- Medical sources tell Al Jazeera that at least 143 Palestinians have been killed in a wave of Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip since dawn on Thursday.
- Witnesses to an Israeli attack on a medical clinic in the Jabalia refugee camp on Thursday said patients were “torn apart” on the upper floor of the al-Tawbah clinic, and children were among the 13 killed.
- These attacks fall on the 77th anniversary of Nakba Day, in which Palestinians commemorate being forced from their lands during the foundation of Israel.
- Top US diplomat Marco Rubio spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling reporters that the US is not immune to the suffering of the people in Gaza, despite full political and military backing of its ally Israel.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 53,010 Palestinians and wounded 119,919, 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.
Israeli settlers burn vehicle in new attack near Nablus
As we reported earlier, there have been reports of Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian-owned vehicles in the occupied West Bank town of Bruqin, west of Salfit, and the Ramin Plain area, east of Tulkarem.
The Quds News Network now reports that Israeli settler militias have attacked the Masoudiya water well, northwest of Nablus, and burned the guard’s vehicle.
No access – How Israel limits and cuts Palestinian water rights
Beyond the violence of the Nakba, targeting water resources has been a consistent strategy to displace Palestinians.
During its war on Gaza, Israel’s blockade has included deliberate destruction of water infrastructure there. Meanwhile, in the West Bank, Israeli authorities have sealed wells while settlers routinely seize springs and destroy agricultural land vital to Palestinian livelihoods.
If you’re just joining us
Here are the latest developments:
- The Israeli military has continued its deadly assault on Gaza, carrying out several deadly overnight attacks across the Strip, which have killed at least 26 Palestinians.
- At least six people were killed in a strike on a house in the Jabalia camp, while another strike on a home in the as-Sultan neighbourhood of Beit Lahiya killed at least three.
- Israeli ground forces have also stormed the Beit Lahiya area, where they have besieged shelters and caused hundreds of Palestinians to flee their homes.
- Israel’s army has said it killed five Palestinians in the occupied West Bank town of Tammun on Thursday, in an operation launched after the killing of a pregnant Israeli settler in a shooting on Wednesday night.
- Israeli settlers have set fire to Palestinian-owned vehicles after storming the occupied West Bank town of Bruqin west of Salfit and the Ramin Plain area east of Tulkarem.
- More than two dozen US senators have introduced a resolution urging the Trump administration to “use all diplomatic tools at its disposal” to end Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
Killing of 45 children in Gaza air strikes met with ‘indifference’, not ‘shock’: UNICEF
The head of the UN Children’s Fund, Catherine Russell, said the world should be shocked by the killing of 45 children in Israeli air strikes in just two days.
Instead, the slaughter of children in Gaza is “largely met with indifference”.
“More than 1 million children in Gaza are at risk of starvation. They are deprived of food, water and medicine,” Russell wrote in a post on social media.
“Nowhere is safe for children in Gaza,” she said.
“This horror must stop.”
Five Palestinians, five stories of displacement and loss during the Nakba
Every year on May 15, Palestinians around the world remember the Nakba – the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians during the creation of the state of Israel.
Between 1947 and 1949, Zionist militias attacked Palestinian towns and cities, killing about 13,000 Palestinians and destroying more than 530 villages.
At least 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes, becoming refugees.
Here are the stories of five Palestinians who share their memories of displacement and loss – as well as their hopes to return home.
A roundup of overnight Israeli attacks on Gaza
We have reported several Israeli military attacks that have taken place across the Gaza Strip since midnight local time (21:00 GMT), killing at least 26 people.
Here is a roundup of some of those attacks:
- At least six people have been killed and more wounded in a strike on a house on al-Ajarma Street in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
- At least two people have been killed and more injured after the Israeli military bombed a home in al-Fakhoura, west of the Jabalia camp.
- Israeli forces have bombed a tent in the al-Amal neighbourhood, west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, killing at least one person and injuring several more.
- Israeli fighter jets have bombed the Beit Lahiya area of northern Gaza several times over recent hours, including a strike on a home in the as-Sultan neighbourhood, which killed at least three people.
- Two people have been killed by Israeli artillery shelling targeting areas housing displaced Palestinians in Beit Lahiya.
- Hundreds of Beit Lahiya residents have fled the area as they attempt to escape Israel’s assault, while Israeli ground forces have also stormed the city and besieged shelters.
