Live: Gaza death toll nears 50,700

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has condemned Israel’s latest attack on the city of Sidon in a statement.

“Israel is once again targeting peaceful civilians, this time in the capital of the south,” Salam’s office said.

“Targeting the city of Sidon, or any other Lebanese region, is a blatant assault on Lebanese sovereignty and a clear violation of Resolution 1701 and the security arrangements agreement for the cessation of hostilities.”

The statement added that the President calls for "maximum pressure on Israel to compel it to halt its ongoing attacks on various areas, particularly residential areas, emphasising that a complete cessation of military operations is necessary.”

The death of 15 medics and humanitarian workers in Gaza after shots were fired at their ambulances raises further concerns of "war crimes by the Israeli army," the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Thursday.

"I am appalled by the recent killings of 15 medical personnel and humanitarian aid workers, which raise further concerns over the commission of war crimes by the Israeli military," Volker Turk told the UN Security Council.

The bodies of 15 rescuers and humanitarian workers, including eight from the Palestinian Red Crescent and one from the UN, were found near Rafah in what the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) called a "mass grave."

OCHA said Tuesday the first team was killed by Israeli forces on March 23, and that other emergency and aid teams were struck one after another for several hours as they searched for their missing colleagues.

The Israeli military said its troops began operating in the Shujayea area in the northern Gaza Strip with the aim of “deepening control" and expanding the so-called "security zone", in a statement on X.

The Israeli army is allowing civilians “to evacuate the combat zone for their safety, via designated routes,” it added.

Israeli attacks on north Gaza, specifically the Shujayea neighbourhood of Gaza City killed at least 37 people yesterday.

Israeli attacks have killed at least 18 people since the early hours of this morning, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.

Hamas official Hassan Farhat was amongst those killed in the Israeli military’s drone strike on an apartment in the Lebanese port city of Sidon in the early hours of this morning, which killed at least three people, according to Lebanese news outlet Al Mayadeen.

The Israeli air strikes also targeted the Naqoura and Nabatieh areas of southern Lebanon on Thursday night and in the early hours of Friday morning, the outlet reported.

A Tufts University student from Turkey, who was arrested last week in Massachusetts by masked US immigration officials after advocating for Palestinians amid Israel's war in Gaza, said on Thursday that she would not be deterred.

A lawyer for Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, read a statement on her behalf to reporters assembled outside the federal court in Boston shortly after a judge heard arguments over whether a lawsuit challenging her detention could remain in Massachusetts even though she is now being detained in Louisiana.

Ozturk's lawyers say the arrest violated her free speech rights, and was based on an opinion piece she co-authored in the university's student newspaper that criticised Tufts' response to calls by students to divest from companies with ties to Israel and to "acknowledge the Palestinian genocide".

Ozturk, a PhD student and Fulbright Scholar, in a statement read by her attorney Mahsa Khanbabai said that: "Writing is one of the most peaceful ways of addressing systemic inequality."

"Efforts to target me because of my op-ed in the Tufts Daily calling for the equal dignity and humanity of all people will not deter me from my commitment to advocate for the rights of youth and children," she said.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers.

Here are some of the latest updates on Israel’s war on Gaza and the occupied West Bank:

• The Israeli air strikes targeting an apartment killed at least three people in the Lebanese port city of Sidon

• The Trump administration plans to freeze $510m in federal grants to Brown University over allegations of "anti-Semitism" on its campus, the Reuters news agency reported, citing an unnamed US official

• The Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man during a raid on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, the Quds News Network reported. The military announced killing another person who threw stones near the occupied West Bank village of Husan, located west of Bethlehem

• At least 10 people have been killed in an air strike targeted a home in al-Manara, southeast of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, The Quds News Network and the Palestinian Information Centre reported

• Israeli fighter jets have bombed a tent housing displaced Palestinians in a western area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, killing at least one woman and injuring others, according to Al Jazeera Arabic

• Israeli fighter jets have bombed and destroyed a water desalination plant in the Tuffah neighbourhood, east of Gaza City in northern Gaza, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.

• The US military has continued its bombing campaign against targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen over recent days, killing several people.

Our live blog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

- Israel killed at least 112 Palestinians in Gaza on Thursday in what has become the deadliest day since Israel resumed its war on the Strip on 18 March.

