No flour, no fuel – no bread: war on Gaza Day 543

contact@ifamericansknew.org April 2, 2025antisemitism, ceasefire, famine, francesca albanese, Mohammed Al-Bardaweel, princeton

Palestinians in Gaza try to mark Eid amidst Israel’s bombs on 31 March 2025 (Mohammed Asad/MEMO)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

At least 42 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

Since the resumption of the genocide in Gaza on March 18th, 1,042 civilians have been killed and 2,583 others injured, most of them children and women.

At least 322 Palestinian children have been killed in Israeli attacks since the resumption of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.

In Lebanon, four people, including a woman, were killed and seven others injured in an Israeli airstrike Tuesday morning, in the latest Israeli violation of a ceasefire agreement, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.

Palestinian journalist, his family killed in Israeli airstrike on apartment in Gaza

One more Palestinian journalist, along with his entire family, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip, as Israel’s genocidal war continues.

Mohammed Saleh Al-Bardawil was a presenter at Al-Aqsa radio station. (Mohammed Saleh Al-Bardawil was a presenter at Al-Aqsa radio station. (Screengrab))

In a statement on Tuesday, the Al-Aqsa local radio announced that journalist Mohammed Al-Bardaweel and his family were killed in the airstrike on their apartment in Khan Younis.

“The criminal Israeli occupation army, by targeting Palestinian journalists, is desperately trying to silence the Palestinian narrative and obscure the truth,” the statement said.

The Gaza-based Government Media Office condemned Israel’s killing of the journalist and his family, calling on the international community, including global press organizations, to denounce Israel’s systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists and pursue legal action through international courts.

Al-Bardaweel’s death brought the number of Palestinian journalists killed in Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, to 209, the media office also said.

RELATED: Israel’s war on Gaza is the deadliest conflict on record for journalists.

Severe Threat of Famine: Last UN Bakery Closes in Gaza Month After Israel’s Humanitarian Aid Halt

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP)announced on Tuesday that the last of 25 bakeries it had been supporting in the Gaza Strip has ceased operations, following the closure of border crossings by Israel and the suspension of aid shipments a month ago.

International aid agencies are continuously warning of the threat of famine looming over hundreds of thousands of Palestinians across Gaza, as the food supply in the strip is running out.

Since the beginning of the war, and especially during the cease-fire, WFP has supplied dozens of bakeries with raw materials and baking fuel – either gas or diesel – allowing them to sell bread at a subsidized price (approximately 50 cents for a bag of about 23 pitas).

“Anyone who wanted bread got it,” said Abdel Nasser Al-Ajrami, the head of the Bakery Owners Association in Gaza in an interview with Al-Alam news network. “It was hard to obtain bread recently as the production volume didn’t meet the demand, but anyone who asked received bread.”

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which also distributes food in Gaza, has stopped handing out flour in recent days due to a shortage. A UN statement said that last week, around ten community kitchens across Gaza were closed due to hostilities and a fuel shortage (continue reading here).

Displaced people queue for bread outside of a bakery in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, November 2024. (Ashraf Amra, UNRWA)

Israeli army orders further evacuations for northern Gaza city

The Israeli army issued evacuation orders on Tuesday for Palestinians in a city in the northern Gaza Strip in a move widely seen as a form of collective punishment, following the firing of a rocket from the enclave.

Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee ordered the immediate evacuation of Beit Hanoun before the army carries out strikes in the area.

Adraee said earlier that the army’s air defense intercepted a rocket launched from northern Gaza toward Sderot.

The evacuation order policy is part of Israeli army tactics widely used in the course of its genocidal war on Gaza.

The army also issued evacuation orders Monday to Palestinians in several areas in Rafah, the southernmost area of Gaza, worsening the dire conditions of residents under ongoing Israeli deadly attacks.

Palestinian families arrive in Gaza City after evacuating their homes in the Jabalia area after the Israeli army ordered people to evacuate the area north of Gaza, on October 6, 2024. (OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel proposes 40-day Gaza ceasefire deal to secure release of 11 hostages, return of 16 bodies: Report

Israel submitted a new proposal Monday for a ceasefire in Gaza, local media reported.

The Haaretz daily, citing a senior Israeli official, said Israel had asked the Palestinian group Hamas through mediators Egypt and Qatar for the release of 11 living hostages and the return of 16 bodies, in addition to providing information on the remaining captives in Gaza, in return for a 40-day suspension of hostilities.

In addition to the ceasefire, Israel would release an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners from its jails, the newspaper said (continue reading here).

West Bank: More than 100 Israeli settlers attack Palestinian village

The head of the Duma village council in the West Bank, Suleiman Dawabsheh, told Al Jazeera Mubasher on Tuesday that more than 100 Israeli settlers attacked his village “under the protection of the occupation army” and torched vehicles and buildings. Three Palestinians, all described as young males, sustained injuries.

Smotrich says Netanyahu government recognized 28 new West Bank settlements

Former Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has officially recognized 28 new settlements in the occupied West Bank since it came to power — the most significant expansion since 1967, according to the far-right politician.

In a lengthy post on X following a tour of settlements alongside Defense Minister Israel Katz and senior military officials, Smotrich hailed what he described as a “revolution” in settlement policy.

“Since 1967 until today, no such revolution has taken place in Judea and Samaria (West Bank),” he wrote. “The Israeli government is working to develop settlements and will not allow the rampant illegal Arab construction that has become a scourge of the state in recent decades.”

