Live updates: Israel lets food into Gaza even as its forces attack a hospital, Palestinians say

Gaza’s Heath Ministry said Thursday morning that more than 100 people had been killed across the Gaza Strip and around 250 wounded over the past 24 hours. It was not immediately clear if there were fatalities at Al-Awda Hospital.

Here's the latest:

Lebanese prime minister condemns latest Israeli strikes

The wave of airstrikes came two days before municipal elections are slated to take place in southern Lebanon.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Israel’s attacks “will not deter the state from its commitment to the electoral process,” and called for more international pressure to make Israel stop bombing his country.

Israel carries out widespread strikes in Lebanon

Israel carried out strikes on multiple areas in southern Lebanon on Thursday, some far from the border, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.

It described the strikes as “the most violent in some areas” since a ceasefire deal ended the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in November. Residents of northern Israel also reported hearing loud explosions from across the border.

The Israeli army issued a warning ahead of one strike that destroyed a building in the town of Toul, which it described as “facilities belonging to the terrorist Hezbollah.” Video of the strike's aftermath showed fire and a massive cloud of smoke rising over an area packed with multi-story apartment buildings. Strikes in other areas were carried out without warning.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Israel has struck Lebanon almost every day since the ceasefire. Lebanon says those strikes are in violation of the deal, while Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah to prevent it from re-arming.

Netanyahu names a new head of security agency after pushing to oust the previous chief

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu announced Thursday his decision to appoint Major General David Zini as the next head of the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service.

Zini is a former army commando and has held a number of top positions in the Israeli military. Netanyahu's office said that in March 2023 Zini prepared a report warning about the dangers of a surprise attack on Israeli forces along the Gaza border.

Earlier this year Netanyahu moved to fire the agency's current chief, Ronen Bar, blaming his agency for failures in the elad-up to Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israel’s Supreme Court froze Bar's firing after multiple legal challenges against it, however Bar has since said he will resign in June.

Trump and Netanyahu discuss embassy staffers' shooting and Iran nuclear deal

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone on Thursday about the shooting that killed two Israeli Embassy staffers outside a Washington reception, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Leavitt said the two leaders also discussed “a potential deal” with Iran to stem its rapidly advancing nuclear program. Trump is expected to dispatch special envoy Steve Witkoff to Italy for talks later this week with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi.

Leavitt said Trump believes the talks are “moving along in the right direction.”

UN says Palestinians stole food from aid trucks in Gaza

U.N. officials on Thursday said that a small number of trucks carrying flour on Wednesday were intercepted by residents and their contents were stolen.

“As far as I know, this was not a criminal act with armed men,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said during a briefing.

He added that the episode “only reflects the very high level of anxiety that people in Gaza are feeling, not knowing when the next humanitarian delivery will take place.”

Over the last several months, Israel has accused Hamas of siphoning off aid and using it to fund its military activities, without providing evidence. The U.N. has said that there are mechanisms in place that prevent any significant diversion of aid.

Israel says ‘no food shortage in Gaza’ even as UN says the trickle of aid is ‘nowhere near sufficient’

The Israeli military agency in charge of transferring aid to Gaza, COGAT, said Thursday that the United Nations is currently allowed to bring in “nutrition products, some food ingredients and medical supplies.”

“According to our current assessment, there is no food shortage in Gaza at this time,” COGAT said in a statement on X.

The U.N. says aid has been collected from only about 90 trucks — out of a total of nearly 200 that have entered Gaza since Israel ended its nearly three-month blockade this week.

“The shipments from yesterday is limited in quantity and nowhere near sufficient to meet the scale and scope of of Gaza’s 2.1 million people," said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

The U.N. has said that around 600 trucks entered during a recent ceasefire, which was the amount necessary to meet people's basic needs.

Former Israeli leader says only pressure from Trump can end the war in Gaza

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday that the only international leader with enough power to make Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stop the war in Gaza is U.S. President Donald Trump.

“If at some point the president of the United States, President Trump, will take part and perhaps will summon the Israeli prime minister and say to him in no unclear terms that ‘enough is enough’ — that may be very useful,” said Olmert, an open critic of Israel’s war in Gaza.

