Israeli bombings targeted the Gaza Strip on Tuesday April 16, in particular the town of Khan Younes, in the south, where fifteen people, including children, were killed, according to the enclave’s health ministry. , controlled by Hamas. According to the latter, 46 deaths were recorded in twenty-four hours.
The ministry also announced a new toll of 33,843 people killed, and 76,575 injured, in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7, 2023.
The Israeli army withdrew from Khan Younes at the beginning of April after several months of fighting. The UN announced that the presence of unexploded ordnance in the ruins, “including 500 kilo bombs in schools and on roads”, complicated the assessment of the damage, after an on-site inspection mission.
Israel is “obstructing” access to victims of the Hamas attack on October 7, UN investigators have denounced, pointing to the “lack of cooperation” from Israeli authorities.
“I deplore the fact that people in Israel who wish to speak to us are being denied this opportunity, because we cannot enter Israel,” said Navi Pillay, the chair of the UN investigation into human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.
The commission, set up in 2021 by the UN Human Rights Council, took stock of the progress of its work before diplomats in Geneva, during a meeting organized by Egypt.
Ms. Pillay, former high commissioner for human rights, former president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and former judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC), explained that the commission she chairs was examining “the crimes” committed during the October 7 attack, as well as those committed since then by Israeli forces in Gaza and the West Bank. The commission will present its findings in June, she said.
After a meeting with Cindy McCain, the executive director of the World Food Program (WFP), Stéphane Séjourné, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, announced, on to the civilian population of the Gaza Strip, facing food insecurity”.
Five hundred and fifty-three humanitarian aid trucks have entered the Gaza Strip “over the past two days” after “thorough security checks,” the Israeli army announced; this number is considered insufficient by the UN.
The Israeli army, “in connection” with Cogat, the Israeli body responsible for Palestinian civil affairs, “continues its efforts to allow the passage of hundreds of trucks of food and humanitarian aid to the inhabitants of Gaza every day,” said the army added in a statement, saying 126 trucks had reached northern Gaza on Monday evening. Fifty-six shipments of food aid were also parachuted into the Palestinian enclave, the army said.
“There has been no significant change in the volume of humanitarian aid entering Gaza, nor better access to the north” of Gaza, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said in a statement. communicated.
Since the start of April, an average of 181 aid trucks have entered Gaza each day through the Rafah and Kerem Shalom access points, according to UNRWA, which estimates that this figure is “well below of the operational capacity of the two border crossings and the objective of 500 trucks per day.
The UN will launch, on Wednesday, an appeal for donations of 2.8 billion dollars (2.6 billion euros) to help the Palestinian population in Gaza and the West Bank in 2024, announced the head of the UN humanitarian office united in the Palestinian territories.
“Tomorrow we are publishing the call for donations until the end of the year. Together with the humanitarian community, we are calling for $2.8 billion to help 3 million people identified in the West Bank and Gaza,” said Andrea De Domenico, during a video press conference.
“Obviously 90% is for Gaza,” he clarified, noting that initially the humanitarian plan for 2024 had been estimated at 4 billion dollars but reduced to 2.8 billion given the limits on access for humanitarian aid.
UNRWA said it found unexploded 450-kilo bombs in schools after Israeli troops withdrew from the town of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip during an “assessment mission”. .
They encountered “significant obstacles to operating safely due to the presence of munitions and unexploded ordnance, including 450 kg bombs inside schools and on the roads,” she said.
The UN said earlier in April that it would take “millions of dollars and several years to decontaminate the Gaza Strip of unexploded ordnance.”
The Israeli pavilion at the 60th Venice Art Biennale will remain closed out of “solidarity” until the release of hostages from Hamas and the conclusion of a ceasefire in Gaza, the exhibiting artist and conservatives.
“The artist and curators’ decision is not intended to censor themselves or the exhibition; rather, they choose to take a stand in solidarity with the families of the hostages and the greater Israeli community who are calling for change,” they explain.
Called “(M)otherland” (“motherland” and “other land”, in French), the exhibition highlights the work of director Ruth Patir on her relationship to her country of origin through an installation video. “We became news, not art,” the artist and director explained on Instagram.
“I strongly oppose the cultural boycott, but since I believe there is no right answer and I can only do what I can with the space I have, I prefer to add my voice to those who are shouting: ‘Immediate ceasefire, bring back the hostages, we can’t take it anymore,'” she added.
The Israeli army confirmed that it killed a Hezbollah commander in a strike carried out in southern Lebanon, where confrontation has intensified since October 7, 2023 between the pro-Iranian Lebanese movement and Israel.
An Israeli army plane “struck and eliminated Ismail Youssef Baz, the commander of the coastal sector of Hezbollah,” in the Ain Baal region, according to an army statement, which adds that this cadre of the Lebanese movement “ participated in the promotion and planning of the firing of rockets and anti-tank missiles towards Israel from the coastal area of ??Lebanon”.
