22:30 The World Health Organization said Saturday that Gaza's largest hospital had been reduced to ashes by Israel's latest siege, leaving an "empty shell" with many bodies.

Israeli forces pulled out of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Monday after a two-week military operation against the facility, which was once the Palestinian territory's most important medical complex.

A WHO-led mission finally accessed the hospital on Friday, after multiple failed attempts since 25 March, the UN health agency said, describing the massive destruction.

"WHO and partners managed to reach Al-Shifa — once the backbone of the health system in Gaza, which is now an empty shell with human graves after the latest siege," agency chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

He said the team had seen "at least five dead bodies during the mission."

They had also found that "most of the buildings in the hospital complex are extensively destroyed and the majority of assets damaged or reduced to ashes," the WHO chief said.

"Even restoring minimal functionality in the short term seems implausible," he said, adding that "an in-depth assessment by a team of engineers is needed to determine if the remaining buildings are safe for future use."

Tedros lamented that efforts by WHO and other aid groups to revive basic services at Al-Shifa after Israel's first devastating raid on the hospital last year "are now lost, and people are once again deprived of access to lifesaving health care services."

Of Gaza's 36 main hospitals, only 10 remain partially functional, according to WHO.

Tedros said urgent action was needed in Gaza as "famine looms, disease outbreaks spread and trauma injuries increase."

He called for the "protection of remaining health facilities in Gaza (and) protection of health and humanitarian workers."

The WHO chief demanded "unimpeded access of humanitarian aid into and across the Gaza Strip" and a "ceasefire."

A man pushes a bicycle along as he walks amid building rubble in the devastated area around Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital on April 3, 2024. AFP

21:30 Thousands of relatives and supporters of Israeli captives held in Gaza since 7 October protested in front of the Defence Ministry in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv to demand the government reach a deal with Hamas to free their loved ones.

Protesters held placards, waved Israeli flags, and caricatures denouncing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Photo: AP

18:30 Egypt’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva Ahmed Ihab Gamaleldin called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the immediate cessation of Israel’s use of starvation, siege, and forced displacement as methods of war.

In a statement during the conclusion of the 55th session of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Gamaleldin reiterated Egypt’s strong condemnation of Israel’s intentional destruction of the Al-Shifa Hospital.

He also slammed the continued targeting of innocent civilians and humanitarian workers in the Palestinian territories, including the World Central Kitchen workers.

Gamaleldin underlined the biased position of some HRC members who continue to ignore the suffering of the Palestinian people and the unprecedented gross violations against them.

In his statement, Gamaleldin also expressed Egypt’s deep regrets that  “timid” condemnations have failed to address the tragedy in Gaza and other Palestinian territories, where over 100,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed or injured.

The Egyptian representative also warned categorically against any Israeli military offensive in the Palestinian city of Rafah.

He stressed that Israel, as the occupying power, is obligated to implement all Security Council resolutions, ensuring safe, sustainable, and immediate access to humanitarian assistance throughout all of Gaza.

A girl rides a scooter past the rubble of a destroyed building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 5, 2024. AFP

16:30 President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi underscored on Saturday Egypt’s “unshakable” commitment toward attaining the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and the establishment of their independent state on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The president also reiterated the country’s “unequivocal and steadfast” solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has killed over 33,000 people, injured thousands of others, and destroyed most of the infrastructure.

“Egypt will exert utmost and unyielding efforts to bring an end to the hostilities and ensure the unfettered delivery of much-needed humanitarian aid and relief into the strip,” El-Sisi said in an address delivered on the occasion marking Laylat Al-Qadr.

15:30 Palestinian movement Hamas refused to "back down" on Saturday from its demands for a Gaza ceasefire, but agreed to send a delegation for renewed talks in Cairo over the weekend.

"Hamas confirms its adherence to the position it presented on March 14 ... and we will not back down from this position," it said in a statement.

The group also reiterated its demands.

"The demands ... are complete ceasefire, withdrawal of the occupation forces from Gaza, the return of the displaced to their residential areas, freedom of movement of the people, offering them aid and shelter, and a serious hostage exchange deal," it said.

Negotiators were expected in Cairo over the weekend for a renewed push to strike a ceasefire and captives exchange deal with the war in Gaza set to reach the six-month mark on Sunday.

Hamas' insistence on its demands came as US President Joe Biden urged an "immediate ceasefire" in Gaza.

15:00 Israel's war against Gaza has escalated into a "betrayal of humanity," the United Nations' humanitarian chief said Saturday.

