Israel-Palestine live: Biden urges Egypt, Qatar to press Hamas for hostage deal

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that Israel unlawfully attacked a residential building in Gaza on 31 October, 2023, without any apparent military target, killing 106 civilians including 54 children.

The organisation called the incident an "apparent war crime" calling it "unlawfully indiscriminate under the laws of war".

"This strike inflicted massive civilian casualties without an apparent military target – one of scores of attacks causing overwhelming carnage, and highlighting the urgency of the ICC probe," said Gerry Simpson, associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch.

The destroyed Engineers' Building, south of the Nuseirat refugee camp, was housing roughly 350 people, at least 150 of whom were seeking shelter after fleeing their homes in other regions of Gaza.

HRW said that "without warning, at about 2:30pm, four aerial munitions struck the building within about 10 seconds. The building was completely demolished."

"One hundred and three of the dead were from 14 families that were staying in the building. The other three, from two other families, were the boys who lived about 60 meters away and had been playing football in the street."

Residents of central Israel are reporting widespread disruptions to navigations applications such as Google Maps showing that they are in Beirut, Lebanon, specifically near the Beirut International Airport.

GPS disruptions have previously been reported in northern and southern Israel due to the war in Gaza and clashes with Lebanon's Hezbollah, typically due to the Israeli army jamming the system.

Lebanon also reported that GPS jamming affected civilian aircraft landing in the country over the past few days, with one Turkish Airlines flight returning to Turkey after being unable to land in Beirut due to this issue. Airliners have resorted to using alternatives to GPS in the country, such as ground-based equipment.

The current disruptions in Israel are believed to be due to fears of an Iranian retaliatory strike following Israel's deadly attack on the country's consulate in Damascus, Syria. Delivery and transport applications in the country are also reporting disruptions and informing customers of delays.

World Central Kitchen (WCK) has called for an "independent, third party investigation" into the Israeli strikes that killed seven of the organisation's aid workers in Gaza on 1 April.

"We have asked the governments of Australia, Canada, the United States of America, Poland, and the United Kingdom to join us in demanding an independent, third-party investigation into these attacks, including whether they were carried out intentionally or otherwise violated international law," the statement read.

"An independent investigation is the only way to determine the truth of what happened, ensure transparency and accountability for those responsible, and prevent future attacks on humanitarian aid workers."

Gaza's health ministry said that 62 people have been killed by Israel in Gaza over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 33,037 Palestinians killed in the enclave since 7 October.

Another 92 people have been wounded, bringing the total to 75,668 since the start of the war.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the killing of Canadian aid worker Jacob Flickinger in an Israeli strike on Gaza is "absolutely unacceptable."

"At a time when humanitarian aid is so urgently needed in Gaza, Israel has an obligation to ensure the safety of aid workers," he said on X. "The world – and his loved ones – deserves an explanation as to how this happened."

Over 600 prominent lawyers, academics and former judges, including former Supreme Court president Lady Hale and two other former justices in the court, signed a letter warning the UK government that it is breaching international law by continuing to arm Israel.

The open letter, published on Wednesday, criticises the UK government for “falling significantly short” of its obligations under international law regarding arms sales to Israel.

It goes on to warn of the UK’s liability for “failure to comply with its own obligations under the Genocide Convention,” potentially incurring “UK state responsibility for the commission of an international wrong.”

The signatories reference the International Court of Justice’s identification of a “plausible risk of genocide” and demand the UK to “suspend the provision of weapons and weapons systems to the Government of Israel” and “work actively and effectively to secure a permanent ceasefire in Gaza”.

Prominent signatories include the former Supreme Court justices Lord Sumption and Lord Wilson, the former Lord Justices of Appeal Sir Richard Aikens, Sir Anthony Hooper, Sir Alan Moses and Sir Stephen Sedley.

Founders and partners of top law firms in the UK as well as professors from the University of Oxford, London School of Economics and Kings College are included.

Palestinians in northern Gaza are surviving on less than one can of fava beans - or an average of 245 calories per day - as Israel continues to choke aid flows into the besieged enclave and officials warn famine has taken hold.

The latest breakdown of caloric intake by Oxfam International means that Palestinians in northern Gaza are consuming less than 12 percent of the recommended daily 2,100 calories needed.

Oxfam also found that the total food deliveries allowed into Gaza for the entire 2.2 million population amounted to an average of just 41 percent of the daily calories needed per person.

“Israel is making deliberate choices to starve civilians. Imagine what it is like, not only to be trying to survive on 245 calories day in, day out, but also having to watch your children or elderly relatives do the same,” said Amitabh Behar, Oxfam's executive director.

