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October 7, 2023: Israel begins bombarding Gaza in retaliation to Hamas attacks
Israel resumes massive attacks on March 18, killing over 400 in a day — two months after ceasefire ending 15 months of relentless attacks began
Future governance of Gaza remains unclear as Trump suggests US takeover but Arab countries propose alternative plan, which UK, others back
Hamas and Israel exchange 25 hostages, bodies and 1,700 detainees in seven swaps
Over 50,000 Palestinians, 400 Israeli soldiers dead; nearly all of Gaza displaced
Multi-billion dollar challenges ahead to reconstruct decimated enclave
Gaza’s Government Media Office has accused Israel of exacerbating Palestinian children’s suffering through its ongoing blockade, which has led to widespread acute malnutrition affecting more than 65,000 hospitalised children out of 1.1 million facing daily hunger, Al Jazeera reports.
Israel is “using starvation and thirst as systematic weapons of war against civilians, in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law”, it said in a statement.
The statement added that “the continuous closure of border crossings has caused a catastrophic deterioration in health conditions, especially among children and infants”.
The office placed full responsibility on Israel for the worsening humanitarian disaster and for “endangering the lives of hundreds of thousands of children, women and elderly people due to the lack of food, medicine and clean water”.
An Israeli Channel 13 investigation has exposed the Biden administration’s complicity in Israel’s 19-month war on Gaza, Drop Site News reports.
Nine top Biden officials acknowledged avoiding real pressure on Israel — even as the death toll surpassed 30,000. Israeli leaders openly bragged they dragged out the conflict, playing for time until Donald Trump’s return, according to the report.
Former US national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Ambassador Tom Nides, and others defended their unwavering support for Israel — even as they admitted enabling a campaign one US aide described as “killing and destroying for the sake of killing and destroying.”
The report added that former Israeli ambassador Michael Herzog declared: “God did the State of Israel a favour that Biden was the president during this period, because it could have been much worse. We fought [in Gaza] for over a year, and the administration never came to us and said, ‘ceasefire now.’ It never did. And that’s not to be taken for granted.”
Senior US national security aide Ilan Goldenberg described the conflict’s aimlessness: “If they’re never going to do this, it doesn’t matter what the outcome is, Hamas is still going to control Gaza. You’re just killing and destroying for the sake of killing and destroying. But you’re not building an alternative.”
Biden aides privately admitted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was dragging out the conflict. “He’s undercutting it every step of the way,” said Goldenberg. “All the security people are coming out and saying it.”
Israeli forces have rounded up six Palestinians in the occupied West Bank’s Jenin city, including doctor Shaima Abu Ghali and journalist Ali al-Samoudi, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office (ASRA), Al Jazeera reports.
Elsewhere in the Palestinian territory, four people were arrested yesterday in the town of Beit Fajjar, the Bethlehem governorate, four others in the Hebron governorate, two in the city of Nablus, four in the governorate of Salfit, one in the city of al-Bireh and one more in the city of Qalqilya.
“Yesterday, the first day of the hearings, was quite in-depth with Palestine given ample time by President Yuji Iwasawa and a 13-strong judging panel to give its argument,” Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands reports from The Hague, Netherlands.
“Today, the pace really picks up. We have nine countries going before the panel, each being allocated half an hour to speak,” he said.
“We have South Africa, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Colombia in the morning session. And then in the afternoon, we have Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Spain.
“So, what to watch out for in all of this? South Africa is going to kick off this morning because it has been very critical of Israel over the past two-three years and brought the genocide case at the International Court of Justice in December 2023.
“Then, perhaps look out for Belgium and Spain. The EU member countries will give some indication of what the bloc thinks about this. Though because of the power outage in Spain, the Spanish delegation might have some difficulties in coming here,” Challands said.
“But tomorrow perhaps is going to be a more telling day. We will have US and Hungary speaking and they were two countries who voted against this whole thing from taking place at the UN General Assembly last year.
“So, they are likely to be supportive of Israel, perhaps the only two countries speaking over this process that will be supportive of Israel. But we also have Russia and France speaking tomorrow and they will be worth watching out for too.”
Al Jazeera reports that an overnight Israeli air raid has killed at least four people, including three children, in an attack on a camp for displaced Palestinians near Khan Younis.
At least 40 injured people were carried in ambulances to the Nasser Medical Complex.
Amnesty International has said Israel committed a “live-streamed genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza by forcibly displacing most of the population and deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe, reports AFP.
“Since 7 October 2023 — when Hamas perpetrated horrific crimes against Israeli citizens and others and captured more than 250 hostages — the world has been made audience to a live-streamed genocide,” Amnesty said in its recent report, titled ‘The State of the World’s Human Rights’.
“States watched on as if powerless, as Israel killed thousands upon thousands of Palestinians, wiping out entire multigenerational families, destroying homes, livelihoods, hospitals and schools,” Amnesty’s secretary general Agnes Callamard said in the report.
