[🇧🇩] Israel and Hamas war in Gaza-----Can Bangladesh be a peace broker?

[Saif]

Israeli strikes kill 36 in Gaza

Gaza rescue teams and medics said Israeli air strikes killed at least 36 people on Thursday, including a family of six whose home was struck in Gaza City...

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Israeli strikes kill 36 in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 24 April, 2025, 23:38

Children queue to receive charity meals from a kitchen in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday. | AFP photo

Gaza rescue teams and medics said Israeli air strikes killed at least 36 people on Thursday, including a family of six whose home was struck in Gaza City.

Israel resumed its military offensive in the Gaza Strip on March 18, following the collapse of a two-month ceasefire that had brought a temporary halt to fighting in the blockaded Palestinian territory.

Six members of one family — a couple and their four children — were killed when an air strike levelled their home in northern Gaza City, the civil defence said in a statement.

Nidal al-Sarafiti, a relative of the family, said the strike came as the family was sleeping.

‘What can I say? The destruction has spared no one,’ he said.

Nine people were killed and several wounded in another strike on a former police station in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, according to a statement from the Indonesian hospital, where the casualties were brought.

‘The bombing was extremely intense and it shook the entire area,’ said Abdel Qader Sabah, 23, from Jabalia.

‘Everyone started running and screaming, not knowing what to do from the horror and severity of the bombing.’

The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas ‘command and control centre’ in the Jabalia area but did not specify whether the target was the police station.

‘The command and control centre was used by the terrorists to plan and execute terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops,’ it said in a statement.

Elsewhere, 21 people were killed in a series of strikes across the territory, medics and the civil defence agency reported, including several in the southern area of Khan Yunis.

‘We were sitting in peace when the missile fell,’ said Mohammed Faris, who witnessed a strike on the house in Khan Yunis. ‘I just don’t understand what’s happening.’

Bodies lay on the ground, including those of a young woman and a boy in body bags, surrounded by grieving relatives kissing and stroking their faces, AFP footage showed.

‘One by one we are getting martyred, dying in pieces,’ said Rania al-Jumla, who lost her sister in another air strike in Khan Yunis.

‘We have had enough. Every day there’s death, every day we lose someone dear to us.’

Since Israel resumed its military operations, at least 1,978 people have been killed in Gaza, raising the overall death toll to at least 51,355 since the war began, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

The war was ignited by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

During the attack, militants also abducted 251 people and took them to Gaza. Of those, 58 remain in captivity, including 34 the military says are dead.

Israeli officials maintain that the on-going military campaign is essential to securing the release of the remaining hostages.

However, many families of the captives, along with thousands of protesters, have strongly criticised the authorities for pressing ahead with the offensive rather than striking a deal.​

 

[Saif]

UN food agency says its food stocks in Gaza run out

The World Food Program says its food stocks in the Gaza Strip have run out under Israel's nearly 8-week-old blockade, ending a main source of sustenance for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the territory. The WFP said in a statement that it delivered the last of its stocks to charity

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UN food agency says its food stocks in Gaza run out
AP
Published :
Apr 25, 2025 21:59
Updated :
Apr 25, 2025 21:59

The World Food Program says its food stocks in the Gaza Strip have run out under Israel's nearly 8-week-old blockade, ending a main source of sustenance for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the territory.

The WFP said in a statement that it delivered the last of its stocks to charity kitchens that it supports around Gaza. It said those kitchens are expected to run out of food in the coming days, reports AP.

Some 80 per cent of Gaza's population of more than 2 million relies primarily on charity kitchens for food, because other sources have shut down under Israel's blockade, according to the UN.

The WFP has been supporting 47 kitchens that distribute 644,000 hot meals a day, said WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa.

It was not immediately clear how many kitchens would still be operating in Gaza if those shut down. But Etefa said the WFP-backed kitchens are the major ones in Gaza.

Israel cut off entry of all food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to Gaza on March 2 and then resumed its bombardment and ground offensives two weeks later, shattering a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.

It says the moves aim to pressure Hamas to release hostages it still holds. Rights groups have called the blockade a "starvation tactic" and a potential war crime.

Israel has said Gaza has enough supplies after a surge of aid entered during the ceasefire and accuses Hamas of diverting aid for its purposes. Humanitarian workers deny there is significant diversion, saying the UN strictly monitors distribution.

They say the aid flow during the ceasefire was barely enough to cover the immense needs from throughout the war when only a trickle of supplies got in.

With no new goods entering Gaza, many foods have disappeared from markets, including meat, eggs, fruits, dairy products and many vegetables. Prices for what remains have risen dramatically, becoming unaffordable for much of the population. Most families rely heavily on canned goods.
​

 

[Saif]

Israeli fire kills at least 44 people in Gaza, hits a police station

An Israeli airstrike hit a police station in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least 10 people, local health authorities said, and Israel's military said it had struck a command centre of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad groups

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Israeli fire kills at least 44 people in Gaza, hits a police station

Palestinians inspect damage at the site of an Israeli strike on a tent sheltering displaced people, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip April 25, 2025. Photo: Reuters/Hatem Khaled

An Israeli airstrike hit a police station in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least 10 people, local health authorities said, and Israel's military said it had struck a command centre of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad groups.

Medics said two Israeli missiles hit the police station, located near a market, which led to the wounding of dozens of people in addition to the 10 deaths. The identities of those killed were not immediately clear.

The Israeli military said in a statement apparently referring to the same incident, that it attacked a command and control centre operated by Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad groups in Jabalia, which militants used to plan and execute attacks against Israeli forces.

It accused Palestinian militant groups of exploiting civilians and civil properties for military purposes, an allegation Hamas and other factions deny.

Local health authorities said Israeli strikes have killed at least 34 other people in separate airstrikes across the enclave, bringing Thursday's death toll to 44.

The Gaza Health Ministry said the Durra Children's Hospital in Gaza City had become non-operational, a day after an Israeli strike hit the upper part of the building, damaging the intensive care unit and destroying the facility's solar power panel system.

No one was killed. There was no Israeli comment on the incident.

Israel's military said on Thursday that one soldier was killed during combat in the northern Gaza Strip, while an officer and a reservist were severely injured.

Gaza's health system has been devastated by Israel's 18-month-old military campaign, launched in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas in 2023, putting many of the territory's hospitals out of action, killing medics, and reducing crucial supplies.

Since a January ceasefire collapsed on March 18, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,900 Palestinians, many of them civilians, according to the Gaza health authorities, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced as Israel seized what it calls a buffer zone of Gaza's land.

Efforts by Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have so far failed to reconcile disputes between the two warring parties, Israel and Hamas.

The attack on Israel by Hamas in October 2023 killed 1,200 people, and 251 hostages were taken to Gaza. Since then, more than 51,300 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to health officials.​

 

[Saif]

‘Israel's main mission is not combating terrorism, but destroying Gaza’

Both the US and Israel massively spy on each other.

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‘Israel's main mission is not combating terrorism, but destroying Gaza’

VISUAL: STAR

As the genocide in Gaza continues, Antony Loewenstein, an independent journalist, film-maker, and best-selling author of The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation around the World, speaks to Priyam Paul of The Daily Star debunking how Israel's surveillance technology, the military-industrial complex, and global dynamics perpetuate the suffering of Palestinians.

What experiences shaped your interest in writing your book?

I am a Jewish Australian-German. I was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1974, and brought up in a relatively liberal Jewish home. However, believing and supporting Israel was pretty much a part of the regular, daily discourse. It was not rammed down my throat, but it was pretty standard for many Jewish people to support Israel, because of our own history. For instance, my own family came from Germany and Austria. Majority of my family members were killed in the Holocaust; the ones who escaped, mostly in 1939, were spread around the world, including Australia. Therefore, the idea of a so-called safe-haven for Jews—as we were told—was Israel, which made sense to me when I was a child.

Of course, what I was not told while growing up was that there were millions of Palestinians who have been under occupation for decades, and they are suffering because of that safe haven and supposed Jewish liberation. When I discovered the truth myself, it really made me deeply uncomfortable since I was a teenager and it continues to unnerve me to this day.

Why and how have the military-industrial complexes of both Israel and the US become so deeply intertwined, and in what ways have they operated similarly over the years, particularly to perpetuate the occupation and systemic erasure of the Palestinian people?

