April 5, 2024 Israel-Gaza updates

Efrat Katz, kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

An Israeli hostage on October 7 was likely killed by fire from an Israeli combat helicopter that was firing at a vehicle with militants, an Israeli Air Force investigation has found.

Israeli Efrat Katz was likely killed when an Israeli helicopter struck the vehicle that the 67-year-old was in together with other hostages and militants. The Israeli military fired at the vehicle without knowing that hostages were in the vehicle alongside the militants, according to the Air Force investigation. The findings were presented to Katz’s family and the families of the hostages involved in the incident Friday.

Katz was kidnapped from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, southern Israel by militants from Gaza. Nir Oz is roughly 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) from the Gaza border. The investigation into her death was carried out by an air force team and was based on witness testimony and video footage. It was conducted alongside “in-depth examinations of all the combat incidents” on October 7.

The IDF called the incident a “tragic and unfortunate event that took place in the midst of fighting and conditions of uncertainty.” The commander of the air force “did not find fault in the operation by the helicopter crew, who operated in compliance with the orders in a complex reality of war,” the IDF added.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers in Gaza on Monday, sparking international outrage.

On Friday, the IDF published a report into the killings, which it said violated its own protocols and should not have happened. The WCK has called for further independent investigations, saying the IDF cannot be trusted to “investigate its own failure in Gaza.”

Here’s what we know.

What the IDF said happened: The IDF has been trying to track down and kill Hamas militants in Gaza for nearly six months, and has long accused Hamas of embedding itself with civilians. It said its forces identified a gunman in an aid truck on Monday, and then identified an additional gunman.

The IDF said it did not identify the vehicles as belonging to WCK and so proceeded to target the three vehicles, leading to the deaths of the seven workers.

Separately, an IDF spokesperson told CNN that the unit responsible mistook “something slung over one of the passenger’s shoulders as a weapon,” when in fact it was a bag.

The official also confirmed that some of the aid workers who survived the first Israeli strike on their vehicle then fled to other vehicles, before being struck again.

The spokesperson said the surveillance drones could not see the WCK logo on the vehicles at night, and so are considering “distributing thermal stickers for aid vehicles” to prevent such attacks from happening again.

Who the IDF dismissed and punished: The IDF dismissed two senior officers over the strikes: The brigade fire support commander and the brigade chief of staff.

Others were formally reprimanded: The brigade commander and the 162nd Division commander. It said the strikes seriously violated the IDF’s Standard Operating Procedures and sent its condolences to the families of the victims and the WCK organization.

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir criticized the decision to dismiss two military personnel over the deadly strike, saying it “is the abandonment of the soldiers in the middle of a war and a grave mistake that conveys weakness.”

How the WCK has responded: The WCK slammed Israel for not following its own protocols.

It said firing the officers was an “important step,” but warned, “without systemic change, there will be more military failures, more apologies and more grieving families.”

This post has been updated with additional reactions to the IDF report.

Palestinians stand next to a vehicle in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza, on April 2, where employees from the World Central Kitchen were killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Some of the World Central Kitchen (WCK) workers who survived the first Israeli strike on their vehicle then fled to other vehicles, before being struck again, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson told CNN.

The IDF on Friday published its report into the strikes that killed seven WCK aid workers in Gaza this week.

An IDF spokesperson shared more details with CNN, confirming some of the aid workers in the first vehicle to be struck survived and fled to the next vehicle in the convoy.

The IDF said it targeted three vehicles in total, “leading to the deaths of seven innocent humanitarian workers.”

White House national security communications adviser John Kirby speaks during a press briefing at the White House, on April 4.

The White House will “reserve judgment” on Israel’s investigation into the strike that killed aid workers from World Central Kitchen (WCK) in Gaza until it works through the report, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Friday.

Israel dismissed two military officers as a just-released internal report finds “mistaken identification” and “errors in decision-making” led to the deadly attack on World Central Kitchen staff in Gaza on Monday.

President Joe Biden also “urged” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in their Thursday phone call to attend hostage deal negotiations in Cairo this weekend. The US will participate in those “conversations” in Cairo, Kirby told ABC.

A view of the destroyed roof of a vehicle where employees from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza, on April 2.

The Israeli forces involved in the strikes in Gaza that killed seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) staff earlier this week mistook a bag for a weapon, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN.

