What we know
- World Central Kitchen has called for an independent investigation into the Israeli military strikes that killed seven of its aid workers in the Gaza Strip. The disaster relief charity's founder, José Andrés, said his team members were targeted "systematically, car by car." Israeli officials have opened an investigation, saying that a misidentification led to the strikes.
- President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today, their first direct communication since the incident. Biden urged Netanyahu to empower his negotiation team to make a deal on hostage releases as an "immediate ceasefire is essential" to protecting civilian life and said Israel must implement steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers.
- Israel has committed to opening the Ashdod port and the Erez crossing for aid into Gaza, a U.S. National Security Council spokesperson said.
- The Israeli military has halted leave for all combat units and drafted reservists to boost aerial defenses amid fears of an escalation with Iran. The moves come as Iran's supreme leader vowed revenge and said that Israel "will be slapped" for a strike on Tehran's consulate building in Syria that killed senior military commanders.
- The death toll in Gaza has surpassed 33,000, according to the enclave's Health Ministry. Another 75,600 people have been reported injured. The Israeli military said at least 256 soldiers have been killed since the ground invasion of Gaza began.
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Class destroyed: The rise and ruin of Gaza’s revered universities
Gaza’s universities are revered, embodying Palestinians’ dreams and ambitions, their values and traditions.
They have also represented a way for Palestinians to exercise some control over lives stifled by conflict, a 17-year blockade, political stagnation and misrule, and an economy on its knees.
“We don’t have oil, we don’t have petroleum, we don’t have gold. The only capital we have is a human capital,” Akram Habeeb, an English literature professor said. “So we believe in education."
Built over decades, Gaza’s universities embodied the ambitions of young Palestinians. In weeks, the Israeli military destroyed them.
Palestinians in northern Gaza living on 245 calories a day, Oxfam says
Palestinians in the northern area of Gaza, which experts said last month is under imminent threat of famine, are surviving on less than 12% of the recommended daily 2,100 calorie intake need, according to aid organization Oxfam.
"People in northern Gaza have been forced to survive on an average of 245 calories a day - less than a can of beans - since January, as Israeli forces continue their military onslaught," Oxfam said in a release today.
An Oxfam analysis found that less than half the number of food trucks needed for everyone in Gaza to meet the daily calorie recommendation were entering the enclave. At least 221 trucks of food are the minimum daily requirement, the organization said.
"Israel is making deliberate choices to starve civilians," said Amitabh Behar, Oxfam international executive director. "Imagine what it is like, not only to be trying to survive on 245 calories day in, day out, but also having to watch your children or elderly relatives do the same."
Israel has repeatedly denied allegations that it is starving civilians and has also criticized the recent analysis on imminent famine from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative, which assesses hunger across the world.
The department in charge of humanitarian aid said that 240 trucks of aid entered into Gaza today. The average reported for the month of March was 140 per day.
Israel commits to open new route to Gaza, increase deliveries, U.S. says
Israel has committed to opening the Ashdod port and the Erez crossing for aid into Gaza, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in welcoming the news.
The steps, including increasing aid from Jordan to the enclave, “must now be fully and rapidly implemented,” Watson said in a statement.
The announcement comes hours after Biden spoke with Netanyahu.
Biden emphasized that strikes on humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation there are unacceptable, according to the White House.
“As the President said today on the call, U.S. policy with respect to Gaza 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,” Watson said.
'I still wake up terrified': Patients inside Al-Shifa Hospital recount siege
The World Health Organization spoke to patients who were in Al-Shifa Hospital during the Israeli military's two-week raid and shared the distressing conditions they experienced while trapped inside.
“My psyche has been shattered from within,” said patient Mohammad Ashour.
One patient, Hamza Marzouq, said families took patients out of rooms that were filled with urine, feces and flies. Two or three people died every day in that room, he said.
Another patient told the WHO that he was shocked to be alive and said, "I still wake up terrified."
A young boy named Mahmoud Mashharahi said soldiers forced his mother to leave the facility and he was terrified on his own.
"I was scared being alone, wishing my mother was with me," Mahmoud said. "I didn't want anything except for her.
