- Patients are fleeing north Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital after Israel’s army issued forced evacuation orders for the medical centre and several areas in Gaza City.
- Israeli forces intensify attacks on Gaza, killing at least 84 Palestinians since dawn, medics say. Victims include 50 people who were killed in north Gaza.
- Russia, China and the UK have rejected a US-Israeli plan for distributing aid in Gaza, instead urging Israel to lift its two-month blockade on Gaza.
- US President Donald Trump, who is visiting Saudi Arabia, says he is working to end the conflict in Gaza as soon as possible, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that “there will be no situation where we stop the war”.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 52,908 Palestinians and wounded 119,721, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The Government Media Office updated the death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.
- An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive.
‘Bodies lying on the ground in hospital corridors,’ Gaza doctor says
Mohammad Awad, an emergency doctor at northern Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital, says supply shortages mean his department can’t handle the flow of wounded patients.
“The bodies of the martyrs are lying on the ground in the hospital corridors,” Awad told the AFP news agency.
“There are not enough beds, no medicine, and no means for surgical or medical treatment, which leaves doctors unable to save many of the injured who are dying due to lack of care,” he said.
As we’ve been reporting, Israel has maintained a total blockade on Gaza since early March, barring deliveries of medicine and other critical supplies and pushing the local health network to the brink of collapse.
Key takeaways from second day of Trump’s Middle East tour
The second day of the US president’s visit to the Middle East has come to a close.
Trump’s four-day trip began with an opening stop in Saudi Arabia and will conclude in the United Arab Emirates later this week.
He spent most of the day in Qatar, where he met senior Qatari officials for discussions on a range of issues, including deepening defence and trade ties.
For a look at the key takeaways from Trump’s meetings on Wednesday, check out our story here.
Hamas military wing praises shooting attack in West Bank
As we reported earlier, the Israeli army said two people were injured in a shooting attack near the illegal settlement of Bruchin.
Abu Obeida, spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, praised the attack, calling it an “heroic shooting operation … carried out by the bravest of our people in the West Bank.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli rescue service said it was providing medical treatment to a 30-year-old woman in critical condition with gunshot wounds, along with a 40-year-old man in serious condition. According to Israeli media, the woman was in the late stages of pregnancy.
A nation behind bars: Why has Israel imprisoned 10,000 Palestinians?
There are currently nearly 10,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails in Israel and the occupied territory, according to prisoners’ rights group Addameer. To Palestinians, they are political prisoners who must be freed.
Of those in detention:
- 3,498 are held without charge or trial
- 400 are children and 27 are women
- 299 are serving life sentences
Administrative detainees, including women and children, can be held by the military for renewable six-month periods based on “secret evidence” that neither the detainee nor their lawyer is allowed to see.
Read the story of Palestinian prisoners, whose numbers in Israeli jails have doubled since the war began, here.
Syria’s president welcomes ‘brave’ Trump decision to lift sanctions
Al-Sharaa has delivered remarks following his meeting with the US president in Saudi Arabia today.
Al-Sharaa lauded Trump for a “brave decision” to lift US sanctions on Syria, a move that he said will allow Syria’s people “to have a better future” while also creating stability in the wider region.
“The road [ahead] is still long,” the Syrian president said, adding that Syria will welcome all investments to help build “prosperity”.
Reporting from the Syrian capital, Damascus, Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan said al-Sharaa’s speech aimed to signal that “Syria’s promising future has begun now.”
“This is a new chapter for Syria, and that’s what he was really focusing on,” Khan reported.
Israel’s war on Gaza ‘permanent stain on world’s conscience’: US senator
US Senator Bernie Sanders has shared a video of the UN’s top humanitarian official speaking at the Security Council yesterday about the effects of Israel’s war on Gaza.
“This will be a permanent stain on the world’s conscience,” Sanders wrote on X.
Sanders put forward two Senate resolutions in early April seeking to suspend “offensive arms sales” from the US to Israel amid the Gaza war. The motions ultimately failed to pass.
“This war has been conducted almost entirely with American weapons and some $18 billion in US taxpayer dollars,” Sanders said in a statement at the time.
“The United States must not continue to supply endless amounts of military aid and weaponry to the Netanyahu government.”