Amnesty said that throughout 2024 it had “documented multiple war crimes by Israel, including direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects, and indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks”.
It said Israel’s actions forcibly displaced 1.9 million Palestinians, around 90 per cent of Gaza’s population, and “deliberately engineered an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe”.
The United States has lost seven multi-million-dollar MQ-9 Reaper drones in the Yemen area since mid-March, when the latest round of its air campaign against the Houthi rebels began, AFP quotes a US official as saying.
MQ-9s can be used for both reconnaissance — a key aspect of US efforts to identify and target Houthi weaponry that the rebels are using to attack shipping — as well as strikes, and cost around $30 million apiece.
“There have been seven MQ-9s that have gone down since March 15,” the US official said on condition of anonymity, without specifying what caused the losses, the most recent of which took place on April 22.
Israel’s domestic security chief Ronen Bar has said he would stand down on June 15 following weeks of tension with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose decision to fire him was frozen by the country’s top court, AFP reports.
“After 35 years of service, in order to allow an orderly process for appointing a permanent successor and for professional handover, I will end my role on June 15, 2025,” the Shin Bet chief said during a memorial event for fallen officers of the agency.
Bar also addressed the agency’s failure to prevent Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel in October 2023.
“After years of many fronts, in one night, on the southern front, the sky fell. All systems collapsed. The Shin Bet failed to provide an early warning,” he said.
Bar recently sent a sworn statement to the Israeli supreme court accusing Netanyahu of demanding personal loyalty and ordering him to spy on anti-government protesters.
The Gaza Government Media Office has said that more than 65,000 cases of acute malnutrition have been recorded among 1.1 million children in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.
Israel’s attacks on Gaza and its ongoing total blockade of the Strip have led to a “catastrophic deterioration in health conditions, and the prevalence of cases of acute malnutrition, especially among children and infants”, the media office said in a statement on Telegram.
It condemned Israel for “using the weapon of starvation and thirst as a method of systematic war aimed at killing life in the Gaza Strip, in flagrant violation of all international and humanitarian laws and norms”.
It also called on the international community to intervene immediately to hold Israel responsible and alleviate the crisis.
Negotiations held in Cairo to reach a ceasefire in Gaza were witnessing a “significant breakthrough,” two Egyptian security sources tell Reuters.
The sources said there was a consensus on a long-term ceasefire in the besieged enclave, yet some sticking points remain, including Hamas arms.
The sources said the ongoing talks included Egyptian and Israeli delegations. Mediators Egypt and Qatar did not report developments on the latest talks.
Earlier, Egyptian state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV reported Egyptian intelligence chief General Hassan Mahmoud Rashad was set to meet an Israeli delegation headed by strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer in Cairo yesterday.
Speaking at a conference in Jerusalem last night, before Reuters reported that there had been progress in the talks, Dermer said the government remained committed to dismantling Hamas’ military capability, ending its rule in Gaza, ensuring that the enclave never again poses a threat to Israel and returning the hostages.
Ardi Imseis, a legal representative for the State of Palestine at the ICJ, explains that Israel is bound by obligations under international humanitarian law and human rights law as an occupying power in the Palestinian territories.
In effect, Israel must operate in “the best interests of the occupied Palestinian population”, he told Al Jazeera from The Hague, where today’s ICJ hearing took place. “That isn’t in fact what’s happening – it’s quite the opposite.”
Imseis noted that Palestinians face forcible transfer, starvation as a weapon of conflict and indiscriminate bombardment “in ways and means that are really unprecedented in the history of the Palestinian people”.
“The submissions that were made today focused on the [international humanitarian law] obligations”, he said, including the facilitation of “relief schemes for the benefit of the occupied population”.
“This is part of a longer process of holding — in this case — an illegal occupying power, an aggressive power, to account,” Imseis added.
The Brazilian foreign minister has denounced Israel’s blockade on humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the enclave as “unacceptable”, Al Jazeera reports.
“It is necessary to ensure the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the release of all the captives and prisoners, and the entry of humanitarian aid,” Mauro Vieira said during a meeting of Brics foreign ministers in Rio de Janeiro.
Brazil has assumed the presidency of the economic bloc for 2025.
Israel’s military has said it struck more than 50 “terror targets” across Lebanon over the past month, despite a November ceasefire that ended fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, AFP reports.
“Over the past month, the IDF (military) has struck more than 50 terror targets across Lebanon. These strikes were carried out following violations of the ceasefire and understandings between Israel and Lebanon, which posed a threat to the State of Israel and its citizens”, the military said in a statement.
Nine Palestinians, including four children, have been killed in an Israeli drone attack at the Al-Ghafari Junction in central Gaza City, Al Jazeera reports.
Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands reports that the UN is presenting its arguments at the International Court of Justice hearing, stating that Israel has a two-fold obligation under international law.
“It has an obligation as an occupying power in the Palestinian territories, and that obligation runs to essentially being burdened with looking after the well-being of Palestinians,” Challands reports.
