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The Gaza media office has condemned the Israeli attack on a vehicle carrying three journalists in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp.

“We strongly condemn the ongoing targeting of journalists and media crews by Israeli occupation forces,” it said in a statement.

Israeli forces are “deliberately killing and wounding journalists in an attempt to scare, threaten, and prevent reporters from carrying out their duties, as well as to stifle the truth,” it said.

In updated travel guidance published on Friday, Poland's foreign ministry advises against travel to Israel, Palestine and Lebanon.

"It cannot be ruled out that there will be a sudden escalation of military operations, which would cause significant difficulties in leaving these three countries," the ministry said in a statement.

"Any escalation may lead to significant restrictions in air traffic and the inability to cross land border crossings."

(Reuters)

The German police have stormed the building of the Palestine Congress in Berlin, turned off the electricity supply, and stopped the live stream, Quds News Network reports.

This comes after Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abu Sittah announced on X that he was stopped the airport in Germany and prevented from entering the country to attend the conference.

Germany has been one of Israel's staunchest allies alongside the United States before and after Israel launched its war on Gaza.

The German police have stormed the building of the Palestine Congress and turned off the electricity supply.https://t.co/7C1kfYTvmz pic.twitter.com/G8xQgLmm7Q

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) April 12, 2024

A Palestinian youth has been shot dead, and 10 have been injured after armed Israeli settlers carried out an attack in the town of Al-Mughayir, northeast of Ramallah.

Local Palestinian medical sources told Anadolu that the injured were transferred for treatment to a medical clinic in the town.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said its crews dealt with the injured.

BREAKING | The Palestinian Red Crescent in a fresh update: 10 Palestinians were just injured, including one seriously in the head, during the ongoing IDF-backed settler rampage in the village of Al Mughayir.https://t.co/7C1kfYTvmz pic.twitter.com/SXxezsWKk6

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) April 12, 2024

UK-based charity Oxfam has warned the British government that continuing its arms export to Israel could make it "complicit in war crimes".

"It is against international law to intentionally or recklessly attack civilians and civilian infrastructure – and British arms sold to Israel are potentially being used to commit such serious violations of international law. By refusing to stop selling these arms, the UK is complicit in the slaughter of civilians taking place daily in Gaza," the charity said in an open letter to the UK government.

“An immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire is vital to stop the death and destruction. Ending arms sales is a crucial step towards this."

TODAY: We’re handing in our open letter directly to the Government demanding the UK stops selling arms to Israel & helps secure an immediate, permanent ceasefire. Watch this space & add your voice! #StopArmingIsrael pic.twitter.com/5v2MTivYvn

— Oxfam (@oxfamgb) April 12, 2024

Israel is meeting its commitments in terms of opening up additional vehicle crossings to get aid into Gaza, but it is not enough, the White House said on Friday, adding that the US continues to press them to do more.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby, speaking to reporters, also said the US is still awaiting a response from Hamas on the latest round of ceasefire and hostage release deal talks and that it cannot verify the militant group's claim that they do not have 40 captives.

(Reuters)

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Friday that Israel and the United States were "shoulder to shoulder" in facing the threat from Iran after talks with US Central Command chief Michael Kurilla.

"Our enemies think that they can pull apart Israel and the United States, but the opposite is true -- they are bringing us together and strengthening our ties", Gallant said in a statement after the two discussed Iran's threats of retaliation for a deadly air strike on its consulate in Syria widely blamed on Israel.

"We stand shoulder to shoulder."

Waterborne diseases are spreading in Gaza due to a lack of clean water and rising temperatures, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Gaza said on Friday.

"It is becoming very hot there," Jamie McGoldrick told reporters via video link from Jerusalem. "People are getting much less water than they need, and as a result, there have been waterborne diseases due to lack of safe and clean water and the disruption of the sanitation systems."

"We have to find a way in the months ahead of how we can have a better supply of water into the areas where people are currently crowded at the moment," he said after making his final visit to Gaza at the end of his three-month assignment.

Contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked to diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery and hepatitis A, according to the World Health Organisation.

(Reuters)

Several authors have turned down awards and awards nominations from PEN America, citing unhappiness with the literary and free expression organisation's stance on the war on Gaza.

This week, PEN announced its long lists in categories ranging from the $75,000 Jean Stein Award for best book to the $10,000 PEN/Hemingway award for first novel. Authors asking for their names to be withdrawn include Jean Stein nominee Camonghne Felix, poetry finalist Eugenia Leigh and short story nominee Ghassan Zeineddine.

"I decided to decline this recognition and asked to be removed from the long list in solidarity with the ongoing protest of PEN's continued normalisation and denial of genocide," Felix, author of the memoir "Dyscalculia," wrote on X.

Last Tuesday I found out that my book Dyscalculia was longlisted for the PEN/Jean Stein award. I decided to decline this recognition and asked to be removed from the longlist in solidarity with the ongoing protest of PEN's continued normalization and denial of genocide.

