April 5, 2024 Israel-Gaza updates

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.

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.

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."

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.

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."

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."

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.