Live Updates: 'No significant change' in aid entering Gaza — UN agency

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

12:44 GMT — The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said there had been "no significant change" in the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

UNRWA said in a statement that "181 aid trucks have crossed into Gaza per day" through land crossings from Israel and Egypt so far in April.

It said this "remains well below the operational capacity of both border crossings and the target of 500 trucks per day."

12:28 GMT — Israel obstructing access to October 7 attack victims: UN probe

Israel is preventing UN investigators from speaking to witnesses and victims of the October 7 attack, former UN rights chief Navi Pillay, who is chairing a three-person probe, has said.

The unprecedented Commission of Inquiry was established by the UN Human Rights Council in May 2021 to investigate alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

"I deplore the fact that people inside Israel who wish to speak to us are being denied that opportunity because we cannot get access into Israel," Pillay said.

12:23 GMT — Saudi, Pakistan FM'S call for de-escalation, ceasefire in Gaza

The Saudi foreign minister has said that international efforts towards a Gaza ceasefire were wholly insufficient and called for de-escalation efforts, in a press conference with his Pakistani counterpart during a visit to Islamabad.

Pakistan's foreign minister also reiterated the call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.

12:13 GMT — Israel must stop settler attacks on Palestinians: UN human rights office

The UN human rights office has called on Israeli forces to immediately end their active participation in and support for attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

The statement follows a wave of settler attacks on Palestinian towns and villages in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says seven Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers since the attacks began Friday, and another 75 have been wounded.

11:00 GMT — Israeli army raids several areas across occupied West Bank

The Israeli army carried out several raids across the occupied West Bank to arrest Palestinians, according to eyewitnesses.

The Israeli forces raided the city of Qalqilya, northern the West Bank, and stormed into several homes in the city, the eyewitnesses told Anadolu.

They added that the Israeli army vehicles intentionally hit Palestinian cars to damage them, while the snipers were deployed on the houses in the city.

10:16 GMT — Several Palestinians killed in Israeli air strike on mosque in Jabalia in northern Gaza

Several Palestinians were killed and others injured early Tuesday by Israeli air strikes that targeted a mosque in Jabalia in northern Gaza, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

Medical sources said that “several martyrs and nine wounded were transported to Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli occupation’s aircraft targeting the Al Fakhoura Martyrs Mosque located west of the Jabalia refugee camp.”

Israeli army vehicles also infiltrated the town of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, besieging a school sheltering displaced people and opening fire on them, said WAFA.

05:00 GMT — Palestine collects more bodies as Israel bombards Gaza

Israel has killed at least four Palestinian civilians in Rafah's Tal al Sultan area, while striking Nuseirat camp city in central Gaza and north of Gaza, witnesses told TRT World.

04:20 GMT — Pro-Palestine protests hit US cities

Pro-Palestine demonstrators have blocked roadways in Illinois, California, New York and Oregon, temporarily shutting down travel into Chicago O'Hare International Airport, onto the Golden Gate and Brooklyn bridges and on a busy West Coast highway amid Israel's carnage in besieged Gaza.

In Chicago, protesters linked arms and blocked lanes of Interstate 190 leading into one of the nation's busiest airports around 7 am, a demonstration they said was part of a global "economic blockade to free Palestine," according to Rifqa Falaneh, one of the organisers.

Traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area was snarled for hours as demonstrators shut down all vehicle, pedestrian and bike traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge and chained themselves to 55-gallon drums filled with cement across Interstate 880 in Oakland.

03:31 GMT — Qatar, Iran leaders call for ceasefire

Qatar and Iran have stressed the need for a ceasefire in besieged Gaza and all other Palestinian territories in a phone call between the two countries' leaders.

According to the Qatar News Agency (QNA), Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani phoned Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, with whom he discussed "bilateral relations between the two countries and ways to support and strengthen them."

They also stressed the need for a ceasefire in Gaza and all Palestinian territories as "a permanent and final solution to the Palestinian cause that achieves a lasting and comprehensive peace in the region."

03:00 GMT — Large protests against Israeli participation in Eurovision expected

Over 20,000 people from various European countries are expected to travel to the city of Malmo in Sweden to protest Israel's participation in the Eurovision song contest, set to be held in the Scandinavian country on May 7, local media reported.

The Palestine Network launched an initiative to organise demonstrations and other cultural activities in the city during Eurovision week, according to national broadcaster SVT Nyheter.

One of the many organisations collaborating to hold two demonstrations in the city is the Palestine Group in Malmo.

02:30 GMT — Israel 'unhappy' with China's failure to condemn Iran's retaliation

Israel is "unhappy" with China's failure to condemn Iranian retaliatory attacks on Israel over the weekend, according to an Israeli diplomat in Beijing.

Speaking at a press briefing, Yuval Waks, a senior official at the Israeli embassy in Beijing, said Israel's expectation from China strongly condemned the attacks and acknowledged Israel's right to self-defence.

"We did not see that, unfortunately. Therefore, we were unhappy with the statement," Waks said.

For our live updates from Monday, April 15, click here.