The US is Israel's biggest funder, armour, political supporter, diplomatic backer, and ally. This has been the reality since 1948, when Israel was established. It massively accelerated after 1967 when Israel took control of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, and it has been the case long before Donald Trump became president again earlier this year.

Huge amounts of weapons that Israel uses are often tested and trialled in the US first. When the US is giving billions of dollars of so-called aid and military support every year to Israel, a significant amount of that money goes to certain districts in the US to back specific weapons or defence programmes. It is also worth mentioning that although the US-Israel relationship is very close, it is dysfunctional. Both nations massively spy on each other. We are not aware of the exact number of spies that both nations use on the other, but there is a desire on both sides to get the most accurate insider information about each other. So, the two nations are supposedly best of friends, but they also don't completely trust each other.

In your book, you wrote, "Israeli history can be split into two eras: before and after 1967." Could you elaborate on the implications of the Six Day War for Israeli policy and explain what led to such a drastic historical and political shift?

After 1967, Israel took control of the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights, and there was a perceived need within Israel to justify and defend those military actions and what became a brutal military occupation against the occupied Palestinians who lived there. Although Israel, for years before 1967, had used Palestine as a laboratory, it massively expanded after that. From the late 1960s, but certainly into the 1970s and pretty much to this day, roughly 50 or so years later, Israel often uses the occupied Palestinian territories as a way to prove to other countries how effective they are at suppressing Palestinian dissent or their self-determination.

A large number of other countries, military figures, police forces from the US, along with parts of Europe and Asia, often travel to Israel to observe firsthand the reality of what the occupation means for Palestinians and then take back that experience and knowledge, often to develop defence relationships and contracts relevant to their own conflicts. The previous repressive administration in Bangladesh also sought Israeli tech to spy on dissidents of the state.

To what extent has the world changed with Israel's global reach in surveillance—through arms sales, mobile tracking technologies, and its influence over social media platforms where Palestinian content is often censored?

Israeli technology has massively influenced surveillance around the world, although there are obviously other countries that produce surveillance technology, including the US, China, and many countries in Europe. Israel is a global leader in surveillance technology and possibly among the top one or two biggest providers of surveillance worldwide.

The most prominent of these technologies often comes from the software company NSO Group and its tool, Pegasus. However, there are others, such as Paragon. They are sold to various governments, dictatorships, democracies, police forces, and intelligence services.

We are told that they are used to fight "terrorism and crime," but actually they are often used by those states with clearly the knowledge of both NSO Group and the Israeli government, to go after dissidents, critics, and human rights activists. And one of the ways that Israel—particularly since Benjamin Netanyahu became prime minister many years ago—has been using these weapons and surveillance technologies is as a diplomatic tool.

It is a way for Israel to make so-called friends. Israel says to a country, that we will sell this incredibly powerful spyware that will enable you to monitor your dissidents and people you don't like, but in return, we would like you to do certain things for us. For example, voting in a certain way in the United Nations or supporting Israel in some other way.

How do you evaluate the events of the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and Israel's ongoing large-scale assault on Gaza?

The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in many ways, should have revealed to the world that Israel's surveillance and military tech has failed miserably. From the Israeli perspective, more than 1,200 Israelis were killed and all their defences disappeared. Hamas was able to overwhelm Israel's defences.

However, the reality is that many of the same companies that had been used by Israel before October 7, 2023 to provide apparent defence to Israel from Gaza and Hamas are now some of the key players in Israel's genocide in Gaza. I am talking about Elbert, Israel's biggest defence company, and others. They are using, leveraging, and testing massive amounts of weapons in Gaza. One of the most prominent examples of this testing includes killer drones, so-called quadcopters, artificial intelligence (AI), which did exist and was used before October 7 as well.

However, Israel has massively increased the use of this AI warfare in Gaza after the Hamas attack. So, a huge number of Palestinian civilians who have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023 have been chosen by the so-called AI warfare tech with barely, if any, human oversight. This is because Israel's main mission in Gaza has never been about destroying Hamas or going after terrorism. Rather, it has been about destroying Gaza and making it unliveable.

What role can the global public opinion play in addressing the long-term Palestinian cause, especially when international pressure often fails to bring about meaningful change?

The two-state solution for Israel and Palestine is over and dead, and arguably was never going to happen. Because for decades, the Israeli politicians—and I would say many, if not most, of the Israeli Jewish public—have shown little interest in giving up the occupied territories that they control. The Israeli settler movement, which is not the majority of the Israeli public but certainly the most politically powerful, has essentially taken over the state. There is no political pressure within Israel for a two-state solution, and there is frankly no international pressure either.

The US, even before Donald Trump, essentially was allowing and supporting Israeli actions in the West Bank, Gaza, and beyond. The Europeans are mostly distracted with their own issues, with Ukraine and now Trump. The Arab countries talk about a two-state solution, but they are mostly keen on maintaining good relations outrageously and shamefully with Israel and the US. So, what I fear is that, in the short to medium terms, we are going to see what kind of already exists, which is a one-state apartheid system, where Israelis have full rights, while Palestinians remain second class citizens.

Antony Loewenstein's book The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation around the World is set to be translated into Bangla and re-published soon.​

 

[Saif]

Death toll rises to 52,243 in Gaza

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza announced Sunday that the death toll from the war had risen to more than 52,000 people, after hundreds previously listed as missing were confirmed dead...

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Death toll rises to 52,243 in Gaza
Hundreds of war missing confirmed dead
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 27 April, 2025, 23:59

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza announced Sunday that the death toll from the war had risen to more than 52,000 people, after hundreds previously listed as missing were confirmed dead.

‘An additional 697 martyrs have been added to the cumulative statistics after their data was completed and verified by the committee monitoring missing persons,’ the health ministry said in a statement, giving the overall toll of 52,243.

Several United Nations agencies that operate in Gaza have said the ministry’s data is credible and they are frequently cited by international organisations.

One hospital in the Palestinian territory confirmed the data and elaborated on the process.

‘The families of those initially reported missing had informed authorities of their disappearance, but their bodies were subsequently recovered — either from beneath the rubble or from areas previously inaccessible to medical teams due to the presence of the Israeli army,’ said Khalil al-Daqran, spokesman for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

He said the ministry’s release of the 697 figure came after a ‘judicial committee’ that collects and checks data completed its documentation, ‘confirming their martyrdom and transferring their status from missing persons to martyrs.’

When asked why such a large number was announced simultaneously, the Hamas government’s Media Office in Gaza explained that statistics are released periodically.

It is not the first time the health ministry has made such a revision.

‘Because the judicial committee issues its report periodically rather than daily. They follow their own procedural protocols, and once their report was finalised, it was officially adopted,’ Ismail al-Thawabta, director general of the Media Office, said.

With Gaza largely in ruins after more than 18 months of war, the health ministry has struggled to count the death toll.

Israel has repeatedly questioned the credibility of the daily figures put out by the ministry, criticising the Gaza authorities for failing to distinguish between combatants and civilians.

But neither the Israeli military nor top Israeli officials have denied the scale of the overall toll.

Earlier this year, Israel and Hamas agreed to a truce, which began on January 19, but collapsed two months later on March 18 due to disagreements over the next phase of the deal.

Since then, Israel has resumed its military campaign in Gaza, resulting in at least 2,151 additional deaths.

Meanwhile, Gaza mediator Qatar said on Sunday there was some progress in talks in Doha this week aimed at securing a new truce in the Israel-Hamas war.

Speaking at a news conference, Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani reported ‘a bit of progress’, in response to questions about reports of a Thursday meeting in Doha between Israel’s Mossad spy agency chief David Barnea and the Qatari prime minister.

‘We need to find an answer for the ultimate question: how to end this war. That’s, that’s basically, I think, the key point of the entire negotiations,’ Sheikh Mohammed added.

Qatar, alongside Egypt and the United States, brokered a truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza which came into effect on January 19 but which did not bring a complete end to the war.

The initial phase of the truce ended in early March, with the two sides unable to agree on the next steps. Israel resumed air and ground attacks across the Gaza Strip on March 18 after earlier halting the entry of aid.

Sheikh Mohammed met with Barnea in the Qatari capital to discuss a potential hostage deal on Thursday, according to Israeli media.

