Devastation in Gaza as Israel wages war on Hamas

Our live coverage of Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza has moved here.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks in Washington, on April 3.

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.

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.

Stephane Dujarric attends press conference at UN Headquarters in New York on March 4.

The United Nations on Thursday welcomed news that Israel had agreed to reopen the Erez crossing into Gaza to allow more aid to enter the besieged enclave. 

The White House welcomed Israel’s decision to open new entry points for aid to enter Gaza on Thursday, saying the move came “at the president’s request following his call with Prime Minister Netanyahu.”

The White House also reiterated that US policy in Gaza could change based on Israel’s “immediate” actions.

Watson reiterated that US policy “will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these and other steps, including steps to protect innocent civilians and the safety of aid workers.”

“We are prepared to work in full coordination with the Government of Israel, the Governments of Jordan and Egypt, the United Nations, and humanitarian organizations, to ensure that these important steps are implemented and result in a significant increase in humanitarian assistance reaching civilians in dire need throughout Gaza over the coming days and weeks,” she wrote.

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 the northern Gaza Strip.

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.

The Israeli security cabinet on Thursday approved the reopening of the Erez crossing between Israel and the northern Gaza Strip for the first time since the October 7 Hamas attacks, an Israeli official told CNN.

The reopening is to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, the official said.

The cabinet also approved using the Israeli Port of Ashdod to help transfer more aid to the enclave. 

Land crossings into Gaza, through which the bulk of vital aid has traditionally entered the territory, remain heavily restricted by Israel. Aid agencies have accused Israel of throttling the entry of relief into the war-ravaged territory, though Israel has said it has “no limit” on the amount of relief that can enter.

Before the war started, Israel restricted all access to and from Gaza by sea and air, and kept land crossings under tight control. It had two functional crossings with the enclave: Erez, which was for the movement of people, and Kerem Shalom, for goods.

Gaza also has one crossing with Egypt, at Rafah, which is run by Egyptian authorities. While Israel has no direct control over this crossing, it monitors all activity in southern Gaza.

Reaction: The opening of the crossing would be “welcome news” and “certainly in keeping” with what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told President Joe Biden on Thursday, White House national security adviser John Kirby told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

Kirby said he hadn’t seen the new reporting, “but if it’s true that certainly in keeping with what we heard from the prime minister today in terms of announcements they would be making in coming hours and days about opening up crossings, making it more accessible for humanitarian aid organizations to get food, water, medicine, and fuel into the people of Gaza.”

This post has been updated with comments from John Kirby.

The photo was released by President Joe Biden on social media.

US President Joe Biden posted on social media about his call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday, including a picture of him on the call.  

Biden wrote on X that Israel, “must implement steps to address civilian harm and the safety of workers – and work toward a ceasefire to bring hostages home.”

The US military conducted an aid drop of more than 50,000 meal equivalents into northern Gaza on Thursday, US Central Command said in a post on X

Roughly 20 bundles landed in the sea near the shoreline, CENTCOM said, adding it did not assess any civilian harm or infrastructure damage as a result. 

“The joint operation included four C-130 US Air Force aircraft, and US Army soldiers specialized in aerial delivery of US humanitarian assistance supplies,” CENTCOM said. “The US C-130s dropped over 50, 680 US meal equivalents into Northern Gaza, an area of great need, allowing for civilian access to the critical aid.”

More: The United States has joined several other countries in airdropping aid into Gaza, which is grappling with a humanitarian crisis.

With aid deliveries on land falling far short of the numbers needed to ward off famine, it is hoped the airdrops will provide a lifeline to people in Gaza.

But the UN and aid agencies have questioned how effective they will be at alleviating the situation, and their risks have been stark as when civilians were killed during an airdrop.

US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a call Thursday that the overall humanitarian situation in Gaza and deaths of aid workers due to Israeli strikes are “unacceptable.”

Biden warned Israel to take steps to address the crisis or face consequences. It marked the first call between the two leaders since an Israeli airstrike killed seven aid workers with World Central Kitchen. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also warned Israel that if more is not done to protect civilians and humanitarian workers in Gaza, then the US could implement its own policy changes.

Here are the latest headlines:

Journalist Yuval Abraham is interviewed by CNN on Thursday, April .

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 it is that 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.

Video of the aftermath shot for CNN shows heavy destruction, with debris and rubble from destroyed buildings strewn along the road.

