Live
Palestinians receive bags of flour from an aid truck in the north of Gaza City, April 03, 2024. [Dawoud Abo Alkas/ Anadolu]
By Edna Mohamed and Nils Adler
Published On 5 Apr 2024

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

5 Apr 2024 - 23:59
 (23:59 GMT)

That’s a wrap from us

Thank you for joining us for updates on everything related to Israel’s war on Gaza. Please check our homepage for the latest updates.

5 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 of today:

  • The Israeli military issued a statement in which it said it “takes full responsibility for this regrettable loss of life” during the attack on a WCK vehicle, which killed seven aid workers.
  • The White House said a new round of talks aimed at arranging a Gaza ceasefire is planned for Cairo this weekend with US representation.
  • Colombia filed a declaration of intervention under Article 63 of the International Court of Justice statute in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel.
  • Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it would allow “temporary” aid deliveries via a crossing in the northern Gaza Strip “to ensure the continuation of the fighting and to achieve the goals of the war”.
  • The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society announced that Israel is currently detaining 200 Palestinian children.
  • UN chief Antonio Guterres held a speech to mark six months of war in which he said the Israeli military campaign has brought “relentless death and destruction” to Palestinians in Gaza.
  • The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution calling for Israel to be held accountable for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Gaza Strip.
5 Apr 2024 - 23:30
 (23:30 GMT)

WATCH: Opening Erez crossing is ‘not enough’, says expert

Jeremy Konyndyk of Refugees International says that without a ceasefire, it will not be possible to “put together the kind of anti-famine operation that Gaza now requires”.

His comments come after Israel announced that it would open the Beit Hanoon (Erez) crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip “temporarily” to allow in more aid, a measure that he said simply will not be enough to avert disaster.

See more of what he said in our video:

5 Apr 2024 - 23:15
 (23:15 GMT)

Photos: Protests in Jordan outside Israeli embassy

People rally in support of Palestinians in Gaza near the Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan, April 5, 2024 [Alaa al-Sukhni/Reuters]
Security forces members operate as people rally in support of Palestinians in Gaza near the Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan, April 5, 2024 [Alaa al-Sukhni/Reuters]
[Alaa al-Sukhni/Reuters]
[Alaa al-Sukhni/Reuters]

5 Apr 2024 - 23:00
 (23:00 GMT)

Israel gives update on humanitarian aid entry to Gaza

Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) office says that 155 humanitarian aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip today, and that 100 food packages were airdropped over northern Gaza.

Israel touted an announcement today that it would “temporarily” open the Beit Hanoon (Erez) crossing with the Gaza Strip to allow in aid, however, it has not yet done so. North Gaza continues to suffer from acute food scarcity and will soon experience full-scale famine, the UN and major NGOs say.

5 Apr 2024 - 22:45
 (22:45 GMT)

‘Mission impossible’: Families slam Canada’s Gaza visa scheme as a failure

By Jillian Kestler-D'Amours

Montreal, Canada

“Unlivable”.

That’s how Canada’s immigration minister, Marc Miller, described the situation in the Gaza Strip in late December.

The Palestinian territory was under fierce Israeli bombardment at the time. At least 20,000 people had been killed, and hunger was spreading at an alarming rate as Israel blocked deliveries of food, water and other necessities.

As conditions continued to deteriorate, Miller announced that the Canadian government was launching a special visa programme to allow citizens and permanent residents to bring extended family members from Gaza to Canada.

“To be clear, today is about providing a humanitarian pathway to safety and recognising the importance of keeping families together given the ongoing devastation,” he told reporters on December 21.

But more than three months later, not a single Palestinian applicant has left the Gaza Strip as a result of the visa programme.

Read the full article here.

Samar Alkhdour, a Palestinian mother and permanent resident of Canada, poses for a photo in Montreal, March 29, 2024 [Jillian Kestler-D’Amours/Al Jazeera]
5 Apr 2024 - 22:30
 (22:30 GMT)

US on high alert against Iran threat after Israeli strike in Syria

The United States is on high alert and preparing for a possible attack by Iran targeting Israeli or American assets in the region in response to an Israeli strike on Iran’s consulate in Syria, according to Reuters news agency, which cites a US official.

“We’re definitely at a high state of vigilance,” the official said, confirming a CNN report which made similar claims.

Tehran has promised retaliation after the Israeli air strikes in Damascus killed 13 people, including seven members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps – among them two generals leading the Corps’ Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon.

“We warn that no action by any enemy concerning our holy establishment [the Islamic Republic] will go unanswered,” Hossein Salami told a state-organised gathering of thousands in the capital Tehran on Friday to chants of “death to America” and “death to Israel”.