‘The meeting that took place on Thursday is part of these efforts where we’re trying to find a breakthrough,’ the Qatari prime minister said without further elaborating on the details of the meeting.

Hamas is open to an agreement to end the war in Gaza that would see all hostages released and secure a five-year truce, an official said on Saturday as the group’s negotiators met in Cairo.

The Qatari PM said efforts were focused on the ‘best comprehensive deal possible that ends the war, brings the hostages out and not dividing a deal into other phases.’

Hamas has insisted that the negotiations should lead to a permanent end to the war.

According to the Palestinian group, it rejected an earlier Israeli offer that included a 45-day ceasefire in exchange for the return of 10 living hostages.​

 

[Saif]

Israel using aid blockage as ‘weapon of war’

A top Palestinian official yesterday told the International Court of Justice that Israel was blocking humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza as a “weapon of war”, at the start of a week of hearings at the UN’s top court.

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Israel using aid blockage as ‘weapon of war’
Palestinian official tells ICJ as food runs out in the tiny Palestinian enclave

A Palestinian mother cries, holding the body of her baby, at the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday. The baby was killed in an Israeli air strike. Photo: AFP

A top Palestinian official yesterday told the International Court of Justice that Israel was blocking humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza as a "weapon of war", at the start of a week of hearings at the UN's top court.

Israel is not participating at the ICJ but hit back immediately, dismissing the hearings as "part of the systematic persecution and delegitimisation" of the country.

The ICJ is hearing dozens of nations and organisations to draw up a so-called advisory opinion on Israel's humanitarian obligations to Palestinians, more than 50 days into its total blockage on aid entering war-ravaged Gaza.

Top Palestinian official Ammar Hijazi told judges that "all UN-supported bakeries in Gaza have been forced to shut their doors".

"Nine of every 10 Palestinians have no access to safe drinking water. Storage facilities of the UN and other international agencies are empty," added Hijazi.

"These are the facts. Starvation is here. Humanitarian aid is being used as a weapon of war," concluded the Palestinian representative.

Speaking in Jerusalem, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the case in The Hague was "part of a systematic persecution and delegitimisation of Israel".

"It is not Israel that should be on trial. It is the UN and UNRWA", he told reporters, referring to the United Nations aid agency for Palestinian refugees.

Israel has banned UNRWA from operating on Israeli soil.

UNRWA Secretary-General Philippe Lazzarini urged Israel "as an occupying power" to "provide services or facilitate their delivery -- including through UNRWA -- to the population it is occupying".

In December, the UN's General Assembly asked the ICJ for an advisory opinion "on a priority basis and with the utmost urgency".

The UN asked judges to clarify Israel's legal duties towards the UN and its agencies, international organisations or third-party states to "ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population".

Israel strictly controls all inflows of international aid vital for the 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

It halted aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2, days before the collapse of a ceasefire that had significantly reduced hostilities after 15 months of war.

Israel resumed air bombardment on March 18, followed by renewed ground attacks.

This has triggered what the UN has described as "likely the worst" humanitarian crisis the occupied Palestinian territory has faced since the Israeli offensive started on October 7, 2023.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 52,243 people in Gaza since October 2023, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes on Sunday had killed 50 people in the territory.

At least 2,111 Palestinians have been killed since March 18.

The UN considers the ministry's figures reliable.​

 

[Saif]

Amnesty accuses Israel of ‘live-streamed genocide’ in Gaza

Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Israel of committing a ‘live-streamed genocide’ by forcibly displacing most Gazans and deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe — allegations Israel dismissed as ‘blatant lies’.

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Amnesty accuses Israel of ‘live-streamed genocide’ in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 29 April, 2025, 22:28

Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Israel of committing a ‘live-streamed genocide’ by forcibly displacing most Gazans and deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe — allegations Israel dismissed as ‘blatant lies’.

The UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, warned Israel’s blockade on aid had become a ‘silent killer’ in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, with children and the sick suffering the most.

In its annual report, Amnesty said Israel was acting with ‘specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, thus committing genocide’.

The Gaza war erupted after the Palestinian militant group Hamas’s deadly October 7, 2023 attacks inside Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel in response launched a relentless bombardment of Gaza and a ground offensive that according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory has left at least 52,365 dead.

‘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’s secretary general Agnes Callamard said.

‘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.’

Gaza’s civil defence agency on Tuesday said Israeli strikes killed at least seven people, including four in tents for displaced people near Al-Iqleem in southern Gaza.

‘I just want to lay my head on a pillow and sleep. We don’t want to be collecting remains (of body parts),’ said Widad Fojo, who lost relatives in one of the strikes.

Israel resumed its Gaza offensive on March 18 after a two-month ceasefire, saying it aimed to secure the release of hostages.

‘We will bring them back,’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, referring to captives held in Gaza.

Amnesty said it had ‘documented multiple war crimes by Israel’, including attacks on civilians, and that Israel had ‘deliberately engineered an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe’.

The London-based rights group said 1.9 million people — about 90 per cent of Gaza’s population — had been forcibly displaced.

Israel rejected the report, accusing Amnesty of spreading Hamas propaganda.

‘The radical anti-Israel organisation Amnesty has once again chosen to publish baseless lies against Israel,’ said foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein.

‘Israel is targeting only terrorists and never civilians. Hamas, on the other hand, deliberately targets Israeli civilians and hides behind Palestinian civilians, stealing humanitarian aid intended for the people of Gaza and causing suffering for both Palestinians and Israelis,’ he said.

UNRWA said children and the sick were suffering the most.

‘Children in Gaza are going to bed starving. The ill and the sick are not able to get medical care because of shortages in supplies in hospitals and clinics,’ its spokeswoman Juliette Touma said.

‘Gaza has become a land of desperation. The siege on Gaza is a silent killer, a silent killer of children, of older people, of the most vulnerable in the community.’

UNRWA also said more than 50 of its staff, including teachers and doctors, had been abused by Israeli forces in detention.

‘They have been treated in the most shocking & inhumane way. They reported being beaten + used as human shields,’ UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X.

Israel has accused some UNRWA employees of involvement in the October 7 attack and has subsequently banned the agency from operating within its territory.

Amnesty said the war represented a collective failure by the international community.

Heba Morayef, Amnesty’s regional director, said Palestinians had endured ‘extreme levels of suffering while the world showed a ‘complete inability or lack of political will to put a stop to it’.

Separately, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said Israel released from detention on Tuesday a medic held since a deadly attack on ambulances in southern Gaza on March 23.

The attack had left 15 medics and emergency responders dead, which an Israeli military investigation said was a result of ‘operational’ failures on part of the troops on the ground.​

 

[Saif]

'We are breaking the bodies and minds of children of Gaza', says WHO Executive Director

The minds and bodies of children in Gaza are being broken following two months of aid blockade and renewed strikes, the Executive Director of the World Health Organization Emergencies programmes said on Thursday. Since Mar 2 Israel has blocked the entry of medical, fuel, and food supplies into Gaz

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'We are breaking the bodies and minds of children of Gaza', says WHO Executive Director
REUTERS
Published :
May 02, 2025 15:24
Updated :
May 02, 2025 15:24

Palestinian kids stand at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, February 7, 2024. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

The minds and bodies of children in Gaza are being broken following two months of aid blockade and renewed strikes, the Executive Director of the World Health Organization Emergencies programmes said on Thursday.

Since Mar 2 Israel has blocked the entry of medical, fuel, and food supplies into Gaza.

"We are breaking the bodies and minds of the children of Gaza. We are starving the children of Gaza. We are complicit," Deputy Director General Michael Ryan told reporters at the WHO's headquarters.

"As a physician I am angry. It is an abomination," he said.

Israel says the decision to block the supplies was aimed at pressuring Hamas to free hostages as the ceasefire agreement stalled.

"The current level of malnutrition is causing a collapse in immunity," Ryan said, warning that cases of pneumonia and meningitis in women and children could increase.

Israel has previously denied that Gaza was facing a hunger crisis. It has not made clear when and how aid will be resumed.

Israel's military accuses Hamas of diverting aid, which Hamas denies.

