April 2, 2024 - Israel-Hamas war

A Palestinian-American doctor walked out of a meeting with US President Joe Biden before it was over Tuesday evening, underscoring the high tensions, anger and concern from Arab, Palestinian and Muslim-American communities around the Israel-Hamas war. 

Dr. Thaer Ahmad, an emergency physician from Chicago who traveled to Gaza earlier this year, told CNN he abruptly left the meeting that included Vice President Kamala Harris, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, other administration officials and a small group of Muslim community leaders.  

Following the meeting, a White House official said in a statement that the president and vice president "know this is a deeply painful moment for many in the Muslim and Arab communities.”

Biden, the official said, expressed commitment “to continue working to secure an immediate ceasefire as part of a deal to free the hostages and significantly increase humanitarian aid into Gaza.”

Ahmad traveled to Gaza as part of a delegation of doctors from the NGO MedGlobal, working in the city of Khan Younis as fighting raged around the Al Nasser hospital. He discussed his experience there, citing massive numbers of displaced, injured and dying people, and he spoke out against an expected Israeli offensive in Rafah.

Before he left, he handed Biden a letter from an 8-year-old orphaned girl, Hadeel, who lives in Rafah.  

“I beg you, President Biden, stop them from entering Rafah,” a translation of the letter shared with CNN says. Hadeel is referring to Israel's declared plan to enter the southern Gaza city, which the US has said Israel should not do without a comprehensive plan to protect civilian lives.

Biden told him he understood that he needed to leave, Ahmad said. 

CNN previously reported that what was supposed to be an iftar dinner to break the Ramadan fast was changed to a meeting because participants didn’t feel comfortable having a celebratory meal while hundreds of thousands in Gaza are on the brink of famine.

The post was updated with comments from a White House official. 

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had a “reasonably long” phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu early Wednesday.

It’s the first time the leaders had spoken since seven aid workers, including one Australian national, were killed in an Israel Defense Forces strike on Tuesday.

The IDF said the strike was a "mistake that followed a misidentification," did not intend to harm the aid workers and was a "grave mistake."

Albanese said Netanyahu expressed his condolences for the death of Australian citizen Zomi Frankcom and “committed to full transparency” over Israel’s investigation into the incident.

Separately, he said Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong has spoken to her Israeli counterpart and expressed that Australians were “outraged” about the incident.

In a statement Tuesday, Wong said the “death of any aid worker is outrageous and unacceptable.” 

The government calls for a “thorough and expeditious review,” she said.

American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) workers inside Gaza fear they will be targeted following the deadly Israeli strike on World Central Kitchen workers on Monday, according to Palestine Country Director Sandra Rasheed.

Based on images, she said she believes the convoy was a targeted attack by Israel. 

“If you look at the images and you look at what happened on the ground, the vehicles were hit three different times. Very direct, targeted hits. It’s clear that this was a targeted attack. If it wasn’t going to be targeted, I don’t think it would’ve been hit three times,” she said.

ANERA joined WCK in suspending its operations in Gaza after the aid workers were killed Monday. Rasheed said the groups worked together daily, providing over a million meals a week inside Gaza, without which there would be a “deep impact” on Palestinian civilians.

“The humanitarian conditions on the ground are going to be even more difficult,” she warned.

Israel's response: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israeli forces “unintentionally struck innocent people in the Gaza Strip,” and that the incident is being "thoroughly" investigated. 

The Israel Defense Force's chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said in a video statement Tuesday that the strike was “a mistake that followed a misidentification” and that the strike was not carried out to harm the aid workers.

The Israeli military's top general apologized for an Israeli strike on a World Central Kitchen convoy that killed seven aid workers, calling it “a mistake that followed a misidentification.”

Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said in a video statement Tuesday that the military completed a preliminary debrief and determined it did not intend to kill the aid workers.

He called the strike "a grave mistake," and vowed that the Israel Defense Forces "will continue taking immediate actions to ensure that more is done to protect humanitarian aid workers.

"This incident was a grave mistake. Israel is at war with Hamas, not with the people of Gaza," Halevi added.

The United States conducted another airdrop of food into Northern Gaza on Tuesday, US Central Command said.

Remember: Human rights groups have repeatedly criticized airdrops as an inefficient and degrading way of getting aid to Gazans, instead urging Israeli authorities to lift controls on land crossings into the enclave.

Just last week at least 12 Palestinians drowned off the northern Gaza coast near Beit Lahia on Monday while trying to reach airdropped parcels that had landed in the sea, according to local paramedics. And last month, at least five people were killed and 10 others injured when airdropped aid packages fell on them in Al Shati camp west of Gaza City, according to a journalist on the scene.

The Palestinian Authority sent the UN secretary-general a letter renewing its request for UN membership, according to a post on social media from the Palestinian permanent observer mission to the UN on Tuesday.

The post included a letter, signed by UN Ambassador of the Palestinian Territories Riyad Mansour, which referenced the initial September 2011 application for membership status and requested renewed consideration this month.

Remember: In September 2011, the Palestinian Authority failed to win UN recognition as an independent member state. A year later, the UN decided that the Palestinian Authority's "non-member observer entity" status would be changed to "non-member observer state," similar to the Vatican.

A friend of one of the aid workers with World Central Kitchen who was killed in Gaza on Monday was remembered Tuesday as someone who met people with a smile when they were experiencing the darkest time of their lives.

"She met them with a smile, she met them with humanity, and the world is a darker place without somebody like that today," Bryan Weaver, a friend of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom, told CNN's Jake Tapper.

Weaver said Frankcom saw the children she fed as part of her family.

The White House has shifted plans for President Joe Biden to host iftar — a dinner to break the Ramadan fast — Tuesday night after Muslim community leaders expressed frustration with the administration’s support of Israel amid the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Biden will still host a small dinner with senior Muslim administration officials, a White House official said. But outside attendees will instead go to a meeting "to discuss issues of importance to the community," the official said.

CNN previously reported that several people who were invited to attend declined, sources said.

“Basically the sentiment we heard over and over again was that anybody going to the iftar while Palestinians are being killed and starved should be ashamed of themselves,” another source told CNN.

Vice President Kamala Harris, senior Muslim administration officials, senior members of Biden’s national security team and fewer than a dozen invited guests are expected to attend the meeting, per a senior administration official. 

Some anti-government protesters Tuesday breached security barriers near the Jerusalem residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to social media videos.

Israeli police said most of the demonstrators behaved lawfully, but noted that some were "disorderly" as they tried to approach Netanyahu's residence. Israeli media reported several arrests.

One video shows a confrontation between police and Ayala Metzger — the daughter-in-law of one of the hostages held in Gaza. Metzger can be seen being wrestled to the ground as police tried to confiscate a megaphone she was carrying.

Another video showed protesters and police struggling over steel barricades. One man crawled beneath a police water cannon vehicle to prevent it from moving.

National Security Minister Ben Gvir criticized the Israeli security services for allowing protesters to get so close to Netanyahus’ residence.

Other protesters marched toward Israeli President Isaac Herzog's residence. 

This post was updated with a response from the Israeli police.