Thank you for joining us for today's live coverage of the war on Gaza and its repercussions in the region, notably in southern Lebanon. We're closing the blog for today. We'll be back tomorrow with more news updates and analysis. Goodnight!
Two thousand tonnes of aid will head from Lebanon to Egypt’s Arish port in early May, before making its way into Gaza, an organizer of the "Solidarity with Gaza" aid project told L’Orient Today.
Palestinian activist Nazih Bekai said the aid will be transported to Egypt in a ship named after the Syrian Archbishop Hilarion Capucci, who passed away in 2017 after having spent his life advocating for the Palestinian cause.
In February, several activists and religious leaders in Lebanon, both Lebanese and Palestinian, decided that since aid has been entering Gaza "in a more flexible manner in the past few weeks" it was time for Lebanon to start an aid drive, Bekai explained.
UN investigators examining Israeli accusations that 12 staff from the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA took part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks have closed one case due to a lack of evidence from Israel and suspended three more, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric announced, cited by Reuters. He said the inquiry by the Office for Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) continues into the remaining eight cases.
In the closed case, Dujarric said "no evidence was provided by Israel to support the allegations against the staff member" and that the UN is "exploring corrective administrative action to be taken in that person's case."
He said three cases were suspended "as the information provided by Israel is not sufficient for OIOS to proceed with an investigation." He said UNRWA is considering what administrative action to take.
After an initial 12 cases were raised by the Israeli government in late January, a further seven cases were brought to the attention of the United Nations in March and April, Dujarric said. One of those cases was suspended pending receipt of additional supporting evidence, he said, and the remaining six investigations continue.
The Sunni political party, al-Jamaa al-Islamiya issued a statement announcing the death of Masaab Said Khalaf and Bilal Mohammad Khalaf, killed "while performing their jihadist duty." The statement confirmed earlier reports that the two party members were killed in the Israeli airstrike on a car driving between Western Bekaa and Jezzine districts this afternoon. The Israeli army also announced their deaths.
⚡️ The two people killed in the car targeted by an Israeli drone strike this afternoon on the Maydoun road between Western Bekaa and Jezzine districts, were two members of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, a source within the group confirmed with our correspondent. Since Oct. 8, the party has lost seven members in Israeli strikes, two of which were killed in the assassination of Hamas deputy political leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut.
👉 Read about al-Jamaa al-Islamiya's role in the conflict along the border here.
In southern Lebanon:
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an attack carried out at 6:20 p.m. on the Israeli site of "Ramtha" in the disputed Kfar Shuba hills, using missiles.
Israeli aircraft targeted the Rihane mountains, in the Jezzine district in southern Lebanon, L'Orient Today's correspondent reports, citing a security source.
Israeli officials told their Egyptian counterparts today that Israel is ready to give hostage negotiations "one last chance" to reach a deal with Hamas before moving forward with an invasion of Rafah, Axios cited two Israeli officials as saying.
"Israel told Egypt that it is serious about preparations for the operation in Rafah and that it will not let Hamas drag its feet," one of the officials told the American news outlet.
"A Lebanese cadre of the Jamaa Islamiya was killed by an Israeli drone strike that targeted his car" on the Maydoun road, a Lebanese security source told AFP.
Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya is closely linked to Hamas, alongside which it claims to carry out attacks against Israel from southern Lebanon.
🔴 The death toll from the Israeli drone strike on a car along the Maydoun road has risen to two, according to sources cited by L'Orient Today's correspondent in the region.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's car overturned while driving back from visiting the scene of a stabbing that occurred earlier today in the central Israeli city of Ramle, Haaretz reports.
According to Israel's Channel 12 news outlet, Ben-Gavir's condition has been described as "mild to moderate" and he was transferred to Shamir Assaf Harofeh Hospital.
Here are the latest updates from southern Lebanon, apart from the car strike in Western Bekaa/Jezzine.
• Israeli warplanes targeted the town of Kfar Kila, in Marjayoun district, as reported by local residents.
• An Israeli fighter jet targeted a house in the town of Dhaira, Sour district, according to local residents.
• Haaretz reported that the Israeli army announced its fighter jets attacked buildings where Hezbollah members were staying, in Tayr Harfa and Aita al-Shaab.
🔴 One person was killed in the Israeli drone strike that targeted a car driving along the Maydoun road, between Western Bekaa and Jezzine district, according to initial reports from our correspondent Sarah Abdallah.
⚡ An Israeli drone strike targeted a car on the Maydoun road, which links the western Bekaa to the Jezzine district, our correspondents Sarah Abdallah and Mountasser Abdallah report. A Civil Defense team has responded to the scene of the strike and is working to extinguish the flames that engulfed the car as a result of the strike before they are able to extract victims from the vehicle.
It could take 14 years to clear all the rubble, including unexploded missiles, left by Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, a UN official said.
