Key events
Jason Burke and Malak A Tantesh in Rafah have reported on how Palestinians in Gaza marked the end of Ramadan in the shadow of war. Here is a snippet from the feature:
As cold, driving rain swept across the rubbish- and rubble-strewn streets of Rafah early on Wednesday morning, residents of the crowded city in the south of Gaza set out to celebrate the end of the holy month of Ramadan and the festival of Eid al-Fitr.
Prayers were held in mosques badly damaged in the continuing Israeli offensive, in the crowded schools where many have lived since being forced to flee ruined homes elsewhere in the territory, and on the sand among the rows of tents now home to hundreds of thousands.
By noon, the clouds had cleared but the spring sun brought little of the warmth usually associated with a day of faith, friendship and family.
“It doesn’t feel like Eid because of the lack of a beautiful atmosphere, and we are not buying clothes and sweets, or gathering together like we usually do,” said Jana Muhammad Sorour, a 12-year-old dispatched by her displaced family to sell homemade goods to neighbours in Rafah to raise much-needed funds.
“I hope that the war will stop and that I will get clothes and candy like other holidays, and most importantly, go home.”
You can read the full piece here:
Hamas leader repeats Gaza ceasefire call after sons and grandchildren killed
Bethan McKernan
Three sons and at least two grandchildren of the Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, the exiled political chief of the militant group has said from his base in the Qatari capital of Doha.
Haniyeh told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that his children Hazem, Amir and Mohammed and several of their children were visiting relatives for Eid at the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza when their car was targeted in an Israeli airstrike. Sixty of his relatives had been killed in the six-month-old war, he said, including 14 who died after an Israeli airstrike hit the family home in Gaza City in October.
The Hamas leader said the attack would not change the group’s demands for a permanent ceasefire and return of displaced Palestinians from their homes in ongoing negotiations mediated by Doha and Washington.
“All our people and all the families of Gaza have paid a heavy price in blood, and I am one of them,” Haniyeh said.
The Israeli military statement confirmed it had targeted Haniyeh’s sons, who it described as “three Hamas operatives” who were “on their way to carry out terrorist activities”.
You can read the full piece by Bethan McKernan here:
US reportedly asks Iran’s neighbours to help lower tensions
The US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk has reportedly called the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Iraq, asking them to deliver a message to Tehran to lower tensions with Israel.
The Reuters news agency, citing a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity, says that McGurk asked the officials to contact the Iranian foreign minister and convey the message – which they are reported to have done.
McGurk’s calls were first reported by Axios but the White House has declined to comment.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Israel “must be punished and it shall be” for the Damascus strike that killed seven Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps members.
Israel has not confirmed it was behind the strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria, but the Pentagon has said it was.
Iran’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Iraq spoke on the phone with Iran’s foreign minister and discussed regional tensions.
Those tensions have flared and spread since Israel launched its war in Gaza in the wake of the Hamas 7 October attacks.
Most recently, the US president, Joe Biden, has vowed that US commitment to defend Israel against Iran was “ironclad”. The US secretary of state Antony Blinken has also made clear that the US will stand with Israel against any threats from Iran, in a call with Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday, according to the state department.
Opening summary
It has gone 8am in Gaza and 9am in Tel Aviv. This is our latest Guardian live blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis.
The US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk has called the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and Iraq to ask Tehran to lower tensions with Israel, Reuters reports, citing a source.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Israel “must be punished and it shall be” for the strike on Iran’s embassy in Syria that killed seven Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps members. Israel was suspected to be behind the attack but it has not acknowledged its involvement.
McGurk’s calls were first reported by Axios.
More on that in a moment but first, here’s a summary of the latest developments:
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US president Joe Biden has vowed that US commitment to defend Israel against Iran was “ironclad” as concerns rose in Washington that a “significant” Iranian strike could happen within days, in retaliation for the bombing of an Iranian consular building in Damascus. US and allied officials fear that a strike is imminent and could come in the form of a direct missile launch from Iran, rather than an attack through a proxy like Hezbollah in Lebanon.
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Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reiterated on Wednesday a promise to retaliate against Israel over the killings of Iranian generals in Syria. Israel has not acknowledged its involvement. Khamenei spoke at a prayer ceremony, saying the airstrike that demolished Iran’s consulate in Syria earlier this month was “wrongdoing” against a diplomatic post that is considered Iranian territory. “The evil regime must be punished, and it will be punished,” he said.
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Israel’s foreign minister threatened on Wednesday that its country’s forces would strike Iran directly if the Islamic Republic launched an attack from its territory against Israel. “If Iran attacks from its territory, Israel will respond and attack in Iran,” Israel Katz said in a post on X in both Farsi and Hebrew.