Displaced Palestinians bombed
The Israeli military has killed 16 Palestinians in strikes on northern Gaza over the past few hours, following a series of deadly attacks across the Strip on Thursday that killed at least 136 people.
Some of the deadliest attacks targeted the southern city of Khan Younis.
The Israeli military has also issued forced evacuation orders to displaced Palestinians in the north of the territory as it continues to block aid from entering Gaza for more than two months.
Harvard settles lawsuit with Jewish student over alleged anti-Semitism
Harvard University has settled a lawsuit filed by Orthodox Jewish student Alexander Kestenbaum, who alleged that the Ivy League school allowed anti-Semitism to flourish on campus.
“Harvard and Mr Kestenbaum are pleased to have resolved the litigation,” the university said in a statement on Thursday, after both sides agreed to end the case.
“Harvard and Mr Kestenbaum acknowledge each other’s steadfast and important efforts to combat antisemitism at Harvard and elsewhere,” it added.
Harvard, which has already resolved two other lawsuits accusing the college of being a hotbed of anti-Semitism, has also come under assault from the Trump administration over recent months.
Accusing Harvard’s administration of allowing unchecked anti-Semitism during pro-Palestine campus protests last year, the White House has frozen or terminated more than $2.6bn in federal grants and contracts to the university.
Harvard is suing the Trump administration, claiming the cuts are unconstitutional and an attack on free speech.
At least 2 killed by Israeli shelling in northern Gaza
Israel’s deadly bombardment of Gaza continues, with the north of the Palestinian enclave coming under intense assault over recent hours.
An Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent in Gaza now reports that at least two people have been killed by Israeli artillery shelling targeting areas housing displaced Palestinians in Beit Lahiya.
Israeli attacks have now killed a total of 26 Palestinians since midnight local time (21:00 GMT), medical sources have told Al Jazeera.
We will bring you further updates when we have them.
Israel’s UN envoy urges Security Council to act on missing persons mandate
Speaking at a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York on Thursday, Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, urged the body to implement Resolution 2474, calling on parties to armed conflict and UN states to search for and return missing persons.
Danon, who was joined by Ruby Chen and Leah Goldin, the parents of slain Israeli captives Itay Chen and Hadar Goldin, said Hamas had “violated every letter of that resolution, repeatedly and openly”.
“Where is the response? Where is the demand for compliance? Where is the basic moral outrage?” he asked.
“We call on the Secretary-General [Antonio Guterres] to fulfil his mandate under Resolution 2474 by including a dedicated section in his next report on the protection of civilians,” Danon added.
Israeli forces kill 5 Palestinians; calls to raze occupied West Bank towns after settler killed
Israel’s military said it killed five Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Thursday. The killing of the five followed after an Israeli settler was killed in a shooting in the West Bank.
The military said in a statement that it surrounded a house and killed five “terrorists” and arrested a sixth person following an exchange of gunfire and the use of shoulder-fired missiles by Israeli forces to destroy the house in the Palestinian town of Tammun.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad later issued a statement saying five of its members were killed while clashing with Israeli forces in Tammun.
The town is located some 35km (22 miles) from the area where a pregnant Israeli settler, Tzeela Gez, was killed on Wednesday night when shots were fired at the vehicle in which she was travelling. No link has been made between the killing of the five and the Israeli settler.
The Reuters news agency reports that pro-settler leaders, including an Israeli minister, called for Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank to be razed following the killing of the settler.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said the rights of Israeli settlers outweigh the rights of Palestinians to move freely, calling for checkpoints to be permanently established throughout the occupied West Bank.
He also called for the death penalty for “terrorists”.
Death toll rises for Israeli attacks across Gaza since midnight
We have been reporting on the Israeli military’s relentless assault across the Gaza Strip over recent hours.
Medical sources in the Palestinian enclave tell Al Jazeera that at least 21 people are now confirmed killed by Israeli attacks in the five hours since midnight local time in Gaza (21:00 GMT).
We will bring you further updates when we have them.
Houthis continue to launch missiles at Israel despite Israeli and US air strikes
The Israeli military confirms that they successfully intercepted a missile launched by the Houthis in Yemen.
Sirens sound across several different parts of the country, especially throughout the central part of Israel, where Tel Aviv is located.
