Live
A woman and children react following Israeli bombardment in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on April 29, 2024. [AFP] (AFP)
By Edna Mohamed and Farah Najjar
Published On 30 Apr 2024

This live page is now closed. You can continue to follow our coverage of the war in Gaza here.

1 May 2024 - 00:00
 (00:00 GMT)

That’s a wrap from us

Thank you for joining us for updates on everything related to Israel’s war on Gaza.

For more news, analysis and opinion on the conflict, click here.

30 Apr 2024 - 23:45
 (23:45 GMT)

A look at what happened today

We will be closing this live page soon. Here’s a quick recap from today:

  • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israeli forces will enter Gaza’s southern city of Rafah regardless of whether a ceasefire deal is reached with Hamas.
  • UN chief Antonio Guterres called on Israel to create safety for humanitarian workers and facilitate more “urgently needed” aid to Gaza.
  • Columbia University has threatened students with expulsion after protesters took over a building, as demonstrations against Israel’s assault on Gaza continue to spread across campuses in the United States.
  • Protesters gathered outside the Israeli Ministry of Defence building in Tel Aviv, calling on Netanyahu to finalise a deal with Hamas that ensures the return of captives held by the group in Gaza.
  • Israeli warplanes carried out two attacks in southern Lebanon, one on the Wadi al-Asafir area, and another on the al-Maslkh neighbourhood of the village of Khiam.
  • The International Court of Justice has ruled against issuing emergency measures over German arms sales to Israel.
30 Apr 2024 - 23:25
 (23:25 GMT)

WHO chief: Rafah invasion would be ‘humanitarian catastrophe’

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has taken to X to plead with Israel not to proceed with its planned invasion of Gaza’s southern city.

Earlier, the Israeli prime minister said Israel will invade Rafah even if it reaches a ceasefire and captive release agreement with Hamas.

30 Apr 2024 - 23:10
 (23:10 GMT)

Blinken says ‘tangible progress’ on Gaza aid not enough on Jordan trip

The US secretary of state has shared photos of his visit to an aid warehouse in Jordan as he made another trip to the Middle East.

Blinken left Jordan earlier today and travelled to Israel, where he is expected to push for a ceasefire and for allowing more aid to be transported into Gaza during meetings with Israeli officials.

“Tangible progress has been made,” Blinken wrote on X, “additional crossings, increased aid into the north. But more is needed, and that’s why I’m in the region this week”.

The US State Department said earlier that the US has yet to see a plan from the Israelis that addresses its concerns about civilian safety during Israel’s looming ground operation in Rafah.

30 Apr 2024 - 22:55
 (22:55 GMT)

Tulane University encampment continues despite calls from school administration to halt protest

Students at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, have gathered to protest Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza as pro-Palestinian demonstrations sweep college campuses across the country.

Videos verified by Al Jazeera show police setting up barricades and a large sign set up near the gathering that reads: “No trespassing”.

In a letter, the university administration confirmed the suspension of five students and urged protest organisers to end their sit-in. It further threatened university staff and employees who joined the protest with disciplinary measures, including dismissal, if they do not halt their participation.

30 Apr 2024 - 22:40
 (22:40 GMT)
Developing

Israeli shelling again hits Rafah area

Al Jazeera’s correspondent reports that the Israeli army has again bombed a town in the vicinity of Rafah, al-Nasr.

A short time ago, two children were killed when an Israeli attack hit a home in the Shaboura neighbourhood of the southern Gaza city.

We will bring you more updates on this attack as information comes in.

30 Apr 2024 - 22:25
 (22:25 GMT)

WATCH: UN secretary-general warns against Rafah operation

Antonio Guterres gave remarks earlier today in which he commented on the need for more aid to Gaza, Israel’s looming Rafah invasion and the importance of supporting UNRWA, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, which is crucial for the distribution of aid in the Strip.

