Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Israeli attack on Gaza police vehicle kills 9

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We will be closing this live page soon. Here’s a quick recap from today:

• At least seven law enforcement officials tasked with protecting aid and two bystanders have been killed in an Israeli army attack on their vehicle in Gaza City, the Interior Ministry said.
• At least 11 people, mostly children, have been killed in an Israeli strike on central Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp, Wafa reported. The attack hit a children’s playground near a crowded market.
• Iran has warned Israel it will face a “painful response” if it takes the “slightest action” to retaliate against Tehran’s missile and drone attacks.
• The Israeli army said it has killed a senior commander of Hezbollah’s elite unit, the Radwan Force, in the Kfar Dounin area in southern Lebanon.
• Palestinian rights groups have warned that Israeli military and settler attacks in the occupied West Bank have “increased in intensity and scale”.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), is set to brief the UN Security Council (UNSC) on the situation in Gaza later today.

Lazzarini is expected to speak in person at a meeting requested by Jordan, a source at the UNSC told Al Jazeera’s Anade Situma.

A video obtained by Al Jazeera shows the arrival of at least five bodies, including of children, arriving at the Kuwaiti Hospital in Gaza’s southernmost city.

We reported earlier on this attack by the Israeli army on the Yabna refugee camp in Rafah, in which several Palestinians were killed. The attack was on the home of the Abu al-Hunud family, Al Jazeera’s correspondent reports.

A video verified by Al Jazeera taken from central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp yesterday documented the sounds of children crying, which were seemingly coming from an Israeli quadcopter plane.

Residents in the area say this is the Israeli army’s latest way to lure civilians and kill them. At least one man was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper when he came out of his home to inspect where the sounds were coming from.

“Yesterday, the area was subjected to Israeli shelling. Three hours after the raids, we heard the voices of children crying out and the voice of a woman,” one of the witnesses, Mohammed Nabhan, said.

“When we went out, we were subjected to heavy fire from the Israeli army and the sound was coming out of an Israeli quadcopter with four propellers,” he said.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate says Israeli forces arrested some 100 journalists since October 7.

At least 40 of them remain in Israeli custody, the syndicate said. Most of the journalists were beaten at the moment of arrest, it added.

According to the syndicate, many of detained journalists were held under administrative detention, a controversial and vague legal process that allows Israel to imprison Palestinians without charge or trial.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke with both the emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and the president of the UAE, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, today, the Saudi Press Agency says.

“The crown prince received a call from the President of the UAE during which they discussed the repercussions of the military escalation in the region and the seriousness of its repercussions,” the agency said, adding that the two “discussed the importance of exerting efforts to prevent the situation from worsening”.

Al Thani also called Prince Mohammed and “stressed the need to reduce all forms of escalation and avoid the expansion of conflict in the region”, the Qatari Amiri Diwan said.

Tensions in the Middle East remain high after Iran’s attack on Israel on Saturday night, which Israel has promised to respond to.

On X, the Lebanese group says it struck the Metulla site belonging to the Israeli army, “directly hitting” a military vehicle as it entered the army’s position.  

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken to his Qatari counterpart Mohammed bin Al Thani to discuss Iran’s attack.

Miller says the pair also “underscored the importance of a coordinated diplomatic response and the need to avoid further escalation”.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society says Israeli authorities are holding the bodies of 26 Palestinian detainees.

The NGO said the figure stands after the body of 59-year-old Abdulhalim Abdulkarim Amer was released by Israeli authorities earlier today.

Amer died in Israeli custody on April 13. He is the 16th Palestinian to die in Israeli custody since Israel’s assault on Gaza began more than six months ago.

The father of seven was arrested with his son on March 17, for allegedly entering Israel for work without a permit.

Israel routinely withholds the bodies of Palestinians, which human rights groups say amounts to collective punishment of bereaved families. International law considers the practice a violation of human rights.

The Israeli army says it has killed a senior commander of Hezbollah’s elite unit, the Radwan Forces, in the Kfar Dounin area in southern Lebanon.