The IDF misidentified something slung over one of the passenger’s shoulders as a weapon. Israeli military officials now assess it was likely a bag, the spokesperson said.

In addition, the spokesperson added that surveillance drones could not see the WCK logo on the vehicles at night. The IDF is considering distributing thermal stickers for aid vehicles to prevent this in the future, he added.

The spokesperson confirmed that some of the aid workers in the first vehicle to be struck survived and fled to the next vehicle in the convoy after the first vehicle was struck.

CIA director William Burns attends a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill, Washington D.C., on March 11.

CIA Director William Burns, Israel’s Mossad Director David Barnea and Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar will meet in Egypt this weekend to continue ceasefire talks, according to a source familiar with the talks and an Israeli government official source.

Barnea, Bar and Burns met last month in Doha for talks with mediators, but no clear breakthrough was reached. US officials said although progress was made, talks have been “complex and slow.”

Hamas and Israel have for months failed to agree over a three-phased framework seeking the release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for a six-week ceasefire, the release of Palestinian prisoners and an increase in humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Among the unresolved issues is the return of displaced Gazans to their homes in the north; Hamas wants a larger number of people to return to their homes in northern Gaza than what Israel has proposed.

Hamas also wants a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Israel’s top political and military officials called Hamas’ demands “delusional” and stated that the elimination of the group remains the permanent goal of the Gaza offensive.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) dismissed two senior officers and reprimanded others over the deadly strikes on a World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy that killed seven aid workers in Gaza this week.

The IDF on Friday published a report into the attack, saying the strikes violated its own procedures and should not have happened.

Two senior officers were dismissed: The brigade fire support commander, an officer with the rank of major, and the brigade chief of staff, an officer with the rank of colonel.

“Additionally, the brigade commander and the 162nd Division commander will be formally reprimanded,” the IDF said.

Members of the World Central Kitchen aid group transports the body of one of the staff members killed in an Israeli air strike out of the morgue of Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, Gaza, on April 3.

The World Central Kitchen (WCK) has criticized the Israeli military for not following its own procedures during strikes that killed seven of its aid workers in Gaza on Monday.

The IDF said it believed it was targeting Hamas operatives when they attacked and killed the aid workers in the WCK convoy, according to an internal inquest that led to the dismissal of two senior officers.

WCK acknowledged that Israel had taken “important steps” in dismissing the officers, but said the investigation showed that “deadly force” was used by the IDF “without regard to its own protocols.”

It called for an independent commission to be set up to investigate the killings further, saying: “The IDF cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza.”

People inspect the site where World Central Kitchen workers were killed in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on April 2.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its strike which killed seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers was carried out in “serious violation of the commands” and procedures, and “should not have happened.”

In a statement released Friday, the IDF detailed how the “grave incident” happened.

The IDF said its forces “identified a gunman on one of the aid trucks, following which they identified an additional gunman.”

“After the vehicles left the warehouse where the aid had been unloaded, one of the commanders mistakenly assumed that the gunmen were located inside the accompanying vehicles and that these were Hamas terrorists,” the report said. “The forces did not identify the vehicles in question as being associated with WCK.”

The IDF said its forces then targeted the three WCK vehicles based on “the misclassification of the event and misidentification of the vehicles as having Hamas operatives inside them.”

Undercover Israeli border police killed a Palestinian man in the Nour Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm in the northwest part of the occupied West Bank on Friday morning.

A police spokesperson said that undercover Border Police forces, working with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), had arrested three men suspected of “involvement in terrorist activities.”

In the early morning raid, Israeli forces entered the Nour Shams refugee camp from multiple directions and “besieged” a house in the Jabal al-Nasr neighborhood, sparking confrontations in which a young man was critically injured by Israeli gunfire, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

The man was rushed by ambulance to the Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital but was later pronounced dead, according to WAFA. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement that 31-year-old Sa’id Nazmi Khudair Al-Awawi was killed after being struck by Israeli fire in the Nour Shams camp.

The Israeli military believed they were targeting Hamas operatives when they attacked and killed seven food aid workers in Gaza on Monday, according to an internal inquest that led to the dismissal of two officers.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Friday that “those who approved the strike were convinced that they were targeting armed Hamas operatives,” calling the attack “a grave mistake stemming from a serious failure due to a mistaken identification.”