Snapshot of Gaza City’s Remal neighbourhood
As we’ve been reporting, the Israeli military has ordered Palestinians to leave several areas in the Remal neighbourhood of Gaza City.
Once considered the beating heart of Gaza, Remal is home to Al-Shifa Hospital – the largest medical complex in the enclave – as well as UN offices, homes and shops.
Al-Shifa sits at the heart of the well-known neighbourhood.
The hospital is also near several UN compounds, including those of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the Office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and the UN Development Programme.
Gaza’s top universities – including the Islamic University of Gaza, Al-Azhar University-Gaza and Al-Aqsa University, which are just a few hundred metres apart – are also located in Remal.
How many Gaza children will be ‘sentenced to death’ before blockade lifted?: UNRWA chief
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), has shared a photo on social media of a four-year-old Palestinian boy named Youssef who is injured and suffering from malnutrition in Gaza.
“How many more Youssef’s need to be sentenced to death to lift the siege on Gaza?” Lazzarini asked.
“It requires no more than political will & decision.”
Israeli military says two injured in shooting near illegal West Bank settlement
The army says an Israeli vehicle was fired at near the settlement of Bruchin, a few kilometres from the Palestinian city of Bruqin in the north of the occupied West Bank.
Two Israelis were injured and receiving medical treatment, the military said.
The Israeli army has been carrying out an intensified series of violent raids across the occupied West Bank amid its war on Gaza.
The northern West Bank has been particularly hard-hit, with home demolitions, arrests and violence frequently reported against Palestinians.
Israel feeling ‘slighted’ by Trump’s administration
Mohamad Elmasry of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies says Israel “feels very much slighted” by the Trump administration as Washington took unilateral action in the region, including direct negotiations with Hamas to free a US-Israeli captive held in Gaza.
“The Trump administration has been bypassing and ignoring Israel in ways that are really unprecedented for an American administration,” Elmasry told Al Jazeera.
He said the question now becomes, “To what extent is Israel now going to be willing to engage in serious ceasefire negotiations?”
“What I’ve seen in Israeli media is that Netanyahu is sticking to his guns and saying that he will not agree to an end to the war – not unless Hamas surrenders and disarms, and agrees to deport all of its leaders. Those are really non-starters,” Elmasry said.
If you’re just joining us
Let’s bring you up to speed on the latest developments:
- At least 84 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn, medical sources tell Al Jazeera.
- The Israeli military has ordered Palestinians to leave several locations in Gaza City’s Remal neighbourhood, including four schools and al-Shifa Hospital, as it planned to attack the area “with great force”.
- The UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) says its base was hit on Tuesday by Israeli fire – the first such strike since a ceasefire was reached between Israel and Lebanese group Hezbollah in November.
- US President Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff tells Al Jazeera he believes “great progress” is being made on all fronts of Gaza war talks, after meetings in Doha with Qatari officials and Israeli captives’ families.
Can you find these Palestinian cities?
How well do you know Palestine?
Test your knowledge of Palestine’s geography in this interactive map game.
Drop a pin where you think each Palestinian city is located and see how close you get.
After each guess, you’ll receive a score out of 10 based on your accuracy, along with information about the city’s history, culture and the impact of the 1948 Nakba.
Can you get a perfect score of 100?
US judge orders release of Georgetown scholar jailed over Palestine
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) legal advocacy group says a federal judge in the US has ordered the immediate release of Badar Khan Suri.
Khan Suri, a postdoctoral scholar at Georgetown University, was arrested in March as part of President Trump’s push to deport non-citizens accused of fuelling “anti-Semitism” and “illegal protests” on US college campuses.
An Indian national, Khan Suri was in the US on an academic visa.
The judge’s order means that he “will finally go home to his wife and three children”, CCR said in a post on X, denouncing what it described as the Trump administration’s “attack on speech in support of Palestinian rights”.
Gaza ministry rejects Israel’s allegations, forced displacement orders
The Ministry of Interior and National Security in Gaza has rejected Israeli claims used to justify forced displacement orders for parts of Gaza City.
Israel’s army earlier said it planned to attack several areas of the city because Hamas was operating there.
“This evening, the Israeli occupation army issued threats to citizens to evacuate large areas and neighborhoods in the south and west of Gaza City, where large numbers of displaced persons are concentrated in shelters,” the ministry said in a statement.