Watch our video for more of what the UN chief said:

30 Apr 2024 - 22:10
 (22:10 GMT)

New Yorkers march in support of students protesting for Gaza

Footage shared by journalists on social media shows a crowd marching through the streets of New York City, stopping at a number of university campuses.

The march began at New York University, where dozens were arrested last week after the school administration called for police to break up pro-Palestine demonstrations.

The march will end at Columbia University where earlier today, students occupied a building belonging to the university, saying they would not leave until their demands – divestment of the university from Israel, financial transparency from the university, and amnesty for students so-far disciplined in pro-Palestine protests – are met.

30 Apr 2024 - 21:50
 (21:50 GMT)

Gaza’s Civil Defence pulls nine bodies from under rubble in Khan Younis

Crews have recovered nine bodies from under the rubble in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, Wafa reported.

Teams have been working to recover the bodies of slain Palestinians since Israeli forces withdrew from the area nearly one month ago.

Mass graves were also discovered in the vicinity of Nasser Hospital, where more than 390 bodies have been exhumed so far, including of children and patients who were receiving treatment at the medical facility that is now largely in ruins.

30 Apr 2024 - 21:35
 (21:35 GMT)

Travis County, Texas urges UT Austin to compromise with protesters

Travis County Attorney General Delia Garza has urged the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) to settle with protesters who are demonstrating against Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza.

She confirmed police arrested 97 students.

Yesterday, police, some in riot gear, detained dozens as they dismantled an encampment set up on campus by students calling on their university to cut ties with Israel.

Garza said that 65 of those arrested were charged with criminal trespass.

“Cycling people in and out of jail on low, low-level charges and dwindling our criminal justice resources for the rest of the community will do very little to maintain the public safety of our community,” she said.

Garza said it is not the role of the criminal justice system to assist the Texas governor in efforts to “suppress nonviolent and peaceful demonstrations”. She was referring to remarks made by Governor Greg Abbott, who last week called for the arrest and expulsion of students protesting at the university.

30 Apr 2024 - 21:20
 (21:20 GMT)

WATCH: ICJ rejects Nicaragua’s request to halt German arms sales to Israel

Earlier today, the International Court of Justice declined to institute provisional measures in a case brought by Nicaragua against Germany, which alleges that German arms sales to Israel aid ongoing genocide.

Watch our video to find out more:

30 Apr 2024 - 21:05
 (21:05 GMT)

Two children killed in Israeli strike on Rafah

At least two children have been killed in an air attack on Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, where more than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering.

The attack hit a home in the Shaboura neighbourhood and killed two siblings identified as Kareem Amer Jaradeh and his sister Mona, the Wafa news agency reported.

It said several others were wounded in the attack. Those injured as well as the bodies of the two siblings have been taken to the Kuwaiti Hospital in the densely populated city, it added.

Netanyahu said today that a full-scale invasion of Rafah would happen soon, though the Israeli army has ramped up bombing of the city in recent weeks, leading to dozens of casualties.

30 Apr 2024 - 20:50
 (20:50 GMT)

UN aid chief warns Israeli invasion of Rafah ‘on immediate horizon’

UN aid chief Martin Griffiths has warned that despite global calls for Israel to spare the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip, “a ground operation there is on the immediate horizon”.

He also said in a statement that Israeli improvements to aid access in Gaza “cannot be used to prepare for or justify a full-blown military assault on Rafah”.

30 Apr 2024 - 20:35
 (20:35 GMT)

WHO chief reiterates call for ceasefire amid ‘dire’ health situation in Gaza

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, says WHO teams “urgently need sustained, unimpeded and safe access” in Gaza.

The ongoing “man-made starvation” and blockade of humanitarian aid and services by Israeli forces is increasing the risk of epidemics that can be fatal, he said in a post on X.

“We need a ceasefire,” he added.