An Israeli airstrike hit a residential block in Al Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza on Thursday, killing at least two people and injuring 14 others, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital.

Video of the aftermath shot for CNN shows heavy destruction, with debris and rubble from destroyed buildings strewn along the road. At least one building has been entirely flattened, and four others have had their facades torn clean off. Smashed parts of the buildings, such as wooden doors and metal window frames have been ripped apart and can be seen strewn among the rubble.

Residents including dozens of children are shown in the footage sifting through the debris of the destroyed buildings. One Palestinian man can be heard questioning why Israeli forces struck the area, saying everyone who lived there were civilians, not militants. 

Inside one of the destroyed homes, blankets, clothes and toys are laid out in front of three children, two boys and one little girl who are looking for their belongings.

Israel’s response: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) provided CNN with a generic statement they have often used throughout the war in Gaza without directly addressing the reason for Thursday’s attack. “In response to Hamas’ barbaric attacks, the IDF is operating to dismantle Hamas military and administrative capabilities,” it said. “In stark contrast to Hamas’ intentional attacks on Israeli men, women and children, the IDF follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.”

Israeli army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari speaks to the press from The Kirya, which houses the Israeli Ministry of Defence, in Tel Aviv on October 18, 2023. 

The Israeli military proactively activated GPS jamming inside Israel on Thursday “to neutralize threats,” an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the disruption to GPS services had already helped “neutralize some of the threats,” but urged people to remain “vigilant and responsible.”

Israel entered a state of high alert on Thursday, braced for a potential retaliatory attack after its suspected killing of Iranian generals in Damascus earlier in the week.

The IDF signaled it had stiffened its military preparedness by temporarily suspending leave for its combat units. Israel said it would respond forcefully to any Iranian attack over the coming days.

The White House defended a recent transfer of more than 2,000 bombs to Israel despite US concerns over its conduct in the war in Gaza.

Kirby said that it’s important to remember that Israel still faces a lot of threats. “I mean, we’re all focused on Hamas, and I understand that, but they still face active threats throughout the region, including from Iran, and the United States still has an ironclad commitment to help Israel with its self-defense.”

He added that much of the recently reported sales were “not tied to this conflict.”

As CNN previously reported, the transfer authorization for the MK82 bombs and small-diameter bombs occurred before an Israeli strike on a humanitarian convoy in Gaza on Monday that killed seven employees of the aid organization World Central Kitchen, a State Department spokesperson said. 

But news of the approval comes as Israel is facing fresh international condemnation over the strike. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged on Tuesday that the aid workers had been “unintentionally” targeted.

Kirby’s defense came after a call between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu where the White House implied US policy toward Israel could change depending on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

 An Israeli airstrike targeting the Al-Janina neighborhood in Rafah killed a heavily pregnant woman and her two young daughters, according to the woman’s father, Akram Al-Khairi.

The family was sleeping when a missile fell on their home, Al-Kahiri told CNN. Here’s what he said happened:

There was a fourth person killed, who was a young man from the neighborhood, Al-Khairi added.

Video filmed by a CNN stringer on the ground shows the bodies at Abu Yousuf al-Najjar hospital, with members of the community standing around them. The father can be seen crying over the bodies of his wife and two young daughters, with a bandage covering his eye.

CNN has reached out to the IDF for comment.

Humanitarian aid organizations continue attempts to get aid to Gaza but acknowledge that they are often forced to suspend day-to-day missions because of the security situation.

Oxfam: “Every day we are forced to decide whether to suspend an operation or to proceed with an operation. And often, the decision is to suspend because we don’t have the proper security conditions in place. This is not an all-or-nothing proposition,” said Scott Paul, associate director for peace and security.

The question of staff safety has been paramount as many aid workers have been killed since the war began. But the Israeli airstrikes that killed seven World Central Kitchen staffers this week have heightened the focus on the dangers faced by the nonprofits.

Médicines Sans Frontièrs: President Isabelle Defourny said the organization is confronted by the fact that it’s reached its limit in the current circumstances. “The conditions today to deliver humanitarian assistance and to do something meaningful … they are not there,” she told CNN during a briefing on Thursday.

While MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, will never stop working in Gaza, Defourny said the capacity to help is a “continuous question and discussion.”

Save the Children: Karyn Beattie, who is currently in Gaza, said the situation is ever-evolving.

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken addresses the media during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, April 3.