Just a couple of weeks ago, there was a missile that actually made an impact right outside Ben Gurion airport, causing air traffic to completely stop. It also caused several different airlines to cancel their flights to and from Israel.
Since the Israelis broke the ceasefire agreement back in March, the military says the Houthis have launched at least 34 different projectiles into Israeli airspace, some of which have been intercepted outside of that airspace.
Now, the military says that they are going to be dealing with the Houthis on a different scale. But, despite the air strikes the Israelis have conducted and despite the air strikes the Americans have conducted, the Houthis still continue to launch these missiles against Israel.
And they say they are going to continue to do it as long as the war on Gaza continues.
Nakba 1948 vs Gaza genocide today
Palestinians across Gaza and the occupied West Bank observed Nakba Day on May 15.
That date marks the start of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which resulted in the mass displacement of Palestinian communities in what is known as the Palestinian Catastrophe, or the Nakba.
In this video, we compare and contrast the effects of the 1948 Nakba with Israel’s ongoing devastating war on Gaza.
16 more killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since midnight
Medical sources tell Al Jazeera that at least 16 people have been killed in the three hours since midnight local time in Gaza (21:00 GMT).
The spiralling death toll comes after waves of Israeli attacks from air, land and sea that have now killed at least 143 people since dawn on Thursday.
Israeli settlers burns Palestinian flag, cars in the West Bank
Israeli settlers have stormed the occupied West Bank town of Bruqin, west of Salfit, and set fire to a Palestinian flag and Palestinian-owned vehicles, according to our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues.
Israeli military bulldozers continue to level Palestinian land on the outskirts of the town.
Settlers have also set fire to a vehicle in the Ramin Plain area east of the city of Tulkarem, according to al-Manar TV.
Three killed by Israeli strikes in northern, southern Gaza
The Israeli military’s relentless overnight assault on Gaza continues.
Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent on the ground now reports that at least two people have been killed and more injured after the Israeli military bombed a home in al-Fakhoura, west of the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
Israeli forces have also bombed a tent in al-Amal neighbourhood, west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, killing at least one person and injuring several more.
In total, at least 139 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since the early hours of Thursday morning, medical sources in the Palestinian enclave tell Al Jazeera.
Hundreds flee Beit Lahiya as Israeli ground forces storm area
We have been reporting on the Israeli military’s aerial assault on the Beit Lahiya area of northern Gaza over recent hours.
An Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent in the Palestinian enclave now reports that hundreds of Beit Lahiya residents have fled the area as they attempt to escape Israel’s bombardment.
The same correspondent also reports that Israeli ground forces have stormed the city from the western section.
The Quds News Network reports that Israeli soldiers are besieging a shelter west of the city, as they carry out arrests and order displaced women and children to evacuate the area using loudspeakers.
We will bring you more information when we have it.
At least 6 confirmed killed by Israeli strike in Jabalia
Earlier, we reported that an Israeli fighter jet bombed a home in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza.
Our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues now report that at least six people have been killed and more wounded in that attack, which struck a house on al-Ajarma Street in the Jabalia refugee camp.
Medical sources on the ground in Gaza have now confirmed to Al Jazeera that Israeli attacks have killed at least 136 people across the Palestinian enclave since the early hours of Thursday morning.
US senators call on Trump to pressure Israel to end blockade
More than two dozen US senators have introduced a resolution urging the Trump administration to “use all diplomatic tools at its disposal” to end Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
“It’s been over two months since the Israeli government has been using its power to withhold food, medicine, lifesaving cancer treatments, dialysis systems, formula, and more from starving and suffering families across Gaza,” Senator Peter Welch told the Senate earlier this week.
“Half a million Palestinians in Gaza are facing starvation, and that number is rising … All the while, these trucks that are filled with food and medicine – much of that aid provided by the United States and our allies – is right there across the border,” he said.
“We cannot have or sanction a government-intentional policy of starvation.”
The US provides at least $3.8bn in military assistance to Israel each year. Since the Israeli war on Gaza began in October 2023, it has provided billions in additional weapons to the Israeli military, as well as diplomatic cover to its top ally amid international condemnation.
At least 3 confirmed killed in Israeli attack in Beit Lahiya
Earlier, we reported that Israeli fighter jets had bombed the Beit Lahiya area of northern Gaza several times over recent hours, including a strike on a home in the Sultan neighbourhood.
An Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent on the ground now reports that at least three people have been killed in that attack, while more people have been wounded.
We will bring you further updates when we have them.
If you’re just joining us
Let’s bring you up to speed on the latest developments:
- At least 115 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip since dawn, including a barrage on the southern city of Khan Younis that left dozens dead.
- Gaza’s Health Ministry says the European Hospital in Khan Younis is out of service as a result of Israeli attacks, meaning that critical care for cancer patients and others will be disrupted.
- The UN says it won’t take part in a contentious US-backed aid operation in Gaza, saying the scheme fails to meet humanitarian principles, such as impartiality and independence.
- Yemen’s Houthis say they fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at Israel; the Israeli military says the missile was intercepted.
Israeli military bombs tent housing displaced people in southern Gaza
We have been reporting on the Israeli military’s attacks across Gaza over recent hours.
An Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent in the Palestinian enclave now reports that an Israeli fighter jet has bombed a tent housing displaced people in al-Mawasi, southern Gaza, injuring an unspecified number of people.
Israeli gunboats stationed off the coast of northern Gaza have also shelled near the Museum Hotel in Gaza City, while an Israeli fighter jet has also bombed a home in nearby Jabalia.
We will bring you more information on these attacks when we have it.
Several dead, injured after Israeli military bombs home in Beit Lahiya
The Israeli military has bombed the Beit Lahiya area of northern Gaza seven times over recent hours, according to an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent in the Palestinian enclave.
Among the strikes was an attack on a home in the Sultan area, west of Beit Lahiya, which has killed and wounded an unspecified number of people.
We will bring you more information when we have it.
‘Unconscionable’: UNICEF chief condemns killing of Gaza children
Catherine Russell, executive director of the UN’s child rights agency (UNICEF), has condemned the killing of dozens of Palestinian children in Gaza in the past days.
“This should shock the world but is largely met with indifference,” Russell said, adding that more than 1 million children in Gaza also are at risk of starvation amid Israel’s blockade.
Film on Gaza photographer receives standing ovation in Cannes
The screening of a documentary about the life of Palestinian journalist Fatima Hassouna, who was killed by an Israeli air strike last month, has received a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival.
Director Sepideh Farsi said Hassouna had been “glowing with joy” when she learned that the film Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk had made the cut. She was killed a day after the film was selected.
“She is not here, but yet she is present. They didn’t manage to defeat her,” Farsi said. “Those who wanted to look away perhaps will now be confronted with her simplicity, her force, and she’s gone now, and they know it.”
Farsi added that she received a report this week from the London-based Forensic Architecture research group that had found Hassouna had been a target of an Israeli strike last month. “It’s hard to believe, it’s like science fiction,” she said.
Israel’s blockade becoming ‘a tool of extermination’: HRW
Major NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) is sounding the alarm over reports that Israel plans to destroy Gaza’s remaining civilian infrastructure and force Palestinians into a tiny area in the bombarded coastal territory.
That plan, the rights group said, “would amount to an abhorrent escalation of its ongoing crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and acts of genocide” in the Gaza Strip.
HRW cited a recent report by US news outlet Axios that said Israel planned to “flatten” Gaza and move two million Palestinians into the southern Rafah area if no deal is reached by the end of US President Trump’s trip to the region today.
“Hearing Israeli officials flaunt plans to squeeze Gaza’s two million people into an even tinier area while making the rest of the land uninhabitable should be treated like a five-alarm fire in London, Brussels, Paris, and Washington,” said Federico Borello, HRW’s interim executive director.
“Israel’s blockade has transcended military tactics to become a tool of extermination.”
100 photos: A glimpse of Palestine before the 1948 Nakba
Long before lines were drawn on a map and city names were changed, there existed a land full of people who lived in bustling cities and remote villages, where markets overflowed with diverse voices, and farmers tended olive trees rooted deep in the hills.
This story is told not through treaties or timelines, but through photographs: small, powerful fragments that capture the texture of daily life and those who lived it.
They offer a rare, unfiltered lens into the lived reality of Palestinians in a time before exile and occupation dominated the narrative.
This collection of 100 archived images of life in Palestine before the 1948 Nakba, when Zionist militias expelled at least 750,000 Palestinians and captured 78 percent of historical Palestine.