5 Apr 2024 - 22:15
 (22:15 GMT)

Killing of aid workers ‘a terrible chain of errors’: Israeli military

Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari has issued a statement in which he revealed the results of an investigation into the killing of seven World Central Kitchen staff.

Hagari claimed, without presenting evidence, that “a number of gunmen” came in and out of some of the cars being tracked by the Israeli army, a group that apparently included the World Central Kitchen aid convoy.

“After some of the vehicles split from the others, the forces that were tracking the vehicles that went south did so thinking that these were Hamas vehicles”, he continued.

He later said that the incident was a “tragic mistake” that “could and should have been prevented” and stemmed from “serious operational failures, mistaken classification and identification, errors in decision-making and strikes that were conducted in violation of standard operating procedures”.

He concluded that the Israeli military “takes full responsibility for this regrettable loss of life”.

This admission from the Israeli army appears to confirm an Al Jazeera investigation, which found that the WCK vehicles were targeted deliberately, and not hit by accident.

5 Apr 2024 - 22:00
 (22:00 GMT)

Protesters gather in New York City in support of Palestinians

A video posted on X shows a large crowd gathered in New York City’s Times Square on the occasion of Al-Quds Day.

Today, April 5, Palestine supporters across the world are marking Al-Quds Day, held annually on the last Friday of Ramadan to express solidarity with Palestine and opposition to Israeli occupation.

5 Apr 2024 - 21:45
 (21:45 GMT)

Photos: Lailat al-Qadr at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound

A Muslim woman prays on Lailat al-Qadr, or night of power, that marks the last 10 days of the holy month of Ramadan, at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, Friday, April 5, 2024 [Mahmoud Illean/AP Photo]
Muslims pray on Lailat al-Qadr, or night of power, that marks the last 10 days of the holy month of Ramadan, at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, Friday, April 5, 2024 [Mahmoud Illean/AP Photo]
Muslims pray on Laylat al-Qadr, or night of power, that marks the last 10 days of the holy month of Ramadan, at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound Friday, April 5, 2024 [Mahmoud Illean/AP Photo]
Palestinians pray on Laylat al-Qadr during the holy month of Ramadan at the Al-Aqsa compound [Ammar Awad/Reuters]

5 Apr 2024 - 21:30
 (21:30 GMT)

Colombia is hoping to offer tangible support to the Palestinian cause

By Alessandro Rampietti

Reporting from Bogota, Colombia

In seeking to support South Africa in its ICJ case, Colombia is also sending a message to Israel that it cannot continue with its actions in Gaza.

This is not a surprising stance given what we’ve heard from the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who has denounced Israel since the start of the war.

Colombia and Israel have long been both commercial and military partners. But that relationship started to sour since President Petro took office a year and a half ago, and in particular since the start of the war on Gaza.

That’s because Petro has long been a supporter of the Palestinian cause.

Just last week, Petro threatened to cut all ties with Israel if Israel didn’t comply with the UN Security Council resolution that demanded an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

He also called on other nations back in February to cut all military purchases from Israel, even against the advice of the highest military commanders here in Colombia, from what we’re being told from sources inside the government.

That’s because Colombia depends on military support from Israel for its internal conflict, but despite all that his support for the Palestinian cause is more important for the country.

5 Apr 2024 - 21:15
 (21:15 GMT)

Biden urges mediators to press Hamas on Israel agreement: Report

President Joe Biden has written to the leaders of Egypt and Qatar, calling on them to press Hamas for a deal with Israel, AP reports.

The letters come one day after Biden called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to redouble efforts to reach a ceasefire in the six-month-old war on Gaza.

The letters to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, come as Biden has deployed CIA Director Bill Burns to Cairo for talks this weekend on reaching a ceasefire in Gaza and on the release of Israeli captives held there by Hamas and other groups in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

5 Apr 2024 - 21:00
 (21:00 GMT)

UN chief: Israeli intentions to increase aid to Gaza need to “quickly materialise”

Antonio Guterres says on X that the UN has been informed by Israel of its intention to “allow a meaningful increase in humanitarian aid distributed in Gaza”.

“I sincerely hope that these intentions are effectively and quickly materialized,” he continued.

Guterres has called on Israel numerous times to stop blocking aid to the Gaza Strip, calls that have so far gone unheeded. Israel’s stated intention to allow more aid into the strip came only after an intense international backlash following the killing of six foreign aid workers in Israeli air strikes on Monday.

