live blog
Unlike Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israel’s Defense Minister Gallant said there was no date yet for a Rafah offensive. US President Biden said Netanyahu was making a mistake with the war. All developments in the live blog.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong has considered recognizing a Palestinian state – and received criticism for it. In a speech on Tuesday evening, she said recognizing Palestine may be the only way to end violence in the Middle East and pave the way for a true two-state solution.
After criticism from the opposition, among others, she now emphasized that she did not want to change Australia’s political position, but rather just initiate a discussion. It’s about achieving long-term peace in the region. Hamas extremists should have no place in a Palestinian state. Both the ruling Labor Party and the conservative opposition are fundamentally aiming for a two-state solution, with a separate state for the Palestinians. However, an opposition spokesman accused the Foreign Minister of saying that Hamas would be literally rewarded for its attack on Israel if they now urgently recognized a Palestinian state.
Wong at a press conference in March. The Foreign Minister also called on both sides for an immediate ceasefire. Israel asked them not to launch a new ground offensive in the city of Rafah.
Israel, for its part, has threatened Iran with an attack if the country carries out its threats and attacks Israeli targets. “If Iran attacks from its own territory, Israel will respond and attack inside Iran,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Platform X in both Hebrew and Persian.
Iran is again threatening Israel with retaliation for the attack on the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus attributed to it. “The evil regime has made a mistake and must be punished, and it will be,” Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a speech marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
On April 1, the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital was attacked from the air. According to Iranian sources, seven people were killed, including senior officers of the Revolutionary Guard, Iran’s elite unit. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack. However, the Israeli leadership has generally stated that it is taking action against Iran, which supports the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon and the radical Palestinian organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip. At the weekend, Israel’s Defense Minister Joav Gallant said his country was prepared for any developments in dealing with Iran.
According to a clinic, at least eleven people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a house in the center of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday evening (local time). The main hospital in Deir al-Balah said there were five children and two women. The attack occurred in the nearby town of Zawaida. Video footage from the AP news agency showed a man holding the lifeless body of a little girl in his arms after the attack and placing her on the floor in the hospital next to the bodies of other children.
Ireland has spoken out in favor of a two-state solution and will soon formally recognize Palestine as a state. Irish Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Micheál Martin said this in Dublin, according to media reports. Delaying recognition is “no longer credible or tenable.”
Ireland has been one of the critics of Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war. A two-state solution means an independent Palestinian state that exists peacefully side by side with Israel.
US President Joe Biden has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of making a mistake with the war in Gaza. “I think what he’s doing is a mistake. I don’t agree with his actions,” Biden said in an interview with the American-Spanish broadcaster Univision. Biden again called on Israel to agree to a ceasefire. Over the next six or eight weeks, Israel should agree to any deliveries of food and medical supplies.
The US military says it has destroyed a drone shot down by the Houthi rebels in the Gulf of Aden. The target was probably the ship “Yorktown”, said the US Central Command on X. There were no injuries or damage.
The Israeli military says it has again attacked positions of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia in Syria. According to the army, the military infrastructure of the militia was attacked, which, according to intelligence findings, was used “on the Syrian front”. “The Syrian regime is held responsible for all activities that take place on its territory,” it said.
The information could not be independently verified. Israel’s air force repeatedly bombs targets in neighboring Syria in an attempt to prevent Iran and its allied militias such as the Lebanese Hezbollah from expanding their military influence in the country.
Israel said it let 468 trucks carrying aid supplies into the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. This is the highest number since the start of the war. On Monday there were 419 trucks. However, according to the Red Cross and the United Nations, there were far fewer. Due to Israeli regulations, many vehicles are only half loaded, the UN said. Israel is under pressure to allow more supplies into the Gaza Strip.
The head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power, told a US Senate committee that the higher level of aid transports must be maintained and further increased: “We are experiencing a fundamental change, and we hope that it will continues and is being expanded.”
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by the Palestinian and Israeli conflict parties cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
According to media reports, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has told his US counterpart Lloyd Austin that there is still no date for a ground offensive against the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. Gallant contradicted the statement of his Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli newspapers Haaretz, Times of Israel and the news portal Axios all reported, citing informed sources.
Netanyahu publicly stated on Monday that the date for the planned offensive in the city of Rafah on the border with Egypt, which is currently overcrowded with hundreds of thousands of refugees, had been set. Gallant reportedly said in a phone call with Austin that Israel was still finalizing plans for the evacuation of civilians there.
The US government wants to prevent Israel from carrying out a major military operation in Rafah. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expects Israel to remain silent on the issue for the time being. A meeting with an Israeli delegation is planned for next week to discuss the US side’s concerns about such an operation, Blinken said in Washington. “I do not assume that any measures will be taken before these talks,” he emphasized. It is still the belief that a major operation in Rafah would be extremely dangerous for civilians. The Israeli side has not given the US government a date for a Rafah offensive, Blinken said.
Israel’s army says it has killed another commander of the terrorist organization Hamas. The USA wants to help a compromise succeed in the ceasefire negotiations.