The United Nations warned this week that acute malnutrition among Gaza's children was worsening.​

 

[Saif]

Activist aid ship hit by drones on way to Gaza, NGO says

A ship carrying humanitarian aid and activists for Gaza was bombed by drones in international waters off Malta early on Friday, its organisers said, alleging that Israel was to blame. The Israeli foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegation by the Freedom

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Activist aid ship hit by drones on way to Gaza, NGO says
REUTERS
Published :
May 02, 2025 20:49
Updated :
May 02, 2025 20:49

A tug vessel puts out a fire on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla vessel Conscience outside Maltese territorial waters in this handout picture provided by Malta Goverment Department of Information, May 2, 2025. Photo : Goverment of Malta/Handout via REUTERS

A ship carrying humanitarian aid and activists for Gaza was bombed by drones in international waters off Malta early on Friday, its organisers said, alleging that Israel was to blame.

The Israeli foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegation by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an international non-governmental group.

The Maltese government said the vessel and its crew were secured in the early hours of the morning after a nearby tug assisted with firefighting operations, but the NGO and Swedish activist Greta Thunberg said the ship was still in danger.

Thunberg told Reuters she was in Malta and had been supposed to board the ship as part of the Freedom Flotilla's planned action in support of Gaza, which is under blockade and bombardment by Israel.

The NGO published video footage, filmed in darkness, showing a fire on one of its ships, the Conscience. The footage showed lights in the sky in front of the ship and the sound of explosions could be heard.

"Israeli ambassadors must be summoned and answer to violations of international law, including the ongoing blockade (of Gaza) and the bombing of our civilian vessel in international waters," it said.

The Maltese government said maritime authorities had received a mayday call shortly after midnight local time from a vessel outside of territorial waters, with 12 crew members and four civilians on board, reporting a fire.

It said a nearby tug headed to the scene and launched firefighting operations and a Maltese patrol vessel was dispatched. After several hours, the vessel and its crew were secure, it said, adding that crew had refused to board the tug.

'BREAK THE BLOCKADE'

But the Freedom Flotilla said in a statement on its website that the alleged drone strikes had caused "a substantial breach in the hull".

"The drone strike appears to have deliberately targeted the ship's generator, leaving the crew without power and placing the vessel at great risk of sinking," it said.

A spokeswoman for the group, Caoimhe Butterly, said the attack took place as the ship was preparing for activists to board from another vessel. A transfer at sea had been planned rather than the ship going to harbour, for bureaucratic reasons, she said.

Thunberg said that as far as she knew, the vessel was still at the location where it had been attacked and still in imminent danger.

"This attack caused an explosion and major damage to the vessel, which made it impossible to continue the mission," she said in a Zoom interview.

"I was part of the group who was supposed to board that boat today to continue the voyage towards Gaza, which is one of many attempts to open up a humanitarian corridor and to do our part to keep trying to break Israel's illegal siege on Gaza," she said.

Thunberg and the NGO said there were 30 people on board, not 16 as the Maltese government said.

The coalition said it had been organising a non-violent action under a media blackout in order to avoid any potential sabotage.

The Gaza war started after Hamas-led fighters killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages to Gaza in the October 7, 2023 attacks, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel's offensive on the enclave killed more than 52,000, according to Palestinian health officials.

Since March 2, Israel has completely cut off all supplies to the 2.3 million residents of the enclave, and food stockpiled during a ceasefire at the start of the year has all but run out.

Another coalition ship on a similar mission to Gaza in 2010 was stopped and boarded by Israeli troops, and nine activists died. Other ships have similarly been stopped and boarded, without loss of life.

Hamas issued a statement about the incident off Malta, accusing Israel of "piracy" and "state terrorism".​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strikes kill 29 in Gaza

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 29 people Friday in the Palestinian territory, devastated by war and under a total Israeli aid blockade for two months.

www.newagebd.net

Israeli strikes kill 29 in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 03 May, 2025, 01:26

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 29 people Friday in the Palestinian territory, devastated by war and under a total Israeli aid blockade for two months.

Israel resumed its military campaign in the Gaza Strip on March 18 after the collapse of a ceasefire that had largely halted the fighting.

Nine people were killed when an Israeli air strike hit a home in Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, civil defence official Mohammed al-Mughayyir said.

Another six people were killed in a separate strike targeting the Al-Masri family home in the northern city of Beit Lahia, he added.

In Gaza City, a strike on a community kitchen claimed the lives of six more, the civil defence agency reported.

Elsewhere across the Gaza Strip, at least eight additional fatalities were reported in similar attacks, the agency said.

Since Israel resumed its campaign in Gaza, at least 2,326 people have been killed, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,418, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

The war erupted after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.

That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel says its renewed military campaign aims to force Hamas to free the remaining captives.

Israel halted aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2, days before the collapse of the ceasefire which had come into effect on January 19.

The United Nations has repeatedly warned of the humanitarian catastrophe on the ground, with famine again looming.

On Friday, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned that the humanitarian response in Gaza was on the ‘verge of total collapse’.

‘This situation must not — and cannot — be allowed to escalate further,’ Pascal Hundt, ICRC deputy director of Operations said in a statement.

Meanwhile, A group of activists organising an aid boat for Gaza said it was attacked on Friday by drones in international waters off Malta as they headed towards the Palestinian territory, accusing Israel of attacking the vessel.

The Maltese government said it responded to a distress call from the vessel and offered immediate support.

It said all crew members were safe, while making no mention of an alleged attack.

‘At 00:23 Maltese time (2223 GMT on Thursday), the Conscience, a Freedom Flotilla Coalition ship came under direct attack in international waters,’ the activist group said in a statement.

‘Armed drones attacked the front of an unarmed civilian vessel twice, causing a fire and a substantial breach in the hull,’ it added, blaming Israel.

‘Israeli ambassadors must be summoned and answer to violations of international law, including the on-going blockade and the bombing of our civilian vessel in international waters.’

The Israeli military did not provide an immediate response when contacted by AFP.

The strike, the activists said, appeared to target the boat’s generator.

Following the distress call, the Malta Vessel Traffic Services body dispatched a tugboat and offered support.

‘The tug arrived on scene and began firefighting operations. By 0128 hrs, the fire was reported under control,’ the Maltese statement said.​

 

[Saif]

Flights again halted to Israel after Houthi missile lands near airport

European and U.S. carriers cancelled flights for the next several days after a missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Sunday landed near Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, the country’s main international travel gateway. Many foreign airlines subsequently suspended flights to and fr

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Flights again halted to Israel after Houthi missile lands near airport
REUTERS
Published :
May 04, 2025 20:58
Updated :
May 04, 2025 20:58

Israeli police officers investigate a crater at the site of a missile attack, launched from Yemen, near Ben Gurion Airport, in Tel Aviv, Israel May 4, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Nir Elias

European and U.S. carriers cancelled flights for the next several days after a missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Sunday landed near Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, the country’s main international travel gateway.

Many foreign airlines subsequently suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv after the missile hit, sending a plume of smoke into the air and causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.

Following a ceasefire deal with Palestinian militant group Hamas in January, foreign carriers had begun to resume flights to Israel after halting them for much of the last year and a half since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack.

That left flag carrier El Al Airlines - along with smaller rivals Arkia and Israir - with a near monopoly. El Al’s shares rose 7%, while Israir gained 4.1% in a flat broader Tel Aviv market on Sunday.

Delta Air Lines said it cancelled Sunday’s flight from JFK in New York to Tel Aviv and the return flight from Tel Aviv on Monday. United cancelled its twice daily flights between Tel Aviv and Newark while it monitors the situation.

Earlier, flights from Tel Aviv on Delta and United on Sunday morning departed about 90 minutes late.

Lufthansa Group, which includes Lufthansa, Swiss, Brussels and Austrian, said it had halted flights to and from Tel Aviv through Tuesday due to the current situation.

ITA said it had cancelled flights from Italy to Israel through Wednesday, while Air France cancelled flights on Sunday, saying customers were transferred to flights on Monday. TUS flights to and from Cyprus were cancelled through Monday, while Air India flights from New Delhi were halted on Sunday.

Ryanair suspended flights on Sunday but flights are still scheduled for Monday, according to the Israel Airports Authority. Wizz also halted flights.

“I’m afraid it’s going to be very difficult to go back to France because all European carriers, from what I see on the information (board), have cancelled. Lufthansa have cancelled, Swiss have cancelled, Brussels (Airlines), so no connection is possible,” said Michael Sceemes, 56, whose Air France flight was cancelled.

Aegean, flydubai and Ethiopian did not cancel flights.

