Lebanese Red Cross hit by Israeli strike in southern Lebanon

A Lebanese Red Cross paramedic has been killed in an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese town of Beit Yahoun. After Hassan Badawi’s killing on Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it was ⁠deeply concerned by attacks on medical workers ⁠in Lebanon.

“The loss ⁠of those who dedicate their lives to saving ⁠others is gravely concerning, given ⁠the impact ⁠on the civilians who depend on their help,” said Agnes ‌Dhur, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in ‌Lebanon.

“Saving lives must never cost a life. Humanitarian and medical personnel must be protected. They must be allowed to reach and help the wounded and return unharmed.”

The ICRC called on all parties to the fighting to “uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law”.

Lebanon’s president calls for ceasefire ahead of Washington meeting

Lebanon’s President Aoun says he hopes a meeting in Washington between Lebanese, US and Israeli representatives will lead to a ceasefire.

In remarks to Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, the Lebanese presidency said on X that Lebanon wants “an agreement … with the aim of initiating direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel” to end hostilities and stabilise the south.

He said there is “an available opportunity to reach a sustainable solution”, but stressed it “cannot be one-sided” and that Israel must respond to calls “to stop its aggressions … and commence negotiations”.

“Israel’s destruction of Lebanese areas is not the solution and will not achieve any result, because diplomatic solutions have always been the best for armed conflicts.”

He welcomed Italy’s offer to host talks and said negotiations would be handled “by the Lebanese state and no other party”. He also said Lebanon has stepped up security measures at Rafic Hariri International Airport and border crossings to prevent arms smuggling.

Hezbollah reports wave of attacks on northern Israel and border areas

Hezbollah says it has launched a series of rocket and drone attacks at Israel, citing what it described as repeated ceasefire violations. In multiple statements issued today, the group said its fighters targeted Israeli positions near Bint Jbeil, al-Bayyada and the outskirts of Tyre.

It also claimed rocket fire on northern Israel in Hanita, Shlomi and Nahariya, as well as a drone attack on the Shraga base, described as “the administrative headquarters of the Golani Brigade”.

Israel supports Trump’s Iran naval blockade, Netanyahu says

Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel supports Donald Trump’s decision to impose a naval blockade on Iran, adding that his government is in full coordination with Washington on the matter.

“Iran violated the rules, President Trump decided to impose a naval blockade,” PM Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting, according to a video statement released by his office.

“We, of course, support this firm position, and we are in constant coordination with the United States.”

Lol the hypocrisy of accusing anyone of violating the rules while having an arrest warrant on his head for war crimes.

US blockade of Strait of Hormuz met with some skepticism in Israel

Netanyahu is very keen to remind the Israeli public that he is in close coordination with the US and that he is a close friend of the American president, who according to the polls is far more popular in Israel than Netanyahu.

US’s announcement that its military would blockade the Strait of Hormuz was welcomed by Netanyahu, but others in Israel have put that in doubt.

Danny Citrinowicz, the former head of the Iran desk in the Israeli Military Intelligence said that what couldn’t be achieved during five weeks of war won’t be achieved by imposing a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz.

Moshe Yaalon, the former Israeli security minister, said that none of the objectives of the war were achieved in over 40 days of fighting and that Iran may now well conclude that acquiring a nuclear weapon is essential.

A new GHF whistleblower speaks out for the first time

Speaking to Rana Nattour, David McIntosh, a former contractor with Safe Reach Solutions, says he saw Israeli soldiers use deadly force at aid seekers who posed no threat including one incident involving a 12-year old boy.

Hezbollah chief says Israel implementing ‘Greater Israel’ plan with US help

Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem has delivered a speech in which he warned that Israel aims to achieve its expansionist aims in Lebanon and the region.

Qassem said Netanyahu’s government aimed to implement its “Greater Israel” project, pushing to incorporate the occupied West Bank, Gaza, and parts of neighboring countries like Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt.

The chief of the Lebanese armed group said its fighters were repelling an occupation at a time in which diplomacy has not yielded any outcomes, as Israel continues to strike Lebanon and invade its southern towns with American support.


