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UN rights chief ‘horrified’ by mass grave reports at Gaza hospitals
UN rights chief Volker Turk has said he was “horrified” by the destruction of the Nasser and al-Shifa medical facilities in Gaza and reports of mass graves discovered there.
The emergency services said yesterday that 73 more bodies had been found at the site of the Nasser hospital, the biggest in southern Gaza, in the past day, raising the number found over the week to at least 283 people.
Israel says it was forced to battle inside hospitals because Hamas fighters operated there, which medical staff and Hamas deny.
Turk, addressing a UN briefing via a spokesperson on Tuesday, also decried Israeli strikes on Gaza in recent days, which he said have killed mostly women and children.
He also repeated a warning against a full-scale incursion on Rafah, saying this could lead to “further atrocity crimes”.
Key events
Police arrested about 150 protesters at pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Yale and New York University on Monday night, while Columbia University announced that classes would be taught remotely for the rest of the semester, as anger boiled over on leading US campuses.
On the Yale University campus in New Haven, Connecticut, authorities arrested at least 47 protesters on Monday evening, the university said in a statement. Students who were arrested will be referred for disciplinary action.
Several hundred people had been protesting on the Yale university campus, including hunger strikers, demanding the university divest from military weapons manufacturers and other companies with ties to Israel. Yale said it had repeatedly asked students to leave, and warned them they could face law enforcement and disciplinary action if they did not.
And in downtown Manhattan, police clashed with protesters at New York University. There were reports of officers using pepper spray as demonstrators tried to block a police bus from leaving the scene with detained students, and more than 100 people were arrested.
You can read the full story by my colleagues, Erum Salam and Joanna Walters, here:
Finland says it supports the activities of the UN relief works agency for Palestinians (Unrwa) across the region, with 10% of the country’s support for the agency this year earmarked for “risk management”.
Minister for Foreign Trade and Development @VilleTavio met with Senior Deputy Heli Uusikylä from UNRWA’s Gaza office. Finland supports UNRWA’s work in Gaza and across the region. 10 % of Finland’s support for UNRWA this year is earmarked for risk management. @UNRWA @UNRWA_EU pic.twitter.com/SdQ7U1HZGE
— MFA Finland 🇫🇮 (@Ulkoministerio) April 23, 2024
Allegations of the involvement of Unrwa staff in the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel led major donors in January to cut their funding to the agency, the main channel of humanitarian support not only to Palestinians in Gaza but to Palestinian refugee communities across the region.
Finland was among the countries which withdrew funding from Unrwa over the claims but it has since reversed this decision.
The funding was cut despite the dire needs of 2.3 million people in Gaza, most of whom have been forced from their homes by the Israeli offensive since 7 October and have been struggling to find water, food, shelter or medical care.
An independent review, led by the former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, has found Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence of its claims that employees of Unrwa are members of terrorist organisations.
Hezbollah reportedly launches deepest attack into Israel since Gaza war
Reuters reports that Hezbollah has said in a statement it had launched a drone attack on Israeli military bases north of the city of Acre, which would mark its deepest attack inside Israel since 7 October.
Hezbollah – a Lebanese Shia Muslim militant group – said it acted in retaliation for an earlier Israeli attack killing one of its fighters.
The group published what appeared to be a satellite photo, with the location of the strike symbolised by a flash with a red circle around it that sat halfway between Acre and Nahariyya to the north.
Israel and anti-Israeli forces including Hezbollah have frequently exchanged fire over the UN-drawn blue line that divides Israel and Lebanon since 7 October.
In recent weeks Israeli soldiers have been wounded on the Lebanese side of the line, and in the last couple of days an Israeli drone operating over Lebanese airspace was shot down.
Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man early Tuesday in the West Bank city of Jericho, an eyewitness and Palestinian officials said.
Associated Press reports the Palestinian health ministry identified the man as Shadi Jalaita, 44, and said he suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the chest.
His uncle, Shafiq Jalaita, said the man had been outside his home watching an Israeli military raid taking place at a neighbour’s house in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Suddenly, three gunshots rang out, he said.
“The third bullet hit his chest and came out of his back,” Jalaita said.
The Israeli army has not commented on the shooting.