Smotrich claimed that a record number of demolitions of Palestinian structures occurred in the past year, and called for additional strategic tools must be used that will lead to the desired revolution.”

The far-right politician, who stepped down Monday amid a dispute with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, insisted that illegal settlers are not second-class citizens. “The government will insist that they be entitled to security like all Israeli citizens,” he wrote.

RELATED: Israeli army claims it discovered explosives lab, arrests Palestinians in West Bank

New apartments under construction in the Israeli settlement of Har Homa. ( AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/AFP/Getty Images)

Pro-Israel groups, politicians demand Francesca Albanese’s UN mandate end now

Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has recently faced an incitement campaign from various political entities demanding her removal from her position, as her three-year term concludes this week.

Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories (UN Human Rights Council/Sérine Meradji )

The UN Human Rights Council is scheduled to hold a session on renewing her mandate for another three years on April 4th.

However, several countries have expressed their unwillingness to renew Albanese’s mandate, including the Netherlands, due to her positions on the Palestinian issue.

Albanese has repeatedly warned of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Palestinian people in her UN reports and press interviews.

British Labour MP David Taylor said in an interview today with the Jewish Chronicle, a pro-Israel newspaper, “Albanese’s response to the largest anti-Semitic massacre of the 21st century was to describe it as a reaction to Israel’s actions.

She described Israel as a settler-colonial invasion and described America as subservient to the Jewish lobby.”

UN Watch also asserts that Albanese has used her UN mandate to disseminate anti-Semitism and Hamas propaganda, based on a 60-page report titled “A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing,” which charges her with advancing “anti-Semitism and Jihadi terrorism,” according to the organization.

Another Zionist organization, “Betar”, threatened in mid-March to target Albanese with a pager attack – a reference to Israel’s deadly and indiscriminate attacks in Lebanon last September – during a recent visit to London.

US suspends dozens of federal grants for Princeton in “antisemitism” crackdown

Princeton University announced Tuesday that it had “several dozen” federal research grants suspended by the Trump administration in the latest action in a widening campaign against alleged campus antisemitism* tied to pro-Palestinian activism.

University President Christopher Eisgruber disclosed in a university-wide email that the Energy Department, NASA and the Defense Department, among others, abruptly halted grants to the school.

While the specific rationale remains unclear, the move follows Education Department warnings to 60 universities about potential funding cuts because of antisemitism complaints.

“Princeton University will comply with the law. We are committed to fighting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination … Princeton will also vigorously defend academic freedom and the due process rights of this University,” Eisgruber wrote.

Similar actions have affected Columbia, which lost $400 million in funding, and Harvard whose $9 billion research support is at risk.

NOTE: Pro-Israel organizations consistently work to silence Palestine advocacy on campus – a free speech violation. One strategy they use is topressure universities to officially adopt the IHRA “definition” of antisemitism, which defines legitimate criticism of Israel as antisemitic. Other strategies include blocking prestigious appointments of and events with supporters of Palestinian rights, threatening to withhold major donations, and more.

Typically, any move by university administration that defies the standard pro-Israel position is followed by an apology like the one Sonoma State University’s president Mike Lee issued – an apology that recognizes only the sentiments of pro-Israel students and ignoring the actual issues of free speech and divestment from Israel.

Pro-Palestine demonstrations on college campuses have overall been peaceful and non-confrontational, and have notably included a significant number of Jewish students. When there has been violence, it has come from pro-Israel counter-protesters and police.

The silencing of pro-Palestine campus protest violates students’ and professors’ rights to free speech.

It is also notable that pro-Israel orgs regularly sponsor trips to Israel for influencers and theinfluence-able – trips that invariably provide a whitewashed view of Israel and no exposure to the Palestinian narrative, and by withholding the truth, “buy” new Israel partisans.

In Trump’s America, You Can Be Disappeared for Writing an Op-Ed
At Princeton University, students set up the ‘Popular University’ after the encampment was shut down by police, on 25 April 2024 (Azad Essa/Middle East Eye)

US military announces deployment of more warplanes for Middle East

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reinforced US military capability in the Middle East with more warplanes, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, amid a more than two-week-old bombing campaign in Yemen and mounting tensions with Iran, Reuters has reported. The Pentagon’s brief statement did not specify which aircraft were being deployed or where precisely they were going.

However, as many as six B-2 bombers have relocated in the past week or so to a US-British military base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, according to US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. Experts say that this puts the B-2s, which have stealth technology and are equipped to carry the heaviest US bombs and nuclear weapons, in an ideal position to operate in the Middle East.

“Should Iran or its proxies threaten American personnel and interests in the region, the United States will take decisive action to defend our people,” said Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell.

There is already considerable firepower in the Middle East and the US military will soon have two aircraft carriers in the region.

MORE NEWS:

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IMEMC Daily Reports

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – APRIL 1, 2025:

At least 51,347 Palestinians killed, 122,655 injured – including:
at least 50,399 killed in Gaza (~15,500 children)
at least 948 killed in the West Bank (~187 children)
at least 114,583 injured in Gaza
at least 8,072 injured in the West Bank

According to Palestinian authorities, during the ceasefire Jan. 19- March 18 2025, Israeli attacks killed at least 150 Gazans, and Israel committed at least 962 ceasefire violations.

Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 11,000 more are still buried under rubble.

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – April 1, 2025: ~1,592 – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 407 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

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Wednesday, 2 April 2025