Israel to open new north Gaza crossing for aid as strike kills Haniyeh's sons

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Iran's Mehr news agency removed a report about Iran closing the airspace over Tehran due to military drills, and denied publishing such a report.

Iran has suspended all air traffic over the capital Tehran from midnight local time due to "military drills," the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted the defence minister as saying on Wednesday.

German airline Lufthansa on Wednesday said it had suspended flights to and from Tehran, probably until Thursday, "due to the current situation in the Middle East".

"We are constantly monitoring the situation in the Middle East and are in close contact with the authorities," the airline said in a statement.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the U.N. Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process called on Wednesday for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza conflict after holding talks in Moscow, the Russian foreign ministry said.

"The importance was stressed of an immediate cease fire, the provision of safe, unhindered access to all those affected and in need and the release of hostages," the ministry said after Lavrov met Tor Wennesland in Moscow.

The statement said the two men "paid great attention to the prospects for reviving the peace process of a Palestinian-Israeli settlement after the 'hot phase' of the conflict is over".

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday promised "ironclad" support for Israel as Iran threatens reprisals over a strike that leveled the Iranian consulate building in Damascus and killed two generals.

Iran is "threatening to launch a significant attack on Israel," Biden told a news conference.

"As I told Prime Minister Netanyahu, our commitment to Israel's security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad," Biden said.

"Let me say it again - ironclad. We're going to do all we can to protect Israel's security," said Biden, who was speaking next to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Israel asked for an extension Wednesday before presenting to the country's top court measures to increase aid into the besieged Gaza Strip.

Five non-profit groups have taken the state to court, accusing authorities of restricting the entry of relief items and failing to respect their "obligations as an occupying power" to provide basic necessities to Gazans.

After a first hearing last week, the court had given the government until Wednesday to answer its questions but the state instead asked for a five-day extension, which the non-profits answered with a "strong objection".

The extension "would effectively double the time allocated to it by the court" while the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire, Miriam Marmur, of rights group Gisha, one of the plaintiffs, told AFP.

The petition asks the government to specify what measures the executive branch will resort to to increase aid to Gaza, what obstacles stand in the way of NGOs working in Gaza, and how many requests for coordination to bring aid in have been rejected.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan discussed the humanitarian crisis in Gaza in a call with his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken on Wednesday, a Turkish diplomatic source said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday offered condolences in a phone call to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh after the death of his three sons in Gaza, his office said.

Erdogan told Haniyeh, "Israel will definitely be held accountable before the law for the crimes against humanity it committed", the presidency said in a statement on social media.

Israel will open a new land crossing into the Gaza Strip designed mainly to facilitate deliveries to Palestinians of aid from overseas or neighbouring Jordan, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday.

Briefing reporters, Gallant said a new crossing point would be created on the northern part of the Gaza border to reduce the time taken to truck in aid from Ashdod, 40 km (25 miles) away.

An aide said the crossing point would be between the Israeli village of Zikim and the Palestinian village of As-Siafa.

Gallant said the new crossing point would boost the delivery of aid brought in overland from Jordan, to Israel's east.

Biden says Israeli efforts to boost aid into Gaza are still not enough and US waiting for Netanyahu to meet commitments.

A Lebanese man under US sanctions for allegedly funnelling money from Iran to Palestinian group Hamas has been killed just outside Beirut, a security source told AFP on Wednesday.

The body of Mohammad Sarur was found Tuesday in a villa in the mountain town of Beit Mery, the source said, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

He had been struck by more than five bullets and was found in possession of an undisclosed sum of money that the killers did not touch, the source added.

Several countries including France air-dropped around 110 tonnes of humanitarian aid to war-torn Gaza, the French president and military said.

"Faced with the humanitarian emergency in Gaza, France continues to deliver medicine and food to the population," President Emmanuel Macron said on X, formerly Twitter, late Tuesday.

"With Jordan and other partners, the air drop today allowed the delivery of more than 110 tonnes of cargo."

