Discarded clothes are strewn along a destroyed road in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoon city. The items of clothing are evidence of what locals say was a campaign of mass arrests by Israeli forces, who rounded up all the Palestinian men in the area.

Some were told to run for their lives, others were stripped, blindfolded, handcuffed and brought for interrogation, which involved torture and abuse, a victim of the Israeli operation told Al Jazeera.

More than 100 Palestinians were killed and almost 200 injured in Israeli attacks between Monday and Wednesday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports.

The casualty figures from the Ministry of Health in Gaza show that 102 people were killed and 199 injured, including 56 people who died and 89 who were injured in Israeli attacks in the 24 hours between Tuesday and Wednesday night.

The OCHA flash report documents some of the Israeli attacks, including one on Monday and two on Tuesday, which were all against civilian homes in Gaza and resulted in the killing of 13 people, including a child.

Also on Tuesday, seven Palestinian police officers and a civilian were killed when Israeli forces targeted their police vehicle in Gaza City, the report notes.

Intense shelling from Israeli artillery has been reported in the southern, southwestern and eastern areas of Gaza City this morning, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports. A number of people were injured in the areas of Sheikh Ijlin, Tal al-Hawa, and Zeitoun in the city in the north of the Gaza Strip, Wafa added.

Israeli warplanes also bombed homes in Tal al-Hawa and the Shati camp in Gaza City, a Wafa correspondent reported.

Much of Rafah, like the rest of Gaza, is now rubble. Israeli air strikes have repeatedly targeted the area, levelling homes and killing thousands of Palestinians.

Tamam al-Handy, a displaced mother now seeking shelter in Rafah, told Al Jazeera that she fears Israeli forces will launch a ground invasion of the area where so many have fled to for safety.

“We are scared if an invasion takes place in Rafah. Where can we go?” she said.

Israel’s Air Force attacked more than 40 sites in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday as Palestinian fighters reported carrying out 14 mortar and rocket-propelled grenade attacks on Israeli forces in the territory’s northern Beit Hanoon city.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP), two US-based defence think tanks, said the Israeli air attacks targeted “explosively rigged buildings, observation posts, and underground military infrastructure”.

A group aligned with Hamas, the Popular Resistance Committees, also reported firing a barrage of rockets into Israel on Wednesday that targeted an Israeli military base in the Zikim area, located to the north of the Gaza Strip, the ISW and CTP said.

Local monitors say at least 9,500 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank are in captivity, a sharp uptick from the 5,200 who were in prison before October 7.

Many are held under “administrative detention” – a measure inherited from the British colonial mandate that Israeli authorities use to hold Palestinians captive without charge or process indefinitely.

Palestinians in administrative detention have no information about their situation, not being told the charges against them or the ostensible evidence.

“They don’t treat you like a human being in prison. They treat you like an animal,” Nada*, 24, a Palestinian who has been held under administrative detention, told Al Jazeera.

Palestinians have been beaten and arrested during raids by Israeli forces on communities across the West Bank, the Wafa news agency reports. A young man was assaulted and detained during a raid in Beitunia town, located to the west of Ramallah, according to the Palestinian news agency.

Confrontations between local people and Israeli forces erupted during a raid on the Shuafat refugee camp, northeast of Jerusalem, during which gas was deployed by the Israeli military.

Raids were also under way in villages west of Jenin city, and intense activity by Israeli military drones was reported in the skies above the region, Wafa reports. Two Palestinians were also arrested at a checkpoint set up by Israeli forces who stormed the town of Azzun, located to the east of Qalqilya.

The spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says a surge in attacks by settlers and Israel forces in the occupied West Bank is “extremely worrying”. “The killing of civilians is to be condemned and needs to be fully investigated,” Stephane Dujarric told a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York City.

At least 468 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers, settlers or both in the occupied West Bank since October 7, the Palestinian Health Ministry says.

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic have shared video footage which appears to show a white phosphorus bomb being used in an attack on southern Lebanon.

Israel’s air force said late on Wednesday that its warplanes had hit Hezbollah infrastructure sites north of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon and its forces had also removed “a threat” in the Kawkaba area of southern Lebanon.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Israeli forces in October of using white phosphorus munitions in Lebanon and Gaza. HRW confirmed Israel’s use of white phosphorus munitions at two locations along the Israel-Lebanon border and over the Gaza City port.

White phosphorus is a wax-like, toxic substance that burns at more than 800 degrees Celsius (nearly 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit). It is hot enough to melt metal, burn skin down to the bone, and its chemical ingredients can be absorbed by the body, causing dysfunction in multiple organs, including the liver, kidneys and heart.