El Al said it would reintroduce rescue flights to Israel from Larnaca and Athens for passengers stranded by foreign carriers at a cost of $99 and $149, respectively.

Udi Bar Oz, head of Ben Gurion Airport, said the airport was up and running less than 30 minutes after the missile hit a road nearby.

Claiming responsibility for the strike, the Houthis’ military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said Israel’s main airport was “no longer safe for air travel”.

The Houthis, who control swathes of Yemen, began targeting Israel and Red Sea shipping in late 2023, during the early days of the war between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip.

U.S. President Donald Trump in March ordered large-scale strikes against the Houthis to deter them from targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to respond to the Houthis. “We attacked in the past, we will attack in the future ... There will be more blows,” he said.​

 

[Saif]

Humanitarian situation in Gaza ‘beyond imagination’: UN agency

“The humanitarian situation throughout the Gaza Strip is beyond imagination,” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East warned on Sunday. The UN agency said on social media platform X that “as the complete blocking of supplies essential fo

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Humanitarian situation in Gaza ‘beyond imagination’: UN agency
Published :
May 04, 2025 21:06
Updated :
May 04, 2025 21:06

“The humanitarian situation throughout the Gaza Strip is beyond imagination,” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East warned on Sunday.

The UN agency said on social media platform X that “as the complete blocking of supplies essential for survival enters its ninth week, there must be a concerted international effort to stop this humanitarian catastrophe from reaching a new unseen level,” reiterating its call for an urgent ceasefire, reports UNB.

Meanwhile, the Hamas-run media office warned of an imminent humanitarian disaster in Gaza due to the continued closure of the crossings and a stifling blockade lasting more than 60 days.

The office said in a press statement that “the Israeli occupation continues to prevent the entry of baby formula, nutritional supplements, and all forms of humanitarian aid, leaving more than 70,000 children hospitalized due to severe malnutrition.”

It added that more than 3,500 children under the age of five are at imminent risk of death from starvation.

The statement called on the international community to take urgent and immediate action to reopen crossings and allow the entry of baby formula and nutritional supplements into Gaza.

Israel halted the flow of goods and supplies into Gaza on March 2 following the expiration of the first phase of a January ceasefire agreement with Hamas. The second phase has yet to be implemented due to a lack of consensus between the parties.​

 

[Saif]

Israel may seize all Gaza in expanded operation, officials say

Israel may seize the Gaza Strip and control aid in an expanded offensive against Palestinian militant group Hamas that was approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet on Monday, officials said. An Israeli defence official said it would not be launched before US President Donal

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Israel may seize all Gaza in expanded operation, officials say
REUTERS
Published :
May 05, 2025 20:40
Updated :
May 05, 2025 20:40

Israeli tanks are positioned near the Israel-Gaza border, in Israel, March 18, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Amir Cohen/Files

Israel may seize the Gaza Strip and control aid in an expanded offensive against Palestinian militant group Hamas that was approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet on Monday, officials said.

An Israeli defence official said it would not be launched before US President Donald Trump concludes his visit next week to the Middle East.

The decision, after weeks of faltering efforts to agree a ceasefire with Hamas, underlines the threat that a war heaping international pressure on Israel amid dwindling public support at home could continue with no end in sight.

A government spokesman told journalists online that reserve soldiers were being called up to expand operations in Gaza, not to occupy it.

A report by Israel's public broadcaster Kan, citing officials with knowledge of the details, said the new plan was gradual and would take months, with forces focusing first on one area of the battered enclave.

Israeli troops have already taken over an area amounting to around a third of the Gaza Strip, displacing the population and building watchtowers and surveillance posts on cleared ground the military has described as security zones, but the new plan would go further.

One Israeli government official said the newly approved offensive would seize the entire territory of the Gaza Strip, move its civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas hands.

The defence official said aid distribution, which has been handled by international aid groups and U.N. organizations, would be transferred to private companies and handed out in the southern area of Rafah once the offensive begins.

The Israeli military, which throughout the war has shown little appetite for occupying Gaza, declined to comment on the remarks by government officials and politicians.

Israel resumed its offensive in March after the collapse of a US-backed ceasefire that had halted fighting for two months. It has since imposed a blockade of aid into the enclave, drawing warnings from the United Nations and international organizations that the 2.3 million population faces imminent famine.

The Israeli defence official said that Israel would hold on to security zones seized along the Gaza perimeter because they were vital for protecting Israeli communities around the enclave.

But he said there was a "window of opportunity" for a ceasefire and hostage release deal during a visit by Trump to the region next week.

"If there is no hostage deal, Operation "Gideon Chariots" will begin with great intensity and will not stop until all its goals are achieved," he said.

Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi rejected what he called "pressure and blackmail".

"No deal except a comprehensive one, which includes a complete ceasefire, full withdrawal from Gaza, reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, and the release of all prisoners from both sides," he said.

'OCCUPATION'

Israel has yet to present a clear vision for post-war Gaza after a campaign that has displaced most of Gaza's population and left it depending on aid supplies that have been dwindling rapidly since the blockade.

Ministers have said that aid distribution cannot be left to international organizations which it accuses of allowing Hamas to seize supplies intended for the civilian population.

Instead, officials have looked at plans for private contractors to handle distribution, through what the United Nations has described as Israeli hubs.

On Monday, Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said on X that Israel was demanding that the UN and non-governmental organisations shut down their aid distribution system in Gaza.

However, the decision to expand the operation was immediately hailed by Israeli government hardliners who have long pressed for a full takeover of the Gaza Strip by Israel and a permanent displacement of the population, along the line of the Riviera plans outlined by Trump in February.

"We are finally going to conquer Gaza. We are no longer afraid of the word 'occupation'," Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told a pro-settler conference in an online discussion.

However, with Israel facing threats from the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, who on Sunday fired a missile that hit close to Ben Gurion Airport, an unstable Syria next door and a volatile situation in the occupied West Bank, the capacity for prolonged military operations faces constraints.

Israel's Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said on Sunday that the military has already begun issuing tens of thousands of call-up orders for its reserve forces, looking to expand the Gaza campaign.

Zamir, who took office in March, has pushed back against calls by government hardliners who want to choke off aid entirely and has told ministers aid must be let in soon, according to Kan.

The war was triggered by the Hamas October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli tallies, and saw 251 taken hostage into Gaza in the deadliest day for Israel in its history.

Israel's ground and air campaign in Gaza has since killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians according to local health authorities, and left much of Gaza in ruins.

Up to 24 of the 59 hostages still held in Gaza are believed to be alive. Families fear that the fighting will endanger their loved ones while critics say Israel risks being drawn into a long guerrilla war with limited gains and no clear strategy.

Successive surveys have shown dwindling public support for the war among Israelis, many of whom prefer to see a ceasefire deal reached and more hostages released.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strikes kill 19 in Gaza

Gaza’s civil defence agency said two Israeli air strikes killed at least 19 people in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory’s north early Monday...

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Israeli strikes kill 19 in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 06 May, 2025, 00:06

Palestinians inspect the debris of a Palestinian house, after it was demolished by Israeli forces, in the village of al-Mughayyer, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on May 5, 2025. | AFP photo

Gaza’s civil defence agency said two Israeli air strikes killed at least 19 people in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory’s north early Monday.

‘Our teams found 15 martyrs and 10 wounded, mostly children and women, after an Israeli strike on three apartments’ northwest of Gaza City, said the agency’s spokesman, Mahmud Bassal.

Four other people were killed and four wounded in a strike on a house in Beit Lahiya, north of Gaza City, he said.

The Israeli military has yet to comment on the reported strikes.

It has intensified aerial bombardments and expanded ground operations in the Gaza Strip since resuming its offensive in the Palestinian territory on March 18.

Israel blocked the entry of all aid into the besieged territory of about 2.4 million people on March 2.

Israel says the blockade and intensified bombardments aim to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages held in Gaza.

Militants in the territory still hold 58 hostages seized in Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel.