Browse through Palestine as it was – people, places, and life and culture – here.
Dozens arrested as German police disperse pro-Palestine demonstration on Nakba Day
Police have forcibly dispersed a pro-Palestine demonstration commemorating Nakba Day in Germany’s capital, Berlin.
Videos posted by activists on Instagram, and verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking unit, show police forcibly removing protesters.
German media outlets quoted a spokesperson for Berlin Police saying that its officers arrested more than 50 people, while 10 officers were injured.
Germany has been accused of silencing pro-Palestinian voices, having ordered the deportations of three European nationals and a United States citizen over their alleged actions at demonstrations.
Nakba continues to this day for Palestinians
Israeli historian Ilan Pappe has said the Arabic term “ongoing Nakba” accurately represents the ideology and strategy that informs Israeli actions to this day.
“The ethnic cleansing of 1948 was incomplete, although it resulted in the expulsion of half of the Palestinian population,” Pappe, who chairs the Nakba Memorial Foundation, told Al Jazeera.
“After Israel occupied all of historical Palestine in 1967, Palestinians remained under direct or indirect rule of the Jewish state. This is still an impulse of Israel – to try and have as much as possible with as few Palestinians as possible.”
While the manifestations of the Nakba have changed over the years, “the impulse is the same and the impact on Palestinians is the same in the last 77 years”, Pappe said.
The historian added that Israel’s current leadership “believes that now is a historical opportunity to complete what has not been completed in 1948”.
“We had ethnic cleansing in 1948 and now we have genocide in Gaza,” he said.
‘Gaza is being starved’: UNRWA
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has reiterated that it has thousands of aid trucks waiting outside of Gaza to deliver critical assistance to Palestinians, but cannot due to Israel’s blockade.
Gaza is being starved, not by lack of aid but by lack of access,” the agency said in a post on X.
“Hunger and desperation are spreading as food and relief assistance are being weaponised. The siege must be lifted now.”
The world’s top hunger monitor said earlier this week that Gaza’s entire population faced a risk of famine due to the Israeli blockade, while 500,000 Palestinians face starvation.
WHO director says Israeli attack on hospital cut off ‘vital services’
The director of the World Health Organisation has said Israeli attacks close to the European Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis on Tuesday caused “severe damage” to the medical centre, which was forced to close.
“The hospital’s closure has cut off vital services including neurosurgery, cardiac care, and cancer treatment—all unavailable elsewhere in Gaza,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
“The shutdown also ends the facility’s role as a key hub for medical evacuations, further straining the overwhelmed health system.”
A separate strike near the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, “spread fear, disrupted access, and raised the risk of closure.”
“Hospitals must be protected. They must never be militarized or targeted,” the WHO chief added, before calling for a ceasefire.
Trump failing to pressure Netanyahu to end Gaza assault, lift blockade
Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, says “games [are] being played with children’s lives” as Palestinians in Gaza face starvation.
Commenting on earlier remarks by Marco Rubio – the US secretary of state – about Washington being troubled by the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, Bishara said, “The aid issue is not complicated at all.”
“Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid just met with [Israeli PM Benjamin] Netanyahu today and he walked out of the meeting and said, it’s Netanyahu – he’s the obstacle for making a deal on a ceasefire or on letting the aid in. It’s clear,” Bishara said.
“But the Trump administration continues to give Netanyahu excuses and continues to play games,” he said, referring to a Uìnited Nations plan for an alternative aid delivery system that has been rejected by the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies.
“It’s very easy: you open the borders, you let the [aid] trucks in, it’s as simple as that.”
‘People torn apart’ in deadly Israeli attack on Jabalia clinic
We’ve collected testimonies from people in Jabalia refugee camp, where an Israeli attack on al-Tawbah medical clinic killed at least 13 people today.
Mohammad al-Taramsi said women and children were receiving medical treatment when the clinic was bombed. “The strike was extremely intense – indescribable,” he told Al Jazeera.
“The martyrs were lying on the ground, including children and women … Reaching the area was difficult for ambulances and civilian vehicles because of the massive destruction, and the bodies remained on the ground for a long time.”
Another local resident, Yahya al-Skaafi, said he was collecting the remains of those killed. “The scene was heartbreaking – people torn apart and scattered,” he told Al Jazeera. “The martyrs who were on the upper floor were just body parts. It was a truly tragic situation.”
