Live: Gaza death toll nears 50,700

New video evidence relating to the Israeli forces' killing of 15 Palestine Red Crescent and civil defence workers emerged on Saturday.

The footage, which was retrieved from a phone belonging to one of the medics who was killed and buried in a mass gave, shows the Israeli military attacking clearly marked Red Crescent ambulances with lights flashing, and emergency medical workers wearing reflective vests.

The new evidence contradicts the Israeli army's account of the incident which claimed that the emergency vehicles “were identified advancing suspiciously toward [Israeli] troops without headlights or emergency signals”.

Gaza's government media office said in a statement that the revelations “expose the lies of the Israeli occupation army” and has demanded an independent international investigation into the killings.

Unrwa chief Phillipe Lazzarini has said, citing a report by UNICEF, that at least 100 children have been killed in Israeli attacks daily since strikes resumed on 18 March.

"Young lives cut short in a war not of children’s making," Lazzarini said in a post on X, adding that since the war began a year and a half ago, 15,000 children have been killed in Israeli attacks.

"The ceasefire at the beginning of the year gave Gaza’s children a chance to survive & be children. The resumption of the war is again robbing them of their childhood. The war has turned Gaza into a “no land” for children," he said.

Harrowing.
At least 100 children are reported killed or injured every day in #Gaza, since the strikes resumed (on 18 March) according to @UNICEF

Young lives cut short in a war not of children’s making.

Since the war began 1.5 years ago, 15,000 children were reportedly…

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) April 4, 2025

At least 60 Palestinians have been killed and another 162 wounded in Israeli attacks across the enclave in the last 24 hours, Gaza's health ministry is reporting.

It added that the latest figures brought the death toll in Gaza to 1,309 since Israel resumed fighting on 18 March.

The overall toll of Palestinians killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023 now stands at 50,669 , with another 115,225 wounded, according to the ministry.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to visit the White House on Monday, Axios reported on Friday, citing four sources with knowledge of the matter.

The report added that if the visit takes place as planned, the Israeli leader would be the first foreign leader to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in person to try to negotiate a deal to remove tariffs. 

Reporting by Reuters

Al Jazeera is reporting that at least 10 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn, with most of the casualties concentrated around southern Gaza's Khan Younis and Gaza City in the north where many civilians have fled.

According to the report, a child was killed in an attack on the Qizan Abu Rashwan neighbourhood in Rafah, while an Israeli drone strike targeting a group of civilians in Gaza City's Shujayea neighbourhood killed two.

Additionally, a Palestinian man died of his wounds sustained in an Israeli attack on the town of al-Nasr near Rafah.

Meanwhile, Israeli bombardment of Khan Younis has killed five people, including three killed in a drone attack on a charity kitchen.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers, here are the latest updates:

• Israeli air strikes have been pummelling Khan Younis and Gaza City, killing 10 Palestinians since dawn, including women and children, according to Al Jazeera.

• Al Jazeera Arabic is reporting that a Palestinian child has been killed in an Israeli attack on the Qizan Abu Rashwan neighbourhood in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis. 

• Israeli forces have been heavily bombarding the town of Abasan al-Kabira, east of Khan Younis.

• In Rafah, Israeli forces are conducting major ground operations and are reportedly trying to create a new road to spit the city from Khan Younis.

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to visit the White House on Monday.

Our live blog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

- The spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said on Friday that half of the Israeli captives in Gaza are being held in areas that the Israeli army has ordered to be "evacuated" in the coming days. Abu Obeida added that because of "strict security measures" they will not be moved. 

- The Israeli military said that it killed Mohammad Awad, a senior member of the Mujahideen Brigades in Gaza on Friday. The Brigades confirmed his death. 

- The UN's humanitarian agency Ocha said that conditions in Gaza are "catastrophic" and Israel must re-open crossings to allow aid into the enclave. 

- Global medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said it was appalled and saddened by the killing of one of its staff by an air strike in Gaza, the second within two weeks.