30 Apr 2024 - 20:20
 (20:20 GMT)

US rights group criticises anti-Semitism bill that cleared House Rules panel

DAWN has said that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism, which the US House of Representatives Rules Committee is trying to codify through a bill, is “problematic and contentious” and “is being used to stifle speech by Palestinians and Palestine advocates”.

Human rights and civil rights organisations, including Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), have said that the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism has been misused to falsely label any criticism of Israeli government policies as anti-Semitic.

“Attempts to push criticism of Israel out of the legitimate discourse are particularly worrying at a time when US support for Israel is itself one of the most pressing foreign policy issues facing our nation,” said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, the director of research for Israel-Palestine at DAWN.

“The young people of this country deserve better than to be told that they are anti-Semites for questioning how and where their tax dollars and university tuition are invested.”

30 Apr 2024 - 19:55
 (19:55 GMT)

Biden says discussed ceasefire deal with Qatari Emir, Egyptian president

In a post on X, the US president has said he spoke with Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi yesterday about “reaching a deal to secure the release of hostages together with an immediate ceasefire in Gaza”.

The United States, Biden said, will work with Egypt and Qatar “to ensure the full implementation of the terms of the deal, and exert all efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas, which is now the only obstacle to an immediate ceasefire and relief for civilians in Gaza”.

Earlier, we reported that Israel’s prime minister said he would order troops to invade Rafah whether a deal to release the captives and secure a ceasefire is inked or not.

30 Apr 2024 - 19:40
 (19:40 GMT)

At least 300,000 children ‘used to learn in UNRWA schools’ in Gaza

Louise Wateridge, a staff member with the UN refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), says at least 300,000 children in Gaza used to receive education at UNRWA schools across the besieged and bombarded enclave.

After more than six months of Israel’s assault on the Strip, these schools are now being utilised as emergency shelters, housing hundreds of displaced families, Wateridge said in a post on X. Others are being assessed for “unexploded ordnance”.

“Education has been replaced by fear & loss. Loss of life, home & stability. There is no childhood in Gaza,” Wateridge added.

30 Apr 2024 - 19:25
 (19:25 GMT)

PRCS: Child among those killed today in Israeli shelling of Nuseirat

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has shared video of its crews transporting the bodies of three Palestinians, one of them a child, who were killed today as the Israeli army continued its attacks on central Gaza.

It said that the deaths resulted from an attack on a residential apartment.

30 Apr 2024 - 19:05
 (19:05 GMT)

‘1 in 3 Palestinian child prisoners are in administrative detention’

Defense for Children International – Palestine has said that Israeli forces have dramatically escalated their military operations in the occupied West Bank in the last six months.

“DCIP has been monitoring Palestinian child administrative detainees since 2008, and the numbers have never been this high,” it said in a statement.

Sixty-one children are currently held by Israeli forces without charge or trial, equivalent to about one in three out of all Palestinian child detainees, the organisation said.

DCIP called administrative detention “a cruel tool” because the children and their lawyers aren’t privy to what are deemed “secret charges”.

Administrative orders can also be renewed indefinitely, “creating an unbearable environment of anxiety for parents and children who don’t know when they will be able to go home”.

30 Apr 2024 - 18:50
 (18:50 GMT)

Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim and Egypt’s Sisi discuss ‘developments’ in Gaza

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has spoken to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi over the phone, the Amiri Diwan said in a statement.

The two leaders discussed “developments” in Gaza as well as joint mediation efforts to secure a permanent ceasefire agreement, the statement said.

They also discussed the issue of allowing aid into all parts of Gaza in a sustainable manner.

Sheikh Tamim stressed the need to “intensify” mediating efforts in cooperation with regional and international partners in order to end Israel’s assault on Gaza.

The efforts of both Qatar and Egypt have played a key role in the war mediating between Hamas and Israel, in often contentious talks to bring about a pause in the the fighting and a return of Israeli captives held in Gaza.

Hamas is currently studying a proposal for a ceasefire from the Israeli side.