The health ministry said a child also was shot in the stomach in Jericho and was in critical condition. No further details were available.
Israel’s military has said that the incident in northern Israel has ended, and that the sirens were sounding for the risk of falling shrapnel. It says “the IDF aerial defense array successfully intercepted two suspicious aerial targets off the northern coast”.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us today from Gaza over the news wires.
Within the last thirty minutes the IDF has posted to its Telegram channel that warning sirens have sounded in the north of Israel. It also claims “the IDF aerial defence array successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target off the coast of Nahariyya.”
Summary of the day so far…
Israel bombarded northern Gaza overnight in some of the heaviest shelling in weeks, residents said. Shelling was intense east of Beit Hanoun and Jabalia and continued on Tuesday morning in areas such as Zeitoun, one of Gaza City’s oldest suburbs, with residents reporting at least 10 strikes in a matter of seconds along the main road. Just west of Beit Hanoun in Beit Lahiya, medics and Hamas media said strikes had hit a mosque and a crowd gathering on the coastal road to collect aid dropped from the air.
UN rights chief Volker Turk said he was “horrified” by the destruction of the Nasser and al-Shifa medical facilities in Gaza and reports of mass graves discovered there. The emergency services said yesterday that 73 more bodies had been found at the site of the Nasser hospital, the biggest in southern Gaza, in the past day, raising the number found over the week to at least 283 people.
At least 34,183 Palestinian people have been killed and 77,143 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement.
Qatar said there was no reason to end the presence of an office for Hamas in Doha while its mediation efforts continued amid Israel’s war in Gaza. It came after the US state department said Hamas “moved the goalpost” and changed its demands in negotiations with Israel. But it’s not clear what exactly has shifted in the details of the talks, which are being mediated by Egypt and Qatar.
Qatar said there was no reason to end the presence of an office for Hamas in Doha while its mediation efforts continued amid Israel’s war on Gaza.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari added in a press conference that Qatar remained committed to mediation but was reassessing its role in “frustration with attacks” on its efforts.
The US state department has said Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, has “moved the goalpost” and changed its demands in negotiations with Israel.
But it’s not clear what exactly has shifted in the details of the talks, which are being mediated by Egypt and Qatar.
The Senate is returning to Washington to vote on $95bn in war aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, taking the final steps in Congress to send the legislation to Joe Biden’s desk after months of delays.
The foreign aid package, which was approved by the US House of Representatives over the weekend, includes $26.4bn (£21.34bn) in military support for Israel.
The package has had broad congressional support since Biden first requested the money last summer.
But congressional leaders had to navigate strong opposition from a growing number of conservatives who question US involvement in foreign wars.
Several dozen Democrats voted against the bill aiding Israel as they demanded an end to the bombardment of Gaza that has killed, according to Gaza’s health ministry, over 34,000 Palestinians.
Israel strikes northern Gaza in heaviest shelling in weeks – residents
The Israeli military bombarded northern Gaza overnight in some of the heaviest shelling in weeks, residents have told Reuters.
Army tanks made a new incursion east of Beit Hanoun on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, though they did not penetrate far into the city, according to residents, with gunfire reportedly reaching some schools where displaced people were sheltering.
Shelling was intense east of Beit Hanoun and Jabalia and continued on Tuesday morning in areas such as Zeitoun, one of Gaza City’s oldest suburbs, with residents reporting at least 10 strikes in a matter of seconds along the main road.
Just west of Beit Hanoun in Beit Lahiya, medics and Hamas media said strikes had hit a mosque and a crowd gathering on the coastal road to collect aid dropped from the air.
“It was one of those nights of horror that we had lived in at the start of the war. The bombing from tanks and planes didn’t stop,” Um Mohammad, 53, a mother-of-six living 700 metres from Zeitoun, said.
“I had to gather with my children and my sisters who came to shelter with me in one place and pray for our lives as the house kept shaking,” she told Reuters.
“I don’t know if we will make it alive before this war stops.”
The Israeli army said rockets launched overnight into Israel had come from firing positions in northern Gaza. It said it had struck rocket launchers and killed several militants overnight, in what the army called “targeted and precise” strikes.
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