The French military on Wednesday said Britain and Germany were involved in the operation, the largest France had taken part in so far.

Israel's military confirmed Wednesday its forces had carried out an air strike in Gaza that killed three of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's sons.

A military statement said "the three operatives" targeted in the strike were Amir, Mohammed and Hazem Haniyeh, adding that they were members of Hamas's military wing.

The Palestinian group earlier said some of Haniyeh's grandchildren were also killed in the strike on a car.

An investigation by CNN disputes Israel's narrative over the flour massacre on 29 February when Israeli soldiers opened fire on Palestinians receiving flour from an aid convoy that entered northern Gaza, killing over 100 people and wounding 700, according to Gaza's health ministry.

According to the investigation, which drew on 22 eyewitness accounts and videos, evidence suggests that Israeli forces opened fire prior to the convoy crossed through the checkpoint and a close range against people that were gathering to receive food.

This in turn led to people being rammed by aid trucks who attempted to escape the Israeli gunfire. Survivors also told CNN that they had been shot by the Israeli army.

CNN said that upon asking for comment, the Israeli military said that its soldiers had fired into the air and that it was conducting its own investigation into the incident.

Yemen's Houthis have announced they targeted four vessels in the Gulf of Aden including MSC Darwin, MSC Gina, MV Yorktown and a US destroyer, the group's military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a televised speech.

(Reuters & The New Arab Staff)

Israeli airstrikes are striking areas around the Hamad Towers west of Khan Younis, with other strikes occurring in Wadi Gaza, according to reports from The New Arab's Arabic language sister publication Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Wednesday the killing of three of his sons in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza will not affect the group's demands in ceasefire negotiations.

Haniyeh spoke to Al Jazeera TV soon after his sons died when a car they were driving in was targeted in Gaza's Al-Shati camp.

(Reuters)

Speaking to Al Jazeera Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who confirmed the deaths of three of his sons in an Israeli airstrike today, said that 60 of his family members have been killed by Israel since the start of the war.

"There is no doubt that this criminal enemy is driven by the spirit of revenge and the spirit of murder and bloodshed, and it does not observe any standards or laws," he said.

"We've seen it violate everything on the land of Gaza. There is a war of ethnic cleansing and genocide. There is mass displacement," he added. 

Three sons of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and several of his grandchildren have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a car in north Gaza, according to Gaza's government media office.

Haniyeh's children and grandchildren were travelling in a car in Shati refugee camp, northwest of Gaza city when it was was hit by an air strike on Wednesday afternoon, killing five people inside, the media office said in a statement.

Haniyeh, who is head of Hamas's political bureau, is based in Qatar.

"This crime comes as a continuation of a series of continuing occupation crimes against civilians, children and women, despite the sacred atmosphere of the blessed Eid al-Fitr," the statement said.

It added that 125 people had been killed in Gaza in the past 24 hours from Israeli attacks.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas held calls with Jordan's King Abdullah II and Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Than on Wednesday to discuss the war in Gaza and share Eid al-Fitr wishes.

Abbas stressed the need for a ceasefire and prevent further displacement of the Palestinian people. He also called for the State of Palestine to gain full membership in the United Nations.

The Jordanian King reaffirmed his country's support for a legitimate state of Palestine based on the 1967 borders.

Hamas has reportedly told mediators that it is unable to identify and track the 40 hostages needed for the first phase of a ceasefire deal, according to sources who spoke to CNN.

The criteria for the first release of hostages are all women, as well as sick and elderly men. But Hamas has told mediators that it does not have 40 living hostages who match the criteria. 

Hamas has maintained for some time that Israel's relentless bombing campaign on the territory has made conditions difficult to find out the whereabouts or wellbeing of all the hostages, some of whom are believed to be held by other Palestinian groups such as Islamic Jihad.

Israel is pushing for the release of younger male hostages, including Israeli soldiers to be included in part of the initial ceasefire phase.