“I am against the expansion of the military operations in Gaza, I think that they bring us close to crimes because if there is no purpose and there is not a possible outcome that is worth the cost, then why should we continue?” he said during an interview in his Tel Aviv office.

Olmert said he understands why the EU and countries like Britain, Canada and France sent strong warnings to Israel this week, including threatening sanctions, but believes that ultimately a dressing down from Trump would stop Netanyahu from continuing the war.

Hospitals have special protection under the rules of war. Why are they in the crosshairs in Gaza?

In the Israel-Hamas war, hospitals in the combat zone of hollowed-out northern Gaza have increasingly ended up in the crosshairs. They have also become flashpoints for warring narratives.

Israel claims that Hamas locates military assets under hospitals and other sensitive sites like schools and mosques, and that its fighters use hospitals as shields. Palestinians and rights groups accuse Israel of mounting an all-out attack on Gaza's health infrastructure to punish the population and force a surrender.

International humanitarian law lends hospitals special protections during war. But hospitals can lose their protections if combatants use them to hide fighters or store weapons, the International Committee of the Red Cross says.

▶ Read more about Gaza's hospitals

Israeli tank fire heavily damages a hospital in northern Gaza, Palestinian health officials say

Israeli tanks fired on Al-Awda Hospital in the Tel al-Zaatar area of northern Gaza on Thursday, igniting fires and causing extensive damage to the facility, according to hospital officials.

Hospital director Mohamed Salha told The Associated Press about the “horror” that ensued overnight as Israeli forces bombed the third floor and used quadcopters, tanks, and drones to shoot at the hospital’s fuel tanks and units storing medication.

There were no immediate details about fatalities.

The Israeli military said its forces were operating “adjacent” to Al-Awda Hospital and had allowed emergency workers to come try to put out a fire at the hospital, but said only that, “The circumstances of the fire are still under review.”

Israeli forces also targeted the hospital’s water tanks and set fire to outpatient clinics, according to Raafat Ali al-Majdalawi, director of the Al-Awda Health and Community Association.

Al-Awda was one of the only two surviving medical facilities in north Gaza. The Indonesian Hospital was also encircled and came under fire this week. Some people among the 130 hospital staff and volunteers were injured, he said, but didn't provide specific figures.

Video taken by Salha shows a damaged hospital building, with one room on an upper floor left exposed after its walls were blown away. Thick black smoke billows from the rubble and wreckage within the hospital complex, where fires spread through some parts.

Salha said that Gaza’s emergency service, the Civil Defense agency, spent three hours trying to contain the fires and failed.

As soldiers killed his colleagues, a Palestinian medic survived by pleading in Hebrew “Don’t shoot! I’m Israeli”

According to the head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the medic Asaad al-Nsasrah has not spoken with the media since Israeli soldiers killed 15 emergency responders in southern Gaza on March 23.

Words in Hebrew could be heard in the final moments of a video of the killings that was subsequently found and made public.

"The soldiers were so close to have a dialogue with somebody. And that somebody was Assad,” said Younis al-Khatib, the Red Crescent chief. “What Assad said in Hebrew: ‘Don’t shoot. I am Israeli.’ And soldiers got a bit confused.”

The Israeli military declined to comment.

“You know why he said that? His mother is Israeli. Assad’s mother is Israeli — Palestinian Arab Israeli from Bir Saba,” al-Khatib said, referring to the Arabic name for the city of Beersheba in southern Israel.

Al-Khatib spoke on Thursday to reporters in Geneva at the headquarters of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Israeli troops bulldozed over the bodies along with their mangled vehicles, burying them in a mass grave, according to the U.N. The surviving medic was detained by Israel for over a month and released back to Gaza.

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Food insecurity and malnutrition are driving up pregnancy complications in Gaza, the UN says

Health facilities in Gaza have reported that over 12% of pregnancies resulted in miscarriages during the first four months of this year, said Nestor Owomunhangi, representative of the United Nations Population Fund, told The Associated Press on Thursday. In the same period, there were 10% premature births and low-birth weight recorded, he said.

There are over 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, he said.

Only a ceasefire would allow aid groups to deliver lifesaving supplies and material into Gaza at a scale that prevents further deterioration in malnutrition and starvation, Owomunhangi said.