If the United States does not see changes in Israel’s policies to protect civilians in Gaza, “there’ll be changes in our own policy,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday.

“This week’s horrific attack on the World Central Kitchen was not the first such incident. It must be the last,” Blinken said at a news conference in Brussels.

The secretary of state said he was “outraged” by the deaths of the seven WCK staffers. “I strongly condemn it.”

He also described the repeated push on the Israeli government to do more to mitigate civilian harm.

The post was updated with Blinken’s condemnation of the attack on WCK staffers.

US President Joe Biden called the deaths of humanitarian workers caused by Israeli strikes and the overall humanitarian situation in Gaza “unacceptable” during his phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, the White House said in a readout shortly after the conversation wrapped. 

“He made clear that US policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps,” the White House added.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the two leaders did not discuss Israel’s investigation into the strike in detail. Kirby said that Netanyahu expressed that “he would take appropriate actions to make sure something like that couldn’t happen again” once that investigation concluded.

Biden also “underscored that an immediate ceasefire is essential,” the readout said, adding that the president urgent Netanyahu to “empower his negotiators to conclude a deal without delay to bring the hostages home.”

The leaders also discussed Iran’s threats against Israel and Biden assured US support for Israel in the face of those threats, according to the White House.

This post has been updated with comments from John Kirby.

At least four Palestinians, including one paramedic, were killed after Israeli artillery fire targeted an area near a school sheltering displaced civilians in the northeastern Gaza city of Beit Hanoun on Thursday, according to Kamal Adwan Hospital paramedics.

An ambulance driver for the hospital, Abdallah Hemaid, told CNN that some civilians were scavenging in a field for plants or vegetation they could eat when Israeli artillery fire targeted the area. Hemaid said when the initial attack took place, nearby civilians rushed over to try to help the injured. But then another round of artillery fire killed three people and injured several children, all from the same family, he said.

Two ambulances with four paramedics from the Kamal Adwan Hospital headed to the area when a third round of artillery fire erupted, killing one of the paramedics and critically injuring three others, he added.

Graphic video obtained by CNN showed the critically injured paramedics arriving at the hospital, blood splattered on their faces and body. Dead bodies can also be seen wrapped in white cloth on the floor, with civilians and paramedics hovering around them crying.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has concluded its initial investigation into the deadly strikes on the World Central Kitchen (WCK) convoy, an Israeli official told CNN.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were set to be briefed on the findings on Thursday, the official added.

The IDF said that it’s planning to publish the details of the preliminary investigation imminently.

US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A call between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has concluded, a US official said. 

It marked their first conversation since the deadly Israeli airstrike that killed seven aid workers with World Central Kitchen in Gaza.

More about the call: The call was arranged after the deaths of the aid workers, per a source familiar. CNN reported Wednesday that in the aftermath of those deaths, Biden was “angry” and “increasingly frustrated” – and fully prepared to make all of that known to Netanyahu in their conversation, according to a senior administration official.

White House officials have emphasized in the wake of the aid workers’ deaths that the US’ stance in supporting Israel’s current military operation remains unchanged.

There has simply been no “shift in policy,” the senior administration official said. “What there has been is a shift in the president’s frustrations.”

Biden is also expected to discuss with Netanyahu a number of other issues in addition to the need to better protect humanitarian aid workers in Gaza.

Najdat Mohammed Saqer, left, treats a patient inside the tent clinic inside a tent in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, in the northern Nuseirat refugee camp.

Najdat Mohammed Saqer greets his patient with a warm smile. Palestinian flags decorate his makeshift clinic inside a tent in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, which is held down by cement blocks and neatly laden with medical equipment.

The Gazan health worker told CNN he was forced to shut down his dental center in Nuseirat refugee camp, after Israel’s bombardment damaged the area in northern Gaza and forced locals to flee.

Saqer, a Palestinian dentist, opened his makeshift clinic, which is improvised with wooden poles and plastic sheeting, after Israel’s bombardment damaged his clinic.

Saqer returned to the site of his old clinic to gather whatever was left of his equipment. These days, he provides dental services to displaced Palestinians for patients in the backyard of his home in central Gaza. Israel’s siege has drastically diminished water and electricity supplies. Saqer must rely on limited solar energy.

“We were born on a struggling land, and we will never surrender. We will rebuild it, in God’s will.”