Israel has agreed in Gaza war ceasefire talks in Egypt to concessions about the return of Palestinians to the north of the enclave, but believes Islamist group Hamas does not want to strike a deal, Israeli officials said on Wednesday.

Two officials with knowledge of the talks said that under a US proposal for a truce, Israel would allow the return of 150,000 Palestinians to north Gaza with no security checks.

In return, they said, Hamas would be required to give a list of female, elderly and sick hostages it still holds alive.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office declined to comment. Hamas said on Tuesday that the latest proposal passed on by Egyptian and Qatari mediators did not meet demands, but that it would study it further before responding.

Israel's assessment is that Hamas does not want to strike a deal yet, the two Israeli officials said.

(Reuters)

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has warned that Israel will strike Iranian territory following threats made by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Israel would be "punished" after an alleged Israeli airstrike killed seven Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps members in Damascus.

"In this war, we are being attacked from more than one front... from different directions. Any enemy that tries to attack us will first of all be met with stiff defence," Gallant said, adding that "we know how to react very quickly with a decisive offensive action against the territory of whoever attacks our territory, no matter where it is, in the entire Middle East."

The Palestine Red Crescent Society has said that it's ambulances have transferred three wounded people who were shot by Israeli settlers' who attacked the town of Burqa near Ramallah. 

Gaza's health ministry has announced that a further 122 people have been killed and 56 injured in the past 24 hours by Israel.

It added that in total 33,482 people have been killed and 76,049 have been injured in Israel's war on Gaza.

Israel's Regional and Cooperation Minister David Amsalem has called the announcement of the withdrawal of all but one brigade of the Israeli military from Gaza as "a false report".

Speaking with Israeli Army Radio, Amsalem said "I usually don't follow what the IDF [Israeli army] spokesperson says. I know what the chief of staff says - there are forces in Gaza of considerable size that fight on a daily basis." 

The Israeli army has given up on reopening the Erez border crossing into Gaza, instead opting to open a new crossing in a less central location because of fears that Israeli protesters will attempt to block the crossing, according to Israeli Army Radio.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq said that it had targeted the Israeli port of Haifa in the evening, adding that two drones were used in the attack. 

Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has reportedly told US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin that there is no date for a Rafah operation according to Axios, with Gallant also saying that it would evacuate Rafah's population prior to an offensive.

The report comes following a speech from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that a date for an operation had been set.

A fire has erupted at a warehouse at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, according to Gaza's Civil Defence, although it noted it was unaware of the reasons for the fire. 

 The commander of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Aroldo Lazaro, said on Wednesday the danger of escalation on the Lebanon-Israel border was real.

"(...) UNIFIL calls for a return to the cessation of hostilities, and a move towards a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution to the conflict", Lazaro said in a statement.

(Reuters)

US plans to build a pier off the coast of Gaza to allow for humanitarian aid deliveries could cost between $180 to $200 million, according to ABC News, with the White House noting that its completion is still weeks away. 

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned Wednesday that Israel's "disproportionate response" in the Gaza war with Hamas risks "destabilising the Middle East, and as a consequence, the entire world".

Sanchez also insisted that the recognition of a Palestinian state, long resisted by Israel and its key allies, is "in Europe's geopolitical interests".

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday that Israel "must be punished and it shall be" for attacking the Iranian embassy compound in Syria.

In a major escalation of Israel's war with regional adversaries, suspected Israeli warplanes bombed Iran's consulate in the Syrian capital on 1 April in a strike that Iran said killed seven members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. 

"When they attack the consulate, it is as if they have attacked our soil," Khamenei said in a speech marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. "The evil regime made a mistake and must be punished and it shall be," he added.

In an apparent response to Khamenei, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that Israel will respond if Iran attacks Israel from its own soil.

"If Iran attacks from its own territory, Israel will respond and attack in Iran," Katz said in post on the social media platform X.

(Reuters)