Israeli fighter jets attacked sites in the area of southern Lebanon’s Khiam town overnight and killed two Hezbollah fighters in the Kfar Kila area, the military said.

Several Hezbollah “infrastructure” sites were attacked near Khiam, including two military buildings, the Israeli military said on social media, alongside grainy footage of nighttime explosions destroying buildings and what appears to be a vehicle.

Late on Wednesday night, Hezbollah said it had targeted Israeli soldiers while they were attempting to evacuate a military vehicle that Hezbollah claimed to hit a day earlier in the Metula area of northern Israel.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s hardline finance minister, says retaliation for Iran’s strikes must “rock Tehran so everyone there will realise they shouldn’t mess with us”. The response to Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel last week has to be “fierce, severe and inflict a disproportionate toll”, Smotrich told Israel’s Army Radio (GLZ).

He added the retaliation is necessary to “shape [Israel’s] position in the Middle East”. “This is the language spoken in the Middle East,” Smotrich said in the interview.

Students taking part in a Gaza Solidarity Encampment on the campus of New York’s Columbia University say they have been threatened with arrest.

In a post on social media, the Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine said the New York Police Department has warned the protesting students that they face arrest for participating in the tent encampment on the main lawn of the university’s campus.

According to reports, the hundreds of protesting students have been given a deadline to vacate the solidarity camp by university staff and there is a large police presence that appears ready to intervene.

‼️ACTION ALERT ‼️
NYPD has threatened ARREST for Columbia University students who participate in our Gaza Solidarity Encampment. We need everyone on campus ASAP at Butler lawns!!
BRING YOUR FRIENDS!!

— Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (@ColumbiaSJP) April 18, 2024

Arrests reported amid Columbia University ‘Gaza encampment’ standoff

POWER TO THE PEOPLE ❤️‍🔥 Join us outside our encampment all night long. Bring a friend, blankets, and snacks!! Follow our telegram for updates: https://t.co/0ILWlt4kvR #cu4palestine pic.twitter.com/15SCqgCZ6E

— Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (@ColumbiaSJP) April 18, 2024

Activist group say 28 Google employees fired after pro-Palestine protest

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has failed to take action against Israel for alleged human rights violations carried out by its forces against Palestinians, despite recommendations given to him by officials in his own department, a news report says.

A special State Department panel – the Israel Leahy Vetting Forum – made the recommendations in December to halt American aid to Israeli military and police units allegedly involved in abuses, but Blinken has not acted, current and former department officials told US news outlet ProPublica.

“They’ve been sitting in his briefcase since then,” one unnamed official is quoted as saying. The allegations against Israeli forces include extrajudicial killings, torture and rape. The abuses occurred mostly in the occupied West Bank and before Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, it said.

A State Department spokesperson told ProPublica a “careful and full review” is under way.

‘They talk about torture’

Palestinians arrested in Gaza ‘beaten and humiliated’

Israeli forces arrest 40 in the occupied West Bank

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian landed in New York City and will later address the UN Security Council as tit-for-tat attacks with Israel raise fears of a wider war in the Middle East.

He said the UNSC meeting will “focus on the Palestinian issue”, adding Israel’s war on Gaza has reached a boiling point.

“The spillover of this situation is clearly visible in the region,” he told reporters. “It is an opportunity to explain Iran’s views in line with the necessity of establishing lasting peace and security in the region.”


_{Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, left, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, centre, and Iran’s ambassador Hossein Akbari, right, review Iran’s consular building in Damascus that was targeted by Israel}

Israel vs Iran: ‘Chances of regional explosion are real’

Lebanon accuses Mossad of assassinating Hezbollah-linked money man

Overnight, the Israeli military carried out wide-ranging attacks across Gaza but one of the bloodiest was on southern Rafah where at least 11 Palestinians were killed, including five children.

We have also recorded more air strikes in the al-Mughraqa and Deir el-Balah areas. These two towns have witnessed mass demolitions by the Israeli military with many neighbourhoods completely destroyed.

The Israeli army, meanwhile, withdrew from the Nuseirat refugee camp, leaving behind a trail of destruction. Civil defence crews are working to recover victims buried in the debris.

Local news reports say the Israeli military has deployed more tanks and armoured vehicles near border areas with Rafah, in preparation for a potential ground invasion of the densely populated area with about 1.5 million people sheltering there.

WFP says food convoys crossed into northern Gaza this week

80,000 out of 550,000 in the North, 15% gets something to eat.