Pehr Lodhammar, senior officer at the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS), told a briefing in Geneva that the war had left an estimated 37 million tons of debris in the widely urbanized, densely populated territory, Reuters reports.
Regarding unexploded ordnance, Lodhammar said: "We know that typically there's a failure rate of at least 10% of land service ammunition that is being fired and fails to function. We're talking about 14 years of work with 100 trucks."
Israel is willing to consider a limited truce in which 33 hostages would be released, instead of the 40 previously discussed in negotiations with Hamas, according to an official privy to meetings underway in Israel today with an Egyptian delegation.
Reuters reports that Israel had no new proposals to make, citing the official, except to consider this one adjustment. “There are no current hostage talks between Israel and Hamas, nor is there a new Israeli offer in that regard," the official said. "What there is, is an attempt by Egypt to restart the talks with an Egyptian proposal that would entail the release of 33 hostages — women, elderly, and infirm."
According to Israeli media reports, Israeli intelligence officials believe there are 33 female, elderly and sick hostages left alive in Gaza, out of a total of 133 still being held by Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken commented on protests at US universities against Israel's war on Gaza, stating they are a hallmark of American democracy, Reuters reports.
He expressed understanding for the strong emotions surrounding the conflict and affirmed the administration's efforts to halt the war. However, he criticized what he called the "silence" about Palestinian militant group Hamas, suggesting that critics should focus on Hamas militants who sparked the war.
According to ABC News, the Biden administration has decided not to impose sanctions on three Israeli military battalions, despite findings of severe human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank. The decision, outlined in an undated letter from Secretary of State Antony Blinken to House Speaker Mike Johnson, comes as a result of Israel's efforts to address these issues.
The United States had been considering sanctions, including against the ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda battalion, but these measures will not be implemented. This means that US military aid will continue to be available to these units, and they will still be able to participate in joint training with the US Army.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the intention to sanction an Israeli army unit, calling it "the height of absurdity and a moral low," and pledged to oppose such actions.
The United States announced that it has shot down two drones in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen after the Iranian-backed rebels launched a ballistic missile into the Gulf of Aden, reports AFP. The anti-ship missile launched yesterday caused no injuries or damage, said the US military's Middle East Command (CENTCOM) in a statement on social network X.
A few hours later, US forces "destroyed a naval surface drone and a drone in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen," Centcom said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported on X that its ambulance teams had transported the body of a Palestinian and a wounded man from Nusseirate after Israeli fire.
According to the organization, the two Palestinians were the target of Israeli sniper fire in al-Zahra, located in the central Gaza Strip.
In a video, a Red Crescent team can be seen retrieving a body from a car and placing it in an ambulance, while onlookers gather around the vehicle.
The Gaza Ministry of Health has announced a new death toll of 34,356 in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement on Oct. 7, according to AFP.
In the space of 24 hours, at least 51 additional deaths have been recorded, according to a statement from the ministry, which reports 77,368 wounded in over 200 days of war.
Israeli airstrikes targeted two houses in the towns of Tayr Harfa (Sour) and Aita al-Shaab (Hasbaya) local residents reported. Immediately, ambulances moved to the targeted areas, and one wounded paramedic from the Civil Defense team with the Islamic Health Authority (associated with Hezbollah) was evacuated as a result of the airstrike on Tayr Harfa. According to the mayor of Tayr Harfa, Qasim Haydar, who spoke to L'Orient Today, the airstrike targeted a house in the town, which was directly hit by a missile and completely destroyed. Several adjacent houses were also damaged. He added that the targeted house was uninhabited.
Several mediators have been tasked with delivering messages from the United States to the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, offering, according to sources quoted by Emirati media outlet The National, "incentives" including the lifting of the blockade of Sanaa and Hodeida and the acceleration of peace talks, if the group would halt its attacks on the Red Sea.
The Houthis have been launching attacks in the Red Sea since the start of the Israeli conflict in Gaza, in "solidarity" with the Palestinians.
Yemeni political sources also said that during "secret indirect talks" held with the Iranians in Oman around three months ago, the Americans tried to persuade Iran to help de-escalate the "Yemeni front." "But the Iranian delegation told them that the decision was up to the Houthis.
Barbara Leaf, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, acknowledged the existence of indirect discussions with the Houthis but noted a change in tone since October when the group stepped up its attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
A meeting on the future of Gaza will be held in Saudi Arabia on Monday, attended by several officials including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, reports Bloomberg, citing sources close to the matter. The British foreign minister, David Cameron, and other representatives of the European Union, Jordan, Egypt and Qatar, as well as the Palestinian Authority, could also attend, according to these anonymous sources. According to one of these sources, the meeting will be a "crisis meeting" to launch discussions, which are not expected to produce any concrete results. No representatives of Hamas or Israel, with which Riyadh has no diplomatic ties, are expected to attend the meeting.