- The Israeli military late on Thursday issued what it described as a "final advance warning before the attack" to residents of the Old City of Gaza, al-Sabra, Tal al-Hawa, and western al-Zeitoun. All those now being forcibly displaced must go to al-Mawasi, in the south of the Strip, a military spokesperson said. 

- The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OCHA OPT) said that two-thirds of the Gaza Strip is now under forced displacement orders from Israel, or is a 'no go' zone.

- Around 17,000 children in Gaza have lost both parents since 7 October 2023, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said in a statement. 

- An attempt to force a vote to block US weapons transfers to Israel failed in the Senate on Thursday. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders tried to bring forward two joint resolutions of disapproval (JRD) to block $8.8bn worth of offensive weapons sales. Only 15 out of 100 senators supported the move. 

- In a strongly-worded statement, the Turkish foreign ministry called Israel "racist" and a "strategic destabiliser" that "fuels chaos and fosters terrorism". The statement is understood to be a response to Israeli officials who indicated that Israeli air strikes on Syria are intended to convey a message to Turkey not to establish a military base in Syria.

- The Yemeni health ministry said that US air strikes have killed 92 people since they began on 15 March. 

The US Mission to the UN on Wednesday said it sent a letter to Secretary General Antonio Guterres opposing the renewal of Francesca Albanese’s term as UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories.

"We condemn her virulent antisemitism, which demonizes Israel and supports Hamas," the US Mission said in a post on X.

"She has clearly violated the UN’s code of conduct and is unfit for her role. Her reappointment would show the UN tolerates antisemitic hatred and support for terrorism," it said. 

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OCHA OPT) said on Thursday that two-thirds of the Gaza Strip is now under forced displacement orders from Israel, or is a 'no go' zone.

"All crossings are completely closed for incoming supplies - now for the 2nd month," the agency wrote on X. "Humanitarian operations are obstructed. Nowhere is safe. #CeasefireNow."

The Israeli military late on Thursday issued what it described as a "final advance warning before the attack" to residents of the Old City of Gaza, al-Sabra, Tal al-Hawa, and western al-Zeitoun.

Avichay Adraee, the Arabic-language spokesperson for the Israeli forces, said on X: "Terrorist organisations return and launch their rockets from among civilians. We have warned about this area many times."

"For your safety, you must move immediately south to the shelters in al-Mawasi," he wrote. 

The areas indicated on the map are also the sites of the two churches in the Gaza Strip: Saint Porphyrius, and the Holy Family Church. 

US President Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday that he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and that Netanyahu may be returning to the US next week.

Netanyahu would become the only foreign leader to have visited Trump twice during his presidency thus far.

An attempt to force a vote to block US weapons transfers to Israel failed in the Senate on Thursday.

Independent Senator Bernie Sanders attempted to bring forward two joint resolutions of disapproval (JRD) to block $8.8bn worth of offensive weapons sales to Israel that were already approved by the Trump administration.

Only 15 senators, including former vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine and former presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren, voted to move forward with the vote. 

There are 100 senators in the upper chamber of Congress. 

In a strongly-worded statement released late on Thursday, the Turkish foreign ministry called Israel "racist" and a "strategic destabiliser" that "fuels chaos and fosters terrorism".

The statement is understood to be a response to Israeli officials who indicated that Israeli air strikes on Syria are intended to convey a message to Turkey not to establish a military base in Syria or interfere with Israeli operations in Syria's skies. 

"It is worth questioning why the recent developments in Syria and Lebanon - developments that hold great promise for peace, stability, and prosperity in our region and are supported by the international community - are causing such discomfort for Israel," the foreign ministry said. 

"Israeli ministers cannot conceal their expansionist ambitions - including the genocide in Gaza, the all-out war against the Palestinian people, settler terrorism, the intention to annex the West Bank, and attacks on Syria and Lebanon - by targeting Türkiye," the statement continued. 

"To establish security across the region, Israel must first abandon its expansionist policies, withdraw from occupied territories, and cease undermining efforts to establish stability in Syria," Turkey said. 

"It is crucial for the international community to assume its responsibility in preventing Israel’s increasingly reckless aggression."

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) announced on Thursday that as of 1 April, Nicaragua had withdrawn its application to join South Africa's "genocide" case against Israel.