Middle East Conflict: Biden 'Outraged' Over Aid Workers' Deaths; Israeli Army Chief Admits 'Mistake'

UNHRC to consider draft resolution calling for Israel arms embargo

The UN Human Rights Council on Friday will consider a draft resolution that calls for an arms embargo on Israel, citing a "plausible risk of genocide in Gaza," AFP reported Wednesday. This is the first time the UN rights body will take a position on the Israel-Hamas war, as per the outlet.

The Pakistan-presented text denounces Israel's use of "explosive weapons with wide-area effects" across civilian-populated areas of the war-torn enclave. It also demands that Israel uphold its "legal responsibility" to prevent genocide in Gaza.

Hamas leader refuses to be flexible in ceasefire demands

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday said the Palestinian militant group will stick to its initial ceasefire demands that the Israeli army withdraw from Gaza and halt its military operations in the enclave.

His comments came after Sabah Abdel Salam Haniyeh, the Hamas chief's sister, was arrested by Israeli police over the weekend for terror incitement.

EU condemns attack targeting Iranian military leaders in Damascus

The European Union "condemns the attack on an Iranian diplomatic installation in Damascus on 1 April, as well as reported casualties," the bloc's external affairs spokesperson Peter Stano said in a statement on X Wednesday.

He called for "utmost restraint," considering the "highly tense regional situation." An escalation will do the region no good, he argued.

The said attack, which Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said killed seven of its members, has been attributed to Israel, but the Israeli government has yet to deny or confirm it.

Among the assassinated IRGC members were Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the force's commander in Syria and Lebanon and his deputy.

Iraqi militia attacks Israel's Haifa Airport: Iranian media

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed Wednesday that it attacked the Haifa Airport in Israel in the morning using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the Iranian government's semi-official Mehr News reported.

Israel has yet to deny or confirm the said attack, but the said Iranian-backed Iraqi militia has carried out attacks toward Israel since the Gaza war started.

Israeli warplanes strike Hezbollah posts in Kfarhamam

Israeli fighters jets on Wednesday afternoon struck Hezbollah infrastructure and paramilitary positions in the Kfarhamam area in southern Lebanon, the IDF said. Among the posts attacked was one that the Iran-backed terror group used to launch rockets toward Har Dov earlier in the day, the Israeli army added.

Improvements in naval capabilities underway: Houthis

Iran-backed Yemeni Houthis on Wednesday said the militant group continues to "develop our missile and naval capabilities" so it can keep supporting Palestine and it can move forward in "targeting Israel," Sky News in Arabic reported, citing a Houthi leader.

IDF chief apologizes for 'unintentional harm' to WCK staffers

Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the Israeli army's chief of staff, on Wednesday apologized for the "grave mistake" committed by the IDF Monday.

"The strike was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers. It was a mistake that followed a misidentification – at night during a war in very complex conditions. It shouldn't have happened," he said, as per a statement released by the Israeli government.

"We are sorry for the unintentional harm to the members of WCK," he said, adding that an independent body will review the incident thoroughly and the IDF will present the findings in the coming days.

Halevi's statement comes amid increasing international scrutiny over the Israeli army's supposed mistake of striking a WCK food convoy in Gaza Monday. Multiple countries have denounced the incident, calling on full accountability for the humanitarian workers' deaths.

Biden 'outraged' over Israeli strike targeting food aid convoy

The U.S. president, who was initially in full support of Israel's military offensive in Gaza in the early months of the Israel-Hamas war, is now "outraged and heartbroken" after the deaths of seven food aid workers, including an American.

"Even more tragically, this is not a stand-alone incident. This conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed," he pointed out. He went on to say that Israel "has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians," marking his sternest words regarding the U.S. ally in weeks yet.

Humanitarian aid workers' deaths puts Poland's solidarity with Israel to test: Polish PM

Tusk on Wednesday issued a stern warning to Israel after a Polish humanitarian aid staffer of the WCK was killed alongside six others in an IDF airstrike Monday, as per a Google translation of his post on X.

He said Netanyahu's "reaction" to the killings, wherein the Israeli Prime Minister said such incidents happen in war, caused "understandable anger." He went on to remind Israel that Poland expressed "full solidarity" with Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7 massacre. "Today you are putting this solidarity to a really hard test."

Bodies of killed food aid workers to be repatriated

The bodies of six foreign staffers of the WCK will be repatriated, AFP reported Wednesday as Israel faces mounting pressure to investigate the incident and explain the circumstances that led to the employees' killings.

Seven WCK personnel were killed when an Israeli airstrike targeted a food convoy of the U.S.-based food charity Monday. One of the deceased workers is Palestinian.

Read the full story here.

'Many countries' affected by Houthi attacks in Red Sea: US embassy

The U.S. embassy in Yemen said early Wednesday that "many countries" are affected by Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. It noted that contrary to the Iranian-backed Yemeni rebel militia's claims it only attacks Israeli, American and British ships, the terror group has already attacked commercial ships from other countries such as Japan, Qatar, Bulgaria, Greece, China, France and over a dozen more.

Hostages' families stage another protest as desperation mounts

The war in Gaza is nearing its sixth month, and the loved ones of remaining hostages in Gaza have expressed desperation as the fate of some 130 abductees hangs in the balance.

Local media reported that the families of hostages smeared yellow paint Wednesday afternoon on the windows of the Knesset plenum in protest of the Netanyahu government's handling of the war and stalled talks for a truce.

They are calling for a ceasefire deal to get the remaining hostages freed.

Canadian FM 'horrified' after airstrike deaths of aid workers, calls for 'full investigation'

Joly early on Wednesday said she was "horrified to reports of the IDF strike taking the lives of 7" WCK staffers in Gaza. One of the dead is a Canadian citizen. The Canadian foreign minister called for a "full investigation," adding that Canada expects "full accountability for these killings."

"Strikes on humanitarian personnel is absolutely unacceptable," she added.

Hezbollah to blame for UN peacekeepers' injuries: IDF

The Israeli army on Wednesday said it has information that the explosion last week in a southern Lebanon village that resulted in injuries to some UNIFIL workers "was caused after a UNIFIL patrol drove over a charge that had been previously placed by Hezbollah in the area."

The IDF's implication of the Iran-backed terror organization in the blast came after reports that an Israeli airstrike targeted a UNIFIL vehicle in southern Lebanon on March 30.