_{First responders gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a neighbourhood in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Roummane}

Israeli strikes reported across southern Lebanon, Bekaa Valley

An Israeli drone strike hit the town of Tayr in the Sour district in the south, according to our colleagues on the ground.

Air strikes were also reported on Deir Antar in the Bint Jbeil district in southern Lebanon, as well as on Sahmar in the Bekaa region in the east.

Separately, Avichay Adraee, Israel’s Arabic spokesperson, said the Israeli air force attacked “approximately 150 targets affiliated with the terrorist Hezbollah party during the last 24 hours”.

He said the strikes targeted “rocket and drone launch platforms”, as well as “military buildings and hangars for launching anti-armor missiles”, and claimed that fighters attempting to carry out attacks had been “eliminated”. No evidence was provided to support the claims.

There Is No 'Peace' in Gaza | Bisan Owda

Bisan Owda (@wizard_bisan1) breaks down the so-called "Board of Peace" — Israel's Greater Israel plan and how Palestinians in Gaza are coping with it all.

UN experts slam attacks on Gaza shelters, forced displacement in West Bank

United Nations experts have reiterated calls for an end to Israeli attacks on displaced Palestinians in Gaza as well as forced displacement measures in the occupied West Bank.

In a statement issued on Monday by the UN Human Rights Council (OHCHR), the experts detailed several incidents in March in which Israeli air strikes set tents of displaced Palestinians in Gaza on fire, killing many.

“This cycle of displacement, terror, and targeted attacks serves an ultimate purpose: to make life unbearable for Palestinians and permanently force them from their land,” the panel said.

“The vast majority of Gaza’s population has already been displaced multiple times which amounts to forcible transfer,” the panel said, adding that “targeting areas known to shelter displaced civilians is a grave breach of international humanitarian law.”

The experts noted that civilians in tents and makeshift shelters are already experiencing grave health risks, including hunger, freezing, flooding, and a lack of basic services. The panel said that “women and children bear a disproportionate share of deprivation”.

The panel also criticised “the sharp escalation in forced displacement” across the occupied West Bank, driven by the Israeli army and what the experts called “State-backed settler terrorism”. This includes “daily attacks resulting in killing, injury, and harassment of women and children, and the widespread destruction of Palestinian homes, farmland and livelihoods”.

More than 36,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced amid expanding illegal settlement activity in 2025, according to a report by the UN Human Rights Office. The experts said that “the scale and pattern of these actions shows once again the ongoing broader policy of ethnic cleansing across the occupied Palestinian territory”.

They urged Israel to end all ongoing forced displacement in the West Bank and to facilitate the safe return of displaced Palestinians.

“States must bring Israel’s unlawful occupation to an end,” they said, urging countries to remember their legal obligations, call for investigations, and avoid assisting Israel while its occupation of Palestinian territory continues without accountability.

The panel of 13 experts was made up of UN special rapporteurs, including on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, the rights of internally displaced persons, Paula Gaviria Betancur, the right to food, Michael Fakhri, and on the violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem.

UK seeks to jail Palestine Action for ‘terrorism’ amid UK media blackout

A shockingly corrupted trial that exposes the British state’s weaponization of censorship and secrecy laws has just begun.

The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal details how six activists from the direct action protest group Palestine Action face terrorism charges and the possibility of long prison terms – but the jury in the case is forbidden from knowing this.

The UK media is similarly banned from reporting on these facts, while the defendants in the case are blocked by court order from explaining their motives for damaging and occupying Israeli weapons factories on British soil.

Blumenthal explains why Palestine Action is being targeted with such a draconian prosecution: because they are effective. Having caused the closure of Israeli factories, they have provided activists around the world with a workable model for raising the cost of occupation and genocide.

Now, he argues, the British state is so determined to prevent their acquittal before a potentially sympathetic jury that it is rigging the trial and perverting whatever's left of democracy, all to preserve its special relationship with Israel.


US/UK/Israel, the real axis of evil.

Italy’s PM says suspending auto-renewal of defence agreement with Israel

“In view of the current situation, the government has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defence agreement with Israel,” Italy’ PM Giorgia Meloni said on the sidelines of an event in Verona, according to Italian news agency Ansa.