The army says 34 of them are dead. Hamas is also holding the remains of an Israeli soldier killed in a previous war in Gaza in 2014.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 52,535 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strikes on school housing displaced and market kill 38 in Gaza, medics say

Israeli airstrikes on a school housing conflict-displaced families and close to a crowded market and restaurant in Gaza City killed at least 38 people on Wednesday, local health authorities said. Medics said two strikes targeted the Karama School in Tuffah, a suburb of Gaza City, killing 15. Later

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Israeli strikes on school housing displaced and market kill 38 in Gaza, medics say
REUTERS
Published :
May 07, 2025 20:59
Updated :
May 07, 2025 20:59

Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on an UNRWA school sheltering displaced people, in the Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip, May 7, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

Israeli airstrikes on a school housing conflict-displaced families and close to a crowded market and restaurant in Gaza City killed at least 38 people on Wednesday, local health authorities said.

Medics said two strikes targeted the Karama School in Tuffah, a suburb of Gaza City, killing 15. Later in the day, an Israeli strike near a restaurant and market in the city killed at least 23 people, including women and children, medics said.

There was no immediate Israeli comment.

Reuters footage of the scene near the market showed wounded men being rushed away on the back of pickups and carts. Ambulances sped down shattered streets and a woman in tears carried a baby away from the scene, with two young children beside her.

"The blood was like a lake, oh my baby, pools of blood," she can be heard screaming.

Ahmed Al-Saoudi said he witnessed the airstrike near the market.

"People come to the market to get what they need if they can find it ... Neither the people nor the animals were safe. Neither the young nor the old," he said.

An image posted on social media showed what appeared to be a family of three - mother, father and son - lying dead on the street in pools of blood. The young boy was carrying a pink backpack. Reuters could not immediately verify the image that was purportedly from the scene near the restaurant.

Two Israeli airstrikes on another school, housing displaced people in Bureij camp in central Gaza, killed at least 33 people, including women and children, on Tuesday, local health authorities said. The Israeli military said it struck "terrorists" operating from a command center in the compound.

The strike smashed classrooms, destroyed furniture and left a large crater in the school campus. On Wednesday, survivors sifted through rubble to look for some of their belongings.

"What happened is an earthquake. The Israeli occupation hit a school housing children. They are children," said eyewitness Ali Al-Shaqra. He said the school housed 300 families.

"Here is the building; it was razed to the ground. We cannot find the gas cylinder, the flour bag we had, the kilo of rice, or the meal we got from the Tukkiyah (community kitchen). Thank God we are left with the clothes we had on," Shaqra added.

In Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, near the border with Egypt, residents and Hamas sources said Israeli forces, who have taken control of the city, continued to blow up and demolish houses and buildings.

Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, said on Wednesday their fighters had detonated a pre-planted minefield targeting an Israeli armoured force east of Khan Younis in the south. They said they inflicted casualties, followed by mortar shelling of the area.

AID HALTED

Israel resumed its offensive in March after the collapse of a U.S.-backed ceasefire that had halted fighting for two months. It has since imposed an aid blockade, drawing warnings from the UN that the 2.3 million population faces imminent famine.

Israeli troops have already taken over an area amounting to around a third of Gaza, displacing the population and building watchtowers and surveillance posts on cleared ground the military has described as security zones.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will expand the offensive against Hamas after his security cabinet approved plans that may include seizing the entire Gaza Strip and controlling aid.

But an Israeli defence official said on Monday the operation would not be launched before U.S. President Donald Trump concludes his visit next week to the Middle East, and there was a "window of opportunity" for a ceasefire and hostage release deal during Trump's visit.

A senior Hamas official said on Wednesday Hamas would not agree to any interim truce in return for a resumption of aid for a few days, and insisted on a full ceasefire deal to end the war.

Basem Naim said Hamas would not accept "desperate attempts before Trump's visit, through the crime of starvation, the continuation of genocide, and the threat of expanding military action to achieve a partial agreement that returns some (Israeli) prisoners in exchange for a few days of food and drink."

The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's campaign has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Hamas-run health authorities, and reduced much of Gaza to ruins.

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said two local journalists, Nour Abdu and Yehya Sbeih were killed in Wednesday's attacks, raising the number of Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli fire since the war began to 214.​

 

[Saif]

Hamas insists on ‘comprehensive’ deal to end Gaza war

Hamas insisted on Wednesday on a ‘comprehensive’ agreement to end its war with Israel, as rescuers said Israeli bombardment of Gaza killed at least 26 people amid a growing humanitarian catastrophe...

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Hamas insists on ‘comprehensive’ deal to end Gaza war
Israel strikes kill 26
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 08 May, 2025, 00:45

Hamas insisted on Wednesday on a ‘comprehensive’ agreement to end its war with Israel, as rescuers said Israeli bombardment of Gaza killed at least 26 people amid a growing humanitarian catastrophe.

A two-month ceasefire in the war collapsed in March, with Israel resuming intense strikes and imposing a total aid blockade on the Palestinian territory.

Israel demands the return of all hostages seized in Hamas’s unprecedented October 2023 attack and Hamas’s disarmament, which the group has rejected as a ‘red line’.

Hamas has consistently demanded that a truce deal must lead to the war’s end, a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and a surge in humanitarian aid.

‘Hamas and the resistance factions insist on reaching a comprehensive agreement and a full package to end the war and aggression, along with a roadmap for the day after,’ political bureau member Bassem Naim said Wednesday.

‘There are desperate attempts ahead of US president Donald Trump’s visit to the region to force through a partial deal that would return some Israeli captives in exchange for a limited number of days of food and water — without any guarantees from any party to actually end the war,’ he said.

Trump is due in the Gulf next week for talks with the heads of state of powerful monarchies.

Israel this week drew widespread condemnation over its plans for an expanded Gaza offensive, which an official said would entail the ‘conquest’ of the Palestinian territory.

Before that phase begins, a senior Israeli security source had said that the timing of troop deployments allowed a ‘window of opportunity’ for a possible hostage deal coinciding with Trump’s Middle East trip.

‘We want to try and get as many hostages saved as possible,’ Trump said at the White House, without elaborating.

In Gaza, rescuers said strikes killed 26 people, 15 in a strike on a school.

‘Our teams retrieved 15 martyrs and 10 injured individuals after Israeli occupation aircraft targeted the Al-Karama school, which shelters displaced persons in the Tuffah neighbourhood, east of Gaza City,’ spokesman Mahmud Basal said.

He had earlier reported a toll of 11 killed in strikes on the territory.

One strike hit a house in the southern city of Khan Yunis, where eight members of the Al-Qidra family were killed and 12 wounded, Bassal said.

The ages of the dead ranged from two to 54, he added.

AFP footage from Khan Yunis’s Nasser Hospital showed wounded children crying on hospital beds while bodies covered in blankets arrived in ambulances.

‘They were sleeping and the house collapsed on them,’ said Abir Shehab, adding her brother had been killed.

‘We die of hunger, we die of war, we die of fear, we die of everything, and the whole world stands by and watches us die,’ she said.

Israel’s military did not immediately comment on the strikes.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Wednesday at least 2,545 people have been killed since Israel resumed its campaign, bringing the war’s overall toll to 52,653.

Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

On Tuesday, Hamas said it was pointless to continue ceasefire talks with Israel, accusing it of waging a ‘hunger war’ on Gaza.

France’s president Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that the situation in Gaza was ‘the most critical we have ever seen’.

In Madrid, Spain, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway and Slovenia in a joint statement said they ‘firmly reject any demographic or territorial change in Gaza’.

UN rights chief Volker Turk voiced concerns Wednesday that Israel’s plans to expand its offensive aim to create conditions threatening Palestinians’ ‘continued existence’ in Gaza.

‘There is no reason to believe that doubling down on military strategies, which, for a year and eight months, have not led to a durable resolution, including the release of all hostages, will now succeed,’ he said.

‘Instead, expanding the offensive on Gaza will almost certainly cause further mass displacement, more deaths and injuries of innocent civilians, and the destruction of Gaza’s little remaining infrastructure.’

Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Mustafa, not affiliated to Hamas, urged the world to put a stop to the ‘deliberate humanitarian crime’ of famine, which he said was being perpetrated in Gaza.

‘We appeal to the conscience of humanity. Do not let the children of Gaza starve to death,’ he said.​

 

[Saif]

Obscenity of collective punishment in Gaza

MAYBE you remember an incident like this from your schooldays. Someone in your class has done something wrong, like pass around a caricature of the principal, and the teacher decides to punish the whole class by taking away your recess. Maybe this...

