.”
WFP said the need for distributing food parcels directly to families is the “most effective way to prevent widespread starvation”.
Israeli attacks push forcibly displaced Palestinians into ‘death trap’ evacuation zone
The majority of the people evacuated from the northern part of the Strip are being pushed into displacement sites on the coastal road on the western side of Gaza City, particularly in the sea port area. And from the eastern part of Khan Younis all the way to al-Mawasi evacuation zone that has not been largely safe for displaced people.
We’ve seen many people killed inside this particular evacuation zone that has evolved in the past months into more of a death trap for many displaced families from different parts of the Gaza Strip.
Also, the Israeli military did not stop its air strikes.
We are talking about an air strike in the northern part of the Strip where major residential blocks have been flattened and turned into fields of rubble, as well as three people reported killed in the city of Deir el-Balah as a drone strike targeted a residential flat in the heart of the city.
French foreign minister calls Israel’s accusations of anti-Semitism ‘absurd’
Jean-Noel Barrot has responded to Israel’s accusation that European countries are inciting hatred by saying France is “indefectibly attached to the security of Israel”.
“Accusing of encouraging anti-Semitism or [supporting] Hamas whoever defends the two-state solution is absurd and slanderous,” Barrot said in a statement posted on X.
Barrot also said France supports Hamas being “disarmed and permanently excluded from the political future of Gaza”.
Following the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers on Wednesday, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused European governments of inciting anti-Semitic violence through their criticism of Israel’s war on Gaza.
![France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot [Javier Soriano/AFP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/000_38HX7JV-1743621209.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C559&quality=80)
Palestinian and Lebanese leaders agree to bring camps under state control
The agenda of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s state visit to Lebanon was dominated by talks of disarming Palestinian factions in Lebanon. A joint committee has also been established to bring Palestinian refugee camps under Lebanese state control.
Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr reports from Beirut.
Speculation mounts over potential rift between Trump and Netanyahu
Netanyahu has often tried to paint himself as a close friend of Trump, but the relationship has rarely been as straightforward as the Israeli premier has portrayed it.
And recently, speculation across the Israeli media that the relationship between the two leaders, and by extension, their countries, has begun to unravel is becoming unavoidable.
Read more here.
Hamas slams Israeli attack on medical depot in northern Gaza hospital
The attack on the warehouse at al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia is a further attempt to target Gaza’s health sector and destroy what remains of it, Hamas says in a statement on Telegram.
“[Israel] continues its horrific violation of international laws and humanitarian norms by directly targeting hospitals and inhabited homes, relying on American political and military cover and a shameful state of international impotence.”
The statement called on the UN and the remainder of the international community to take “immediate action… to ensure an end to the horrific massacre in the Gaza Strip”.
As we reported on Thursday, that Israeli attack started a fire at a medicine depot at Jabalia’s al-Awda Hospital.
Josh Paul resigned over Gaza. What comes next?
Former US State Department staffer Josh Paul was the first US official to resign over Israel’s war on Gaza.
Paul joins Al Jazeera’s The Take to explain why he stepped down, his new efforts lobbying in Washington, and why he believes that US support for Israel’s war fuels conflict abroad and makes Americans less safe at home.
Gaza death toll rises
Gaza’s Health Ministry says:
- At least 60 people have been killed and 185 wounded in the last 24 hours.
- Since October 7, 2023, Israeli forces have killed at least 53,822 Palestinians and wounded 122,382.
- Since March 18, when Israel broke the ceasefire, at least 3,673 people have been killed and 10,341 wounded.