The parents of dual American-Canadian citizen and World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid worker Jacob Flickinger told “CBS Mornings” that after receiving a call earlier this week from the embassy they have not heard from the United States or Canadian governments about the circumstances around his death.

His mother, Sylvie Labrecque, is Canadian and his father, John Flickinger, is American.

“We haven’t been told anything by the United States government or the Canadian government. All we know is what we’ve read and seen on the media,” said John Flickinger, Jacob’s father.

He added later: “Someone from the embassy in Jerusalem called the day that Jacob was killed. I haven’t heard from anyone since.” 

“He was hesitant to go. He’s a new father,” Flickinger said. “But he felt the need.”

The US State Department said Wednesday that they have reached out to Jacob Flickinger’s family to offer condolences and assistance.  

The Israeli military struck targets in southern Lebanon on Thursday following “several” cross-border attacks from Hezbollah, the Israel Defense Forces said.

In a statement, Hezbollah said they struck the headquarters of the IDF’s Liman Battalion with artillery shells at 1:45 p.m. local time (6.45 a.m. ET) on Thursday.

US Sen. Chris Coons speaks in Bear, Delaware, on November 6, 2023.

Democratic US Sen. Chris Coons, a close ally of President Joe Biden, told CNN Thursday that for the first time he is open to applying conditions to aid for Israel, after an Israeli military strike killed seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen in Gaza earlier this week.

Coons, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, noted, “I’ve never said that before. I’ve never been here before.” He noted that the US needs to make clear to the people of Israel “that we want to and will continue to have a strong and close relationship with Israel,” but Netanyahu’s tactics do not reflect “the best values of Israel or the United States.”

Coons’ comments come as Biden is expected to speak to Netanyahu Thursday and express his frustration over the death of the aid workers.

Some pregnant women in Gaza are discharged one or two hours after delivering their babies and essentially as soon as they can walk after a C-section, said Dr. Amber Alayyan with Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF).

In a briefing Thursday, MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, highlighted the destruction of the women’s health care system in Gaza since Israel started bombarding the strip.

There’s only one hospital available for women to give birth, compared to the many hospitals that were available to them before the war began, said Alayyan, the group’s deputy program manager for the Middle East whose team coordinates activities in Gaza.

Malnutrition and lack of access to clean water are exacerbating the conditions for these vulnerable women and children, Alayyan added, explaining that many women are not nourished enough to produce breast milk, which puts their babies at risk of malnutrition, too.

Formula is also in short supply. “In order to use formula you need to have clean water, and none of these things are possible in Gaza right now,” Alayyan said.

People inspect the damaged vehicle carrying aid workers after Israeli attack in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on April 2.

The findings of an Israeli investigation into the deadly strike on seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers are expected “in the coming weeks,” according to the Israeli government.

The Israeli military on Tuesday said it was investigating the attack on the WCK aid workers “at the highest levels.” The military has apologized, saying it was a “mistake.”

WCK has called for “an independent, third-party investigation” of the strikes and asked the governments of the killed workers to join them in demanding the probe.

The seven aid workers were from Australia, Canada, the US, Poland, the UK and Gaza.

An Israeli military spokesperson on Thursday addressed concerns among the country’s citizens after Iran accused Israel of bombing its embassy complex in Syria and vowed to retaliate. 

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

A 28-year-old Palestinian man was killed and a 13-year-old girl was injured in an Israeli military incursion in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, on Thursday, according to Palestinian officials. 

The Israeli military claimed the man killed by the Israeli border guard was a “wanted person” who tried to flee arrest. The Palestinian man, Asa’ad Issam Qaniri, was shot and killed by Israeli special forces who raided a neighborhood in the area early Thursday morning, according to Izz Eddeine Bikawi, the head of Ya’bad Municipality ambulance service, just west of Jenin. Bikawi said after the Israeli military withdrew just after 7 a.m. local time in Jenin on Thursday, the ambulance services reached Qaniri and found eight bullets in his chest and abdomen.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that it held a “divisional operation to counter terrorism in Jenin,” killing a “wanted person,” arresting two other people and confiscating weapons in the area. The IDF said its forces arrested “20 wanted people” throughout the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, noting that approximately 3,700 others have been arrested since the beginning of the war in Gaza. 

Videos obtained by CNN show a heavy military presence in the city, with several military vehicles and armored bulldozers ripping up the streets Wednesday into Thursday morning.  An exchange of gunfire between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants can be heard and what appears to be an explosive device going off near a military bulldozer. 

