MediaReport20250417

Israel says 30pc of Gaza turned into buffer zone
(The Australian, 17/4/2025)
( https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/israel-says-30pc-of-gaza-turned-into-buffer-zone/news-story/eb54c39c1252749b9a0b4ada6ee68983 )
Israel has announced that it had converted 30 per cent of Gaza’s territory into a buffer zone as it pressed its unrelenting military offensive, vowing to maintain its blockade on humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged territory.
Israel resumed air and ground attacks across the Gaza Strip on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas that had largely halted hostilities, with rescuers on Wednesday saying at least 11 were killed in strikes across the Palestinian territory.
The UN said an estimated 500,000 Palestinians have been displaced since the end of the Gaza ceasefire, triggering what it described as one of the most severe humanitarian crises the territory has faced in more than 18 months of war.
The Israeli military on Wednesday said that as part of its resumed operations, it had “achieved full operational control over several key areas and routes throughout the Gaza Strip”.
“Approximately 30 per cent of the Gaza Strip’s territory is now designated as an Operational Security Perimeter.”
It added that Israeli air strikes had hit “approximately 1200 terror targets” and that “more than 100 targeted eliminations have been carried out” since March 18.
Defence Minister Israel Katz had declared earlier this month that the military was seizing “large areas” of Gaza, leaving it “smaller and more isolated”.
Top Israeli officials have repeatedly said that military pressure was the only way to force Hamas to release the 58 hostages still held in Gaza.
‘No aid for Gaza’
On Wednesday, the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad released a video of an Israeli-German hostage, showing him alive and appealing to Israeli authorities and US President Donald Trump to secure his release.
His family and Israeli media identified him as Rom Braslavski from Jerusalem, who was abducted by militants from the Nova music festival during Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Mr Katz announced that Israel would continue preventing aid from entering the besieged territory of 2.4 million people.
Israel had already halted the entry of aid into Gaza on March 2, exacerbating the severe humanitarian crisis in the war-battered territory.
“Israel’s policy is clear: no humanitarian aid will enter Gaza, and blocking this aid is one of the main pressure levers preventing Hamas from using it as a tool with the population,” Mr Katz said.
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Israeli military operations and the aid blockade had transformed Gaza into a graveyard for Palestinians and aid workers.
“Gaza has been turned into a mass grave of Palestinians and those coming to their assistance,” said MSF co-ordinator Amande Bazerolle.
“With nowhere safe for Palestinians or those trying to help them, the humanitarian response is severely struggling under the weight of insecurity and critical supply shortages, leaving people with few, if any, options for accessing care,” she said.
On Wednesday, the UN reported estimates that “about half a million people have been newly displaced or uprooted once more” in Gaza since March 18.
The world body had warned on Monday that Gaza was facing its most severe humanitarian crisis since the war began in October 2023.
“The humanitarian situation is now likely the worst it has been in the 18 months since the outbreak of hostilities,” said the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
ICJ hearings
Israel controls the entry of all aid and supplies to Gaza.
On April 28, the International Court of Justice is set to open hearings on Israel’s humanitarian obligations towards Palestinians.
The UN General Assembly approved a resolution in December requesting that The Hague-based top court give an advisory opinion on the matter.
It calls on the ICJ to clarify what Israel is required to do to “ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population”.
Although ICJ decisions are legally binding, the court has no concrete way of enforcing them.
Israel continued to pound Gaza on Wednesday.
At least 11 people were killed in air strikes, 10 of them in an attack on Gaza City, the civil defence agency said.
The renewed assault has so far killed at least 1,652 people in Gaza, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory reported, bringing to 51,025 the total toll since the war erupted in October 2023, most of them civilians.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
AFP

Hamas accuses IDF of ‘trying to kill’ last Israeli-American hostage
(The Australian, 17/4/2025)
( https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/hamas-lost-contact-with-hostage-at-centre-of-gaza-truce-offer/news-story/90b6f8f3c34fcae0b57532fb93be7cc6 )
Hamas has accused the Israeli military of trying to kill the last Israeli-American hostage in Gaza, after the military group was forced to admit it had “lost contact” with his captors.
The inflammatory claim came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed the group would continue to “suffer blow after blow” unless it agreed to a truce.
In a statement on Telegram, Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas’s military wing the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said contact with the group holding Edan Alexander, whose release reportedly takes centre stage in Israel’s latest proposal for a renewed ceasefire.
“We announce that we have lost contact with the group holding soldier Edan Alexander following a direct strike on their location,” Abu Obeida wrote. “We are still trying to reach them at this moment,” he added.
