Israel bombs Syria, kills scores of Palestinians in Gaza

Israeli forces have continued bombing the central Gaza’s Shujaiya and Zeitoun neihhbourhoods.

Israeli war planes also carried out attacks on Gaza City, Palestinian media reported.

The U.S. Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly rejected a bid to block $8.8 billion in arms sales to Israel over the human rights crisis facing Palestinians in Gaza caused by Israel's bombardment of the enclave and blocking of humanitarian aid.

The Senate voted 82-15 and 83-15 to reject two resolutions of disapproval over sales of massive bombs and other offensive military equipment. The resolutions were offered by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding that the Israeli leader, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, may visit the US next week.

The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said it had targeted the Nahal Oz settlement with a number of rockets.

The deaths of 15 medics and humanitarian workers in Gaza after shots were fired at their ambulances raise further concerns of "war crimes by the Israeli army," said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Thursday. 

"I am appalled by the recent killings of 15 medical personnel and humanitarian aid workers, which raise further concerns over the commission of war crimes by the Israeli military," said Volker Turk, before the UN Security Council.

Senator Peter Welch has urged fellow lawmakers in the US Senate to support legislation that would block the transfer of offensive weapons to Israel.

"I urge my colleagues to join us and stop enabling Prime Minister Netanyahu’s bombing campaign," he wrote in a post on X.

Today, the Senate will vote to block offensive weapons sales to Israel.

I urge my colleagues to join us and stop helping Prime Minister Netanyahu’s bombing campaign.

— Senator Peter Welch (@SenPeterWelch) April 3, 2025

Israel has launched fresh air strikes on Syrian territory, drawing further regional condemnation.

Syrian state media reported that the latest attacks targeted the town of al-Kiswah, just south of Damascus. While there was no immediate information on casualties or damage, the strikes reportedly hit a military base.

Over the past 24 hours, the Israeli military has carried out around two dozen attacks across Syria, alongside an expanded ground incursion.

Israel has frequently struck inside Syria during President Bashar al-Assad’s rule, often aiming at Iranian positions established during the country’s civil war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hungarian leader Viktor Orban spoke with former US President Donald Trump about Hungary’s potential withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC), during Netanyahu’s visit to Budapest — a trip made in defiance of an ICC arrest warrant against him.

“The discussion focused on Hungary’s decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court and the possible next steps on the matter,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

The office also shared photos showing Netanyahu and his wife being hosted by Orban and his spouse at a formal dinner attended by senior Hungarian officials and leaders of the Jewish community.

Israeli forces bulldozed streets in the neighborhood of Iktaba, east of Tulkarem, on Thursday, amid its ongoing incursion in the West Bank city.

Israeli soldiers also raided a building in the area and opened fire- no injuries were reported however. They also halted vehicles heading toward the nearby Housing District, causing severe traffic congestion in the area.

Most infrastructure has been destroyed in the area, and thousands of Palestinians have been displaced.

The Israeli military claimed on Thursday it had struck more than 600 "terror targets" across the Gaza Strip since resuming its strikes in the Palestinian territory on March 18.

"We have struck more than 600 terrorist targets since the resumption of fighting.... The only thing that could slow us down is the release of our hostages," military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said in televised remarks.

In a separate statement posted on X, the military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said that more than "250 terrorists, including 12 senior terrorists in Hamas and its ruling arm" were killed since March 18.

Gaza's civil defence agency said at least 25 people were killed Thursday in an Israeli air strike on a school serving as a shelter for people displaced by the war.

Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP the death toll had risen to 25, with more than 100 others wounded in the strike on Dar al-Arqam School in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood, northeast of Gaza City.

The Israeli military when contacted did not provide an immediate response, but said in a statement that it had struck a "Hamas command and control centre in the area of Gaza City".

"The command and control centre had been used by the terrorists to plan and execute attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops," the military said.

It was unclear whether it was the same attack that targeted the school.

Israel's military said it conducted an air strike targeting a Hezbollah operative in southern Lebanon on Thursday, its latest attack on Lebanon in recent days.

"A short while ago, an IAF (Israeli air force) aircraft struck a Hezbollah terrorist who operated" in the area of Alma Al Shaab in southern Lebanon, a military statement said.

The United Nations envoy for Syria on Thursday condemned Israel's "repeated and intensifying military escalations" in the country, warning that such actions were destabilising Syria at a sensitive time.

Geir Pedersen called on Israel in a statement "to cease these attacks which could amount to serious violations of international law and respect Syria's sovereignty and existing agreements, and also to cease unilateral actions on the ground".

The Palestinian group Hamas has condemned Hungary's decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, which came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting Budapest.

"Hungary’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court is a blatant complicity with a fugitive war criminal and a flagrant violation of international law," the Palestinian group says in a statement.

Quitting the ICC is "a blow to the principle of international justice and an embodiment of a policy of double standards", the group said.

At least three people have been killed when the Israeli army attacked a tent camp west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.

Two others have been killed following an attack on a vehicle carrying displaced people on Mansoura Street, in Gaza City's Shujaiya neighbourhood, the Qatari broadcaster also reported.