— Camonghne Felix (@CAMONGHNE) April 9, 2024

The European Union on Friday imposed sanctions on the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad for alleged "widespread" sexual violence during the 7 October attacks on Israel.

The bloc said fighters from the two Palestinian groups -- already on the EU's "terrorist" blacklist -- "committed widespread sexual and gender-based violence in a systematic manner, using it as a weapon of war".

Iran's threats of reprisals against Israel after a strike in Syria this month that killed two Iranian generals remain "real" and "viable," the White House said on Friday.

"We still deem the potential threat by Iran here to be real, to be viable," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

Poland's government said Friday that the killing of a Polish aid worker by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza was "murder" and demands support from Israel in its own investigation and for the case to be brought before an independent court in Israel.

Poland's deputy foreign minister, Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski, was addressing lawmakers in parliament on the 1 April death of Damian Soból, 35, and six other workers of the World Central Kitchen charity, who were bringing food into Gaza.

He called the killings "shocking and disturbing" and said Poland expects Israel's "full cooperation" in the murder investigation opened by Polish prosecutors in Przemyśl, Soból's hometown.

In the debate in parliament, many lawmakers said the killings should be considered a war crime.

The United Nations needs a direct hotline to Israeli forces fighting in Gaza to combat mistrust and deliver aid safely and effectively, the outgoing UN humanitarian coordinator insisted Friday.

Rather than going through liaison bodies, the UN and other humanitarian actors "need to be speaking to people who are firing guns", Jamie McGoldrick told a press briefing in Geneva.

The Israeli army and humanitarian groups in Gaza need to understand each other better, he said following a final visit to the Palestinian territory at the end of a three-month posting as interim humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian territories.

"If we have a serious security incident, we don't have a hotline," he said, speaking via video link from Jerusalem.

The United States is the latest country to impose travel bans in Israel. The US embassy has restricted travel for its personnel in Israel in light of fears of an attack by Iran.

Staff have been told not to travel outside the greater Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Beersheba areas "out of an abundance of caution".

Iran has threatened to retaliate after an Israeli airstrike hit the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria, in April.

Iran could attack Israel as soon as Friday, according to US officials speaking with CBS.

Such a strike could include more than 100 drones and dozens of missiles against military targets in Israel the officials said, who noted that it would be difficult for Israel to defend itself against such an attack.

The prospect of Gazans crossing into Egypt from the border town of Rafah to escape a military assault would make the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impossible and cause an "atrocious dilemma" for the people fleeing, the UN refugee chief said on Friday.

Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said "we must fervently do everything" to avoid such an outflow of the Gazan population.

"Another refugee crisis from Gaza into Egypt, I can assure you... would make the resolution of the Palestinian refugee question as a consequence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impossible," Grandi told Reuters at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva.

Grandi said an attack on Rafah may make the movement of Gazans into Egypt "the only option for safety available."

"This dilemma is unacceptable and the responsibility to avoid this dilemma lies squarely in this particular case with Israel, the occupying power in Gaza," he said.

Grandi said UNHCR was stocking tents and supplies and working with countries in the region on coming up with their own contingency plans for the possible arrival of Gazans.

"We are looking at the region and that the possibility not only of the outflow, but also that the conflict may expand," Grandi said.

"But I repeat, we must not arrive at that atrocious dilemma, which would be really almost the end of the road for what is really important here: ultimate peace."

(Reuters)

A Turkish state television journalist was badly wounded and another slightly hurt in the Gaza war Friday, the TRT channel said, adding that an Israeli strike had targeted the team.

"The vehicle of a team from TRT Arabi (TRT's Arabic-language channel) that was preparing to broadcast from the Nuseirat camp... was targeted by an Israeli army strike," the broadcaster said.

"Sami Shahada, a freelance cameraman, was badly wounded," it added.

TRT's chief Zahid Sobaci said Shahada had "lost a foot and is currently in surgery", calling the attack "Israeli brutality".

The channel reported that other journalists were wounded in the central Gaza refugee camp.

The Gaza media office says over 100 journalists have been killed in Gaza since 7 October, the majority being Palestinians.

India has advised its citizens against travelling to Iran and Israel until further notice in view of the "prevailing situation in the region", the foreign ministry said on Friday.

It said Indians in the two countries should observe "utmost precautions about their safety and restrict their movements to the minimum".

France has also urged no travel to Iran, Lebanon, Israel and Palestinian territories.

(Reuters)

Human rights lawyers filed a lawsuit against a German government's decision to approve the export of 3,000 anti-tank weapons to Israel, the second case of its kind this month filed over Berlin's support of Israel in its war in Gaza.

The case, brought by five Palestinians from Gaza, was supported by lawyers from the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) in Berlin and Palestinian human rights organizations, ECCHR said in a statement.

Last week, Berlin lawyers said they had filed an urgent appeal to halt exports of war weapons to Israel, citing reasons to believe they were being used in ways that could violate international humanitarian law in the Gaza Strip.