Khaled Abu Jalloum also said children and women were among those killed. “There was no justification for striking this place. It’s a clinic where people come to get treated, and it contains medicine and medical equipment,” he said.
Palestinians mourn relatives killed, injured in Israeli attacks
Yemen’s Houthis claim missile launch on Israel
Yemen’s Houthis have claimed the launch of a missile that Israel earlier said it had intercepted.
The group said in a statement that a hypersonic ballistic missile targeting Israel’s Ben Gurion airport had “achieved its objective,” causing Israelis to “flee to shelters and halting airport operations for nearly an hour”.
The group said it would “work to strengthen and expand its military actions” with the aim of ending Israel’s aggression and lifting the siege of Gaza.
Yemen’s Houthis have repeatedly demanded an end to the war in Gaza and the lifting of Israel’s blockade of food, medicine and aid from entering the besieged Strip.
UN will not take part in US-backed aid effort in Gaza
The United Nations has said it will not take part in a controversial US-backed humanitarian operation in Gaza, while Israel pledged to facilitate the effort without being involved in aid deliveries.
“This particular distribution plan does not accord with our basic principles, including those of impartiality, neutrality, independence, and we will not be participating in this,” deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told reporters that the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation would launch a “major operation” very soon. However, Israel would not be involved inside the operation centre.
“We will not be the one giving the aid. We will not be even in those centres. It will be run by the fund itself, led by the US. And I’m happy that a few NGOs joined these efforts,” Danon said.
No humanitarian assistance has been delivered to Gaza since March 2, and a global hunger monitor has warned that half a million people face starvation.
In Gaza, the Nakba is being relived in 2025
The Nakba. It’s a concept that accompanied me from birth until I lived through it myself these past two years.
I was born a refugee in the Khan Younis camp, known by the city’s residents as the largest gathering of refugees expelled from their lands during the Nakba, when Israel was founded in 1948.
Whenever someone asked me my name, it was always followed by: “Are you a refugee or a citizen?”
‘What is a refugee?’
As a child, I would ask, “What is a refugee?”
Read the rest of our feature and learn more about the Palestinian Nakba here.
New Israeli strikes reported in southern Gaza
Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting new strikes in Gaza’s southern cities.
Several people have been wounded in an Israeli air raid on a house in the town of al-Qarara, north of Khan Younis.
Injuries were also reported following an Israeli bombing of a building in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis.
Gaza government says Israel’s forced evacuation of Gaza hospitals a ‘war crime’
Gaza’s Government Media Office has said the forced evacuation of hospitals and medical centres was part of a “clear policy” by Israel “aimed at emptying the Gaza Strip of any means of survival”.
It said 38 medical facilities have been subject to attack and forced to close. “This systematic and deliberate targeting of health facilities, including hospitals, clinics, and medical personnel, constitutes a flagrant war crime,” it added.
“We call on the international community to urgently intervene to protect what remains of the health system in Gaza.”
What is Nakba Day?
Commemorated every year on May 15, Nakba Day marks the ethnic cleansing of historic Palestine when the State of Israel was founded in 1948.
About 750,000 Palestinians were forced out of their homes by Zionist military forces before and during the creation of the Israeli state between 1947 and 1949. Some 530 Palestinian towns and villages were destroyed.
Over the years, the Nakba – Arabic for “catastrophe” – has been commemorated with marches, protests and other events across the Middle East and other countries.
The key, in particular, has come to symbolise Palestinian dispossession, as well as the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their ancestral homeland.
Gaza is an integral part of Palestinian land: Hamas
Hamas official Basem Naim has responded to Trump’s remarks in Qatar, saying the president “possesses the necessary influence” to end the Gaza war and help establish a Palestinian state.
But he added that “Gaza is an integral part of Palestinian land – it is not real estate for sale on the open market.”
Trump’s earlier proposal to remove Gaza’s population has been called ethnic cleansing by human rights organisations. Under international law, forcibly relocating civilians is a war crime.
‘No safe place’ as thousands of Palestinians forcibly displaced again
There is no clear destination, no guarantee of safety. We’ve been everywhere across the Gaza Strip, and everywhere Palestinians have been sheltering has been attacked by the Israeli military.