In a statement on the eve of the seven-month anniversary of the war, Martin Griffiths, the outgoing under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, called for a "collective determination that there be a reckoning for this betrayal of humanity."

 A woman sits holding empty containers outside a tent pitched by a destroyed building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 5, 2024. AFP 

"Each day, this war claims more civilian victims," said Griffiths, who will leave his post at the end of June due to health reasons.

"Every second that it continues sows the seeds of a future so deeply obscured by this relentless conflict."

Griffiths lamented "the unconscionable prospect of further escalation in Gaza, where no one is safe and there is nowhere safe to go."

He added that "an already fragile aid operation continues to be undermined by bombardments, insecurity and denials of access."

"On this day, my heart goes out to the families of those killed, injured, or taken hostage, and to those who face the particular suffering of not knowing the plight of their loved ones," he said in the statement.

14:00 Israel's army said on Saturday its troops recovered the body of one of the captives held by Hamas in Gaza.

The 47-year-old Elad Katzir “was rescued overnight from Khan Younis and returned to Israeli territory," the army said in a statement.

Katzir was captured from the Nir Oz kibbutz community along with his mother Hanna.

She was released on 24 November during a one-week truce in Israel’s Gaza war.

Katzir's father Avraham was killed during the attack at the kibbutz, the army said.

The recovery of Elad Katzir's body brings to 12 the number that the army says it has brought home from Gaza during the war.

A girl blows a balloon as behind her boys search through the rubble of a destroyed building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 5, 2024. AFP 

13:00 President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi underscored on Saturday Egypt’s “unshakable” commitment toward attaining the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and the establishment of their independent state on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The president also reiterated the country’s “unequivocal and steadfast” solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has killed over 33,000 people, injured thousands of others, and destroyed most of the infrastructure.

“Egypt will exert utmost and unyielding efforts to bring an end to the hostilities and ensure the unfettered delivery of much-needed humanitarian aid and relief into the strip,” El-Sisi said in an address delivered on the occasion of marking Laylat Al-Qadr.

12:00 Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Saturday that information from Israel about an Australian aid worker killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza was "not sufficient."

US-based World Central Kitchen said a "targeted attack" by Israeli forces on Monday had killed seven aid workers.

The group included 43-year-old Australian national Lalzawmi "Zomi" Frankcom, British, Palestinian, Polish, and US-Canadian employees.

After being briefed by Israeli authorities, Australia had "made clear that we have not yet received sufficient information to satisfy our expectations" about Frankcom's death, Wong told reporters.

A woman washes pots outside a tent pitched by a destroyed building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 5, 2024. AFP 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later admitted that his military had "unintentionally" killed the group — who had helped feed communities affected by conflict and disaster — in an airstrike.

"We expect full accountability for her death and for the World Central Kitchen colleagues who also perished with her," Wong said.

"We believe these deaths are utterly inexcusable and clear practical action is needed to ensure these tragedies are never repeated."

Wong acknowledged that Israel has confirmed that two individuals involved in the airstrike have since been "stood down."

"We reiterate that appropriate action must be taken against the individuals who are responsible for these tragic accidents," she added.

Wong described the airstrike as a "deadly failure of deconfliction" — the process by which humanitarian agencies engage with military forces to ensure their safety in conflict zones.

She says Australia wants full answers from the ongoing investigation by Israel.

"It cannot be brushed aside and it cannot be covered over," Wong added.

"Our expectation is that there is full transparency. People have been raising concerns for some time about what is occurring in relation to humanitarian workers," she said.

11:00 A senior US administration official revealed late Friday that US President Joe Biden wrote to the leaders of Egypt and Qatar, calling on them to press Hamas for a captives deal with Israel.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan will meet Monday with family members of some of the estimated 100 captives who are believed to still be in Gaza.

The letters to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Qatar’s ruling emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani come as Biden deployed CIA Director William Burns to Cairo for talks about the captive crisis.

David Barnea, the head of Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, and negotiators from Egypt and Qatar are expected to attend.

The Hamas side of the talks receives proposals relayed through third parties to leaders in the besieged Gaza Strip.

White House officials say negotiating a pause in Israel's Gaza war to facilitate the exchange of captives held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel is the only way to put a temporary ceasefire into effect and boost the flow of badly humanitarian aid into the territory.

Biden had expressed optimism for a temporary ceasefire and a captive deal during the runup to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but an agreement never materialized