The White House says it wants “answers” from Israeli authorities after the discovery of mass graves at two Gaza hospitals destroyed in Israeli sieges. The head of Khan Younis’s civil defence department has said that only 65 bodies have been identified out of 392 bodies recovered from mass graves in Gaza. Yamen Abu Sulaiman is quoted by Al Jazeera saying the rest of the bodies remain unidentified because of advanced decomposition or mutilation. He called for access for international media. Israel has insisted that “The claim that the IDF buried Palestinian bodies is baseless and unfounded.”
Israel appears to be readying to send troops into Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, the only corner of the strip that has not seen fierce ground fighting and where more than half of the Palestinian territory’s population of 2.3 million has sought shelter. The Israeli military said on Wednesday that two reservist brigades had been mobilised for missions in Gaza, while video that circulated online appeared to show rows of square white tents going up in Khan Younis, 3 miles (5km) north of Rafah, which was decimated in a months-long Israeli air and ground campaign.
At least 34,305 Palestinians have been killed and 77,293 wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Hamas-led Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday. That number includes 43 deaths in the last 24 hours. Palestinian hospital officials say Israeli airstrikes on the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip overnight have killed at least five people, including two children, identified in hospital records as Sham Najjar, six, and Jamal Nabahan, eight. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Hamas has released a video of an Israeli-American man held hostage in Gaza who is seen alive and saying that the captives are living “in hell”. He identifies himself as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, one of the hostages abducted from the Nova music festival in southern Israel during the Hamas attack on 7 October. The video showed him missing a hand. His parents said in a statement they were “relieved to see him alive” but worried for his wellbeing.
A top Hamas political official has told the Associated Press the militant group is willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel and that it would lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders. The comments by Khalil al-Hayya in an interview Wednesday came amid a stalemate in months of ceasefire talks.
16-year-old Khaled Raed Arouq was shot and killed by Israeli forces during a raid in Ramallah, reports Palestinian news agency Wafa. A boy has also been injured during an Israeli security force raid in the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus.
Both US Centcom and the Greek defence ministry have reported that their forces have intercepted or shot down drones or missiles believed to have been fired at commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
A memorial at the National Cathedral in Washington on Thursday will honour the seven World Central Kitchen aid workers killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza earlier this month.
At least 20 people were arrested, including a photojournalist, as police and demonstrators violently clashed at the University of Texas at Austin on Wednesday.
The United Kingdom maritime trade operations (UKMTO) has provided more details on an incident 15 nautical miles southwest of Yemen’s Aden. It writes:
The master reports a loud bang heard and a splash and smoke seen coming from the sea. The master reports vessel and all crew are safe. Military authorities are supporting. Vessels are advised to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity to UKMTO.
Earlier today both US Centcom and the Greek defence ministry reported intercepting drones or missiles believed to be fired by Yemen’s Houthis.
Lauren Gambino is in Washington for the Guardian, and has written an explainer on what Donald Trump’s Middle East policy might be if he were re-elected …
More than six months into the ruinous Middle East conflict, amid fears of a wider regional war, Donald Trump has offered plenty of criticism – of US president Joe Biden, his successor and all-but-certain rival for the White House, and of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister – but few details on what he might have done differently.
Trump’s relative silence leaves major questions about how he would act if he were to inherit the conflict in January.
At a windy rally in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, earlier this month, Trump began his hour-long address by sending prayers and support to Israel as it withstood Iran’s aerial assault.
“They’re under attack right now,” the former president and presumptive Republican nominee said. “That’s because we show great weakness.”
Trump, who often describes himself as the “best friend that Israel has ever had”, blamed Tehran’s bombardment – and the entire bloody crisis – on Joe Biden, claiming it “would not have happened” if he had been president.
Yetmoments later,he appeared to agree with his supporters whenthey began chanting “Genocide Joe” – a term more commonly invoked by activists protesting against Biden’s abiding support for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, whichhas killed more than 33,800 Palestinians and pushed the territory to the brink of famine.
“They’re not wrong,” the former president said, as he stepped away from the lectern and let them chant.
The head of Khan Younis’s civil defence department has said that only 65 bodies have been identified out of 392 bodies recovered from mass graves in Gaza.
Yamen Abu Sulaiman is quoted by Al Jazeera saying the rest of the bodies remain unidentified because of advanced decomposition or mutilation. He called for access for international media.
Hamdah Salhut, reporting for Al Jazeera from East Jerusalem also had this to say on the subject, writing:
The Israelis did say … they had intelligence, that there were captives buried there, and that they did this in a targeted and precise manner with dignity and respect.
But what we’ve been seeing from images on the ground, what we’re hearing from Palestinians, is a completely different story.
If an investigation were to be had, it would be the Israeli army carrying out this investigation themselves, followed by some sort of conclusion where they have absolved themselves of any wrongdoing.
Israel has insisted that “The claim that the IDF buried Palestinian bodies is baseless and unfounded.”
Death toll in Gaza Strip has reached 34,305 Palestinians – ministry
At least 34,305 Palestinians have been killed and 77,293 wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Hamas-led Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday, Reuters reports.
That number includes 43 deaths in the last 24 hours. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Israel has continued to bombard Gaza today. Among those killed in strikes overnight and into Thursday in Rafah were two children, identified in hospital records as Sham Najjar, six, and Jamal Nabahan, eight.
Mourners react next to the bodies of Palestinians in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, 25 April. Photograph: Hatem Khaled/Reuters
The US Central Command has said that it has this morning shot down four drones and an anti-ship missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
April 24 Red Sea Update
At 11:51 a.m. (Sanaa time) on April 24, a coalition vessel successfully engaged one anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) launched from Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist-controlled areas in Yemen over the Gulf of Aden. The ASBM was likely targeting the MV… pic.twitter.com/MppinZTpTi
Here is our video report on the mass graves at a hospital complex in Gaza. Palestinian civil defence teams began exhuming bodies outside the Nasser hospital complex in Khan Younis last week after Israeli troops withdrew. A total of 310 bodies have been found in the past week, Palestinian officials have said.
Palestinian rescue teams and several UN observation missions also reported the discovery this month of multiple mass grave sites at al-Shifa hospital compound in Gaza City after an Israeli withdrawal.
Officials in Gaza said the bodies at Nasser were people who had died during the siege. Israel’s military on Tuesday rejected allegations of mass burials at the hospital, saying it had exhumed corpses in the hope of finding hostages taken by Hamas in October.
Reports of mass graves at Gaza hospitals 'horrify' UN rights experts – video
Palestinian hospital officials say Israeli airstrikes on the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip have killed at least five people.
Among those killed in the strikes overnight and into Thursday were two children, identified in hospital records as Sham Najjar, six, and Jamal Nabahan, eight.
Palestinians mourn by the bodies of relatives killed in Israel’s bombardment at the al-Najjar hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on 25 April. Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images
In central Gaza, four people were killed in Israeli tank shelling, and their bodies were brought to a local hospital. Family members told the Associated Press they were killed as they tried to move to northern Gaza, where Israel’s military is preventing people from returning to their homes.