We’ve seen examples of people arriving to areas where they were attacked relentlessly within days, sometimes weeks – and sometimes, in as little as hours after their arrival, they’re getting killed by the Israeli military.
The situation on the ground is very, very chaotic now and deeply distressing. People are exhausted – they’re physically and emotionally exhausted.
We’ve seen 115 people killed so far since the early hours of this morning.
Frankly, what we’ve seen in the past 48 hours is reminiscent of the opening weeks of the genocide.
Trump says US could make Gaza a ‘freedom zone’
Before travelling to the UAE, the US president told a business roundtable in Qatar that aerial shots of Gaza show “practically no building standing”.
“It’s not like you’re trying to save something. There’s no buildings. People are living under the rubble of buildings that collapsed, which is not acceptable,” he said.
“I want to see that [Gaza] be a freedom zone. And if it’s necessary, I think I’d be proud to have the United States have it, take it, make it a freedom zone. Let some good things happen.”
Trump first pitched his idea in February, saying he wanted to turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East”. The plan drew global condemnation, with Palestinians, Arab nations and the UN saying it would amount to ethnic cleansing.
Palestinians vehemently reject any plan involving them leaving Gaza, comparing such ideas to the 1948 “Nakba,” or “catastrophe,” when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from their homes in the war that led to the creation of Israel.
European hospital out of service, says Gaza health ministry
Recent Israeli attacks have heavily damaged the hospital in Khan Younis, south Gaza, the ministry says in a statement.
Here is some more of what the ministry said:
- [Israel’s] targeting caused significant damage to infrastructure such as sewage lines, damaged internal departments and destroyed roads leading to the hospital.
- The repeated targeting of the hospital makes it impossible to provide medical care because of the danger it poses to medical staff, the wounded and the sick.
- The hospital’s cessation of work means the cessation of specialised services such as neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, cardiac catheterisation centre, cardiovascular and ophthalmic surgery, which are available only in the European Hospital.
- The European Hospital is the only hospital that provides medical follow-up for cancer patients in the Gaza Strip, after the destruction of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital.
- The hospital has 28 intensive care beds, 12 nurseries, 260 inpatient beds, 25 emergency beds, and 60 oncology patient beds that are now out of operation.
Israel says missile launched from Yemen intercepted
The Israeli military has said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen towards its territory.
“Sirens were sounded in accordance with protocol,” it said in a statement.
Yemen’s Houthi group has been firing missiles and drones towards Israel, stating that their actions are acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Nakba survivor says Israeli ‘brutality’ worse than 77 years ago
Israeli forces destroyed homes in the occupied West Bank and killed dozens in Gaza as Palestinians marked 77 years since the Nakba. Israel’s “brutality” has displaced 85-year-old Nakba survivor Mohammed once again, but he says this time it’s worse.
New attacks kill at least 115 in Gaza
At least 115 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in a wave of Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip, as indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas continue.
At least 61 people were killed overnight and early on Thursday in a barrage of attacks on the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, according to local health officials. In Jabalia in northern Gaza, an Israeli strike on al-Tawbah medical clinic killed at least 15 people and wounded several others, the Health Ministry said.
Read more in our story here.
Rubio says US troubled by Gaza humanitarian situation
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Washington is troubled by the humanitarian situation in Gaza after speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Rubio told reporters in Antalya, Turkiye, that the US was not insensitive to the suffering of people in Gaza, where no humanitarian assistance has been delivered since March 2.
Here’s what’s been happening in Israel’s war on Gaza
- Palestinians are marking Nakba Day, commemorating the loss of their land after the 1948 war at the birth of the State of Israel, amid ongoing Israeli military operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
- At least 115 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza on Thursday, as indirect ceasefire talks involving Trump envoys and Qatar and Egyptian mediators are ongoing in Qatar’s capital Doha.
- US President Donald Trump has attended a state dinner in the UAE, the third stop in his tour of the Gulf region.
- Speaking to a group of officials and business leaders in Qatar before leaving for the UAE, Trump said he would like Gaza to be a “freedom zone”.
- The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation will start work in Gaza by the end of May under a heavily criticised distribution plan, but has asked Israel to let the United Nations and others resume deliveries now until it is set up.
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Hello, and thank you for joining our live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza as well as its attacks on the occupied West Bank and the wider region.
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You can read about the key events from Wednesday, May 14, here.