ECCHR said the government granted export clearance for 3,000 anti-tank weapons to Israel after 7 October, but an export permit application for 10,000 rounds of ammunition to Israel had yet to be approved.

(Reuters)

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez says there are "clear signs" Europe is ready to recognise a Palestinian state after speaking to his Norwegian counterpart, Jonas Gahr Store, in Oslo as part of a campaign to garner support for the recognition of Palestinian statehood.

"The international community cannot help the Palestinian state if it does not recognise its existence," Sánchez told members of Parliament.

The Prime Minister said Spain will recognise Palestinian statehood by July.

Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians, including a member of the armed wing of Hamas, near Tubas in the occupied West Bank on Friday following a raid on the town earlier in the morning, the military said.

It said Mohammad Omar Daraghmeh, whom it described as the head of Hamas infrastructure in the Tubas area of the Jordan Valley, was killed during an exchange of fire with security forces. It said a number of weapons and military-style equipment, including automatic rifles, were found in his vehicle.

Hamas confirmed Daraghmeh's death and his membership of its armed Al Qassem Brigades.

WAFA news agency said another man was killed by Israeli forces conducting a raid on the Al-Fara refugee camp in Tubas. Hamas said it mourned the man's death but did not claim him as a member.

(Reuters)

The first trucks carrying food aid entered Gaza through the newly opened northern crossing point on Thursday, the military said on Friday, as Israel stepped up supplies following mounting pressure to ease the humanitarian crisis in the enclave.

It said the trucks were inspected at the Kerem Shalom crossing point on the border with Egypt before moving north to cross. Israel had said earlier this month it would re-open the Erez crossing point that had been closed since the start of its war on Gaza on 7 October. 

(Reuters)

At least 70 people have been injured in Israeli attacks on the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza - Al Jazeera reports. Among those injured were two journalists. 

The military has targeted the camp over the past few days as the forces intensify operations in the area.

Thousands of Palestinian Muslims were able to pray at the Al-Aqsa mosque in occupied Jerusalem on the third day of Eid al-Fitr despite Israeli restrictions.

Israeli forces have been restricting worshippers from entering the compound, as well as beating up those who wish to enter, installing barriers and conducting raids.

Thousands of Palestinian Muslims manage to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyards in occupied Jerusalem on the third day of Eid al-Fitr despite the massive Israeli restrictions.https://t.co/7C1kfYTvmz pic.twitter.com/kfGHHazpA5

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) April 12, 2024

Israel has announced it has seized a record amount of occupied West Bank since 7 October, with some 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres) - Haaretz reports.

This comes after Israel announced it seized 800 hectres in March.

Approximately 380,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, according to figures from Israeli human rights group B’tselem. Settlers have been intensifying its illegal construction of outposts in the occupied West Bank since Israel's war on Gaza.

Between October and January, settlers in the Palestinian territory built at least 15 outposts and 18 roads that only Jewish Israelis are permitted to use, along with hundreds of meters of fences and multiple roadblocks.

Successive Israeli governments have invested in building towns in the West Bank and expelling Palestinians, particularly Bedouin communities.

France on Friday warned its citizens to "imperatively refrain from travel in the coming days to Iran, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories", the foreign minister's entourage told AFP.

Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne issued the recommendation after Iran threatened reprisals over an Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria, sparking fears of an escalation of violence in the Middle East.

A young Palestinian man was injured by gunfire from Israeli occupation forces during confrontations after an Israeli military incursion into the village of Al-Fandakumiya, south of the city of Jenin - WAFA reports.

Sources told WAFA that the child was shot in the knee and was transferred to a nearby hospital for medical treatment. 

The forces also detained a Palestinian youth after breaking and ransacking his house.

Israel's war on Gaza has killed more children than four years of global conflict, according to UNRWA.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Israel is preparing for a direct attack from Iran on southern or northern Israel as soon as Friday or Saturday.

Iran has threatened to retaliate after an Israeli airstrike hit the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria, in April, where seven officers were killed, including one of Iran's top soldiers, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi

At least 33,634 Palestinians have been killed and 76,214 injured in Israel's war on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Friday.

In the past 24 hours, 89 Palestinians were killed, and 120 were injured, the ministry added.

(Reuters)

Samatha Power, the head of the US humanitarian and development agency (USAID), has become the first US official to confirm famine in Gaza.

The United Nations said in March half of Gazans are experiencing "catastrophic" hunger, with famine projected to hit the north of the territory by May unless there is urgent intervention.

At least 25 Palestinian civilians have been killed and many injured after an Israeli bombing targeted a house in the Gaza Strip.

WAFA reporters the aircraft launched intense air raids targeting a house for the Tabatibi family in the Sidra area in the Daraj neighbourhood in central Gaza City.

Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians in an early morning raid on Friday near the occupied West Bank city of Tubas, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

One man was killed when Israeli soldiers opened fire on his vehicle in Tubas, the report said.

Another Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli gunfire when troops raided the Al-Fara refugee camp near Tubas, the agency said.

The Israeli military did not have an immediate comment on the raid.