Tuesday, June 4, 2024

0945 GMT –– Palestinian death toll from relentless Israeli attacks on Gaza since last October has reached 36,550, the Health Ministry in the besieged enclave said.

At least 82,959 people have also been injured in the onslaught, the ministry added in a statement.

“Israeli forces killed 71 people, and injured 182 others in seven ‘massacres’ against families in the last 24 hours,” the ministry said.

“Many people are still trapped under rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.

In Deir al Balah city in central Gaza, at least eight Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a car and a people’s gathering near a shelter.

A medical source at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said eight Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike in the vicinity of the Palestine Technical College, which serves as a displaced people’s shelter.

The struck area is crowded with people as the Israeli army has designated it as a safe zone, eyewitnesses added.

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0916 GMT — Firefighters continue to battle fires in northern Israel caused by rockets fired from Lebanon

Israeli firefighting teams continued to battle against the fires that broke out as a result of rockets fired from southern Lebanon.

According to the Times of Israel news website, the Fire and Rescue Services said its teams brought under control by morning most of the fires which were sparked by rockets and drones launched from Lebanon.

The fires led to the closure of several major roads in the Galilee area, it added.

The Israeli Army Radio reported a fresh fire in the Biriya Forest near Safad in northern Israel, with two firefighting teams dispatched to the scene to put it out.

It added that the fire erupted as a result of falling shrapnel after rockets were intercepted.

0833 GMT –– UN rights chief urges end to killings in occupied West Bank

The UN human rights chief has urged for an end to killings in the West Bank by Israeli forces.

“As if the tragic events in Israel and then Gaza over the past eight months were not enough, the people of the occupied West Bank are also being subjected to day after day of unprecedented bloodshed. It is unfathomable that so many lives have been taken in such a wanton fashion,” Volker Turk said in a statement.

“The killing, destruction and widespread human rights violations are unacceptable and must cease immediately,” Turk said.

He stressed that any allegation of unlawful killings must be “thoroughly and independently” investigated and those responsible held to account.

0640 GMT –– Israeli army kills 2 Palestinians near Tulkarem city, holds their bodies

Two Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army near the Tulkarem city in the northern West Bank.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa identified the two as Abdel-Fattah Salahaddin and Ahmed Rajab, both from the Tulkarem refugee camp.

It added that the Israeli army held their bodies.

Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that the Israeli forces opened fire on a Palestinian car near an Israeli military checkpoint in western Tulkarem.

The Israeli army prevented the ambulance teams from reaching the site of the shooting, the witnesses added.

The coordination committee of the Palestinian groups in Tulkarem announced a day of mourning over the killing of the two Palestinians.

0017 GMT –– US seeks UN backing for proposed Gaza truce, hostage deal

The US has said it wants the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution backing the proposal outlined by President Joe Biden to end Israel’s war in Gaza.

It circulated a one-page draft text to the 15-member council. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the US, France, Britain, China or Russia to pass.

The draft “stresses the importance of the parties adhering to the terms of the deal once agreed, with the aim of bringing about a permanent cessation of hostilities.”

“Numerous leaders and governments, including in the region, have endorsed this plan and we call on the Security Council to join them in calling for implementation of this deal without delay and without further conditions,” US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in a statement.

2325 GMT –– Israel bombing kills four, including one child in Bureij camp

Israeli missile strike on a residence in the Bureij camp has resulted in the killing of four Palestinians while multiple people have been wounded, WAFA news agency reports.

According to WAFA correspondent, Israeli warplanes targeted the Al Maghari and Al Ahlam residential towers. They also shelled two more towers in the camp.

Israeli tanks opened heavy fire at citizens’ homes in the vicinity of the University College of Applied Sciences in the Tel Al Hawa neighbourhood, southwest of Gaza City, and the Al Sabra area, according to news reports.

2200 GMT –– Police arrest pro-Palestine demonstrators inside San Francisco building housing Israeli Consulate

San Francisco police have detained a group of pro-Palestine demonstrators who entered the lobby of the building housing the Israeli consulate after they refused to leave, authorities said.

An unspecified number of people were “detained for potential arrest,” police said in a statement on Monday. “Officers have been making multiple warnings to the individuals to disperse and exit the private property on their own.”

About 50 people were inside the building on the ground floor. Police led protesters out of the building one-by-one and loaded them into police vehicles, their hands bound by zip ties.

Protesters, who were voicing opposition to Israel’s incursion into Gaza, had said they planned to stay until forcibly removed, the San Francisco Chronicle reported from the scene.