Gaza civil defence workers pull bodies from Nuseirat destruction

_{Search operations continue in the largely destroyed Nuseirat refugee camp near Deir el-Balah}

The destruction of the Nuseirat refugee camp

Palestinians try to recover any usable items from the rubble of the wrecked structures while emergency services continue to scour for bodies. According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, 75 people were killed, 348 were wounded and 100 others went missing during the Israeli incursion in Nuseirat.

Video shows Palestinian man forced to strip by Israeli soldiers

Two-thirds of homes destroyed in Gaza: UNICEF

Approximately 2 in 3 homes in #Gaza have been destroyed or damaged.
HOMES.
People's Homes. pic.twitter.com/zCEWR5pDzB

— James Elder (@1james_elder) April 18, 2024

UNRWA ‘exists because a political solution does not’

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says more than six months of Israel’s offensive in Gaza has created a “humanitarian hellscape” and escalated regional tensions.

“Ending hostilities in Gaza would significantly defuse tensions across the region,” Guterres said while addressing members of the UN Security Council. “I reiterate my calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the immediate release of all hostages held in Gaza.”

He got into a lot of detail that sometimes you don’t hear from the UN secretary-general. He really laid out multiple fronts where the conflict is expanding and where the risks are really high.

But, I think the big takeaway here was a couple of things from the secretary-general. He basically confirmed that Israel is not doing enough to get aid and allow aid in for the people who need it the most in Gaza, despite the fact of the ICJ issuing its provisional measures back in February.

Despite the fact, Israel saying – after the death of several humanitarians from World Central Kitchen – that they were going to allow more aid in, the secretary-general is saying, it’s not happening.

He said, last week, Israel denied 40 percent of the UN’s request to get aid trucks … into Gaza. He essentially said … they’re [Israel] not doing enough to facilitate humanitarian aid at the scale that it’s needed to prevent a famine.

Israel is basically admitting the PA is under their control, Israel's total occupation of the West bank

Gilad Erdan, the Israeli representative to the UN Security Council, has strongly rejected the resolution to grant Palestine full membership to the UN. This resolution would “have zero positive impact for any party, would cause only destructions for the years to come and harm any chance for future dialogue”, he said.

Erdan said the Palestinian Authority has no control over Gaza and no authority across the occupied West Bank.

He went on to accuse the Palestinian leadership of seeking full membership in the UN for “political interests”.

Ziad Abu Amr, the Palestinian representative to the UN, said granting Palestinians a sovereign state will pave the way for “true peace based on justice”. Peace would be greatly beneficial to the entire region, the ambassador said, stressing that the Palestinian leadership has always supported a diplomatic solution.

“How could this recognition and this membership harm international peace and security?,” he asked members of the UNSC.

Ahmed Attaf, Algeria’s foreign minister, says time for a two-state solution is running out.

“The two-state solution is facing imminent mortal danger. We must save this solution before it’s too late, which means granting the status of full membership to the state of Palestine to safeguard peace,” Attaf told members of the Security Council.

“Any hesitation will have disastrous consequences and would give a green light to the Israeli occupation to continue with its plan of stealing,” Attaf said.

Russian FM favors Palestine full UN membership

Israel should abandon any plan to attack Rafah: China

The past 24 hours have been very bloody and very violent across the Gaza Strip with an intense bombing campaign.

So far … seven atrocities [were] committed at different parts of the Strip, including the central area, here in the overcrowded Rafah City, and more of the northern parts that have not only been suffering from the spread of famine, but also from intense, deliberate bombing of residential buildings and public facilities.

We’ve seen a deliberate attack on a school that has been turned into an evacuation centre for hundreds of displaced families from the northern parts of the Strip and Gaza City.

Health workers have recovered at least 30 bodies buried in front of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, said Salama Maarouf, head of the Strip’s Government Media Office.

Maarouf accused the Israeli army of deliberately hiding the bodies by burying them under waste and sand. The official said 12 of the bodies were identified and those buried included women and wounded people. “Some were handcuffed and stripped of their clothes, indicating that they had been executed in cold blood,” Maarouf charged.

This is the second mass grave discovered this week in front of the hospital. The facility turned into a graveyard during a two-week siege by the Israeli army.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud in Rafah gives some context about why another mass grave was found in front of al-Shifa Hospital:

• In November, the hospital was stormed because the Israeli army said the facility was a headquarters for Hamas operatives, but it did not provide substantial evidence to justify the attack.
• In March, the army again stormed the hospital using tanks and heavy gunfire for 10 days, destroying most of the facility and killing dozens of people it said were linked to Hamas or other armed groups
• According to witnesses, the bodies discovered in the latest mass grave still had medical bandages on them, suggesting they were hospital patients
• More bodies are expected to be found in the coming days considering the tens of thousands of people who had been sheltering in Gaza’s largest medical facility.