Seven aid workers – three Britons, a Palestinian, a US-Canadian dual citizen, an Australian and a Pole – were killed in Monday’s strikes, setting off fury in those countries and sparking even greater scrutiny of Israel’s conduct in Gaza since it launched its war against Hamas in October.

WCK and the heads of many Western nations have called for an independent, third party investigation into the strikes, but Israel has committed only to the internal inquiry released Friday.

CNN’s Benjamin Brown contributed reporting.

Buildings destroyed by Israeli air strikes in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City on October 11.

The cost of damage to critical infrastructure in Gaza is estimated at around $18.5 billion, according to a report released Friday by the World Bank and United Nations.

The sum is equivalent to 97% of the combined GDP of the West Bank and Gaza from 2022, it added.

The assessment was based on data collected between October 2023 and January 2024. It found that every sector of the economy had been affected, with housing the hardest hit, accounting for 72% of the costs.

The report said 92% of primary roads have been destroyed or damaged, and that 75% of the population has been displaced.

Palestinian children wait to receive food distributed by charity organizations in Deir Al Balah, Gaza, on April 1.

The crossings set to be opened to allow aid to reach Gaza offer a “glimmer of hope” amid a humanitarian catastrophe, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said.

Israel’s security cabinet on Thursday approved the opening of the Erez crossing in the north of Gaza. CNN has reported that the first deliveries through the crossing are expected Sunday.

But NRC Secretary General Jan Egeland stressed Israel needed to show “tangible improvement in the situation for civilians on the ground.”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak looks on during a media visit to Harlow Police Station on February 16.

Pressure is mounting on British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to suspend the sale of arms to Israel following the deadly attack on a convoy of aid workers in Gaza.

Calls for Sunak to stop supplying Israel with weapons grew after an Israeli airstrike on Monday killed seven members of staff from World Central Kitchen, three of whom were British citizens.

The government is still waiting for legal advice from its lawyers on whether or not selling arms to Israel is in breach of international law. Sunak is also under pressure to publish any legal advice he has been provided with on whether or not the Israeli government has breached international law through its actions in Gaza.

A recording emerged at the weekend of Alicia Kearns, who chairs the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee, saying she is convinced the government has already received advice that Israel’s actions are illegal and has declined to publish it.

Following the leak, Kearns stood by the report and said in a statement: “I remain convinced the government has completed its updated assessment on whether Israel is demonstrating a commitment to international humanitarian law, and that it has concluded that Israel is not demonstrating this commitment, which is the legal determination it has to make.”

The governing Conservative Party is historically supportive of Israel, but the killing of British citizens has shifted the domestic debate.

Read McGee’s full analysis on calls for the UK to stop arms sales to Israel.

A view of the ID cards belonging to volunteers of the US-based international volunteer aid organization World Central Kitchen (WCK) who were killed in an Israeli attack in Rafah, Gaza, on April 3.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called for an independent investigation into the killing of World Central Kitchen (WCK) workers by an Israeli strike in Gaza earlier this week.

Speaking to reporters in Leuven, Belgium on Friday, Blinken paid tribute to the aid workers who were “performing heroic work under the most difficult circumstances.”

His remarks came ahead of the expected release of an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) report into the incident, which has sparked fury among many of Israel’s allies.

Blinken said attacking an enemy like Hamas, which embeds itself within a civilian population, a “unique challenge,” but Israel nonetheless had a “responsibility to maximize protection for civilians.”

“That, too, is a critical test… We just can’t have so many people caught in that crossfire killed [and] injured going forward.”

Member of the United Nations Human Rights Council are on Friday debating a draft text calling for the total halt of weapons trade with Israel.

The draft calls for countries to “cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel,” in order to prevent further violations of international law.

The draft resolution is brought forward by Pakistan, on behalf of members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, with the exception of Albania.

The draft text does not mention Hamas by name but does condemn firing of missiles on Israeli civilians and demand the immediate release of all remaining hostages.

The UN Human Rights Council describes itself as “an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe.”

United Nations staff members inspect the carcass of a car used by aid group World Central Kitchen that was hit by an Israeli strike the previous day in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, on April 2.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, has dismissed Israel’s claims that the strikes that killed seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity in Gaza on Monday was a “regrettable incident,” saying aid workers have been targeted before.