“That includes children’s education and welfare systems, medical facilities, including UN-established hospitals, and humanitarian relief operations. If it doesn’t do those things, then it’s in contravention of its obligations under international law.”
He adds that Israel also has an obligation as a signatory to the UN Charter, because the UN under that charter has immunities and exemptions that set it apart from other institutions and other multilateral organisations.
“Now, those obligations mean that you should not arrest or detain or attack UN staff, that you should not bomb UN facilities and buildings, and if you do you are in contravention of international law and the UN Charter, and Israel is a signatory to that charter, which is debated,” Challands reports.
At least 36 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
The majority of the deaths, as many as 30, were reported in Gaza City and northern Gaza.
Palestinian Civil Defence says ambulances in southern Gaza have run out of fuel, with eight out of 12 vehicles out of order amid an ongoing Israeli blockade on humanitarian aid, Al Jazeera reports.
In a statement, it warned that with only four vehicles, its responses to residents will be limited, “threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens and displaced persons in shelters”.
“We hold the Israeli occupation responsible for the worsening suffering of our people in the Gaza Strip due to the ongoing war and the continued imposition of the blockade,” the statement said.
“We renew our call to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and international organisations to take immediate action to open the Gaza Strip crossings, allow the entry of fuel, and supply institutions and equipment working in the humanitarian field.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry has just issued its daily statistical report on Palestinian casualties in Israel’s military offensive on the enclave, Al Jazeera reports.
In the past 24 hours, Gaza hospitals have reported 71 people killed by Israeli forces, including 14 bodies recovered from under the rubble, and 153 injured.
Israel has killed at least 52,314 Palestinians since launching its military offensive on October 7, 2023. A further 17,792 people have been injured.
Since resuming its offensive on March 18, Israel has killed at least 2,222 people.
Al-Khidmat Foundation Pakistan has sent 40 tons of relief goods to the people of Gaza in Amman, the capital of Jordan, APP reports.
It has sent relief goods from Karachi on behalf of the people of Pakistan for the oppressed Palestinians.
President of Al-Khidmat Foundation Dr Hafeez-ur-Rehman told APP that the relief goods, sent with the support and cooperation of the government of Pakistan and the National Disaster Management Authority, include 20 tons of medicines, 5 tons of hygiene kits and 15 tons of tents.
He said that the foundation had already sent 900 tons of relief goods by air cargo to help the besieged and affected people of Gaza during Ramadan, but unfortunately, due to the closure of all border crossings between Egypt and Jordan, the relief goods could not reach Gaza during Ramadan.
At least 32 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip since dawn, including 26 in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera reports citing medical sources.
At least seven Palestinians, including two children, were killed in Israeli drone strikes on several areas west of Gaza City, the report added.
Israel’s army is flattening the remaining ruins of the city of Rafah on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, residents say, in what they fear is a part of a plan to herd the population into confinement in a giant camp on the barren ground.
Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported on Saturday that the military is setting up a new “humanitarian zone” in Rafah, to which civilians would be moved after security checks to keep out Hamas fighters. Aid would be distributed by private companies.
The Israeli military has yet to comment on the report and did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Residents said massive explosions could now be heard unceasingly from the dead zone where Rafah had once stood as a city of 300,000 people.
“Explosions never stop, day and night, whenever the ground shakes, we know they are destroying more homes in Rafah. Rafah is gone,” Tamer, a Gaza City man displaced in Deir Al-Balah, further north, told Reuters by text message.
Abu Mohammed, another displaced man in Gaza, told Reuters by text: “We are terrified that they could force us into Rafah, which is going to be like a cage of a concentration camp, completely sealed off from the world.”
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Juliette Touma, the director of communications at UNRWA, has called for Israel’s ban on the agency to be lifted immediately.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Touma said “international staff of the agency can no longer get visas from Israel to work in the occupied Palestinian territory”.
“We rely on the frontline, Palestinian local workers, 17,000 of them have been holding the fort and delivering services, including education, in East Jerusalem,” she added.
Touma stressed the dangers faced by UNRWA’s staff, saying: “Humanitarian workers have become a target in this war. We see this only at UNRWA – we are seeing nearly 300 of our colleagues have been killed, many of them during the line of duty while serving their communities.”
Despite the escalating challenges, Touma said UNRWA’s local staff continue to provide essential services to Palestinian communities, even as international staff are increasingly blocked from working on the ground.
Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands reports that Israel will not participate in oral proceedings at the International Court of Justice.
“We might not get a detailed look at what Israel’s defence is until some way down the line, because of its absence from the proceedings here in our coverage over the next five days or so,” he reports.
“We are not going to hear from an Israeli representative standing up in the court behind me and arguing Israel’s case.”
According to Challands, Israel has submitted written advice and objections, but they will not be participating in the actual verbal proceedings.
“However, we do have some idea of what they might be saying, because in the UK last week, lawyers representing Israel said in a paper that it had a right to terminate the agreement with UNRWA and ban the agency’s activities on its sovereign territory, especially in wartime,” Challands adds.