In a situational update on Telegram, the army wrote that Muhammad Hussein Mustafa Shechory, commander of the rockets and missiles unit, was “eliminated” in an air strike

“As part of his role, Muhammad planned and promoted rocket and missile launches toward Israeli territory from the areas of Lebanon’s central and western regions,” the army said.

“During the strike, Mahmoud Ibrahim Fadel-Allah, a terrorist operative of Hezbollah’s Rockets and Missiles Unit, was also eliminated,” it said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani says he has not received any reports or indications that missiles or drones were launched from Iraq during Iran’s attack on Israel.

“Our position is clear, and we will not allow Iraq to be thrown into the arena of conflict,” al-Sudani said in a statement.

Iraqi airspace was a main route for Iran’s Saturday night attack on Israel, and Iraqi officials say Iran informed them, as well as other countries in the region, before the attack.

Three Palestinian human rights organisations have urged the international community, private actors and businesses to “respond to the widespread violent attacks” against Palestinians and their property across the occupied West Bank.

“Violent Israeli military and settler attacks have been escalating in intensity and scale,” Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said in a joint statement.

The violence, they said, escalated “significantly” on Friday when Israeli settlers raided a string of villages in the West Bank. Since then, at least four Palestinians have been killed and several injured.

Israeli settlers burned homes, cars and livestock pens and stole sheep during these “rampages”, the statement said.

Settlers along with the Israeli army closed off main roads and entrances to those villages “as part of these rampages”, it added, and imposed restrictions on movement.

As a result, Israeli forces “obstructed the passage” of ambulances for several hours, the statement said.

Hanan al-Qeeq sits next to a hospital bed in Beit Jala Hospital, her sad, pale face seconds away from tears at all times, even when she tries to muster up a smile of greeting.

Sitting beside the exhausted woman is her husband, Mazen, 56, a Gaza Ministry of Education employee who left his work to come to the occupied West Bank, where their son Fadi is being treated.

Fifty-year-old Hanan says she carries a heavy burden. As she and Mazen kept their vigil by Fadi’s bedside, praying for his healing, Israel’s war on Gaza took four of their other children from them.

“What can I say beyond what happened?” said Mazen, who did not want to, or perhaps could not, speak more.

Read more here.

The smoke has cleared, and the dust has settled after Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel.

Israeli leaders have promised to respond – when the time is right, they say.

But fears are growing that this could escalate into a regional war.

Al Jazeera’s Inside Story speaks to experts about whether fears about a regional war are justified and what it could mean for the region.

Watch the discussion below:

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says Brussels is starting work on expanding sanctions against Iran after Tehran’s attack on Israel.

Iran carried out the attack two weeks after a deadly April 1 strike on its embassy’s consular building in Damascus, which Tehran blames on Israel.

Speaking after an emergency online meeting of EU foreign ministers, Borrell said the bloc would look to toughen measures against Iran’s supplies of weaponry, including drones, to Russia and proxy groups around the Middle East.

“Some member states propose the adoption of expanded restrictive measures against Iran,” Borrell said.

The EU’s top diplomat said he was requesting his service “start the necessary work related to the sanctions”.

Groups of employees of the tech giant have entered two of the company’s offices, one in Sunnyvale, California, and one in New York City.

The protesters at the California office say they will not leave until Google pulls out of a $1.2bn contract it shares with Amazon, that would see it provide the Israeli government with cloud services and data centres.

Some at the company have long opposed the contract, known as “Nimbus”, but the conflict within the tech giant has expanded since Israel began its assault on Gaza.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says an independent Palestinian state should be recognised as soon as possible.

“Spain will strive for Palestine to become a full member of the UN,” Sanchez said during a visit to Slovenia as part of a tour to boost EU support for recognising a Palestinian state.

Last month, Spain, Ireland, Malta and Slovenia signed a joint statement saying they stand ready to recognise a Palestinian state when the move could “make a positive contribution and the circumstances are right.”

“For Slovenia, the key question is when to recognize Palestine,” Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said, adding, “Not if but when.”