“We do not accept it because what has happened to World Central Kitchen and MSF’s convoys and shelters is part of the same pattern of deliberate attacks on humanitarians, health workers, journalists, UN personnel, schools and homes,” Christopher Lockyear, Secretary General of MSF, wrote on X. 

WCK founder Jose Andreas accused Israel of “systematically” targeting his aid workers.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israeli forces “unintentionally struck innocent people.”

A general view of the Erez Crossing with the Gaza Strip in the background, as seen from southern Israel, on April 5.

The Erez crossing into northern Gaza is expected to receive the first humanitarian aid shipments into the enclave on Sunday, Israeli officials told CNN.

Israel’s security cabinet on Thursday approved reopening the crossing for the first time since the October 7 Hamas attacks.

Aid shipments will also begin flowing into Ashdod port on Sunday, the officials said.

The security cabinet decision came amid ramped-up pressure from the United States and others in the wake of Israel’s deadly strikes on the World Central Kitchen convoy.

Some 100 Jordanian aid trucks are also set to travel directly from Jordan to Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south on Saturday, in another sign of increased efforts to get desperately needed aid into the strip.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is expected in the next hour to release the findings of its initial investigation into the deadly strikes on the World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy.

The strikes killed seven people on Monday and sparked international fury, further straining Western support for Israel’s war in Gaza.

In a Reuters interview, the celebrity chef Jose Andres – who founded WCK in 2010 – accused Israel of “systematically” targeting the seven aid workers.

The IDF has previously said that the strike was a “grave mistake” and that it did not intend to harm the workers.

Alicia Kearns MP attends the Conservative Party Conference at Manchester Central Convention Complex, Manchester, England, on Monday October 2.

The United Kingdom has “no choice” but to halt weapons sales to Israel, a Conservative Member of Parliament has said, amid an outcry over the killing of World Central Kitchen workers, including three British nationals, in Gaza by Israeli forces.

Some 600 legal experts and lawyers signed an open letter to Sunak on Thursday asking the UK to stop selling arms to Israel, citing the risk of breaking international law.

In a phone call on Thursday, US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is unacceptable and warned Israel to take steps to address the crisis or face consequences.

Kearns said Biden’s phone call felt like a “tipping point” in the conflict, but told the BBC it is “devastating that it’s taken six months for us to get to a point where it appears that the international community is able to influence Israel’s perpetration of this war.”

Families of members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who were killed in the Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy complex in the Syrian capital Damascus, attend a funeral ceremony in Tehran, Iran, on April 4.

The funeral procession for victims of an airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, earlier this week has begun in Tehran.

At least seven officials including Mohammed Reza Zahedi, a top commander in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), and senior commander Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, were killed in the attack, according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry.

At least six Syrian citizens were also killed, Iranian state television reported on Tuesday.

Iran and Syria accused Israel of authoring the attack, with Tehran warning of a “serious response.”

The Israeli military told CNN it does not comment on foreign reports. However, a military spokesperson said Israel believes the target struck was a “military building of Quds forces” — a unit of the IRGC responsible for foreign operations.

A view of Ashdod port after the Israeli cabinet approved the temporary use of the port for aid deliveries into Gaza, in Ashdod, Israel, on April 5.

The Israeli cabinet approved three measures to increase aid into Gaza, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Friday.

“Israel will enable temporary supplying of humanitarian assistance through Ashdod and Erez crossing, and an increase of the Jordanian assistance through Kerem Shalom crossing,” the statement said.

The announcement comes after an Israel official told CNN on Thursday that the security cabinet had approved the reopening of the Erez crossing and use of the port of Ashdod.

The Erez crossing, between Israel and northern Gaza, has been closed since the October 7 Hamas attack.

The White House on Thursday welcomed Israel’s decision to open the new entry points, saying the move came at the request of President Joe Biden following a call with Netanyahu.

The United Nations described the development as “positive news” but added it would “have to see how this is implemented.”

With previous reporting from CNN’s Jeremy Diamond, Nikki Carvajal and Caitlin Hu

From left, Benjamin Netanyahu and Joe Biden.

US President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a call Thursday that the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the deaths of aid workers due to Israeli strikes were “unacceptable.” Biden warned Israel to take steps to address the crisis or face consequences.

