Children among at least 40 killed in a day
- Strikes hit a playground and busy market in Maghazi refugee camp with at least 56 Palestinians killed throughout Gaza in the past day as Israel’s onslaught on civilians continues.
- Iran marks Army Day as the international community fearfully watches for Israeli retaliation after the unprecedented attack by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Hamas’s Haniyeh to meet President Erdogan in Turkey
Ismail Haniyeh, leader of Hamas’s political bureau, will travel to Turkey this weekend to hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to broadcaster NTV.
The planned meeting comes weeks after Haniyeh lost seven family members — three children and four grandchildren — in an Israeli air strike that targeted their car in northern Gaza.
Erdogan, who has been one of the staunchest defenders of Hamas and critics of Israel during the war in Gaza, confirmed he would “host the leader of the Palestinian cause at the weekend”.
‘Israel is the provocateur’ in the standoff with Iran
Hassan Ahmadian, a professor of Middle East and North Africa studies at the University of Tehran, says the threat of more sanctions against Iran’s military sector won’t concern authorities because there’s nothing left to sanction.
He also highlighted the hypocrisy of Western diplomats’ scorn after the attack on Israel, noting those same officials had failed to denounce the deadly strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria on April 1.
“The Global South nations are critical of Israel – of what it does in Gaza, of what it did against the Iranian consulate – and there’s no change there even in terms of public opinion, including in the West,” said Ahmadian.
“Israel is the provocateur and it’s trying to drag other countries into a different narrative other than the genocide it’s conducted in Gaza.”
Palestinians take to streets in Bethlehem for Prisoner’s Day rally
Palestinians are coming out here in Bethlehem to mark the day to remember prisoners in Israeli jails.
They include families of Palestinian prisoners and children from Palestinian schools.
This day is a chance [for them] to remind the world that they have people inside Israeli jails under very difficult conditions.
They want to see their family members included in a prisoner swap deal, especially those serving long sentences or life terms. Their only hope to reunite with their loved ones is through these swap deals.
Rarely would you go to a Palestinian home and find that they do not have a [relative] or known someone who is a prisoner [held by Israel].
‘I do not have a house, a husband, or anything anymore’
A woman who lost family members in the Maghazi refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip, has described the Israeli strike that killed 11 people, including several children.
“My brothers were sitting by the door, my brother was injured, and his cousin too. And I lost my son. I do not have a house, or a husband, or anything any more,” said Wafaa Issa al-Nouri, whose son Mohammad and husband were killed in the attack.
“He was playing by the door,” she said of her son. “We didn’t do anything, I swear we didn’t do anything.”