Amnesty International demands U.S. suspend weapon sales and transfers to Israel
Amnesty International said today that President Joe Biden and Congress should halt all weapons sales and transfers to Israel as there is "overwhelming evidence that war crimes are being committed by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians."
Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA, urged Biden to end U.S. "complicity" by suspending arms deals with Israel. He described the administration's continued support to Israel as "unconscionable."
"The written assurances recently submitted by the Israeli government stating that they aren’t violating international humanitarian law with U.S. weapons are simply not credible, and it’s shocking that the U.S. government is going along with their statement while our research and international law experts disagree," O’Brien said.
"When will President Biden realize he is complicit in the Israeli government’s crimes against humanity? Enough is enough," O'Brien said.
U.K. judges, intelligence experts call for halt to Israeli arms sales
LONDON — Three former Supreme Court justices have joined more than 600 members of the British legal profession in calling for the government to halt arms sales to Israel, saying it could make Britain complicit in genocide in Gaza.
Their call was also backed by two of the country’s leading intelligence experts, who argued that Britain needed to use any leverage it could to persuade Israel, and its biggest backer the United States, to change course in the conflict.
“The provision of military assistance and material to Israel may render the UK complicit in genocide as well as serious breaches of International Humanitarian Law,” the judges, barristers and legal academics said in a 17-page letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The British government has been a staunch ally of Israel since the eruption of hostilities on Oct. 7 but Foreign Secretary David Cameron has hardened his language in recent months over the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Cameron said on March 8 that Israel had to be compliant with international humanitarian law in order for Britain to grant export licenses allowing arms sales to Israel, and that a judgement on that was underway and due in the "coming days."
Sunak has resisted calls to immediately halt weapons sales to Israel, saying the government adheres to a "very careful licensing regime." Two senior figures in Britain’s intelligence community — former national security adviser Peter Ricketts and Alex Younger, the former head of the MI6 foreign spy service — have said those sales should be used as leverage.
Ricketts said there was “now abundant evidence” that Israel was not compliant with international humanitarian law and that a ban would send a message that could stir debate in Washington.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called any suggestion of genocide "outrageous," and has said Israel has an "unwavering commitment to international law."
World Central Kitchen aid worker’s family calls for an independent probe into the deadly attack
TEL AVIV — The parents of a U.S.-Canadian aid worker killed in Israeli strikes on a World Central Kitchen convoy say they do not have confidence in Israel’s military to fairly investigate and are calling for an independent probe into the attack that claimed the life of their only son.
Jacob Flickinger, 33, was among seven humanitarians with the U.S. charity who were killed in the series of Israeli strikes in central Gaza on Monday night. Their deaths triggered a wave of global criticism and brought new scrutiny on the accuracy of Israel’s strikes in Gaza.
Flickinger’s father, John Flickinger, told NBC News that he does not have confidence in the Israeli military’s investigation and emphasized the need for an independent investigation.
“An independent investigation is needed because aid workers continue to be killed by the IDF,” he said. “They kept firing until every worker was dead. So I think the Israeli government, you know, owes the families at least an apology, but I would say much more.”
Human Rights Watch accuses Israel of 'apparent war crime' in strike on residential building in Gaza
Human Rights Watch released a report today accusing the Israeli military of an "apparent war crime" in striking a residential building with seemingly no military target.
The strike in question was on a residential building south of Nusreit refugee camp on Oct. 31 and killed at least 106 civilians, more than half of which were children. Human Rights Watch said they found no evidence of a military target at the building in research conducted through witness interviews, analysis of satellite images, videos and photographs.
"Everyone Human Rights Watch interviewed who knew the building well said they were not aware of Palestinian fighters or military equipment in or near the building at the time of the attack," the report said.
Researchers are not allowed into Gaza to visit the site, Human Rights Watch said.
The organization said it sent a letter with questions about the strike in March, but Israeli authorities did not respond. The military has given the organization "no information that would demonstrate the existence of a military target" within or in the vicinity of the building.
NBC News has reached out to the IDF for comment using coordinates from the Human Rights Watch letter but has not independently verified the Human Rights Watch report.