“The allegations made by the occupation army in its announcement threatening civilians are false and baseless. They are merely false claims and attempts to justify its crime of displacing civilians from their homes as part of the occupation’s policy of pressuring civilians.”
The ministry added that it holds Israel responsible for the forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, which it said constitutes “a crime that violates all rules of international law”.
Netanyahu will ‘play for time’, seek to avoid ending war on Gaza
Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat, says that a series of recent moves by the Trump administration is heaping pressure on Israel to end its war on Gaza.
Those moves include Trump’s decision to forgo a stop in Israel on his ongoing trip to the Middle East, the US ceasefire deal with Yemen’s Houthis, and nuclear talks with Iran.
Pinkas told Al Jazeera that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu would likely now “play for time” amid efforts to reach a Gaza deal.
“He’s going to negotiate because he was asked to, he’s going to show up because he was pressured,” he said. “But I don’t think he’s going to sign any kind of deal that includes a permanent ceasefire, meaning the end of the war.”
‘Gaza has become a hell on Earth for Palestinians’: MSF
Doctors Without Borders, known by its French language acronym MSF, says the world is watching “the creation of conditions for the eradication of Palestinian lives in Gaza”.
The charity slammed the US-Israeli proposal to control aid distribution in the enclave, describing the effort as “another tool in the ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population” in Gaza.
“MSF firmly rejects and condemns any plan that further reduces availability of aid and subjugates it to Israeli military occupation objectives,” it said, adding that its teams in Gaza City have seen a 32 percent increase in the number of patients showing malnutrition in the past two weeks.
The organisation said it is also running out of essential medical items, such as sterile compresses and sterile gloves.
“The survival of Palestinians lies at the mercy of Israeli authorities, who are denying the entire population access to food, water, medical care and shelter. Israel continues to pursue its campaign of ethnic cleansing by deliberately destroying the conditions necessary for life,” MSF said.
Italy’s prime minister calls Gaza humanitarian situation ‘unjustifiable’
Giorgia Meloni also said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must respect international law.
“In recent months, I have spoken to Prime Minister Netanyahu on several occasions, they have often been difficult conversations in which I have always called for the urgency of finding a way to end hostilities and respect international law and international humanitarian law,” Meloni said, according to Italian news agency Ansa.
“A request that I renew today, in the face of a humanitarian situation in Gaza that I have no difficulty in defining as increasingly dramatic and unjustifiable”.
Canadian foreign minister says Israel using food as a tool in Gaza
Canada’s new Foreign Minister Anita Anand has accused Israel of using access to food as a political tool in Gaza, which has been under a total blockade since March 2.
“We cannot allow the continued use of food as a political tool … Over 50,000 people have died as a result of the aggression caused against the Palestinians and the Gazan people in Palestine. Using food as a political tool is simply unacceptable,” Anand told reporters before a cabinet meeting.
“We need to continue to work towards a ceasefire. We need to ensure that we have a two-state solution, and Canada will continue to maintain that position.”
US-Israeli plan for Gaza aid aimed at ‘strangling’ Palestinians: NGO
Gisha, an Israeli NGO working on Palestinian freedom of movement, says the proposal to set up a US-backed foundation to distribute aid in Gaza “is designed to bring about the forced displacement of the population, while exposing them to risk of harm”.
“The plan is the next step in a string of moves aimed at consolidating control over the Strip and strangling the population and anyone trying to provide them relief,” the group said in a statement.
Gisha said the plan also fails to uphold humanitarian principles and will not address the needs of millions of Palestinians struggling to access food, water, medicine and other critical supplies under Israel’s total blockade on the Gaza Strip.
“The organizational infrastructure for aid delivery already exists and is effective, as seen during the ceasefire, and it must be allowed to continue,” the group added.
UNIFIL details Israeli army’s ‘aggressive posture’ in southern Lebanon
The UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon – known as UNIFIL – has detailed an attack yesterday that hit the perimeter of its position south of the village of Kfar Shouba, in the country’s Nabatieh governorate.
“In yesterday’s incident, peacekeepers observed two shots fired from south of the Blue Line with one of them hitting the UNIFIL base,” UNIFIL said in a statement, referring to the 120km (75-mile) “border” line created by the UN between Israel and Lebanon.