READ MORE: Palestinians in northern Gaza living on less than a can of beans per day: Report

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates:

• Overnight Israeli bombings on homes on Rafah have killed eight people, Palestine's Wafa news agency is reporting
• Israel called up its air defence reservists for duty two days after the reported Israeli strike on Damascus which killed a top Iranian commander and several other people
• Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Israel's explanation for the killing of international aid workers in Gaza was "not good enough," while US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin said he expressed his "outrage" to his Israeli counterpart over the incident.
• Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf wrote to British Prime Minister RIshi Sunak asking for an "immediate end" of arms sales from the UK to Israel
• US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller hinted that his country may not support Palestine's bid for full membership at the UN, saying that the issue of Palestinian statehood should be addressed through "direct negotiations" and "not at the United Nations."

Good evening readers of Middle East Eye,

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said that 59 people were killed by Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 32,975 since the beginning of the war on 7 October.

14,500 children have been killed since the beginning of the war, including 30 of starvation. Of the victims, 73 percent are women and children, while 17,000 children have lost at least one of their parents.

Additionally, 484 medical personnel have been killed, along with 140 journalists and 65 civil defence members.

In other developments:

• One in three children below the age of two is now acutely malnourished, the World Food Programme said. 
• Belgium's Foreign Minister says her country is open to recognising Palestine as a state "when the moment comes".
• Ambulances transporting some of the dead bodies of the World Central Kitchen workers arrived in Egypt.
• Haaretz, Israel's longest-running newspaper in print, called for an end to the war in Gaza in an editorial.
• The United Nations has implemented a temporary suspension of its night-time operations in Gaza.
• Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz called for the holding of national elections in September.
• Founder of World Central Kitchen celebrity chef Jose Andres told Reuters on Wednesday that an Israeli assault, which resulted in the death of seven food aid workers in Gaza, had "systematically, car by car" targeted them.
• President Joe Biden is scheduled for a phone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.

The United States wants to see the Israeli investigation into an attack that killed seven Work Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers to be concluded swiftly, according to US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Wednesday.

Miller told reporters at a news briefing that Israel must implement improved deconfliction and coordination practices to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers and all civilians present on the ground.

He added that the attack resulting in the deaths of WCK workers will not impact US initiatives to establish a floating pier off the coast of Gaza for aid delivery.

Founder of World Central Kitchen celebrity chef Jose Andres told Reuters on Wednesday that an Israeli assault, which resulted in the death of seven food aid workers in Gaza, had "systematically, car by car" targeted them.

Andres said that WCK maintained transparent communication with the Israeli military, adding that the military was informed about the movements of his aid workers.

This was not a "bad luck situation where, 'oops,' we dropped the bomb in the wrong place," Andres said. "Even if we were not in coordination with the [Israel army], no democratic country and no military can be targeting civilians and humanitarians."

Andres said he was supposed to be in Gaza with his team but for different reasons "wasn't able to go back again to Gaza."

In a speech on Wednesday, Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz called for the holding of national elections in September, amidst growing domestic and international pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's administration due to the war in Gaza.

"We must agree on a date for elections in September, towards a year to the war if you will," Gantz said in a televised briefing.

"Setting such a date will allow us to continue the military effort while signalling to the citizens of Israel that we will soon renew their trust in us."

Following the incident in which staff members of the World Central Kitchen food charity were killed by an Israeli air strike, the United Nations has implemented a temporary suspension of its night-time operations in Gaza.

This pause, set to last for a minimum of 48 hours, is aimed at conducting a thorough assessment of security concerns, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric announced on Wednesday.

Haaretz, Israel’s longest-running newspaper in print, called for an end to the war in Gaza in an editorial published on Wednesday.

“The incident in which seven people working for the international aid organisation World Central Kitchen...  cannot end with just a ‘comprehensive and transparent investigation’ by the Israel Defense Forces,” the editorial said.

“Nor is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s lukewarm apology – that ‘it happens in war; we are fully examining this. We are in contact with the governments, and we will do everything so that this thing does not happen again’ – sufficient.”

The editorial noted that WCK had been coordinating its movements with the Israeli military, which means the attack was “not a case of mistaken identity”.

Seven people working for WCK, among them people from Australia, Poland, Britain, and Palestine, were killed in an Israeli aerial attack in the Gaza city of Deir al-Balah.

“This week’s incident cannot be distanced from the ease with which the IDF kills Palestinians in Gaza,” the editorial said, adding that the hunger, destruction and the killing of aid workers signals that the war must come to an end.

The United States does not anticipate the air strike by Israel, which killed workers from World Central Kitchen in Gaza, to affect negotiations concerning a ceasefire or the exchange of hostages and Palestinian prisoners, the White House said on Wednesday.

"The ceasefire and hostage negotiations are ongoing," White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters in a briefing.

"I wouldn't anticipate any particular impact on those discussions as a result of the strike yesterday."