The agreement involves the exchange of military equipment and technology research, news agencies reported.

Israel and Lebanon are holding talks. What do we know?

Israel and Lebanon are due to open formal talks in Washington, DC, today at the US State Department.

Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah continues amid US-sponsored diplomatic efforts

There’s been no letup in Israeli strikes.

Israel says the conflict with Hezbollah is continuing despite the opening of a US-sponsored diplomatic track.

Israel initially rejected Lebanon’s offer to negotiate. Even the Trump administration remained silent. The US-Iran ceasefire deal brought a shift in policy because Iran insisted Lebanon must be included. The US also agreed to re-engage with the authorities here after expressing frustration with their failure to disarm Hezbollah.

The group is on the front lines, engaging in direct confrontations with invading Israeli soldiers in recent weeks.

Israel is refusing to discuss a ceasefire, which is Lebanon’s condition before formal peace negotiations can begin. For now, negotiations are being conducted under fire.

Israel Has Created Hell On Earth

Dr. Tarek Loubani, a Canadian emergency room physician who has been volunteering in Palestine joins the program from Gaza for a harrowing interview. If you can, please support Dr. Loubani’s Glia Project, a medical solidarity organization that empowers low-resource communities to build sustainable, locally-drive healthcare project.

As world focuses on Iran, Israel ‘engineering starvation policy’ in Gaza

With the global attention fixated on the diplomatic efforts to end the war on Iran, Israel has systematically escalated its attacks on Gaza and choked off vital aid, plunging the besieged enclave into what economic experts are now calling an “engineered, compounded famine”.

The number of aid trucks entering Gaza has dropped drastically in violation of the October 2025 ceasefire with Hamas. Since then, the Government Media Office in Gaza has recorded 2,400 military violations by Israeli forces, resulting in the killing of more than 700 Palestinians.



While Israel frequently claims it is allowing hundreds of aid trucks into Gaza, Palestinian officials and economic experts argue these figures are a deliberate mathematical deception.

According to the Government Media Office, only 41,714 aid and commercial trucks have entered Gaza over the past six months. This represents a mere 37 percent of the 110,400 trucks stipulated under the ceasefire agreement. The fuel situation is even more critical, with only 1,366 fuel trucks entering out of a promised 9,200 – an abysmal 14 percent compliance rate.

Recent daily logs highlight the severity of the bottleneck. On April 13, a total of only 102 aid trucks and 7 fuel trucks were allowed into the entire Strip, alongside 216 commercial trucks – a fraction of the more than 600 total trucks required daily under the “ceasefire” deal. By April 14, the numbers remained critically low with 122 aid trucks and 12 fuel trucks entering.

Crucially, Israeli authorities entirely shut down additional entry points like the Zikim and Kissufim crossings, which had processed dozens of commercial and aid trucks just a day prior, bottlenecking all limited traffic exclusively through Karem Abu Salem.

Mohammed Abu Jayyab, a Palestinian economic expert based in Gaza, told Al Jazeera that Israel utilises a “technical and commercial deception” to inflate these numbers.

“An Israeli truck carries up to 32 or 34 pallets… which are then unloaded into two or three smaller, dilapidated Palestinian trucks on the Gaza side,” Abu Jayyab explained. “Consequently, the UN and Israel count double or triple the actual number of Israeli trucks entering.” One pallet holds roughly 1 tonne of goods or food items.

Furthermore, Israel recently banned mixed-load shipments. If a merchant brings in 20 pallets of sugar, the remaining 12 pallet spaces on the truck must remain empty, yet it is still registered as a full commercial truck.

“The political agreement stipulated a ‘truck’ but did not specify quantities, weights, or the number of pallets,” Abu Jayyab noted, allowing Israel to weaponise logistics to restrict aid while appearing compliant.

Engineering starvation

This logistical strangulation is part of a broader strategy. Hassan Abu Riyala, undersecretary of the Ministry of National Economy in Gaza, stated in a meeting published on the ministry’s official Telegram channel that Israel is “engineering a policy of starvation”.

