That's it for today's live coverage of the Gaza war and its repercussions in Lebanon and around the world. Thanks for joining us. We'll be back tomorrow morning. Goodnight!
Updates from southern Lebanon:
• A woman was lightly injured in the Israeli air strike on the outskirts of Bint Jbeil, a medical source told our correspondent in southern Lebanon, Muntasser Abdallah. She was taken to Salah Ghandour hospital.
• Hezbollah said that it targeted surveillance devices at the Israeli "Ruwaisat al-Alam" site in the Kfar Shuba hills at 4:50 p.m.
Israel has given Hamas one week to agree to a cease-fire deal before it will begin a military operation in Rafah, Egyptian officials briefed on the matter told the Wall Street Journal today.
Egypt worked with Israel on a revised cease-fire proposal that it presented to Hamas last weekend, according to the officials. Hamas’s political leadership was expected to consult with its military wing in Gaza and respond on the proposal. But Yahya Sinwar, the group’s military leader in Gaza, who is believed to be in hiding in the enclave and makes the final decisions, hasn’t responded.
Egyptian officials said they have invited senior Hamas officials to return to Cairo in the coming days to continue the negotiations. Hamas said in a statement yesterday that its negotiating team would go to Egypt soon to discuss the terms.
A top Hamas official has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of issuing statements intended to torpedo prospects for a truce in the nearly seven-month war in Gaza.
Hossam Badran told AFP that Hamas was in the process of conducting internal dialogues within its leadership and with allied militant groups before negotiators return to Cairo to continue negotiations towards a truce.
But he warned that Netanyahu's repeated statements insisting he will send troops into the territory's far southern city of Rafah were calculated to "thwart any possibility of concluding an agreement."
"Netanyahu was the obstructionist in all previous rounds of dialogue and previous negotiations, and it is clear that he still is," he said in a telephone interview. "He is not interested in reaching an agreement, and therefore he says words in the media to thwart these current efforts."
A recent article published by The Jerusalem Post cites testimonies from the mothers of some female Israeli soldiers who say their daughters experienced humiliation, threats of violence, sleep deprivation, and verbal abuse in response to their refusal to enlist in the all-female observation unit stationed around the Gaza border.
"All these practices were actually torture just to break them to serve in the position," one mother told the publication. "They had to sleep under a light and in a noisy place, preventing them from continuous sleep. They were also put outside in the sun for hours without even being allowed to scratch their faces. Some fainted there."
Local volunteers of the World Central Kitchen cook meals to be distributed to Palestinians in need, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 3, 2024. (Credit: by AFP)
Every day in Gaza, nearly 40 children lose their mother, according to new statistics released by UNRWA, in a post on their X account.
"The war in Gaza continues to be a war on women," the post reads. "Conditions are appalling."
According to the UN agency, 10,000 women have been killed and 19,000 injured since the war began.
In mid April, UN Women released a similar statement saying that according to its figures, the Israeli offensive has killed an estimated 6,000 mothers, leaving 19,000 children orphaned.
Latest updates from the Lebanese-Israeli border, according to residents' testimonies relayed by our correspondent in the South:
• Israeli warplanes targeted a house in the village of Kfar Kila (Marjayoun) without causing casualties.
• Israeli warplanes also raided the villages of Aitaroun and Maroun al-Rass (Bint Jbeil).
• Israeli artillery shelling targeted the outskirts of Majdal Zoun (Sour district).
More than 2,000 people have been arrested at pro-Palestinian protests on at least 43 college campuses across the US, over the last two weeks, Axios reports.
University administrations have cracked down on student protests in unprecedented ways, calling in riot police who have fired rubber bullets and sound cannons directly into crowds of demonstrators. Encampments in support of Gaza and calling for universities to divest from Israeli companies have swelled in size and intensity over recent weeks. More than 100 universities have had encampments or sit-ins organized on their campuses.
Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee announced that the 282nd Brigade of the Israeli army conducted an "exercise to simulate an offensive operation on the northern front," for the first time since the war began.
"During the past week, a surprise exercise was conducted in which various scenarios were practiced, including the rapid deployment of artillery for offensive purposes, with the aim of simulating fighting in various combat scenarios on the Lebanese border against the terrorist organization Hezbollah", he said on X.
He added that "troops of the 282nd Brigade have been conducting offensive and defensive missions on the northern border for the past three months after fighting on the southern front."
Latest updates from the Lebanese-Israeli border:
• Israeli warplanes raided an area between Houla and Markaba (Marjayoun district), residents told L'Orient Today.
• An Israeli shell fell on the outskirts of Naqoura (Sour district), according to residents from the village.
• Sirens sounded in the village of Tziv'on in northern Isreal, according to Haaretz.
• Rockets were fired from southern Lebanon towards Israeli sites, according to a security source relayed by our correspondent in the South. The Israeli army, cited by Haaretz, announced that 10 rockets launched toward Mount Meron in northern Israel fell in open areas.
The Israeli army said that it intercepted an "aerial target during rocket launches into northern Israel," according to Haaretz.
The Israeli newspaper added that a resident of the northern Israeli village of Yarka was lightly wounded. Yarka is around 14 kilometers away from the Lebanese-Israeli border. No group has claimed responsibility for the drone attack so far.
The strike is significantly farther south into Israeli territory than the majority of attacks, which tend to target areas much closer to the border.
At least 34,622 Palestinians have been killed and 77,867 injured in Israel's war on Gaza since Oct. 7, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement released today, cited by Reuters. Thousands more are missing and thought to be buried under the rubble.
Israeli authorities released 64 Palestinians yesterday — detained by the Israeli army during its offensive in Gaza — via the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing, the Palestinian borders and crossings agency said, cited by Reuters.
One of them was the body of another man who had died in detention, said the prisoners’ associations. Another freed detainee arrived in critical condition and was taken immediately to hospital upon arrival, according to the crossings agency.
Dozens of Palestinians who had been detained and then released by Israel in past months, including some UNRWA staff, have reported ill-treatment during detention, including torture and deprivation of food and sleep.
The two new deaths bring the toll of Palestinians who have died in Israeli custody since the start of the way to at least 18, the prisoners associations said, urging Israeli authorities to disclose the number, location and fate of detainees from Gaza.
UNRWA has documented the release of 1,506 people detained by the Israeli authorities through the Kerem Shalom crossing as of April 4 and said the transfer of detainees regularly holds up aid. The 1,506 included 43 children and 84 women.
Israeli forces arbitrarily detained the wife of Middle East Eye correspondent Mohammed al-Hajjar yesterday at a military checkpoint in the central Gaza Strip, forcing the family to separate as they attempted to move south to Rafah, the UK-based MENA news outlet reports.
Hajjar's wife, Inas Abu al-Maza, was later released by the army, which made her return to Gaza City and prevented her from reuniting with her family in the South.
Before Abu al-Maza was released, Israeli forces confiscated her valuables, including thousands of dollars in cash, personal gold jewellery and two phones.
Since Israel launched its ground invasion of Gaza in late October, Israeli forces have detained hundreds of civilians from their homes or while fleeing on roads declared safe by the army.
Some have been released after interrogation but many have been taken to undisclosed locations, their conditions unknown.
The International Criminal Court's prosecutor's office has called for an end to what it called intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offense against the world's permanent war crimes court.
The statement denounces attempts to undermine the court's independence and impartiality and insists that all attempts to "impede, intimidate or improperly influence its officials cease immediately."
The Court mentions individuals who "threaten to retaliate against the Court or against Court personnel should the Office ... make decisions about investigations or cases falling within its jurisdiction," and notes that such threats, "even when not acted upon, may also constitute an offense against the administration of justice."
While the statement does not mention Israel or the US by name, news of possible ICC arrest warrants issued for PM Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli senior officials, under the charge of committing war crimes in Gaza, has circulated widely in the last week. Israeli media reported that the Israeli government was campaigning to prevent such arrests from being made and Netanyahu asked US President Joe Biden to intervene on his behalf.
France is "fully committed" to deescalation between Hezbollah and Israel as the eighth month of fighting along the Lebanese border nears, French President Emmanuel Macron said during a meeting with Druze leader and former head of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) Walid Jumblatt.
During the meeting at the Élysée Palace in Paris, Macron "emphasized France's full commitment to de-escalate [the tensions] between Israel and Lebanon, in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, and France's historical attachment to the security of Lebanon," according to a statement released on today by Jumblatt's party.
Palestinian journalists covering Israel's war on Gaza have been awarded the 2024 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.
The 31st World Press Freedom Day Conference is currently underway in Chile. During last night's award ceremony, Mauricio Weibel, chair of the international jury of media professionals, expressed solidarity with Palestinian journalists reporting for almost seven months under relentless Israeli bombardment.
“In these times of darkness and hopelessness, we wish to share a strong message of solidarity and recognition to those Palestinian journalists who are covering this crisis in such dramatic circumstances," he said, cited by AFP.
"As humanity, we have a huge debt to their courage and commitment to freedom of expression," said Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General.
Here's what happened at the Lebanese-Israeli border last night and into this morning, according to security sources and residents' testimonies relayed by our correspondent in the South:
• Between 11 p.m. and 12 a.m. Israeli artillery shelling targeted the outskirts of Hanine and Tiri (Bint Jbeil district).
• Hezbollah said that it fired rockets on the headquarters of the 91st Division in the Israeli Branit barracks, facing the Lebanese village of Ramyah, at 11:25 p.m.
• After 12 a.m., Israel combed with machine guns the village of Kfar Kila (Marjayoun).
• At 2 a.m. Israeli warplanes fired missiles on the village of Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil).
• This morning, five Israeli artillery shells landed in the vicinity of a vocational center in Khiam (Marjayoun).
Good morning and welcome to today's live coverage of the Gaza war and it's repercussions in the region, notably in southern Lebanon, and around the world, especially right now across US campuses where students are protesting en masse in support of Gaza.
👉 You can catch up on yesterday's news here.
👉 And you can read all our Gaza war and Hezbollah-Israel war coverage here.
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