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Obscenity of collective punishment in Gaza
by John Feffer 10 May, 2025, 00:00

Counterpunch/Jaber Jehad Badwan

MAYBE you remember an incident like this from your schooldays. Someone in your class has done something wrong, like pass around a caricature of the principal, and the teacher decides to punish the whole class by taking away your recess. Maybe this is done to force the culprit to confess, or to pressure you and your classmates to point the finger. It’s a clever method of drafting students to help police the classroom.

Such tactics of collective punishment have fallen out of favour for obvious reasons. They’re unfair. They don’t change behaviour. They teach all the wrong lessons and make kids hate school.

Oh, and such tactics are also against the Geneva Conventions. According to an article of the Conventions related to the status and treatment of protected persons, ‘No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.’

It might seem ridiculous to apply the Geneva Conventions to the classroom, even if some schools resemble warzones. But there has been a recent trend to condemn the tactics of collective punishment at schools and reference the principles designed to safeguard civilians.

Even as the classroom becomes more respectful of children’s rights, the world of geopolitics has continued to embrace principles of collective punishment. What is war, ultimately, but the punishment of the entire population for the actions of the few? Economic sanctions, even the supposedly ‘smart’ variety, end up hurting people who have nothing to do with the policies of their leaders. And all those ‘beautiful’ tariffs end up raising prices for millions of consumers who are not connected in the least to the practices of government or corporations.

But there is no more egregious example of collective punishment in the world today than the tragedy currently unfolding in Gaza.

Ongoing Violations

ON OCTOBER 7, 2023, Hamas carried out a horrifying attack on Israel that left over a thousand dead and over 200 in captivity. Israel almost immediately declared war on Hamas. It then set about forcing all the residents of Gaza to pay for the crimes of a few.

The punishment has been appalling. More than 52,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces, according to the Gaza health ministry. But this number is probably an undercount by 40 per cent, according to an article in The Lancet, if all war-related deaths like those from a ravaged health system are included. The vast majority of these tens of thousands of deaths — around 70 per cent — are women and children.

These casualty numbers must now reflect deaths by starvation, as Israel has blocked all humanitarian aid to Gaza for the last two months. Israel has deployed this tactic to pressure the Palestinian population to force Hamas to capitulate and release the couple dozen Israeli hostages it continues to hold. No food, no medicine and no fuel has made it into the enclave. In addition to starvation, people are dying because they don’t have access to common life-saving drugs.

The New York Times reports that the ‘only food available to many Gazans — particularly those among the 90 per cent of the population that is displaced and mostly living in tents — comes from local charity kitchens, some of which have been looted as the hunger crisis deepens.’ Compounding the tragedy is the fact that food and medicine is readily available nearby, but Israel is blocking its delivery.

The Israeli government claims that it is only targeting Hamas. But it continues to kill civilians indiscriminately in air strikes, including this week at a crowded restaurant and a school. It claims that Hamas fighters are hiding in hospitals, which justifies the destruction of the entire medical infrastructure of the area. Even if this assertion were true, and Israel has provided little in the way of proof, all of the civilian deaths would still qualify as collective punishment. It would still be a war crime.

Clayton Dalton was part of a medical mission that visited Gaza during the two-month ceasefire that began in January. In The New Yorker, he described this scene at a ruined hospital in northern Gaza.

‘We entered a large storage room in the corner of the ICU which was crammed with medical devices: ultrasound machines, IV pumps, dialysis machines, blood-pressure monitors. Each had apparently been destroyed by a bullet — not in a pattern one would expect from random shooting but, rather, methodically. I was stunned. I couldn’t think of any possible military justification for destroying lifesaving equipment.’

Visiting doctors also started documenting another horrifying statistic: the number of children shot in the head, as if deliberately executed. There have been dozens of such casualties, some of the children just a few years old. Adam Hamawy, a plastic surgeon from New Jersey, told This American Life:

‘These are little children that are being shot, and these aren’t stray bullets. These are aimed. They’re precise. So a stray bullet will explain one or two of them. It’s not going to explain the string of precise, targeted shootings that are being done on children since October.’

The Geneva Conventions do not seem to apply to school-age children in Gaza. They, along with so many other Palestinians, are the victims of collective punishment.

Naming and not shaming

ISRAEL has been cited numerous times for war crimes in Gaza. Human rights organizations — Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International — have published periodic reports on Israeli violations. The United Nations has condemned Israel for crimes against humanity. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant.

If anything, the Netanyahu government has only increased its violations in the face of these condemnations. This week, it announced an escalation in its post-ceasefire campaign to defeat Hamas. Israel has called up more soldiers to invade Gaza, push inhabitants to a small enclave in the south, and occupy most of the strip. More extremist members of Netanyahu’s cabinet call for the expulsion of all Palestinians from Gaza, and it’s beginning to look as if this is the unstated goal of the Israel government.

Although Netanyahu faces increased protests from its own citizenry — including thousands of reservists and the former head of the Mossad spy agency — several powerful countries are standing with the Israeli leader. Even as it has axed a huge amount of US foreign aid, the Trump administration has used executive powers to skirt Congress and transfer billions of dollars of military assistance to Israel. India, too, has ignored global public opinion to continue to send weapons and technology to Israel. Other far-right wing leaders — Javier Milei in Argentina, Viktor Orban in Hungary — have also maintained good relations with Netanyahu.

Which means that Israel continues to act with impunity in its punishment of Palestinians.

Much has been written about the proper terms to describe Israeli actions in Gaza. The Israeli government defends its campaign as a ‘just war’ against Hamas. Critics have accused the government of committing genocide.

The actual conditions on the ground — the starvation, the toddlers shot in the head, the widespread displacement and destruction of communities — stand by themselves. Lawyers and politicians can throw terms at each other, ‘just war’ versus ‘genocide,’ but there is no getting around the plain, brutal facts. Even the term ‘collective punishment,’ in its abstraction, fails to capture the horror.

In JM Coetzee’s novel Elizabeth Costello, the eponymous character must give a paper at a conference on evil. She’s been reading a work of fiction about the failed effort to assassinate Hitler and the cold-blooded execution of the plotters. She is taken aback by the details in the book about the manner of the execution. Why is it necessary to read these horrible details, she wonders? There is no good reason for the novelist to imagine this manifestation of evil for it is, in a word, ‘obscene.’

‘Obscene because such things ought not to take place, and then obscene again because having taken place they ought not to be brought into the light but covered up and hidden for ever in the bowels of the earth, like what goes on in the slaughterhouses of the world, if one wishes to save one’s sanity.’

The details of what’s happening in Gaza are similarly obscene. But, like the facts of the Nazi atrocities, they must not be ignored. The Israeli government has banned journalists from visiting Gaza. The Trump administration is helping out by penalizing the airing of these details and the campus protests against the US facilitation of these crimes, all under the guise of preventing ‘anti-Semitism.’ These are outrages.

In this age of ‘alt news’ and rampant disinformation, presidential fabrications and threats to defund public media, facts still matter. The world must face the facts of Israeli atrocities in Gaza, not despite but because they are obscene.

Counterpunch.org, May 9. John Feffer is the director of Foreign Policy In Focus.​

 

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GAZA TRUCE: Hamas meetings with mediators yeild no progress

A Hamas delegation held two meetings with Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Doha this week but they produced no breakthrough in the search for a Gaza truce, sources close to the group said Friday.

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GAZA TRUCE: Hamas meetings with mediators yeild no progress
Agence France-Presse . Cairo 09 May, 2025, 22:46

A Hamas delegation held two meetings with Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Doha this week but they produced no breakthrough in the search for a Gaza truce, sources close to the group said Friday.

‘Egyptian officials met twice with a high-level Hamas delegation led by chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya and Qatari officials on Wednesday and Thursday in Doha,’ one source said.

A second source said the talks were ‘serious’ but made ‘no concrete progress’.

Israel’s military resumed its offensive on the Gaza Strip on March 18, ending a two-month truce that saw a surge in aid into the war-ravaged territory and the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Israel announced plans on Monday to expand its military campaign, drawing a chorus of international criticism.

Israel’s military has said the expanded operations approved by the security cabinet on Sunday would include displacing ‘most’ of Gaza’s population.

An Israeli security source said there was still a ‘window of opportunity’ for a hostage release deal to be struck to coincide with US president Donald Trump’s May 13 to 16 visit to the region.