The head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society services in Jenin, Mahmoud Sa’adi, told CNN the Israeli military destroyed and plowed many streets with bulldozers, “rendering them inoperable.”  

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

Israel owes compensation to the family of a Polish World Central Kitchen aid worker killed in an IDF strike in Gaza Monday, Poland’s President Andrzej Duda has said.

Damian Soból aged 35, from the town of Przemysl in southeastern Poland, was one of seven aid workers killed in the attack.

In addition, Duda accused the Israeli ambassador to Poland, Yacov Livne, of making “outrageous” statements, saying that while “authorities in Israel speak about this tragedy in a very subdued and sensitive manner,” their ambassador “is unable to maintain such delicacy and this is unacceptable.”

In a post on social media platform X on Tuesday, Livne claimed “anti-Semites will always remain anti-Semites,” after writing that Poland’s “extreme right and left” were accusing Israel of intentional murder. Livne also expressed “deep regret, sorrow and condolences over the tragic loss of life” in a separate social media post.

The Biden administration recently authorized the transfer of more than 1,000 500-pound bombs to Israel and over 1,000 small-diameter bombs, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The move boosts Israel’s arsenal despite US concerns over the country’s conduct in the war in Gaza. 

The authorization to transfer the 500-pound MK82 bombs and small-diameter bombs occurred before an Israeli strike on a humanitarian convoy in Gaza on Monday that killed seven World Central Kitchen employees, a State Department spokesperson said. 

But news of the approval comes as Israel is facing fresh international condemnation over the strike. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged on Tuesday that the aid workers had been “unintentionally” targeted.

More context: Last week, the US authorized the transfer of similar weaponry, including nearly 2,000 2,000-pound bombs known as the MK84, people familiar with the matter said. CNN has previously linked the MK84 bombs to mass casualty events in Gaza, including Israeli strikes on refugee camps there last year. 

None of these transfers had to be newly notified to or approved by Congress, since they were already greenlit by lawmakers in 2012 and 2015, according to arms sales notifications by the Pentagon available on the Federal Register. The contracts are just now being fulfilled because the munitions had to be produced, which can take several years. 

US President Joe Biden (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

US President Joe Biden’s call Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not previously scheduled — it was arranged after the deaths of the seven World Central Kitchen aid workers Monday, per a source familiar.

CNN reported Wednesday that in the aftermath of those deaths, Biden was “angry” and “increasingly frustrated” – and fully prepared to make all of that known to Netanyahu in their conversation, according to a senior administration official.

“He will express those frustrations,” they said.

White House officials have emphasized in the wake of the aid workers’ deaths that the US’ stance in supporting Israel’s current military operation remains unchanged.

There has simply been no “shift in policy,” the senior administration official said. “What there has been is a shift in the president’s frustrations.”

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 (UAE) 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.

A Palestinian inspects near a vehicle where employees from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, on April 2.

Celebrity chef Jose Andres, who founded the food aid charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) has accused Israel of targeting his aid workers “systematically, car by car” during the strikes that left seven dead on Monday, as mounting international fury over the attack further strains Western support for Israel’s war in Gaza.

WCK said its team was traveling in a “deconflicted zone” in two armored cars and one unarmored vehicle, after dropping off more than 100 tons of food supplies at a warehouse in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, when the attack occurred. 

This was not a “bad luck situation where, ‘oops,’ we dropped the bomb in the wrong place,” Andres told Reuters.

WCK urged the governments of those killed to press for an inquiry, and said they have asked the Israeli government “to immediately preserve all documents, communications, video and/or audio recordings, and any other materials potentially relevant” to the strikes in order to “ensure the integrity” of an investigation.

Read more about the WCK’s calls for an independent inquiry here.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is seen during a visit to an engineering firm on March 25, in Barrow-in-Furness, UK.

The UK’s three major opposition parties, the Labour Party, Liberal Democrats and Scottish National Party (SNP) are calling on British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to justify its arms trading with Israel following an IDF military strike which killed seven aid workers Monday.

SNP leader and Scottish First Minister, Humza Yousaf who is the head of the devolved Scottish government wrote to Sunak personally to “demand an immediate end to arms sales to Israel from the United Kingdom.” 

In the letter dated April 3, Yousaf criticized Sunak’s failure to address the arms issue following the aid worker killings particularly as Israel he said shows no sign of “paying heed to the International Court of Justice’s ruling or the recent United Nations Security Council Resolution.” 