However, he continued: “It seems that the (Israeli Defence Force) is deliberately trying to kill him and relieve themselves from the pressure caused by the dual-citizen prisoners in order to continue its genocide.”
Hamas’s military wing also released a video addressed to the families of the remaining hostages, warning them that their loved ones were likely to return in coffins if Israel kept up its bombardment of the territory.
Over video images of masked militants carrying black coffins out of white vans in the darkness, the video carried a subtitled message in English, Arabic and Hebrew.
“Be prepared. Soon, your children will return in black coffins with their bodies torn apart by shrapnel from your army’s missiles,” the message warns.
Hamas’s armed wing released a video on Saturday showing Mr Alexander alive, in which he criticised the Israeli government for failing to secure his release.
Mr Alexander appeared to be speaking under duress in the footage, making frequent hand gestures as he criticised Netanyahu’s government.
Mr Alexander was serving in an elite infantry unit on the Gaza border when he was abducted by Palestinian militants during their October 2023 attack.
The soldier, who turned 21 in captivity, was born in Tel Aviv and grew up in the US state of New Jersey, returning to Israel after high school to join the army.
Hamas said on Monday (local time) it had received a new truce offer from Israel that foresees the release of 10 living hostages, starting with Alexander, in exchange for a 45-day ceasefire.
A Hamas official said the Israeli proposal called for Mr Alexander’s release on the first day of the ceasefire as a “gesture of goodwill”.
It was delivered to the group’s delegation in Cairo by Egyptian officials over the weekend, and a senior Hamas official told AFP the group would “most likely” respond within 48 hours.
Another Hamas official said Israel had also demanded that the Palestinian militants disarm to secure an end to the Gaza war, but said this crossed a “red line”.
Out of 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s October 2023 attack, a total of 58 remain in captivity, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
In northern Gaza, Mr Netanyahu told troops, “They are striking the enemy and Hamas will continue to suffer blow after blow. We insist that they release our hostages, and we insist on achieving all of our war objectives.”
French President Emmanuel Macron told Mr Netanyahu in a telephone call Tuesday that only a ceasefire in Gaza could free the remaining hostages.
Saying the suffering of Gazan civilians “must end”, he called for “opening all humanitarian aid crossings” into the Palestinian territory.
Mr Macron angered Israel last week when he suggested Paris could recognise a Palestinian state during a United Nations conference in New York in June.
Mr Netanyahu’s office said he told Mr Macron on Tuesday that the establishment of a Palestinian state would be a “huge reward for terrorism”.
AFP

Labor MP Matt Thistlethwaite’s Greens preference a betrayal of Jewish community
(The Australian, 17/4/2025)
( https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/margin-call/labor-mp-matt-thistlethwaites-greens-preference-a-betrayal-of-jewish-community/news-story/85e1bdd41856d680813defb479896d0d )
No one’s cuddled up to the Jews quite like Labor MP Matt Thistlethwaite, which is why we keep seeing him jump at every opportunity to shake hands or stand solemnly at a photo call with the community’s biggest machers.
There he was at a synagogue prayer service in January with Board of Deputies president David Ossip, the picture dutifully uploaded to Thistlethwaite’s Facebook account for everyone to admire. A week ago he was videoed shaking hands with Jewish House CEO Rabbi Mendel Kastel and promising $2m for the charity if good fortune rained upon Labor come polling day (dutifully uploaded to the Facebook account as well).
Much solidarity with the Jews of Kingsford Smith, that seems to be the essence of the Thistle. When he’s not railing against the recrudescence of anti-Semitism he’s giving longwinded interviews belabouring every tired talking point of how the government really, truly, hasn’t abandoned the Jewish community, even though it really, truly has, and did for many, many months, starting with the insanity of ¬telling Jews to stay out of the Sydney CBD on October 9, 2023 for their own safety, while a thuggish mob corralled outside the Opera House threatening ¬violence.
“I understand that sentiment,” Thistlethwaite told the J-Wire news website a few days ago, speaking of this abandonment, “but I ask people to look at the facts: reform after reform, funding, engagement. That’s what matters.”
Is that what matters? We thought it was not BSing people that really mattered, which is why everyone following this story was left aghast on Wednesday when Thistlethwaite unveiled his How to Vote card for the 2025 election. It features the startling and straight-faced instruction that voters should preference the Greens and their candidate Keiron Brown when they vote on May 3.
Yes, the Greens, who effectively reject Israel’s existence; who walked out of parliament chanting “Free, free Palestine” when Labor tried to pass a solidarity motion with Israel in the days after the October 7 attacks; who were accused by Foreign Minister Penny Wong of collaborating with violent pro-Palestine demonstrators; who were similarly accused by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus of inciting attacks on political offices; and whose deputy leader, Mehreen Faruqi, can’t bring herself to say whether terrorist group Hamas should be dismantled or not.