During his visit to Gaza earlier this month, desperation was palpable, hunger and malnutrition visible everywhere, he said. “The worst has already arrived in Gaza.”

After aid started trickling into Gaza Thursday, Owamunhangi said: ” By the time it gets to the weakest of the weakest, that will be days.”

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France summons Israel’s ambassador to protest soldiers shooting near foreign diplomats in the West Bank

Israel's ambassador to Paris was being summoned to the French Foreign Ministry on Thursday afternoon after Israeli soldiers fired warning shots at a delegation of diplomats the previous day.

The diplomats, including one from France, came under fire Wednesday while visiting Jenin, a city in the Israel-occupied West Bank. The Israeli military said the visit had been approved but the soldiers fired warning shots when the delegation deviated from an approved route.

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said the shots put diplomats in danger and were “unjustifiable and unacceptable.” The Israeli ambassador was summoned “to explain himself about this extremely serious incident,” the French Foreign Ministry said.

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Bakery in Gaza resumes operations for the first time in over a month

The bakery, in the central Gaza Strip, was baking bread again Thursday after Israel eased its blockade to allow some aid into the Palestinian territory.

Vladimir Jovcev of the U.N.’s World Food Program said it was “definitely not enough, but we hope that the borders will remain open and we will be able to bring in more aid.”

Israel imposed a blockade on all imports, including food, medicine and shelter, at the beginning of March, shortly before ending a ceasefire with Hamas.

It announced an easing of the blockade this week and has allowed around 200 trucks to enter since Monday. But U.N. agencies say Israeli military restrictions and the breakdown of law and order in Gaza make it difficult to retrieve and distribute the aid. As a result, little of it has so far reached those in need. Around 600 trucks entered per day during the ceasefire.

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Japan protests to Israel over West Bank warning shots

Japan’s Foreign Ministry says it has made “a severe protest” to Israel over its military’s firing of warning shots at a diplomatic delegation including Japanese diplomats that was visiting a refugee camp in the Israel-occupied West Bank on Wednesday.

Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Takehiro Funakoshi summoned the Israeli Ambassador to Japan, Gilad Cohen, to request a full explanation and preventive measures. Fukakoshi told Gilad the incident was “deeply regrettable and should not have happened."

Funakoshi also reiterated Japan’s strong concern over Israel’s attempted reoccupation of the Gaza Strip and the expansion of military operations, urging it to allow a full and immediate resumption of aid into Gaza, the foreign ministry said.

Funakoshi also offered his condolences on the killing of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington, stating that “terrorism is not tolerated anywhere in the world.”

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France boosts security around Jewish sites

The French government has instructed police and military officials to put “visible and dissuasive” security in place around Jewish sites after the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington D.C.

The instructions were issued Thursday by Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau and published by his ministry. The minister said security should be reinforced around Jewish sites including synagogues, schools, shops, media and cultural events following Wednesday's shooting.

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Macron reaches out to Israeli president after Washington shootings

French President Emmanuel Macron says he has reached out to his Israeli counterpart in the wake of the killings of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, in what the French leader called “an anti-Semitic attack.”

“To President @Isaac_Herzog, I extended our thoughts to the families and loved ones of the victims,” Macron posted on X.

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Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels fire two missiles at Israel

The missiles were fired hours apart on Thursday, each time setting off nationwide air raid sirens.

The Israeli military said it intercepted both missiles, and there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. An Associated Press reporter heard a loud explosion in central Israel that might have been caused by an interceptor.

Israeli police said they were searching the Jerusalem area for debris.

The Houthis have launched repeated missile attacks targeting Israel as well as international shipping in the Red Sea, portraying it as a response to Israel's offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Most of the targeted ships had no relation to Israel or the conflict.

The United States halted a punishing bombing campaign against the Houthis earlier this month, saying the rebels had pledged to stop attacking ships. That agreement did not include attacks on Israel.

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France, EU condemn shooting outside Jewish museum in Washington

France's foreign minister says the killing of two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday "is an abhorrent act of antisemitic barbarity."

In a post in English on X, the minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said: “Nothing can justify such violence. My thoughts go to their loved ones, their colleagues, and the State of Israel.”

The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said: “There is and should be no place in our societies for hatred, extremism, or antisemitism."

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