Palestine-Israel war
Live Reporting
Erdogan urges Palestinian unity after meeting Hamas chief
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office has said that he urged Palestinians to unite amid Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, following hours-long talks with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul, AFP reports.
“It is vital that Palestinians act with unity in this process. The strongest response to Israel and the path to victory lie in unity and integrity,” Erdogan said according to a Turkish presidency statement.
Palestinians to reconsider US ties after veto of bid for full UN membership, Abbas says
The Palestinian Authority will reconsider bilateral relations with the US, Reuters reports.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the above in an interview with the official Wafa news agency.
Gaza official says Israeli strike kills 9 family members in Rafah
Gaza’s civil defence agency has said an overnight Israeli strike killed nine members of a Palestinian family, including six children, in the southern city of Rafah, AFP reports.
Five children aged one to seven and a 16-year-old girl were among the dead, along with two women and a man, according to the city’s Al Najjar hospital.
“Nine martyrs, including six children, were pulled out from the rubble after Israeli air forces struck a house of the Radwan family in Tal al-Sultan in Rafah,” Gaza Civil Defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said in a statement.
Israel says its forces kill 10 fighters in West Bank raid
The Israeli army has said security forces killed 10 Palestinian fighters in an ongoing raid around Nur Shams, a refugee camp in the north of the occupied West Bank, AFP reports.
“Security forces eliminated 10 terrorists during encounters” over more than 40 hours, the army said in a statement.
US House to vote on Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan aid package
The US House of Representatives is poised to hold a crucial vote on a major aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, AFP reports. Voting on the $95 billion foreign aid and arms bills is expected to begin at 1pm local time.
A total of $13bn in military assistance has been allocated for Israel in its campaign against Hamas in Gaza. The money will reinforce Israel’s “Iron Dome” air defences.
More than $9bn will be earmarked to address “the dire need for humanitarian assistance for Gaza as well as other vulnerable populations around the world,” the legislation says.
Who are the PMF?
As we’ve been reporting, a base used by Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) south of Baghdad has been hit by a major explosion, killing at least one person and injuring dozens.
Here’s what to know about the Iraqi group:
The PMF formed in 2014 in Iraq as a coalition of dozens of armed factions, many with close links to Iran, to combat the growing threat of ISIL.
The force is comprised mostly of Shia groups, but also includes Christian and Sunni brigades. It has been recognised as a formal security force by Iraqi authorities since 2018.
While the PMFs’ exact troop numbers are unknown, it is estimated to command anywhere between 40,000 and 100,000 fighters.
Several groups within the PMF, such as Kataib Hezbollah, have launched attacks against US forces in Iraq, creating tensions with the Iraqi government.
On top of its military strength, the PMF also exerts political influence. The Shia Coalition Framework, which represents PMF-linked groups, won more than 30 percent of Iraq’s seats in the last provincial elections.
Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces says military base blast was result of attack
The armed group has said the explosion which took place at its command post at Kalsu military base was the result of an attack.
The PMF’s statement came soon after Iraqi government sources said no drones or fighter jets were detected in the airspace in the area before or during the blast.
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Seven more injured in occupied West Bank: Report
Israeli forces have injured seven more Palestinians during their raid of Tulkarem’s Nur Shams refugee camp, which has now taken place for about 40 hours, according to Palestinian media reports citing the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
As we reported earlier, five people, including a teenager, have already been killed during the raid.
We’ll bring you more updates on the raid shortly.
Iraq blast may be ‘another message’
Political analyst Rich Outzen says there is still not enough information to know who was behind the blast that hit a base south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
“If it is confirmed that it was an aircraft that raises the question of American or Israeli [involvement],” said Outzen, who is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council in Turkey and senior fellow at The Jamestown Foundation.
Outzen told Al Jazeera that the Biden administration has been trying to tamp down on regional tensions and carefully choreographing limits on the exchange of fire directly between Iran and Israel.
“Yet this attack would be more in line with what Israel has done below the threshold of direct attacks on Iran, regionally as they’ve attacked Iranian-backed militias frequently in Syria, in Iraq,” he said.