A call also came from Liberal Democrat party leader, Ed Davey who said his party has consistently “called for far tougher control of arms exports.” Finally, Sunak’s main opposition, the Labour Party has said arms sales must be suspended if UK government lawyers find Israel’s actions in Gaza to be in breach of international law. 

Last week, British newspaper, The Observer said it had obtained an audio recording of Conservative MP and Foreign Affairs Committee chair, Alicia Kearns, saying UK government lawyers have advised the government that Israel has breached international humanitarian law in Gaza. 

More than 600 lawyers, legal academics and former members of the British judiciary have written to Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, warning him that the UK Government is falling “significantly short” of its obligations under international law over continued Israel arms exports.

The letter, sent to the prime minister on Wednesday evening, says that “serious action” is needed to “avoid UK complicity in grave breaches of international law, including potential violations of the Genocide convention.”

The 17-page letter, signed by some of the UK’s most senior lawyers, including three former supreme court justices, puts increasing pressure on Sunak to take action following the death of three British citizens who were killed by an Israeli air strike on Monday.

Sunak told the Sun newspaper on Wednesday that the government keeps a “careful” review over arms licensing.

The UK government has assessed defense exports to Israel as “relatively small” — at £42 million ($53 million) — a fraction of US exports.

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 healthcare 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.”

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.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has criticized Israel’s explanation for the killing of seven international aid workers in Gaza as “not good enough.”

One Australian, Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom, was among those killed in the strike Monday.

On Tuesday, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged the Israel Defense Forces airstrike on three cars carrying humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen (WCK), saying: “This happens in war.”

Albanese appeared to reference that remark at a news conference Thursday.

Albanese said he spoke with Netanyahu on Wednesday morning, and was told Israel is “committed to a full and proper investigation.”

“I want that to be transparent, and I want those findings to be made public so that we find out how exactly this can occur,” Albanese told reporters Thursday.

The IDF has said the incident is being investigated, that the strike was a “grave mistake” and that it did not intend to harm the aid workers.

The chief of staff of the Israeli military, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, apologized for the strike and described it as “a mistake that followed a misidentification.” 

The victims: According to her LinkedIn page, Frankcom had worked with WCK since 2019, most recently as a senior manager of its operations in Asia.

A dual US-Canada national, a Palestinian, three Brits, and a Pole were also killed by the IDF strike.

Read about the victims here:

A person looks at a vehicle where employees from the World Central Kitchen were killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza, on April 2.

Non-profit organization World Central Kitchen (WCK) is calling for an independent, third-party investigation of the Israeli strikes that killed seven of its employees in Gaza this week.

The aid workers killed in the attack on Monday were from Australia, Canada, the US, Poland, the UK and Gaza.

WCK said it has asked the Israeli government “to immediately preserve all documents, communications, video and/or audio recordings, and any other materials potentially relevant” to the strikes in order to “ensure the integrity of the investigation.”

The organization’s founder, José Andrés, has accused Israel of “systematically” targeting the seven aid workers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces “unintentionally struck innocent people,” and the Israeli military’s Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said the strike was a “grave mistake.”

The Israeli military has been using artificial intelligence to help identify bombing targets in Gaza, according to an investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call.

The investigation by the online publication, jointly run by Palestinians and Israelis, cited six Israeli intelligence officials involved in the alleged program – who also allege that human review of the suggested targets was cursory at best.

The officials said the AI-based tool was called “Lavender” and was known to have a 10% error rate.

When asked about +972 Magazine’s report, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) did not dispute the existence of the tool but denied AI was being used to identify suspected terrorists.

It added that analysts independently examine whether targets “meet the relevant definitions in accordance with international law and additional restrictions stipulated in the IDF directives.”

However, one official told +972 “that human personnel often served only as a ‘rubber stamp’ for the machine’s decisions” and typically devoted only around 20 seconds to each target – ensuring they are male – before authorizing a bombing.

Read more about the investigation here:

World Central Kitchen has yet to decide when it will resume its humanitarian operations in Gaza after seven workers were killed Monday night in an Israel airstrike.

WCK founder José Andrés accused Israel of systematically targeting the aid convoy. 

A United Nations aid agency is also suspending its movements at night for at least 48 hours, spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said after the attack that, according to a CNN analysis, appeared to have consisted of multiple precision strikes.

