Find here our update on yesterday’s situation.
The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, controlled by Hamas, announced on Wednesday April 3 a new toll of 32,975 people killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement. In twenty-four hours, 59 additional deaths were recorded, according to a press release from the ministry, which reports 75,577 wounded in nearly six months of war.
On October 7, Hamas commandos carried out an unprecedented attack in southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of at least 1,160 people, mainly civilians, according to a count by Agence France-Presse (AFP). According to Israel, around 250 people were kidnapped, 130 of whom are still hostages in Gaza.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an intense bombing campaign on Gaza, followed by a ground offensive that saw its soldiers advance from the north to the south of the territory.
Remains of WCK humanitarians handed over to representatives of their countries in Egypt
The remains of six foreign humanitarian workers from the American NGO World Central Kitchen (WCK), killed Monday in Gaza by an Israeli strike, were handed over to representatives of their countries in Egypt, AFP learned from Egyptian security sources. According to the same source, ambulances evacuated the victims from the Rafah border post towards Cairo where they are to be repatriated to their respective countries. A seventh victim, Palestinian, the team’s driver and interpreter, was buried in Rafah.
The NGO WCK, which said “annihilated” by the death of his “hero”, published on X the names, photos and nationalities of the victims: Saifeddine Issam Ayad Abutaha, 25 years old, Palestinian; Lalzawmi Frankcom, 43, Australian; Damian Sobol, 35 years old, Polish; Jacob Flickinger, 33, American-Canadian, as well as John Chapman, 57, James Henderson, 33 and James Kirby, 47, from the British.
It is “a serious mistake” Who “shouldn’t have happened”, declared the chief of the Israeli general staff. On Tuesday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog presented his “apologies”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a strike “tragic”.
In total, more than 200 humanitarian workers have died in Gaza since October 7, according to NGOs, at least 165 of whom worked for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
UN: Human Rights Council to consider call for arms embargo on Israel
This draft resolution submitted by Pakistan, on behalf of 55 of the 56 UN member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the exception being Albania, calls for an arms embargo on Israel. In addition to the Palestinian Authority, this project is also supported by Bolivia and Cuba.
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The text condemns “Israel’s use of explosive weapons with a wide range of action” in populated areas of the Gaza Strip, and calls on Israel to “respect its legal responsibility to prevent genocide”.
If the draft resolution is adopted, it will be the first position taken by the United Nations human rights body in the conflict raging in Gaza.
Palestinians relaunch the process to become a UN member state
The Palestinians officially relaunched the procedure to become a full member state of the UN on Tuesday. In a letter addressed to the UN Secretary-General and transmitted to the Security Council, the Palestinian Ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, announces, “at the request of the Palestinian leaders”relaunch this request dating from 2011 and calls on the Council to examine it “in April 2024”.
The diplomat continues to repeat that faced with the large-scale Israeli offensive in Gaza, in retaliation for the unprecedented Hamas attack of October 7, one of the priorities of the Palestinians, observers at the UN since 2012, is to become a true member state of the United Nations.
Lebanon: UN observers injured by mine
Three UNOST observers – a Norwegian, a Chilean and an Australian –, the UN body established in 1948 after the first Arab-Israeli war and responsible for monitoring the truce, and their translator were injured on Saturday in the Rmeich region in southern Lebanon.
“The first results of the Lebanese army investigation revealed that the observers had been injured by a mine”declared Wednesday a Lebanese judicial official who requested anonymity. “An investigation is being conducted jointly by UNIFIL [Force intérimaire des Nations unies] and the Lebanese army »he added, specifying that the “military justice was awaiting the final written report to determine responsibilities”.
On Wednesday, Avichay Adraee, the Israeli army’s spokesperson for the Arabic-speaking public, written on that the explosion was the result of a ” charge (…) planted in the area by Hezbollah », with whom Israel has been exchanging fire for almost six months. The Israeli army assured after the explosion that it had not carried out strikes on the region.
At least 349 people have been killed in Lebanon, mainly Hezbollah fighters but also at least 68 civilians, in exchanges of fire at the border for almost six months, according to an AFP count. In northern Israel, bordering southern Lebanon, ten Israeli soldiers and eight civilians were killed according to the army.
Israeli strikes against the Iranian consulate in Damascus: the death toll rises to sixteen
“The death toll from Israeli strikes against the Iranian embassy annex amounts to sixteen killed: eight Iranians, five Syrians and one Lebanese, all combatants, but also two civilians, a woman and her son”Rami Abdel Rahmane, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), based in the United Kingdom, told AFP.
A previous report from the NGO, which has a vast network of sources in Syria, reported thirteen deaths on Tuesday. A Syrian civil defense official announced to AFP on Tuesday that emergency services had found the body of a woman in her fifties.