“This may be another message to Iran saying if you’re going to use Hezbollah, potentially, or Hamas, to attack us. We will attack proxies in Iraq and Syria,” he added.
No plans for ‘food, water, civil services’ in Rafah evacuation ahead of Israeli ground attack: Monitors
Israeli military plans shared with the US for moving some 1.4 million Palestinian civilians out of Rafah ahead of a promised ground invasion by its forces did not include “concepts for access to food, water and other civil services” according to reports, war monitors say.
In their latest assessment of the war on Gaza, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) note that a high-level “virtual meeting” took place on Thursday between US and Israeli officials to discuss a ground incursion into southern Gaza’s Rafah – the only area in the Palestinian territory to have been spared Israel’s ground forces so far.
Further discussions between the two allies regarding the Rafah operation are reportedly on hold, according to the ISW-CTP report.
The US-based think tanks also report that Palestinian armed groups continued to launch attacks on Israeli forces in Gaza City on Friday and that the Israeli Air Force was called in to attack 25 targets to support Israeli forces operating on the ground.
Deaths, injuries as Israeli military raids occupied West Bank communities
As well as the ongoing and deadly raid on Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank, which we reported on earlier, Israeli forces have also raided the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, and Beit Rima, northwest of Ramallah.
A 24-year-old Palestinian man was shot and injured during the military incursion into Beit Furik, the Wafa news agency reports, and where Israeli forces fired stun grenades, live bullets and used noxious gas against local Palestinians resisting the raid.
Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic shared video footage earlier capturing the moment an explosive device targeted Israeli soldiers in Beit Furik.
More than 100 pro-Palestine protesters arrested at US university
The president of Columbia University in New York said police were authorised to clear the campus of pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had set up a tent encampment in solidarity with the people of Gaza.
University authorities said the hundreds of students who took part in the peaceful protest had breached rules regarding unauthorised gatherings on campus.
Despite the mass arrests and demonstrators facing suspension from their university courses, students said they will continue their activism in support of Palestinians.
Student protest calling for ceasefire in Gaza continues at New York’s Columbia University
A protest in New York City calling for a ceasefire in Gaza has entered its third night, as students continue to occupy the central square of Columbia University.
The protesters denounced the decision of university president Minouche Shafik to authorise the police to arrest at least 108 demonstrators, who erected tents inside the campus to call attention to the Israeli war on Gaza.
The student protesters are also demanding that Columbia University divest from companies linked to Israel.
The university’s student publication, Columbia Spectator, reported that as of Friday evening, all individuals who were arrested have been released from custody.
But the publication said the university has also begun issuing formal notices of “interim suspension starting late Friday” to students who participated in Wednesday’s “Gaza Solidarity Encampment”.
Outrage over the arrest of the students has set off similar protests at other top US universities, including Harvard and Yale.
Child killed or injured every 10 minutes in Israel’s war on Gaza: UN
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that a Palestinian child is either killed or injured every 10 minutes in Gaza, according to data from the territory’s Ministry of Health.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) highlights the damning statistic on child casualties of Israel’s war on Gaza in its latest flash assessment of the situation in Gaza.
OCHA also points out that between April 1 and Friday, 15 percent of humanitarian aid missions to northern Gaza and those to parts of southern Gaza that “require coordination have been denied or impeded by Israeli authorities”.
Barbados officially recognises Palestine as a state
Barbados has formally recognised Palestine as a state, becoming the 11th Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member to do so.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kerrie Symmonds said the country’s cabinet had “made the determination that the time is ripe for us to have a formal diplomatic recognition of the State of Palestine”.
Symmonds said Barbados has always maintained at the United Nations that there should be a two-state solution to the conflict.
“But ironically, despite having said to the world that we would like to see a two-state solution, Barbados itself has never recognised the State of Palestine. And therefore, there is an incongruity and inconsistency because how can we say we want a two-state solution if we do not recognise Palestine as a state?”
However, Symmonds stressed that the decision does not affect the relationship Barbados has with Israel.
In all, 140 out of 193 United Nations member states, including Barbados, now consider Palestine a state.
US denies carrying out air strikes in Iraq
In a message posted on X, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces were not behind a reported strike on a military base housing Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces.