Meanwhile US President Joe Biden, who expressed outrage over the strike, will speak to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, according to a US official.

Here’s the other news from the region:

President Joe Biden’s scheduled call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday will not simply test the leaders’ increasingly sour relationship.

It will also highlight a glaring contradiction in US policy toward the war in Gaza, a conflict that potentially poses an existential threat to both leaders’ political careers.

While Biden is expressing growing frustration about the Israeli leader’s conduct of the military onslaught and its impact on civilians – including the killing of seven aid workers in Gaza this week – the fundamentals of staunch US support for Israel are not shifting.

And at the same time as the White House is demanding changes to Israeli procedures to shield civilians, warning a planned assault on Rafah could cause a humanitarian disaster, the administration is moving toward approving a sale of F-15 warplanes worth $18 billion to Israel, sources told CNN this week.

The Biden-Netanyahu call will also come amid renewed fears in Washington that Israel’s actions could spark the regional conflagration that Biden has been desperate to avoid. A strike on senior Iranian officers in Syria on Monday, which the US attributes to Israel, has drawn vows of retaliation, which could again put US troops in the region at risk.

Building pressure: The conversation will take place with both leaders under enormous domestic pressure and amid signs their political priorities are irreconcilable. Biden badly needs the war to end to ease anger among progressives that is threatening his weakened political coalition ahead of November’s election. But Netanyahu may need to prolong it to stave off elections many US leaders believe he would lose.

It’s not impossible that the crisis could end up driving both of them out of office.

Read the full analysis here.

US forces destroyed Houthi weapons launched from Yemen toward a warship in the Red Sea on Wednesday, according to US Central Command (CENTCOM).

The USS Gravely, a guided missile destroyer, along with CENTCOM forces destroyed an anti-ship ballistic missile and two drones launched by Houthis.

There were no injuries or damage to the ship, CENTCOM said.

Around the same time, US forces “destroyed a mobile surface-to-air missile system in Houthi controlled territory,” CENTCOM said.

Some context: Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been striking ships in the Red Sea since late last year, which they say is revenge against Israel for its military campaign in Gaza.

Most of these missile and drone attacks have been intercepted by US or coalition destroyers or landed harmlessly in the water.

The United States and Britain have conducted multiple rounds of airstrikes on Houthi positions in Yemen in recent months, but that has not stopped the attacks. The rebel group has continued to fortify its weapons stockpile in Yemen, CNN previously reported.

People gather as an excavator clears rubble after a suspected Israeli airstrike on Iran's consulate in the Syrian capital of Damascus on April 2.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday warned Israel that it will regret carrying out a deadly strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on Monday.

Iran has vowed to retaliate after it accused Israel of bombing its embassy complex in Syria’s capital, in a deadly escalation of regional tensions over the war in Gaza that once again appeared to raise the risk of a wider Middle East conflict.

The airstrike destroyed the consulate building in the Syrian capital, killing 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, according to Iran’s foreign ministry.

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 Palestinian man rides a bicycle past a damaged vehicle where employees from the World Central Kitchen were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza, on April 2.

A deadly Israeli attack that killed seven aid workers from the nonprofit World Central Kitchen in Gaza on Monday appears to have consisted of multiple precision strikes, a CNN analysis of aftermath videos and images found.

WCK said in a statement Tuesday that its team was traveling in a “deconflicted zone” in two armored cars and one unarmored vehicle, after dropping off more than 100 tons of food supplies at a warehouse in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, when the attack occurred. The charity said it had coordinated the convoy’s movements with the Israeli military.

CNN geolocated video and imagery of all three destroyed vehicles, at least one of which was clearly marked with a WCK logo on its roof, to two positions on the strip’s Al Rashid coastal road, and a third location on an off-road area of open ground nearby. The first location is around 2.4 kilometers (about 1.5 miles) from the third, indicating that the three vehicles were hit by separate strikes.

The first vehicle, which appeared to have suffered the least damage, was geolocated on Al Rashid street just outside Deir al-Balah. The second car, which was clearly fire damaged with a hole through its WCK-marked roof, was located around 800 meters down the same road. CNN geolocated the third car, which seems to be the “soft skin” or unarmored vehicle referenced in WCK’s statement and appeared to be the most heavily damaged, to an open field 1.6 kilometers from the second car.

Read more about the World Central Kitchen convoy attack.