Hours after the call, Israel approved the reopening of the Erez crossing into Gaza, closed since the October 7 Hamas attacks, as well as the Port of Ashdod to allow more aid into the enclave, an Israeli official told CNN.

Speaker Mike Johnson is giving remarks in Washington DC, on March 21.

US House Speaker Mike Johnson criticized President Joe Biden following Biden’s warning to Israel to take steps to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza or face consequences.

“The president’s ultimatums should be going to Hamas, not Israel,” Johnson said in a post on X.

“Hamas resisted a ceasefire, brought about needless bloodshed, and refuses to release Israeli and American hostages. Biden should not undercut our ally amidst an existential threat by conditioning our support,” he continued.

U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden attend a reception in the East Room of the White House on March 18, in Washington, DC. 

When US President Joe Biden met with a group of Muslim community leaders this week, he recounted a recent conversation he had with First Lady Jill Biden relating to the conflict in Gaza, two participants have told CNN.

One of the attendees told the president that the decision to take part in the gathering had been a cause of concern for his wife, given the fierce backlash Joe Biden has drawn for his handling of the Israel-Hamas war, according to two people present at the meeting.

Those attendees tell CNN that Biden brought up his own wife and closest confidant.

“It’s got to stop,” he recounted the first lady had said to him recently, according to the recollection of Nahreen Ahmed, who was in the room.

Another participant, who declined to be named, told CNN they remembered the president saying that the first lady had used these words: “Stop it. Stop it now.”

While that attendee said they believed the suggestion was that the first lady was calling for the war to end, Ahmed said it was unclear to her whether the first lady’s comment was directed at the Israel-Hamas war at large, or the mounting civilian death toll in Gaza.

Asked about the president’s remarks, a White House official said there is “no daylight” between the couple on the issue, with both sharing outrage over civilian deaths. The official added that Jill Biden was not calling for Israel to end its efforts against Hamas.

The New York Times first reported on the president’s comments referencing the first lady.

Read more on this story here.

Palestinians stand next to a vehicle in Deir Al-Balah, in central Gaza, on Tuesday, April 2, where employees from the World Central Kitchenwere killed in an Israeli airstrike.

In his phone call with President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted to his US counterpart that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were to blame for the deaths of the seven World Central Kitchen aid workers this week – and assured Biden that his government planned to announce measures to prevent such a mistake from happening again, according to a senior administration official.  

Netanyahu told Biden on Thursday that Israel was set on improving the tracking of non-profit workers inside Gaza and the US president affirmed that such steps were necessary, according to the official. 

The White House has previously said that the two leaders did not go into details of the investigation into the incident that killed the workers, including a dual American-Canadian citizen, which has drawn wide condemnation and angered the White House.

In a half-hour call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Joe Biden did not lay out the specifics of how he would consider shifting US policy if Israel doesn’t make changes in its handling of the war in Gaza, according to a senior administration official.

He instead spoke in the same broad strokes reflected in the White House readout of the call that concrete changes needed to be made, according to the official. 

Netanyahu pledged during the call that Israel will soon announce new openings of humanitarian crossings, as well as procedural changes to limit civilian harm, according to the official. 

Hours later, an Israeli official told CNN that the security cabinet has approved the reopening of the Erez crossing between Israel and northern Gaza.

While there were moments of disagreement between Biden and Netanyahu on the call — typical among the two leaders who have known each other for decades — there was no “sparring,” the official said, describing the conversation as “direct.” There is no follow-up call currently planned between the two leaders, the official says.

Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Thursday that “everybody has failed” when it comes to securing the release of hostages held in Gaza, including their son Hersh Goldberg-Polin, and the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year-old American, was wounded and kidnapped by Hamas at an Israeli music festival.

“Our leaders, all of them, have failed to make this suffering on all sides stop,” Rachel Goldberg told CNN.

“We feel that we as parents have failed ‘cause, as a parent your job is to keep your children safe and, if they get into trouble, to save them,” she added.

It has been 181 days since Goldberg-Polin was kidnapped by Hamas. His parents wear a badge that is updated daily to represent the days since Hersh was taken into Gaza.

Jon Polin said he couldn’t help but feel that day 181 would become 281, 381, and even 581.

“We can’t allow that to happen, but world leaders don’t seem to have that sense of urgency,” Polin said.

Goldberg said she often feels she is not “living on the same planet as ‘normal’ people,” as she and her husband are constantly strategizing on how to best bring their son home.