“The United States has not conducted air strikes in Iraq today,” CENTCOM said, adding that reports that US forces had carried out a strike were “not true”.
Deadly Israeli raid ongoing in Nur Shams, residents say ‘worst destruction’ in decades
Israeli forces are still operating in the Nur Shams refugee camp.
More military bulldozers and vehicles were seen going into the camp in Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank in the past hour or so.
At least five Palestinians were killed. Among them, the Israeli army says, they have killed a leader of one of the Tulkarem brigades. They say this is a person they were intending to target in this raid.
But the raid is still not over.
Residents of the Nur Shams refugee camps say it is some of the worst destruction that they have seen in decades that has been caused by the Israeli army.
We’ve seen footage coming out of this raid over the last day or so that, in broad daylight, shows Israeli forces even firing at a busy intersection, killing a teenager.
So this is still quite an active situation in the occupied West Bank.
One killed, six wounded following blast targeting PMF in Iraq
Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), an official security force, said its command post at the Camp Kalsu military base south of Baghdad was hit by a huge explosion, which two security sources said came from an air strike.
One PMF fighter was killed and six were wounded, two sources at a hospital in the nearby city of Hilla told Reuters news agency.
Earlier, a statement released by the PMF in Babil (Babylon) province stated that “American aggression bombed the Kalso military base”.
The area is located near the town of Iskandariya around 50km (31 miles) south of the capital, Baghdad.
The PMF started out as a grouping of armed factions, many with close links to Iran, that was later recognised as a formal security force by Iraqi authorities.
Iran FM says response to Israel will be ‘maximum’ if ‘adventurism’ continues
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said Iran will respond to the “maximum” if Israel acts against his country’s interests.
“As long as there is no new adventurism by Israel against our interests, then we are not going to have any new reactions,” he said.
“If Israel takes a decisive action against my country and this is proven to us, our response will be immediate and to the maximum,” Amirabdollahian said, speaking through a translator, in an interview with the US’s NBC News.
The foreign minister was speaking following reports of an Israeli drone raid on Iran early on Friday.
Amirabdollahian, however, said the incident was “not a strike”.
“They were more like toys that our children play with – not drones,” he said.
Turkey's Freedom Flotilla ready to set sail for Gaza
TUZLA (Turkey) (AFP) – An international humanitarian relief effort in the form of a Freedom Flotilla Coalition was getting ready Friday to leave the western Turkish port of Tuzla and bring much-needed relief to residents of war-torn Gaza.
At least three vessels carrying some 5,000 tons of food, drinking water and medical aid were awaiting the green light from Turkish authorities to set sail from the port on the Sea of Marmara, south of Istanbul, organisers said.
Iran signals no plan to retaliate against Israel after drone attack
DUBAI/JERUSALEM (Agencies) - Explosions echoed over an Iranian city on Friday in what sources said was an Israeli attack, but Tehran played down the incident and indicated it had no plans for retaliation - a response that appeared gauged towards averting region-wide war.
Iran's foreign minister said the drones, which the sources said Israel launched against the city of Isfahan, were "mini-drones" and that they had caused no damage or casualties.
Israel’s war on Gaza in numbers
The number of Palestinians killed in Israel’s six-month war on the Gaza Strip has reached 34,012, the territory’s Health Ministry said in its latest daily update.
The ministry said 42 people were killed and 63 injured in the past 24 hours. In the last two hours, the Palestinian news agency Wafa also reported at least seven people were killed in an Israeli air raid on the Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood in Rafah.
An additional 76,833 people have been wounded in the war since October 7.
The death toll is likely far higher with thousands of bodies buried in the rubble of buildings collapsed by Israeli strikes.
Mideast enters new era with Israel strikes on Iran
WASHINGTON (AFP) – After years of high-level US pressure on its ally to show restraint, Israel's purported attack on Iran takes the region and Western-led diplomacy into uncharted territory.
Iran and Israel have long waged a shadow war, marked by assassinations of Tehran's nuclear scientists and attacks on Israel by the clerical state's allies in the Arab world such as Lebanon's Hezbollah, but the United States has put a top priority on preventing a wide-scale war.