5 Apr 2024 - 20:45
 (20:45 GMT)

Aid allowed into Gaza has been ‘dramatically inadequate’: US Senator

US Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees, has issued a statement in which he said recent events in Gaza “have made plain that much more needs to be done to protect innocent life”.

He added that “despite constant pressure from the United States, other nations, and international organizations, the amount of aid allowed by Israel to enter Gaza has been painfully slow and dramatically inadequate”.

Kaine applauded Biden for successfully urging Netanyahu to open a border crossing from Israel to allow aid into the Gaza Strip, but he said, “This was an obvious solution that should have happened months ago.”

In the statement, he said that despite the fact that the US “has time and again stood with Israel as a friend, partner and ally”, the current approach to the war on Gaza is not working.

He also urged the US not to send more offensive weapons to Israel as it would only “further widen suffering in Israel, Gaza and the region”.

US Senator Tim Kaine in Washington, US, June 1, 2023 [Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters]
5 Apr 2024 - 20:30
 (20:30 GMT)

‘Clear evidence of unconscionable brutality’: OCHA official

Ramesh Rajasingham, who heads the UN humanitarian agency’s Geneva division, says, “Six months into the brutal war in Gaza, the world continues to witness clear breaches of international humanitarian law.”

“Allegations of serious violations must be investigated and the suspects prosecuted,” he urged.

“Member states can and must use their leverage to prevent and stop violations of international humanitarian law – through diplomatic and economic pressure, conditioning arms exports on compliance with the rules of war and cooperation in combating impunity,” he added.

5 Apr 2024 - 20:15
 (20:15 GMT)

Norman Finkelstein on Gaza: The US could have stopped Israel on day one

Al Jazeera’s Marc Lamont Hill sat down with Norman Finkelstein, one of the world’s most prominent – and controversial – Palestine scholars, for an extended interview.

Watch our video to hear his thoughts on Israel’s war on Gaza and on Palestine activism:

5 Apr 2024 - 20:00
 (20:00 GMT)

Lebanese paramedic succumbs to wounds following Israeli air raid

According to the Lebanese Civil Defence, Mousa al-Mousawi died following his injury in an Israeli attack on Khaim in the southern Nabatieh Governate.

The married father of three was 47, the Lebanese Civil Defence said in a post on X.

Translation: The General Directorate of Civil Defense mourns the operational employee Musa Abdel Karim al-Moussawi from the Khiam Organic Center – Nabatieh Regional, who passed away on 04/05/2024 as a result of his injury as a result of an Israeli air strike that targeted the town of Khiam.

5 Apr 2024 - 19:45
 (19:45 GMT)

What happened to the UN ceasefire resolution?

On March 25, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution that demanded an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip during the holy month of Ramadan.

However, more than 10 days later, little appears to have changed, and with Ramadan ending around Tuesday, hopes of the resolution having an impact are all but gone.

Israel has continued its attacks across the Gaza Strip. Humanitarian access had also been a demand in the resolution, but Israel has continued to block and attack aid convoys in the Gaza Strip.

Enforcing the resolution has been difficult. The UN considers the resolution binding, as do many countries, but the US, Israel’s key ally, has stated otherwise.

The UN could potentially impose sanctions but trying to enact punitive measures would likely involve an additional resolution – which the US would likely veto.

Israel may have also felt emboldened to ignore the resolution as it had done so in the past, including in December when the UN General Assembly voted with an overwhelming majority to call for a “humanitarian ceasefire”.

5 Apr 2024 - 19:29
 (19:29 GMT)

Islamic Jihad thanks Iran for ‘standing with the Palestinian people’

Ziyad al-Nakhalah, the group’s secretary-general, says Iran has stood by the “resistance” as Arab governments side with Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

“We are grateful for Iran, which has sided with and supported the resistance for more than 20 years,” he said.

“The battle is ongoing, and the occupation is trying to end the resistance. We are being let down by the international community and Arab government collusion.”

5 Apr 2024 - 19:15
 (19:15 GMT)

Israel responsible for aid access: Chairman of US Senate Intel Committee

Mark Warner says “responsibility for humanitarian access and deconfliction lies with Israel. They must meet that obligation.”

In a post on X, the senator said humanitarian organisations’ withdrawal from the Gaza Strip adds to the consequences of the “deeply disturbing [Israeli military] strike killing World Central Kitchen workers”.

“Their deaths are the latest in a conflict that has killed far too many humanitarian workers and civilians,” he said.

“As groups are forced to scale back operations, the Palestinian people continue to suffer. The entire population faces food insecurity, with experts warning of famine risk.”