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Iran’s Mehr news agency removed a report on Wednesday from its official channel on X that had said the country was closing its airspace over the capital Tehran and denied in a new post that it had published any such news. In the original report posted on X, the semi-official news agency cited the Iranian defence minister as saying that all air traffic had been suspended over Tehran from 2030 GMT on Wednesday “due to military drills”.
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Axios is reporting that the senior US military commander in charge of the Middle East is expected to go to Israel on Thursday to coordinate around a possible attack on Israel, two Israeli officials told the news outlet. The commander of the US military central command (Centcom) Gen Erik Kurilla is expected to meet senior Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officials and Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant, reports Axios.
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US secretary of state Antony Blinken, has also made clear that the US will stand with Israel against any threats from Iran, in a call with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday, according to the state department.
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Three sons and at least two grandchildren of the Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, the exiled political chief of the militant group has said from his base in the Qatari capital of Doha. Haniyeh told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that his children Hazem, Amir and Mohammed and several of their children were visiting relatives for Eid at the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza when their car was targeted in an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli military statement confirmed it had targeted Haniyeh’s sons, who it described as “three Hamas operatives”. The Hamas leader said the attack would not change the group’s demands for a permanent ceasefire.
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Israel has agreed in ceasefire talks in Egypt to concessions about the return of Palestinians to the north of Gaza, but believes Hamas does not want to strike a deal, Israeli officials told Reuters on Wednesday. Two officials with knowledge of the talks told the news agency that under a US proposal for a truce, Israel would allow the return of 150,000 Palestinians to north Gaza with no security checks. In return, they said, Hamas would be required to give a list of female, elderly and sick hostages it still holds alive. Netanyahu’s office declined to comment.
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It is being reported that Hamas does not have 40 living hostages who fit the criteria needed for an exchange under a proposed ceasefire deal. The New York Times is citing a senior Israeli official as the source. CNN also reported the claims earlier, saying sources had told the news outlet that Hamas had informed international mediators it does not have the required number of living hostages who fit the criteria, including women, sick and elderly men. It also says that Israel is now pushing for Hamas to instead include younger male hostages, as well as soldiers in an initial release.
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Israeli War Cabinet minister Benny Gantz has claimed Hamas has been defeated militarily, although he also said Israel will fight it for years to come. “From a military point of view, Hamas is defeated. Its fighters are eliminated or in hiding” and its capabilities “crippled,” Gantz said in a statement to the media in the southern Israeli city of Sderot. But he added: “Fighting against Hamas will take time. Boys who are now in middle school will still fight in the Gaza Strip,” reports the Associated Press.
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Aid shipments to Gaza are expected to resume soon from Cyprus, officials said on Wednesday. The US plans to set up a dock, with a target date of 1 May, on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast that will enable aid deliveries which will be pre-screened in Cyprus, with Israeli oversight. With that jetty in place, Cyprus expects aid to resume soon, Cypriot president Nikos Christodoulides said.
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Israeli forces kept up combat operations and airstrikes on Gaza on Wednesday, reported AFP, a day after Netanyahu vowed no let up in the campaign to destroy Hamas and bring home the hostages. Netanyahu insisted on that “no force in the world” would stop Israeli troops from entering Gaza’s far-southern city of Rafah which is packed with displaced Palestinians.
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Eid al-Fitr was observed by Muslims across the world on Wednesday, including in Gaza, where Eid prayers were held outside the ruins of a mosque in Rafah to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Some displaced worshippers knelt on plastic tarpaulin outside tents where they are living after Israeli offensives destroyed their homes and infrastructure.
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According to the UN, 95% of pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza are not getting adequate food or nutrition. In a release published by the UN’s Population Fund (UNFPA), that was updated on 2 April, the UN agency warned that about 155,000 pregnant women and new mothers were “struggling to survive”.
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At least 33,482 Palestinians have been killed and 76,049 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, according to the latest figures from the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
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Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez warned on Wednesday that Israel’s “disproportionate response” in the Gaza war with Hamas risks “destabilising the Middle East, and as a consequence, the entire world”. Sánchez also insisted that the recognition of a Palestinian state, long resisted by Israel and its key allies, is “in Europe’s geopolitical interests”. It’s as the Palestine ambassador to Ireland welcomed Dublin’s promise to formally recognise Palestinian statehood and hoped other EU members will follow.
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The US Central Command (Centcom) says that its forces successfully engaged three unmanned aerial vehicles launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen over the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea. There were no injuries or damage reported, the statement added.