“This marks the first time a UNIFIL position has been directly hit” since a ceasefire was reached between Israel and Lebanese group Hezbollah in late November, it said.
“In this period, UNIFIL has observed at least four other incidents involving [Israeli military] fire near its positions along the Blue Line,” UNIFIL added.
According to the agency’s statement, those incidents include:
- UNIFIL peacekeepers performing a patrol with the Lebanese army near Maroun al-Ra, in the Bint Jebeil area, reported being targeted by a laser from a nearby Israeli army position.
- Laser beams were pointed towards a UNIFIL patrol from two Israeli Merkava tanks south of Alma ash-Shaab on May 7.
- “As the patrol began to move, a drone flew approximately five metres [16 feet] above it, following the patrol for about a kilometre [0.6 miles],” UNIFIL said.
- Separately, also on May 7, an aerial vehicle repeatedly flew over a UNIFIL position east of Houla, another village in southern Lebanon.
Israeli army publishes misleading footage meant to justify targeting of European Gaza Hospital
The Israeli army has released a video clip purporting to show a tunnel beneath the buildings of the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, which the military repeatedly targeted on Tuesday and today.
Al Jazeera’s Sanad verification unit found the images were not related to the hospital and did not provide any evidence supporting the claim of a tunnel at the site.
Sanad added that surveillance camera footage also showed that the army did not issue a warning before a strike on Tuesday or any measures to protect civilians, contrary to its official statement.
UNRWA head says no government can pledge ignorance of starvation in Gaza
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini says, “No government can say: ‘we did not know’” as hunger spreads in Gaza.
The solution to “manmade starvation” is for Israel to “lift the siege on the children of Gaza now”, he said.
Lazzarini reposted on X a speech given by UN relief chief Tom Fletcher calling on the UN Security Council to “act now” and “prevent genocide” in the Gaza Strip.
UN chief reiterates call for Gaza ceasefire
Speaking alongside the German chancellor in Berlin, Antonio Guterres has appealed for an end to the war.
“I reiterate my call for an immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, unimpeded humanitarian access and an immediate cessation of hostilities allowing for an irreversible path towards a two-state solution,” the UN secretary-general told reporters.
Israel’s aid plan seeks control, displacement, and forced starvation in Gaza
We have more from Amjad Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGO Network.
Shawa told Al Jazeera that Israel’s proposed plan to let private companies handle aid into Gaza will further deepen the humanitarian catastrophe inside the Strip while giving Israel further control over Palestinians there.
“This military plan to distribute aid is to forcefully displace Palestinians from Gaza North to Rafah and to establish the so-called humanitarian bubbles,” Shawa told Al Jazeera. Israeli authorities won’t distribute aid based on humanitarian principles or security concerns, but will rather monopolise it and decide who can get it, Shawa said.
“It’s kind of militarisation of aid to replace the humanitarian structure that has worked for one and a half years in full capacity,” he said. So far, aid deliveries have been handled by international aid groups and UN organisations.
Shawa said this plan won’t alleviate the suffering of Palestinians. On the contrary, it will cause further displacement, control over calories, and further starvation.
This is part of “the Israeli plan to destroy more and push Gazans to leave Gaza.”
‘The worst thing is that all the Gazans are starving’
Amjad Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGOs Network, said that Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip are not the only thing sowing devastation across the enclave – so is its blockade.
“I cannot find the real words to describe the real situation,” Shawa told Al Jazeera from Gaza City.
“The worst thing is that all the Gazans are starving. This is the 10th week of closure of the borders. Nothing entered, no supplies … and all the UN agencies, NGOs, private sector are running out of supplies,” Shawa said. “And when we go to the hospitals … there is no medicine, and the beds of the hospitals are full of injured [people].”
Israeli defence minister warns France’s Macron not to ‘lecture’ on morality
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has hit back at French President Emmanuel Macron, who said the EU may revisit cooperation pacts with Israel over Netanyahu’s “shameful” Gaza policy.
“We remember well what happened to Jews in France when they couldn’t defend themselves. President Macron should not lecture us on morality,” Katz said in a statement.
“It is expected that someone who considers himself a friend of Israel would stand by Israel in its war against the murderous terrorist organisation Hamas and the Iranian axis of evil.”