To ensure chaos in the local markets and sky-high prices, Israel has deliberately dismantled civil regulatory bodies. “The occupation targeted the majority of the crews that monitored prices, and assassinated the [former] undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy and five directors general during the war,” Abu Riyala said.

The results have been devastating, basic commodities have become scarce, and bread production has plummeted to 200 tonnes daily, far below the 450 tonnes required to feed the population.

“We manage this structural deficit under exceptional and coercive conditions,” Ismail Al-Thawabteh, director general of the Government Media Office, told Al Jazeera.

He described the ongoing reduction of supplies despite the truce as a “systematic restriction of basic supplies” that pushes the population towards dangerous levels of food insecurity. Fresh produce has skyrocketed, with 1kg (2.2lb) of tomatoes jumping from $1.50 to nearly $4 in a matter of weeks.

Moreover, the humanitarian catastrophe is being accelerated by the withdrawal of major aid groups. Al-Thawabteh noted that the scaling back or suspension of operations by key international institutions, most notably the World Food Programme (WFP), due to Israeli restrictions, represents a “highly dangerous development” that threatens the complete collapse of Gaza’s relief system.

A ‘compounded famine’

The crisis has evolved beyond a simple lack of food; it is now a complete collapse of the Palestinian economy.

Abu Jayyab described the current situation as a “compounded famine”. With unemployment soaring to 80 percent and the destruction of more than 160,000 jobs across industrial, agricultural, and commercial sectors, the population has entirely lost its purchasing power.

“It has become illogical to link the entry of food supplies from the crossings to their availability to Palestinian citizens,” Abu Jayyab told Al Jazeera. Even when goods reach the market, between 70 to 80 percent of families simply cannot afford to buy them due to the total absence of income.

This extreme deprivation is forcing civilians into life-threatening alternatives. “The return of long queues for bakeries, and citizens resorting to burning plastic and waste in the absence of cooking gas, are dangerous field indicators of an unprecedented deterioration,” Al-Thawabteh warned, noting that government health facilities are currently struggling to treat respiratory and skin diseases resulting from this toxic pollution.

The medical blockade

Meanwhile, the stranglehold extends to Gaza’s most vulnerable patients. While the ceasefire agreement mandated the opening of the Rafah crossing for medical evacuations, Israel has kept the borders tightly restricted.

Over the past six months, only 2,703 people have been allowed to cross through Rafah out of an expected 36,800 – a compliance rate of just 7 percent. Consequently, only 8 percent of the severely wounded and chronically ill patients slated for urgent medical evacuation have been permitted to leave. According to the World Health Organization, roughly 18,000 people are still trapped in Gaza waiting for life-saving treatment abroad.

Israeli attacks kill 11, including two children, in day of strikes on Gaza

On Tuesday, Israel’s military killed at least 11 Palestinians, including two children, in separate attacks across the war-torn Strip.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Defence, said four people were killed, including the three-year-old, “in a strike targeting a police vehicle” in Gaza City.

Gaza’s Ministry of Interior said in a statement that Israeli warplanes had “targeted” the police vehicle in the city centre, “causing several deaths and injuries”, with a police officer among those killed and at least nine bystanders wounded, some critically.

Bassal also said another person was killed by Israeli fire in the northern Beit Lahiya area earlier in the day.

Later on Tuesday evening, Civil Defence reported that another Israeli strike killed several people near an intersection in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City.

Medics at Al-Shifa Hospital later confirmed receiving five bodies from “an Israeli drone bombing”, involving two missiles, that hit a group of people in the Shati refugee camp.

Reuters reported that the Israeli strike hit near a cafe and, along with those killed, it had also wounded several people, according to health officials.

Despite a “ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas that began last October and slowed two years of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, Israeli forces continue to carry out daily strikes on the territory, killing almost 760 Palestinians since the truce was agreed upon.

The intensity of these attacks spiked during peak regional tensions. Between February 28 and April 8, while Israel and the US were engaged in a bombing campaign against Iran, Israeli forces bombed Gaza on 36 out of those 40 days.

