KEY POINTS
- Bodies of foreign food aid personnel killed in Gaza strike to be repatriated
- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says aid workers' deaths caused "understandable anger"
- US President Joe Biden 'outraged' by Israeli strike that killed aid workers
It's Day 180 of the Israel-Hamas war, and things aren't looking good for Israel as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is under increasing pressure from the global community to explain the circumstances behind the airstrike that killed seven multi-national staffers of American food charity World Central Kitchen (WCK).
The Israeli army has implicated Iranian-backed Hezbollah in a blast in Ramish, southern Lebanon last week that injured several workers of the United Nations' peacekeeping organization in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
- IDF chief issues statement, apologizes amid global outcry in WCK workers' deaths
- Houthis improving missile and naval capabilities to continue 'targeting Israel': Arab media
- Israeli fighter jets strike Hezbollah posts in southern Lebanon
- Iranian-backed Iraqi militia says it attacked Haifa Airport with drones: Iranian media
- EU calls for 'utmost restraint' amid tensions over Damascus strike
- After sister's arrest, Hamas chief says terror group will stick to initial truce demands
- UN rights body to consider draft text calling for Israel arms embargo
Canada's foreign minister Melanie Joly on Wednesday called for a "full investigation" into the food convoy airstrike in Gaza Monday that killed a Canadian humanitarian aid worker.
Back in Israel, the families of over 130 hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip have staged four nights of mass protests as more Israelis question Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the war and the government's refusal to achieve a ceasefire deal.
The U.S. embassy in Yemen on Wednesday said "reckless" attacks by Iranian-backed Houthis are harming the commercial shipping operations of many countries, not just the United States.
Hostilities in the Gaza Strip stem from decades of violence in the Israel-Palestine conflict that triggered tensions across the Middle East since Hamas' Oct. 7 massacre in Israel.
The live update has ended.
UNHRC to consider draft resolution calling for Israel arms embargo
The UN Human Rights Council on Friday will consider a draft resolution that calls for an arms embargo on Israel, citing a "plausible risk of genocide in Gaza," AFP reported Wednesday. This is the first time the UN rights body will take a position on the Israel-Hamas war, as per the outlet.
The Pakistan-presented text denounces Israel's use of "explosive weapons with wide-area effects" across civilian-populated areas of the war-torn enclave. It also demands that Israel uphold its "legal responsibility" to prevent genocide in Gaza.
Hamas leader refuses to be flexible in ceasefire demands
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday said the Palestinian militant group will stick to its initial ceasefire demands that the Israeli army withdraw from Gaza and halt its military operations in the enclave.
His comments came after Sabah Abdel Salam Haniyeh, the Hamas chief's sister, was arrested by Israeli police over the weekend for terror incitement.
EU condemns attack targeting Iranian military leaders in Damascus
The European Union "condemns the attack on an Iranian diplomatic installation in Damascus on 1 April, as well as reported casualties," the bloc's external affairs spokesperson Peter Stano said in a statement on X Wednesday.
He called for "utmost restraint," considering the "highly tense regional situation." An escalation will do the region no good, he argued.
Iran: 🇪🇺 condemns the attack on 🇮🇷 diplomatic building in 🇸🇾: pic.twitter.com/QDGdZRIEgX
— Peter Stano (@ExtSpoxEU) April 3, 2024
The said attack, which Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said killed seven of its members, has been attributed to Israel, but the Israeli government has yet to deny or confirm it.
Among the assassinated IRGC members were Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the force's commander in Syria and Lebanon and his deputy.
Iraqi militia attacks Israel's Haifa Airport: Iranian media
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed Wednesday that it attacked the Haifa Airport in Israel in the morning using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the Iranian government's semi-official Mehr News reported.
Israel has yet to deny or confirm the said attack, but the said Iranian-backed Iraqi militia has carried out attacks toward Israel since the Gaza war started.
Israeli warplanes strike Hezbollah posts in Kfarhamam
Israeli fighters jets on Wednesday afternoon struck Hezbollah infrastructure and paramilitary positions in the Kfarhamam area in southern Lebanon, the IDF said. Among the posts attacked was one that the Iran-backed terror group used to launch rockets toward Har Dov earlier in the day, the Israeli army added.
לפני זמן קצר מטוסי קרב וכלי טיס תקפו תשתיות טרור ועמדות צבאיות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב כפר חמאם.
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) April 3, 2024
אחת מהעמדות הצבאיות שימשה את פעילי הארגון לביצוע שיגורים למרחב הר דב מוקדם יותר היום >> pic.twitter.com/PRQr8dbfyg
Improvements in naval capabilities underway: Houthis
Iran-backed Yemeni Houthis on Wednesday said the militant group continues to "develop our missile and naval capabilities" so it can keep supporting Palestine and it can move forward in "targeting Israel," Sky News in Arabic reported, citing a Houthi leader.
IDF chief apologizes for 'unintentional harm' to WCK staffers
Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the Israeli army's chief of staff, on Wednesday apologized for the "grave mistake" committed by the IDF Monday.
"The strike was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers. It was a mistake that followed a misidentification – at night during a war in very complex conditions. It shouldn't have happened," he said, as per a statement released by the Israeli government.
The full statement by @IDF Chief of the General Staff LTG Herzi Halevi regarding the unintentional harm to the @WCKitchen workers:
— Israel ישראל 🇮🇱 (@Israel) April 3, 2024
“Last night, seven employees of the World Central Kitchen were killed.