No great shock that such a lavishly chicane turn by Thistlethwaite is being viewed as high treachery by the very community he’s sought to ingratiate himself with for months. No abandonment by Labor, none at all.
“Knife in the back” was the response from the Australian Jewish Association on Instagram. And can you blame it?
Kingsford Smith is a safe Labor seat with a margin of 13.3 per cent that Thistlethwaite has held since 2013. He doesn’t need the Greens to stay in parliament, so it beats us as to why he’s hopped into bed with them anyway.
By Yoni Bashan

Autopsies of rescue workers killed in Gaza show ‘gunshots to head and torso’
(The Guardian, 17/4/2025)
( https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/16/autopsies-of-rescue-workers-killed-in-gaza-show-gunshots-to-head-and-torso )
The doctor who carried out the autopsies of the 15 paramedics and rescue workers who were killed by Israeli troops in Gaza in March has said they were mostly killed by gunshots to the head and torso, as well as injuries caused by explosives.
There was international outcry last month after it emerged that Israeli troops had launched a deadly attack on a group of paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent, civil defence and United Nations workers, as they carried out a rescue operation in southern Gaza.
Their bodies, along with the crushed vehicles, were buried in a sandy mass grave in Gaza by Israeli troops. After digging up the bodies days later, the UN claimed they had been executed “one by one”.
Ahmed Dhair, the forensic doctor in Gaza who carried out autopsies on 14 out of the 15 victims, told the Guardian he had found “lacerations, entry wounds from bullets, and wounds resulting from explosive injuries. These were mostly concentrated in the torso area – the chest, abdomen, back, and head.”
Most had died from gunshot wounds, including what Dhair said was evidence of “explosive bullets”, otherwise known as the “butterfly bullet”, which explodes in the body upon impact, ripping apart flesh and bone.
“We found remains of explosive bullets,” said Dhair. “In one case, the bullet head had exploded in the chest, and the rest of the bullet fragments were found within the body. There were also remnants or shrapnel from bullets scattered on the back of one of the victims.”
The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to allegations that these bullets had been used in the attack.
Details of the incident have remained disputed. Video footage that emerged from the beginning of the attack shows the convoy of ambulances coming under fire, but the subsequent events that led to 15 workers being buried dead in a mass grave are still unclear.
Israel’s military admitted to carrying out the killings but was forced to change its version of events after evidence emerged that contradicted its account that the vehicles had been “moving suspiciously” without lights. Israel has claimed, without publicly presenting evidence, that six of the unarmed workers killed were Hamas operatives, which has been denied by Red Crescent.
Dhair said his findings did not suggest the paramedics had been shot at close range, but emphasised he was not a munitions expert. He said the shrapnel found in the bodies also suggested they had been hit with some form of explosive devices. “In some cases, the injuries seemed to be a mix of explosive and regular gunfire wounds,” he said.
Responding to the allegations that some of the bodies had been dug up with their hands tied, suggesting they were captured or held before they were killed, Dhair said he had not seen visible signs of restraint. “Only in one case, there were discoloration and bruising on the wrists that could possibly be due to restraints,” he said. All the men were clearly in their work uniforms and their bodies had begun to decompose.
The findings are likely to increase pressure on Israel to give a full account of the incident, who has been accused of carrying out a war crime. Israel has said it still under investigation. This week it emerged that one of the two paramedics who survived the incident, Assad al-Nsasrah – whose whereabouts had been unknown since – was being held in Israeli detention.
The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières said on Wednesday that Gaza was becoming a “mass grave for Palestinians”.
Aid supplies including food, fuel, water and medicine have been blocked by Israel from entering Gaza since 2 March, more than two weeks before the collapse of the ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group with a return to air and ground attacks on the territory.
Israel has said it will keep blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, as it vowed to force Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages from the 7 October attacks.
The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said: “Israel’s policy is clear: no humanitarian aid will enter Gaza, and blocking this aid is one of the main pressure levers preventing Hamas from using it as a tool with the population.”
“No one is currently planning to allow any humanitarian aid into Gaza, and there are no preparations to enable such aid,” said Katz, who threatened to escalate the conflict with “tremendous force” if Hamas did not return the hostages.
Amnesty International is among the aid agencies that have described Israel’s blockade on all supplies going into Gaza as a crime against humanity and a violation of international humanitarian law. Israel has denied any violations.