A video of Goldberg-Polin being kidnapped, which his parents have seen, shows his left hand and part of his arm either blown or shot off.

When asked by Cooper if they had received any word about their son’s condition, Goldberg said there has been none, but there is an assumption, based on information from hostages who have been released, that Goldberg-Polin received medical treatment on October 7.

“The assumption is that he is alive,” Goldberg added.

Smoke rises from Gaza amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, March 17

Journalist Yuval Abraham produced an investigation by +972 Magazine into the Israeli military’s alleged use of artificial intelligence to help identify bombing targets in Gaza.

The AI-based tool called “Lavender” collects information on “almost everybody” in the Gaza Strip, Abraham said, adding that one source told him it’s nearly 90%. The machine is then meant to identify how probable the targeted individuals are connected to Hamas or Islamic Jihad military wings.

“This AI-based warfare, I think it’s completely dehumanizing. I think it allows militaries to bomb and maintain this aesthetics of international law, when in fact it’s not abiding by international law,” he said Thursday.

In the first few weeks of the war, his sources said they were not forced to apply “any thorough supervision over the results,” Abraham told CNN. “One source told me he would spend roughly 20 seconds before authorizing each target, and the only supervision he needed to do was check if the targets the machine marked was a male or a female.”

Abraham noted that the machine would sometimes mark individuals with either a loose connection to Hamas or none at all. The forces received “sweeping predetermined authorization” to kill between 15 and 20 Palestinian civilians per junior Hamas targets, he added. 

The Israel Defense Forces has repeatedly said it does not use AI for “designating persons as targets.” When asked about the +972 Magazine’s report, the IDF did not dispute the existence of the tool but denied AI was being used to identify suspected terrorists.

The Israeli military has temporarily suspended leave for its combat units, a day after announcing it would increase recruitment and call up air defense reserves.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Thursday that the decision to pause leave was made following a “situational assessment.”

“The IDF is at war and the deployment of forces is under continuous assessment according to requirements,” the Israeli military said in a statement. 

Some context: On Wednesday, the IDF said it would increase recruitment and call up reservists for its air defense.

It comes as Iran has vowed to retaliate after it accused Israel of bombing its embassy complex in Syria on Monday, in a deadly escalation of regional tensions over the war in Gaza that once again appeared to raise the risk of a wider Middle Eastern conflict.

A child walks past a pile of household refuse as he transports objects, in a street in Gaza on March 28.

Gaza municipality warned on Thursday that diseases are spreading due to waste pile-up and sewage overflow as a result of Israel’s bombardment.

In a statement on X, Gaza municipality called on local and international institutions “to help improve the health and environmental conditions in Gaza and enable the municipality to provide services that the aggression has caused near complete paralysis in.”

Health officials in Gaza have been warning of the increasing threat of infectious diseases, as access to food and medicine remains impeded.

Gaza’s public health crisis: The United Nations, international aid agencies and non-governmental organizations have also been sounding the alarm about the catastrophic impact of poor sanitation and the health care system collapse in Gaza. 

Last month, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that “catastrophic healthcare conditions are impeding the disease management of thousands of chronically ill patients in Gaza.”

Displaced Palestinians are collecting food donated by a charity before an iftar meal, the breaking of the fast, on the twelfth day of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, on March 22.

The plight of starving Palestinians in Gaza is worsening as Israel’s actions have deterred critical aid agencies and imposed severe constraints on essential humanitarian efforts in the enclave.

As famine looms and cases of death by starvation emerge, at least three aid providers are suspending operations in Gaza after Israeli airstrikes this week killed seven workers from World Central Kitchen (WCK), an aid group that was central to a much-touted new sea corridor from Cyprus. The killings, which included six foreign victims, caused an international uproar against Israel.

WCK and Anera, another aid group, have said they will pause operations in Gaza following the incident. The United Arab Emirates is reportedly also suspending operations.

Israel has taken responsibility for the killings, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying Tuesday that Israeli forces had “unintentionally struck innocent people in the Gaza Strip.” Imagery of three destroyed vehicles analyzed by CNN however showed that the first vehicle was 2.4 kilometers (about 1.49 miles) apart from the third, indicating that they were hit by separate strikes.

Read more about the impacts the strike could have on aid across the region here.