But one of the sources close to Hamas said Friday: ‘We do not expect an agreement to be concluded’ by then.

The comment came after Hamas rejected an Israeli proposal for a 45-day truce with hostages to be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a relaxation of the devastating aid blockade Israel imposed on Gaza on March 2.

Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said Wednesday that the group insisted on a ‘comprehensive agreement’ to end the war.

Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once during the war, sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 52,760 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations regards as reliable.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli strike kills five in Gaza

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Saturday that five people were killed in an Israeli strike on a tent in Gaza City, all members of single family according to relatives.

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Israeli strike kills five in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 11 May, 2025, 01:21

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Saturday that five people were killed in an Israeli strike on a tent in Gaza City, all members of single family according to relatives.

‘Three children, their mother and her husband were sleeping inside a tent and were bombed by an [Israeli] occupation aircraft,’ family member Omar Abu al-Kass told AFP.

The strikes came ‘without warning and without having done anything wrong,’ added Abu al-Kass, who said he was the children’s maternal grandfather.

AFP images from the scene showed mourners, some of them weeping, gathering alongside five white shrouds of different sizes.

‘Five martyrs and wounded in an [Israeli] occupation air strike on a tent in the Sabra neighbourhood’ of Gaza City, civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP.

The Israeli army, which resumed its offensive in Gaza on March 18 ending a two-month truce, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the strike.

The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s October 2023 attack, which killed 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israeli retaliation has killed at least 52,787 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.​

 

[Saif]

Israel’s continuing defiance of international law

‘IN THE beginning was the word,’ John 1:1 commences like Genesis, connecting the God of Israel to the word. And the deliverance of the word is confirmed by the Ten Commandments being physically handed to Moses and the Israelites, legend has it, on Mount Sinai. It was a defining moment in Jewish...

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PALESTINIAN LIVES

Israel’s continuing defiance of international law
Daniel Warner 12 May, 2025, 00:00

‘IN THE beginning was the word,’ John 1:1 commences like Genesis, connecting the God of Israel to the word. And the deliverance of the word is confirmed by the Ten Commandments being physically handed to Moses and the Israelites, legend has it, on Mount Sinai. It was a defining moment in Jewish reverence for words and the law. But much has changed since those Biblical times.

The United Nations General Assembly asked the International Court of Justice to give a non-binding advisory opinion on Israel’s obligations to facilitate aid into Palestinian territory. Starting April 28, for one week, diplomats and lawyers from 40 countries and three multilateral organisations argued in the Hague to try to force Israel to allow aid to enter. Once again Israel chose to ignore the ICJ, considered the World Court. Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar called it ‘another shameful proceeding’ meant to delegitimise Israel.


How to understand Israel’s continuing defiance of international law, including its blockade of aid to Palestinians? Since March 2, 2025, Israel has cut off all supplies to the 2.3 million people still trapped in the Gaza Strip. Stockpiles of food have virtually run out. ‘It’s about the survival of millions of Palestinians,’ Alain Pellet, an advocate for Palestine and an eminent French professor and international lawyer, pleaded before the Court.

The hearings were technical, legal arguments about Israel’s obligations as the occupying power in Gaza and the West Bank and as a member of the United Nations. The precise title of the hearings was ‘Obligations of Israel in relation to the Presence and Activities of the United Nations, Other International Organisations and Third States in and relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory.’ The GA demand for an advisory opinion resulted from the October 2024 Israeli parliament’s vote that prohibits the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East from operating in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

UN legal counsel Elinor Hammarskjöld said Israel has clear obligations as an occupying force to facilitate aid under international humanitarian law. ‘These obligations,’ she said, ‘entail allowing all relevant UN entities to carry out activities for the benefit of the local population.’

Other experts agreed. ‘Israel must facilitate full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian provision to the population of Gaza, including food, water and electricity, and must ensure access to medical care in accordance with international humanitarian law,’ Sally Langrish, legal director and advisor at the UK’s foreign office, argued, specifically citing articles 59 and 55 of the Fourth Geneva Convention that outlines the obligations of an occupying power. ‘The occupying power must facilitate relief schemes by all means at its disposal,’ she added. ‘This obligation is unconditional.’

Already in July 2024, the ICJ had ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories including the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem was illegal under international law. In an advisory opinion, the Court ordered Israel to end its occupying presence as well as to make reparations for damages done. ‘This illegality relates to the entirety of the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in 1967,’ the court said in a statement.

Not having followed the 2024 ICJ opinion about its occupation, how does Israel now justify not allowing aid into the occupied territories? Israel maintains that UNRWA should not be allowed to function. In January 2024, Israel accused 12 UNRWA workers of involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks. However, a UN investigation of the accusations, published in April 2024, found no evidence of wrongdoing. The report noted that Israel had not responded to requests for names and information or given evidence of any previous concerns about UNRWA. UNRWA has denied these accusations, saying there is ‘absolutely no ground for a blanket description of ‘the institution as a whole’ being ‘totally infiltrated.’’

My former colleague and former secretary-general of the Institute of International Law, Marcelo Kohen, representing Jordan, pleaded before the Court that, ‘Israel’s primary obligation is to respect the Palestinian’s people’s right to self-determination.’ That is, Israel should not ‘hinder the realisation of this right, to adopt all necessary and measures to protect the Palestinian civilian population.’ According to Kohen, Israel, cannot obstruct the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, a right confirmed by GA Resolution 78/192 of December 2023.

On the other side, the US argued that ‘There are serious concerns about UNRWA’s impartiality, including information that Hamas has used UNRWA facilities and that UNRWA staff participated in the 7 October terrorist attack against Israel,’ according to Josh Simmons, of the U.S. State Department legal team. ‘Given these concerns, it is clear that Israel has no obligation to permit UNRWA specifically to provide humanitarian assistance. UNRWA is not the only option for providing humanitarian assistance in Gaza,’ he added. Israel boycotted the hearings but submitted written objections. (The US and Hungary were the only countries that supported Israel’s position before the Court.)

What are the constraints on an occupying power? According to a US State Department legal adviser; ‘An occupational power retains a margin of appreciation concerning which relief schemes to permit. Even if an organisation offering relief is an impartial humanitarian organisation, and even if it is a major actor, occupation law does not compel an occupational power to allow and facilitate that specific actor’s relief operations.’

But Marcelo Kohen and the renown international jurist and legal scholar Georges Abi-Saab refuted this argument in a commentary in EJIL TALK!: ‘When occupation ceases to be a provisional factual situation and turns into an open-ended political project, the rules of military occupation no longer apply… The protection afforded to the civilian population, the territory, and its resources is then governed – more comprehensively – by other bodies of international law, notably international human rights law, the right to self-determination, and the right to humanitarian assistance, none of which permit derogation in the name of military necessity or the security interests of the occupying power.’

In addition to the legal questions about Israel’s blocking aid and its obligations as an occupying power, there are larger legal and moral questions about Israel’s actions since October 7, 2023. Already in January 2024, The ICJ found it ‘plausible’ that Israel had committed acts that violate the Genocide Convention. The Court’s president, Joan Donoghue, delivered a provisional order that Israel must ensure, ‘with immediate effect,’ that its forces not commit any of the acts prohibited by the Convention. (Just recently, on May 4, 2025, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel, once again, is ‘on the eve of a forceful entry to Gaza.’)

Furthermore, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against the Israeli Prime Minister on November 21, 2024, for being ‘Allegedly responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024.’

As far as the United States’ continuing complicity with Israel is concerned, during an early April 2025 drop by to the White House, Netanyahu said; ‘This was a very productive visit, a very warm visit…’ ‘[W]arm visit’ to Washington by someone ‘Allegedly responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts’?

(As a reminder about Trump and respect for the law: He swore on January 20, 2025, ‘I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.’ When asked in a recent television interview whether, as president, he needed to ‘uphold the Constitution of the United States,’ Trump replied, ‘I don’t know.’)

Israel, a self-proclaimed Jewish state, should be an example of respect for the rule of law. Its defiance of the ICJ and ICC, and continuing alliance with the United States’ non-respect for the rule of law is contrary to all the country claims to be as well as contrary to the very foundations of its religious and cultural heritage.

Counterpunch.org, May 9. Daniel Warner is the author of ‘An Ethic of Responsibility in International Relations’.​