More than 51,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza since the conflict began, including more than 1,600 since Israel resumed airstrikes and ground operations on 18 March. The Gaza health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians but has said more than half of those dead were women and children.
Another 13 people were killed in airstrikes overnight, with a well-known photographer, Fatema Hassouna, among those reported dead in the northern area of the strip.
Doctors and aid groups on the ground said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was becoming graver by the day. “The situation is the worst it has been in 18 months in terms of being deprived of your basic necessities and the resumption of hostilities and attacks against Palestinians in all of Gaza,” said Mahmoud Shalabi, a director at Medical Aid for Palestinians.
Israel has been accused of worsening the humanitarian situation by targeting hospitals and medical personnel working in Gaza, with two hospitals struck and debilitated by airstrikes this week. Israel has claimed Hamas has used medical facilities as a cover for terrorist operations.
The resumption of aid into Gaza has become a highly inflammatory political issue in Israel. There are 58 hostages still in Gaza, who were taken captive after the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, with 24 believed to still be alive. Far-right figures in prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have said no aid should be restored to the civilians of Gaza until Hamas agrees to the hostages’ release.
“As long as our hostages are languishing in the tunnels, there is no reason for a single gram of food or any aid to enter Gaza,” the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said on Wednesday.
By Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Jerusalem and Malak A Tantesh in Gaza

No plans to allow any aid into Gaza, says Israeli minister
(The Guardian, 17/4/2025)
( https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/16/no-humanitarian-aid-gaza-israeli-minister-israel-katz-hamas )
Israel has said it will keep blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, as it vowed to force Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages from the 7 October attacks.
Aid supplies including food, fuel, water and medicine have been blocked by Israel from entering Gaza since 2 March, more than two weeks before the collapse of the ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group with a return to air and ground attacks on the territory.
The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières said on Wednesday that Gaza was becoming a “mass grave for Palestinians”.
The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said: “Israel’s policy is clear: no humanitarian aid will enter Gaza, and blocking this aid is one of the main pressure levers preventing Hamas from using it as a tool with the population.”
“No one is currently planning to allow any humanitarian aid into Gaza, and there are no preparations to enable such aid,” said Katz, who vowed to escalate the conflict with “tremendous force” if Hamas did not return the hostages.
Amnesty International is among the aid agencies that have described Israel’s blockade on all supplies going into Gaza as a crime against humanity and a violation of international humanitarian law. Israel has denied any violations.
More than 51,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza since the conflict began, including more than 1,600 since Israel resumed airstrikes and ground operations on 18 March. The Gaza health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians but has said more than half of those dead were women and children.
Another 13 people were killed in airstrikes overnight, with a well-known photographer, Fatema Hassouna, among those reported dead in the northern area of the strip.
Doctors and aid groups on the ground said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was becoming graver by the day. “The situation is the worst it has been in 18 months in terms of being deprived of your basic necessities and the resumption of hostilities and attacks against Palestinians in all of Gaza,” said Mahmoud Shalabi, a director at Medical Aid for Palestinians.
The resumption of aid into Gaza has become a highly inflammatory political issue in Israel. There are 58 hostages still in Gaza, who were taken captive after the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, with 24 believed to still be alive. Far-right figures in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have said no aid should be restored to the civilians of Gaza until Hamas agrees to the hostages’ release.
“As long as our hostages are languishing in the tunnels, there is no reason for a single gram of food or any aid to enter Gaza,” the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said on Wednesday.
Katz said Israel intended to eventually set up its own “civilian-based distribution infrastructure” for aid in Gaza, to prevent supplies falling into the hands of Hamas militants, but he gave no timelines or details of how it would be established.
Reports have suggested this could involve the Israel Defense Forces setting up and running logistics centres for aid, and vetted aid agencies being tasked with distributing it. However, the plan remains unclear and the UN is said to have so far refused to hand over the names of employees.
Efforts by mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the US to restore the collapsed ceasefire in Gaza and return the hostages have continued to hit stumbling blocks.
Katz said that no matter what deal was agreed, Israeli troops would remain in the buffer zones it had occupied in Gaza, as well as in neighbouring Syria and Lebanon.
Since resuming operations in March, Israeli troops have seized control of 30% of the Gaza Strip, establishing what they describe as an “operational security perimeter”. Hamas has demanded that any hostage deal must guarantee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
Katz said: “Unlike in the past, the [Israeli military] is not evacuating areas that have been cleared and seized.” The military would “remain in the security zones as a buffer between the enemy and [Israeli] communities in any temporary or permanent situation in Gaza, as in Lebanon and Syria”, he said.
By Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Jerusalem