The Israeli artillery shelled the town of Zalloutieh in the Sour district, hitting a pickup truck parked on the road and igniting it, local residents reported. There were no casualties reported.
The Israeli artillery shelled the outskirts of the towns of Dhaira, Yarin, and Jibbain, all located in the Sour district, according to local residents.
The "Israeli civilian" killed by a Hezbollah missile last night is 35-year-old Sharif Suad, from the village of Ras al-Ein. He was struck while driving a truck as part of infrastructure work carried out in the area, the Israeli army said, cited by Haaretz.
Rubble litters the area around a house that was hit overnight by an Israeli airstrike in the southern Lebanese village of Shebaa near the border on April 26, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza. (Credit: Rabih Daher/AFP)
Israeli forces have fired at fishermen working off the coast of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, killing at least one person and injuring another, according to Al Jazeera's correspondent on the ground.
“As the weather gets warmer, the risk of disease spreading increases across” the Gaza Strip, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on X.
“UNRWA services are critical but not possible without access,” the agency added.
Here is an update on the security situation in southern Lebanon and northern Israel:
- Israeli artillery shelling targeted the outskirts of the Dhaira area and Tayr Harfa (both located in the Sour district), local residents reported.
- Heavy rockets were launched towards Israeli positions in the western Galilee, a security source told L’Orient Today.
A Hamas politician, Ghazi Hamad, assured AFP from Qatar that an assault on Rafah would not enable Israel to obtain "what it wants," i.e. to "eliminate Hamas or recover" the hostages.
Regarding the Israeli offensive in Gaza, Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer announced yesterday that the war cabinet had met "to discuss ways of destroying the last Hamas battalions." However, according to Israeli media reports, the cabinet discussed a new truce project involving the release of hostages, ahead of a planned visit on Friday by an Egyptian delegation, a mediating country along with Qatar and the United States. According to the Walla website, which quotes a senior Israeli official without naming him, the discussions focused more specifically on a proposal for the initial release of 20 hostages considered to be "humanitarian" cases.
In addition to this attack on Shebaa, several other villages were hit by the Israeli army during the night.
- Shortly after 11 p.m., automatic weapons fire from the Israeli village of Metulla targeted Kfar Kila.
- At 12:30 a.m., two houses located between Houla and Markaba (Marjayoun) were bombed by Israeli aircraft. There were no casualties.
- At around 1:15 a.m., artillery fire targeted the plain of Khiam (Marjayoun).
- At 5 a.m., several Israeli artillery shells were fired at the outskirts of Rashaya al-Foukhar (Hasbaya).
Despite the intensity of the strikes, there have been no casualties, says this Shebaa resident, who believes this is due to the fact that "the majority of the inhabitants" have left the village for "safer places."
According to Mohammad, a Shebaa resident contacted by L'Orient Today, the night was "terrifying," with "incessant detonations." "I was expecting a shell to fall on my house at any moment, and I didn't sleep a wink until dawn," he said, referring to a "tragic scene" in the morning when he went out into the village. According to him, five houses were "completely destroyed" and dozens of others were damaged. Most of them have no windows left, the doors have been smashed in, and debris is littering the streets," he said.
After 11 p.m. and until at least 3 a.m., Shebaa and Kfar Shouba were pounded by Israeli fire and bombardment.
Dozens of artillery shells fell on Shebaa, a town in the Hasbaya district, and at 3 a.m. an airstrike was carried out on a three-story building, which immediately caught fire, according to security sources and local residents. The latter reported that the column of smoke emanating from the fire caused cases of asphyxiation in neighboring villages.
According to the Israeli army, quoted by Haaretz, "an Israeli civilian was killed by an anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon, in the Mount Dov area." Mount Dov is the Israeli name for the Shebaa Farms area, next to Kfar Shouba. The victim was killed "while carrying out infrastructure work." The Israeli army retaliated by striking "Hezbollah targets" in Shebaa.
In southern Lebanon, the night was marked by a series of operations by Hezbollah and the Israeli army on both sides of the border.
Among these operations, Hezbollah announced that, at 11 p.m., it fired artillery shells at an Israeli patrol "entering the first Malkia post," opposite Aitaroun, in the Bint Jbeil district. Ten minutes later, the party launched an ambush with guided missiles, missiles and artillery fire, against a convoy of vehicles near the "Rouaissat al-Alam" site, on the disputed Kfar Shouba heights. "Upon arrival at this position, the convoy was shelled and two vehicles were destroyed," claims Hezbollah, adding that the Israeli army then launched smoke bombs to "evacuate its losses."
Overnight in Gaza, witnesses reported bombardments, particularly in the Rafah area, where survivors tried to salvage objects from the rubble after strikes.
"Enough destruction, enough war. Enough bloodshed of children, women, the elderly and unarmed civilians ... it's gone too far ... Let the people live," shouted one of them, Samir Daban, amid the rubble.
Be sure to read the Morning Brief so that you are caught up with what has been happening.
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