In the last five weeks alone, more than 100 people have been killed, including Al Jazeera journalist Mohammed Wishah. Israel has killed more than 72,336 people since launching the brutal military offensive on October 7, 2023.

Israeli army says soldiers accused of abusing Palestinian to return to duty

Israeli military chief Eyal Zamir has authorised five soldiers accused of sexually assaulting a Palestinian inmate in the notorious Sde Teiman detention camp to return to reserve service after charges against them were dropped, according to Israeli media reports.

The soldiers, all from the Force 100 unit assigned to guard military prisons, are being reinstated despite an ongoing, internal military inquiry into their conduct.

Israeli Army Radio reported that some of the reservists have already returned to active duty, including deployment to combat roles.

An Israeli army statement, cited by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, said: “The investigation does not prevent them from continuing to serve … the command-level investigation will be completed as soon as possible.”

The reinstatement comes after Israel’s top military lawyer dropped all charges against the soldiers last month, closing a case that had been among the most divisive in Israel’s recent history.

The soldiers had been charged with aggravated assault and causing severe injury, after footage broadcast by Israeli television showed them abusing a Palestinian man in Sde Teiman. The military’s own indictment described soldiers stabbing the detainee with a sharp object near his rectum, causing cracked ribs, a punctured lung and an internal tear.

A doctor at the facility, Yoel Donchin, told Haaretz he was so shocked by the Palestinian inmate’s condition that he initially assumed it was the work of a rival armed group.

Military Advocate General Itay Offir said the indictments were scrapped partly because of “complexities in the evidentiary structure” and “difficulties” arising from the detainee’s release to the Gaza Strip.

Rights groups condemned the decision as a legal injustice, with Amnesty International calling it “yet another unconscionable chapter in the Israeli legal system’s long-standing history of granting impunity to perpetrators of grave crimes against Palestinians”.

“Since the start of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, and despite overwhelming evidence of widespread torture and abuse, including sexual violence, against Palestinians in Israeli detention centers, only one Israeli soldier has so far been sentenced over torturing a Palestinian detainee,” said the rights group in a statement.

Armed with paintbrushes, volunteers try to preserve rare books at Gaza City's Omari library

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/gaza-library-war-9.7163599


_{A group of volunteers is working to preserve the remaining books at the library after much of it was destroyed during the war}

Volunteers wearing surgical masks silently sifted through dust and rubble, sunlight shining through what windows still remain at the Omari mosque library in Gaza City.

The volunteers used paint brushes to clean dust from books and carefully categorized them into piles based on their condition. Only some of the bookshelves survived standing, so volunteers picked up toppled books, some with pages torn out.

“We are here just saving the library … also the Palestinian history and heritage, especially the heritage of Gaza City,” Maram Al-Sarsawi, one of the many volunteers, told CBC freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife during a visit earlier this month.

The Omari library was attacked in December 2023 during the early days of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Now, after almost three years of war, much of Gaza’s infrastructure, including libraries, schools and universities, has been damaged.

And while the ceasefire in place since January is still fragile, many Palestinians are trying to repair damage wherever they can.

The western part of the Omari library was burnt down in the 2023 attack, but Al-Sarsawi says her team has saved 3,000 books out of the approximately 20,000 books — many rare — that it once held.



Since the ceasefire took effect and civilians were allowed to return to Gaza City, volunteers with the Eyes on Heritage Foundation have been trying to save the books — one so rare it's from the Ottoman Empire, Al-Sarsawi says.

“We have to revive this library again because it’s the only one,” she said. “This is a very historical and valuable and remarkable library in Gaza.” 

In the first few months of the war alone, over 87 libraries and archives were destroyed in the enclave, based on a report released in February 2024 by Librarians and Archivists with Palestine, a network of archivists and librarians working in solidarity with Palestine.

But the organization says their list is far from complete. Historically, they say that 30,000 books and manuscripts were taken from Palestinian villages and towns in 1948.

“Archivists and librarians have been repeatedly displaced, injured, or killed, making it even more difficult to take stock of the damage to cultural heritage,” the report says.

“As a result, it should be assumed that this report represents only a fraction of the extent of damage and death, not a complete picture.”