- The Trump administration moved forward with the sale of more than 20,000 US-made assault rifles to Israel last month, according to the Reuters news agency. The $24 million sale appears to be intended for the Israeli National Police. 

- The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, on Friday said the scale of the displacement caused by the Israeli assault on parts of the West Bank is "unprecedented since the 1967 war", when Israel occupied the area in contravention of international law. 

- CNN, citing US officials on Friday, said the cost of the US war on Yemen since 15 March is about to hit the $1bn mark - and that it hasn't even had that much impact.

Local media is reporting that Israeli air strikes have picked up again just after midnight on Saturday in Gaza.

Gaza City in the north and Rafah in the south are both being targeted. 

The Houthis in Yemen have downed a US reconaissance drone identified as a Giant Shark F360, using a surface-to-air missile, they said late Friday.

CNN, citing US officials on Friday, said the cost of the US war on Yemen since 15 March is about to hit the $1bn mark - and it hasn't even had that much impact. 

Members of the Trump administration cabinet had disclosed in a leaked group chat last month that one senior-ranking member of the Houthis was killed when the US bombed an entire apartment building. 

Beyond that, the Pentagon has not identified the areas that are being targeted in the nightly bombings, and the Houthis are understood to have fortified their weapons bunkers, CNN reported. 

The Yemeni health ministry has said the death toll so far exceeds 90 people. 

A UN Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution that would have established a mechanism to help with the investigation of crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territories was watered down following backroom pressure from the US, a US official and a source briefed by a European diplomat told Middle East Eye.

The final wording of the resolution, adopted by the council this week, invites the UN General Assembly only “to consider establishing” such a body.

Read more: It is clear from publicly available drafts that the mechanism’s establishment had been deleted from the resolution

The Israeli military, in conjunction with the Shin Bet, the domestic spy agency, said on Friday that it killed Mohammad Awad, a senior member of the Mujahideen Brigades in Gaza. 

Israel had accused Awad of crossing into Kibbutz Nir Oz on 7 October 2023 and being "apparently involved in the kidnapping and murder of Sheri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas", the Arabic-language spokesperson for the military said on X. 

It also accused him of "carrying out sabotage operations against Israel".

The Mujahideen Brigades confirmed Awad's death in a statement.

"We affirm that the cowardly assassinations and crimes of the corrupt Zionist enemy will not break our resolve and will only increase our determination to continue on the path of jihad and resistance until the occupation is swept away from all our blessed land," the statement said. 

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, on Friday said the scale of the displacement caused by the Israeli assault on parts of the West Bank is "unprecedented since the 1967 war", when Israel occupied the area in contravention of international law. 

"It has resulted in systematic destruction, forced displacement, and demolition orders affecting Palestinian families and refugee camps," Unrwa said on X. 

"The situation remains highly concerning."

Turkey wants no confrontation with Israel in Syria, but repeated Israeli strikes on military facilities there are eroding the new government's ability to deter threats from enemies, including ISIS, Turkey's foreign minister told Reuters on Friday.

In an interview on the sidelines of a Nato foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels, Hakan Fidan said Israel's actions were fuelling regional instability by targeting Syria, where the government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa is a close ally of Turkey. 

"We don't want to see any confrontation with Israel in Syria because Syria belongs to Syrians," Fidan said.

- Reporting by Reuters

The Gulf State of Kuwait, a major backer of humanitarian projects in Gaza, expressed on Friday "strong condemnation and denunciation of the recent aggression launched by the Israeli occupation forces" on civilians sheltering at a school in Gaza City's al-Tuffah neighbourhood, and the destruction of a warehouse containing medical and relief supplies delivered by the Saudi government.

"This is a flagrant violation of international law and all relevant UN resolutions," the Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. 

"This aggression is evidence of the absence of international accountability mechanisms," the statement continued.

"The [UN] Security Council [must] assume its responsibilities in maintaining international peace and security by putting an end to the tragedy experienced by the brotherly Palestinian people, obligating the occupying power to cease its aggression against the Palestinian territories, and opening the crossings designated for the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip."