Israel-Palestine live: Biden urges Egypt, Qatar to press Hamas for hostage deal

The Palestinian Prisoners Society has said that 200 Palestinian children, including 23 from Gaza, are being held in Israeli prisons.

The group released a statement to mark Palestinian Children's Day on 5 April, proclaiming 2023 the "bloodiest year against Palestinian children, with more than 14,000 killed in Gaza in the last six months, in addition to the 117 killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem."

The UN special rapporteur to the occupied Palestinian Territories has commended the states at the UN Human Rights Council who voted to halt arms transfer to Israel, but urged that "[The] next step for all states is to enforce this."

In a post on X, she added that, "This is in line with states’ obligations under international law, including ICJ [International Court of Justice] provisional measures.”

An Unrwa spokesperson has said that there have been no reports so far of aid convoys reaching Gaza through the Erez crossing, which Israel agreed to open.

Tamara Alrifai told Al Jazeera that the crossing is not "one of these big logistical hubs that would allow a huge influx or flow of trucks and humanitarian assistance," noting that previously it had been primarily used for transporting humanitarian personnel and cases coming in and out of Gaza.

"But at this stage, any additional land crossing into Gaza that allows to relieve people through bringing in aid is welcome – provided it’s truly open," Alrifai said.

She also said in response to Israel's promise that 350 aid trucks will enter Gaza daily, that “considering that not all of them would be food trucks – because we’re going to have work out a combination of food, blankets, medicine, fuel water – 350 remains way below the required minimum 500 which used to be the number before the war, even before the acute needs that we are witnessing now."

The European Council president has called for "susbtantial and urgent" efforts to "immediately end hunger as an instrument of war in Gaza."

Charles Michel added in a post on X that Israel's temporary reopening of the Erez border crossing to boost flows of aid into the strop is "not enough."

UN Chief, Antonio Guterres has condemned the "relentless death and destruction" inflicted on Palestinians by the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza.

In a speech marking 6 months of war, he described the "catastrophic hunger" inflicted on Gazans by Israeli blocks on aid as "incomprehensible, and entirely avoidable."

“Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people," he said.

Guterres added that he is "deeply troubled" by reports that the Israeli military uses artificial intelligence to target alleged Hamas fighters at home with their families, incurring a large number of civilian casualties.

“No part of life and death decisions which impact entire families should be delegated to the cold calculation of algorithms,” he said.

Guterres concluded by calling for "an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of
all captive, the protection of civilians, and the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid," adding that it would be "unforgiveable" to fail to meet these demands.

“Six months on, we are at the brink: of mass starvation; of regional conflagration; of a total loss of faith in global standards and norms," he said.

A ground of laywers is demanding that Germany stop arms sales to Israel arguing that it has "a constitutional responsibility to protect human life" and that arms exports to Israel "are in violation of international law."

"The government cannot claim that it is not aware of this,” Ahmed Abed, a lawyer representing Palestinian families said at a news conference in Berlin.

The German government has approved $354m worth of weapons exports to Israel in 2023, most of which were approved since October, representing a ten-fold increase compared to 2022.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the US is reviewing the results of a preliminary inquiry by the Israeli airforce into Monday's attack on a humanitarian convoy that killed seven aid workers.

"Israel is being accountable, civilian lives need to take priority over military operations in Gaza - not the other way around," he said.

Israel's national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, has said that the dismissal of officers responsible for Monday's attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy is a "serious mistake" and accused the Israeli military leadership of "abandoning" its soldiers.

"The chief of staff's decision to dismiss senior officers is an abandonment of the fighters in the middle of a war and a serious mistake that conveys weakness," Ben Gvir posted on X. "Even if there are mistakes in identification, soldiers are backed up in war."

An Israeli air-force inquiry has found that one of the hostages taken by Hamas gunmen during the 7 October attack was likely killed by fire from an Israeli helicopter, the military said on Friday.

The military has been investigating reports that some of the 1,200 Israelis and foreign victims of the attack were killed by friendly fire.

Based on video evidence and eye witness accounts, the investigation found that a 68-year-old Israeli woman, Efrat Katz, was killed when a helicopter fired at the car she was being taken in.

"As a result of the fire, most of the terrorists manning the vehicle were killed and, most likely, Efrat Katz...was killed as well," the military said in a statement.

Unrwa, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, has said that Israeli authorities continue to block access to northern Gaza where people are surviving on less than 12 percent of daily calories, according to Oxfam.

The Israeli military has said that its soldiers made a “grave mistake” in targeting a humanitarian convoy with a series of air strikes that killed seven international aid workers on Monday.

The deaths of workers for the World Central Kitchen, which included three Britons, an Australian, a Pole, a Palestinian and a dual US-Canadian citizen have been widely denounced by governments and organisations.

The aid workers were killed in three consecutive strikes by Israeli drones on the WCK vehicles which were delivering 100 tonnes of food aid to a Deir al-Balah warehouse.

In response to a preliminary investigation into the attack by the Israeli army, the WCK demanded an "independent commission to investigate the killings", saying the Israeli military "cannot credibly" probe its own failure.

WCK CEO, Erin Gore added that Israel's apologies for the attack were "cold comfort for the victims’ families and WCK’s global family".

On Friday, the interim findings of the investigation revealed that the WCK had correctly alerted the army about its convoy, and that the vehicles were clearly branded with the organisation's logo, but this information had not been cascaded down the chain of command.

READ MORE: Israeli military admits 'grave mistake' in killing of seven aid workers

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Szejna said the Israeli ambassador to Poland apologised over this week's Israeli strike which killed seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) workers, including a Polish citizen.

While Szejna said that the ambassador will not be expelled from the country, he said his country wants Polish prosecutors "added and implicated in the explanations and in the entire criminal and disciplinary procedure for the soldiers responsible for this… murder".

Israel dismissed two officers over the killing, but has yet to mention any criminal procedures over their actions.

Around 120,ooo worshippers prayed in Al-Aqsa Mosque on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, local media reported.

This year's Ramadan was marked with greater Israeli restrictions on Palestinians wishing to pray at the mosque, particularly those coming from the occupied West Bank.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed Israel's moves to reopen the Erez crossing and using the Ashdod port to allow aid into Gaza, but seemed to remain cautious.

"Really the proof is in the results, and we will see those unfold in the coming days, in the coming weeks," he said, speaking alongside EU leaders in Belgium.

The recent Israeli decision came after a call between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday, in which the former pressed heavily on the need for more humanitarian aid to reach civilians in Gaza.

The UK civil servants union has said that it is "seriously considering" taking legal action to prevent its members who oversee arms exports to Israel "from being forced to carry out unlawful acts". 

According to the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), which represents civil servants, their members have requested that they "cease work immediately" on tasks related to export licences to Israel over fears that they may be liable if Israel is deemed to have broken international law.

In a letter to the Department of Business and Trade on Wednesday, PCS said: "Given the implications for our members we believe there are ample grounds to immediately suspend all such work."

The union requested an urgent meeting with the department to discuss "the legal jeopardy faced by civil servants who are continuing to work on this policy".

READ MORE: UK civil servants overseeing arms sales to Israel demand to 'cease work immediately'