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to hold an emergency meeting on Thursday afternoon to discuss the situation in Gaza and the West Bank, following a request from Algeria.

 Algeria's call for an urgent session follows a sharp escalation in Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, as well as violence in the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Thursday urged Hungary to arrest visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in accordance with an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant over alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip.

"The ministry calls on the Hungarian government... to comply with the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant by immediately handing Netanyahu over to bring him to justice", the Ramallah-based PA's foreign affairs ministry said in a statement hours after Hungary announced it would withdraw from the ICC.

Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa'ar has said that the country is "ready to end the war in Gaza tomorrow," during a meeting with his French counterpart in France.

"The way is very simple," the Sa'ar said: “Hostages back, Hamas out," he said.

"We are still giving a chance to negotiations to extend the ceasefire and release our hostages on the basis of [US special envoy Steve] Witkoff’s proposal, but it is not open-ended," he said.

The Israeli military is conducting an investigation into the incident in Gaza in which a number of emergency and aid workers were killed, a military spokesperson said on Thursday, rejecting the use of the word "execution" to characterize the incident.

He said the military's Southern Command had transferred the investigation to a general staff mechanism outside the chain of command to establish what had happened and "hold accountable people if we need to". 

Houthi rebels said they have attacked the US aircraft carrier USS Truman in the north of the Red Sea with several cruise missiles and drones, according to Al Masirah TV.

The group said it struck the vessel in response to 36 raids launched by the US "in the past few hours". 

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Thursday praised Hungary and its Prime Minister Viktor Orban for taking a "strong moral stance" by announcing its decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

"Thank you, @PM_ViktorOrban and thank you Hungary for your clear and strong moral stance alongside Israel and the principles of justice and sovereignty!" Saar posted, criticising the ICC for its "zest for harming Israel's right to self-defence".

The health ministry in Gaza said on Thursday that 1,163 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since Israel resumed large-scale strikes on 18 March.

According to the ministry's statement, the figure includes 97 people killed in the past 24 hours. It also reported that the overall death toll had reached 50,523 since the war began on October 7, 2023.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on Thursday for a return to "serious" negotiations to end the Gaza conflict as Israel pushed on with a renewed assault targeting Hamas in the territory.

"What is needed now is a return to the ceasefire and the release of all hostages," Scholz said, urging a return to "serious negotiations with the aim of agreeing a post-war order for Gaza that protects Israel's security".

Speaking alongside Jordan's King Abdullah II in Berlin, Scholz also called for more humanitarian aid for Gaza.

"No humanitarian aid has reached Gaza for a month," he said. "This cannot and must not continue."

He added that "a sustainable peace that stabilises the situation in the West Bank as well as Gaza can only be achieved through a political solution".

Abdullah II also called for a return to a ceasefire and for aid deliveries to resume into Gaza.

Israel's El Al Airlines said on Thursday it would resume flights to Moscow on May 1 after determining its airspace was safe, being one of the only Western carriers allowed to fly to the Russian capital.

It will operate seven weekly flights on the Tel Aviv-Moscow route.

El Al, Israel's flag carrier, halted flights to Moscow in late 2024 after an Azerbaijani passenger plane crashed, killing 38 people, apparently after being struck by a Russian missile.

The Israeli military said on Thursday it was investigating a deadly incident last month in which its troops fired on ambulances in Gaza, killing at least 15 medics and rescuers according to the UN.

"The incident from March 23, 2025, in which IDF (military) forces opened fire targeting terrorists advancing in ambulances, has been transferred to the General Staff's Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism for investigation," military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said in a statement.

The Israely army's Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, has issued evacuation orders for residents in Gaza, particularly in the Shujaiya neighbourhood, where deadly attacks took place at dawn on Thursday.

Adraee issued such warnings also for the neighbourhoods of Al-Jadida, Al-Turkman, Tasbeeh and Al-Zeitoun Al-Sharqi.  

"The IDF is operating with great force in your areas to destroy the terrorist infrastructure.  For your safety, you must evacuate these areas immediately and move to the known shelters in western Gaza City," he said on X.

An archeological conference in Israel scheduled for Thursday will be postponed following interference from far-right Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu.

"Due to the interference of political representatives and the situation it created, we have no choice but to postpone the conference that was supposed to take place tomorrow, April 3, 2025,” the Israel Exploration Society  said. 

Eliyahu reportedly objected to the participation of an Israeli academic who had spoken out against Palestinian "dispossession".

An Israeli strike in Gaza City's Shujaiya has killed at least nine people, after the military targeted the home of the al-Jundia family.

At least 15 people were injured in the attack, according to Al Jazeera.

Israeli forces stormed the town of Al-Khader, south of Bethlehem in preparation to cary out the demolishment of three residential apartments, a car wash and a commercial store, according to the Palestinian Wafa agency. 

Israel has ramped up its demolishment of Palestinian properties this year, every since it began carrying out an intensified military campaign in the West Bank.

The Israeli army also established a military position there.