WCK is an organization whose people work across the globe, including in…
"We are sorry for the unintentional harm to the members of WCK," he said, adding that an independent body will review the incident thoroughly and the IDF will present the findings in the coming days.
Halevi's statement comes amid increasing international scrutiny over the Israeli army's supposed mistake of striking a WCK food convoy in Gaza Monday. Multiple countries have denounced the incident, calling on full accountability for the humanitarian workers' deaths.
Biden 'outraged' over Israeli strike targeting food aid convoy
The U.S. president, who was initially in full support of Israel's military offensive in Gaza in the early months of the Israel-Hamas war, is now "outraged and heartbroken" after the deaths of seven food aid workers, including an American.
"Even more tragically, this is not a stand-alone incident. This conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed," he pointed out. He went on to say that Israel "has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians," marking his sternest words regarding the U.S. ally in weeks yet.
I am outraged and heartbroken by the deaths of seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen, including one American, in Gaza yesterday.
— President Biden (@POTUS) April 3, 2024
Incidents like yesterday’s simply should not happen.
Here is my full statement. pic.twitter.com/Nl2jq8wqTt
Humanitarian aid workers' deaths puts Poland's solidarity with Israel to test: Polish PM
Tusk on Wednesday issued a stern warning to Israel after a Polish humanitarian aid staffer of the WCK was killed alongside six others in an IDF airstrike Monday, as per a Google translation of his post on X.
He said Netanyahu's "reaction" to the killings, wherein the Israeli Prime Minister said such incidents happen in war, caused "understandable anger." He went on to remind Israel that Poland expressed "full solidarity" with Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7 massacre. "Today you are putting this solidarity to a really hard test."
Panie premierze Netanjahu, panie ambasadorze Liwne, zdecydowana większość Polaków okazała pełną solidarność z Izraelem po ataku Hamasu. Dzisiaj poddajecie tę solidarność naprawdę ciężkiej próbie. Tragiczny atak na wolontariuszy i wasza reakcja budzą zrozumiałą złość.
— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) April 3, 2024
Bodies of killed food aid workers to be repatriated
The bodies of six foreign staffers of the WCK will be repatriated, AFP reported Wednesday as Israel faces mounting pressure to investigate the incident and explain the circumstances that led to the employees' killings.
Seven WCK personnel were killed when an Israeli airstrike targeted a food convoy of the U.S.-based food charity Monday. One of the deceased workers is Palestinian.
Read the full story here.
'Many countries' affected by Houthi attacks in Red Sea: US embassy
The U.S. embassy in Yemen said early Wednesday that "many countries" are affected by Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. It noted that contrary to the Iranian-backed Yemeni rebel militia's claims it only attacks Israeli, American and British ships, the terror group has already attacked commercial ships from other countries such as Japan, Qatar, Bulgaria, Greece, China, France and over a dozen more.
The truth about Houthi attacks on shipping, and the many countries affected. #Yemen #RedSea pic.twitter.com/MoZ770zyVO
— U.S. Embassy Yemen السفارة الأمريكية لدى اليمن (@USEmbassyYemen) April 2, 2024
Hostages' families stage another protest as desperation mounts
The war in Gaza is nearing its sixth month, and the loved ones of remaining hostages in Gaza have expressed desperation as the fate of some 130 abductees hangs in the balance.
Local media reported that the families of hostages smeared yellow paint Wednesday afternoon on the windows of the Knesset plenum in protest of the Netanyahu government's handling of the war and stalled talks for a truce.
They are calling for a ceasefire deal to get the remaining hostages freed.
Canadian FM 'horrified' after airstrike deaths of aid workers, calls for 'full investigation'
Joly early on Wednesday said she was "horrified to reports of the IDF strike taking the lives of 7" WCK staffers in Gaza. One of the dead is a Canadian citizen. The Canadian foreign minister called for a "full investigation," adding that Canada expects "full accountability for these killings."
"Strikes on humanitarian personnel is absolutely unacceptable," she added.
1/2 I am horrified to hear reports of the IDF strike taking the lives of 7 World Central Kitchen employees in Gaza yesterday, including a Canadian citizen.
— Mélanie Joly (@melaniejoly) April 2, 2024
2/2 We condemn these strikes & call for a full investigation.🇨🇦 expects full accountability for these killings & we will convey this to the Israeli government directly. Strikes on humanitarian personnel is absolutely unacceptable. International humanitarian law must be respected.
— Mélanie Joly (@melaniejoly) April 2, 2024
Hezbollah to blame for UN peacekeepers' injuries: IDF
The Israeli army on Wednesday said it has information that the explosion last week in a southern Lebanon village that resulted in injuries to some UNIFIL workers "was caused after a UNIFIL patrol drove over a charge that had been previously placed by Hezbollah in the area."
The IDF's implication of the Iran-backed terror organization in the blast came after reports that an Israeli airstrike targeted a UNIFIL vehicle in southern Lebanon on March 30.
🔴According to information available to the IDF, the explosion that occurred on March 30 in Ramish, resulting in injuries to several @UNIFIL_ workers, was caused after a UNIFIL patrol drove over a charge that had been previously placed by Hezbollah in the area. https://t.co/RMUoz4Ad1E
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 3, 2024