Katz also claimed the Israeli army operates “with the highest level of morality under extremely difficult and complex circumstances – certainly more than anything France has done in its past wars”.
Cases have been brought against Israel and its leaders in international courts on charges that they are committing genocide and war crimes in Gaza. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
Israeli army orders Palestinians to leave Al-Shifa Hospital, four schools in Gaza City
Avichay Adraee, an Israeli army spokesperson, has issued an order for Palestinians to leave several areas in the Remal neighbourhood of Gaza City.
In a post on X, Adraee accused Hamas of operating in the area and said the military planned to attack “with great force”.
Germany’s chancellor calls for action to avert ‘famine’ in Gaza
Germany’s new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has urged all sides to avert a “famine” in Gaza, which has been under an aid blockade by Israel since early March.
“It is a humanitarian obligation on all parties … and I stress, on all parties, that famine in the region be averted as soon as possible,” Merz said in his first government statement in parliament since taking office last week.
He made the comments after the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative released a report on Monday saying Gaza is “confronted with a critical risk of famine” with the vast majority of its 2.1 million people at severe risk.
Labour MP calls on UK to halt transfer of F-35 components to Israel
A UK Labour MP has delivered a speech in parliament calling for the suspension of the delivery of F-35 fighter jet components to Israel.
Andy McDonald backed a campaign brought by Palestinian rights organisations against the British government, which is facing a High Court challenge over the export of such components used by Israel in Gaza.
“We cannot say that we’re observing the Genocide, Geneva Conventions and Rome Statutes if we continue to supply Israel’s military,” he said.
Witkoff says progress being made on all fronts on Gaza war
Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, has been present in Doha while the Qatari emir and President Trump signed deals to boost defence and trade ties.
As they were leaving, I was able to ask Witkoff whether progress was being made in conversations on the war on Gaza. His tone was pretty telling, he was very positive.
“We’re making progress” was what he said and when I asked him whether that was regarding aid deliveries or a ceasefire, he said “We’re making progress on all fronts”.
He said he hopes there would be a positive announcement “soon” but we have no indication of what that might mean.
Photos: Palestinians queue for food in northern Gaza’s Jabalia
China urges Israel to lift blockade, says aid ‘must not be weaponised’
China’s envoy, too, has criticised the US-Israeli plan for Gaza aid distribution.
Fu Cong, speaking at the UN Security Council, said Gaza “has become a living hell” and noted that the global hunger monitor, known as the IPC, has warned that the entire population of the enclave is suffering from severe food shortages.
“Israel must fulfil its obligations as the occupying power under international humanitarian law by immediately lifting the blockade and restoring full access to supplies,” he said.
Fu, without naming the US, said a “certain country has proposed the so-called humanitarian distribution plan”. He noted that UN agencies have “categorically rejected” it.
“Humanitarian assistance must not be weaponised, and the principles of impartiality, independence and neutrality must be [upheld] at all times,” he said.
‘We barely escaped’ – Survivors of Jabalia bombing
Witnesses of the Israeli air attacks on Jabalia that killed at least 50 people have told Al Jazeera that the strikes hit without any warning.
“We were sleeping when an explosion threw us off,” Anas Saleh said. “Our neighbours’ house was bombed and ours was badly damaged.
“We barely escaped. All our neighbours have been killed.”
Another Palestinian said the explosion “felt like a huge earthquake”.
“All the houses are gone, including ours. We made it out from under the rubble and thank God we’re alive,” he said.
Witkoff holds meeting with Qatari officials, families of captives
Sources have told Al Jazeera that US special envoy Steve Witkoff has held a meeting in Doha with Qatari officials and the families of Israeli captives held in Gaza.
Iran hits back at Trump’s ‘deceptive’ view of its regional role
Iran’s foreign minister has slammed Trump’s remarks that Tehran contributes to “collapse and suffering” in the region, instead pointing to Israel as a destabilising force.
“Unfortunately, this is a very deceptive view,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said of Trump’s comments. “The Iranian nation pursues the same aspirations toward progress and prosperity as other regional countries. It is the US with its sanctions and threats which has blocked Iran’s path to progress.
“Trump turns a blind eye to Israel’s crimes and wants to present Iran as a threat to the region,” he added.