WORLD BRIEFING: April 3, 2024

The aid group World Central Kitchen said Tuesday that it is pausing its efforts to feed Palestinians in Gaza after seven of its workers were killed by an Israeli strike. The nonprofit said in a statement that the team was hit while leaving a warehouse where they had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza by sea, a route that World Central Kitchen helped establish just last month. The organization said the convoy had been traveling in a deconflicted zone, in armored cars branded with their logo and after coordinating movements with Israel's military, which now says it will conduct an investigation of the incident "at the highest levels." Erin Gore, the CEO of World Central Kitchen, called it a "targeted attack…This is unforgivable. This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war," she said. The U.S.-based organization, which was founded by celebrity chef José Andrés and his wife Patricia in 2010, delivers food to people on the front lines of natural and humanitarian disasters around the world. ‪The seven staff killed in Gaza are from Australia, Poland, United Kingdom, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, and Palestine, the nonprofit said - NPR

Nato is drawing up plans to secure a five-year military aid package of up to $100bn, in an attempt to shield Ukraine from “winds of political change” that could usher in a second Trump presidency. The so-called Mission for Ukraine proposal, which will be discussed by Nato foreign ministers on Wednesday, is being put forward by the secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg. According to five alliance diplomats briefed on the plan, it would co-ordinate an estimated $100bn in support committed by the 32 members of the military alliance. Stoltenberg has pitched the proposal as a means “to shield the mechanism against the winds of political change”, according to people briefed on his remarks. If approved, it would also give the alliance control of the US-led Ramstein weapons support group and allow it to manage the supply of lethal weapons to Ukraine for the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. The Norwegian secretary-general, who will step down from his role this autumn, is aiming to reach agreement before the Nato leaders’ summit in Washington in July. “This will be crossing a Rubicon. Nato will have a role in co-ordinating lethal support to Ukraine,” said one of the diplomats. “I see consensus emerging and I think it will be there by the time we get on the plane to Washington.” - FT

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed into law a bill lowering the military mobilisation age by two years from 27 to 25. The move will allow Ukraine to call up more people to replenish its reserves, after volunteer numbers dropped. It was not immediately clear what prompted the president to sign the bill on Tuesday, however he has previously warned of plans Russia may have to launch a spring or summer offensive this year. - BBC

Taiwan's government says at least seven people have died and 711 have been injured after an offshore earthquake struck the eastern coast of the island. At a magnitude of the 7.4 it was the most powerful to hit the island in 25 years. Buildings in the capital, Taipei, and surrounding areas shook violently and it is feared dozens of people are trapped under rubble in Hualien county, near the epicentre. Tsunami alerts issued for nearby Japanese islands and the northern coast of the Philippines have been downgraded. Japan and China have offered assistance to Taiwan. President Tsai Ing-wen says Taiwan's military will be deployed in rescue operations - BBC

An unmanned aerial vehicle hit a military drone production facility in Russia's Tatarstan region, some 1,200 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. The drone attack appears to be Kyiv's deepest in Russia since the start of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. A Russian oil refinery in Tatarstan was also reportedly hit in a drone strike - RFE/RL

A court in Kazan, Russia has ruled to extend the pretrial detention of RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva until June 5, and rejected her request to be moved to house arrest. Appearing in court on April 1, Kurmasheva, a U.S. and Russian dual citizen, described the poor prison conditions and said her health has deteriorated as she has been unable to access treatment - RFE/RL