Hamas says Israel tightening “engineered starvation” in Gaza by closing Rafah crossing

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20260421-hamas-says-israel-tightening-engineered-starvation-in-gaza-by-closing-rafah-crossing/

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said Israel is continuing to tighten its blockade on the Gaza Strip by closing crossings and controlling the entry of aid and the number of travellers through the Rafah crossing.

In a video statement on Monday, Qassem said the Rafah crossing had been closed while severe restrictions on aid deliveries remain in place. He added that Israel had not met the agreed number of aid trucks allowed into Gaza, with fewer than half entering, alongside continued limits on the number of travellers.

Qassem said Israel is pursuing a policy of “engineering starvation” in Gaza, pointing to rising prices of basic goods as hunger deepens, as well as ongoing violations including shelling and killings, such as those reported early on Monday.

He added that what is happening reflects a systematic Israeli policy of violations, calling for a “genuine stance” from mediators and guarantor states, as well as what he described as the “Board of Peace”, to put an end to these actions and lift the blockade on Gaza after two years of what he described as genocide.

Meanwhile, Ismail Al-Thawabta, Director General of the Government Media Office, said the humanitarian crisis in the enclave has reached unprecedented levels amid the continued closure of crossings, particularly the Rafah crossing.

Requests for US legal aid linked to Palestine activism far surpass pre-2023 levels

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/21/us-legal-aid-palestine

A civil rights group dedicated to the defense of pro-Palestinian speech said that requests for legal assistance linked to Palestine-related activism in the US continues to far surpass pre-2023 levels, having logged 300% more requests for support last year than in any year prior to Israel’s war in Gaza.

Palestine Legal logged some 1,131 requests in 2025. That was less than the record 2,184 requests it received in 2024, amid the peak of student protests and encampments, but well above its yearly average prior to the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks and Israel’s response in Gaza.

“With Trump’s return to power in January 2025, the authoritarian repression of the Palestine solidarity movement in the United States – already at unprecedented heights with the Biden administration’s crackdown on dissent against the US-backed genocide – went into overdrive,” the group wrote in a report published on Tuesday.

Pro-Palestinian protests were smaller and more sparse in 2025 than they were in spring 2024, when thousands of students across the country were arrested. Universities responded with an array of new restrictions and punitive responses, and Trump’s return to office in January 2025 led to a showdown between the federal government and universities the administration accused of antisemitism.

Most of the requests fielded by Palestine Legal in 2025 related to student activism, including 40 at K-12 institutions and 663 at universities. Most have to do with student suspensions and bans from campus over Palestine-related advocacy.

...

“Students are the biggest threat because they are the ones who are changing public opinion,” said Khalidi, pointing to profound transformations in Americans’ views of Israel that are beginning to reconfigure the political map. “They represent a moral compass for all of us.”

US Veterans Stage Anti-Iran War Protest Inside Cannon Office Building

Around 120 U.S. military veterans from About Face: Veterans Against the War staged a protest inside the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, D.C., opposing the war in Iran. The demonstration included a flag-folding ceremony and banner display, with some participants expecting arrest. The protest reflects growing anti-war sentiment among veterans. For more details, watch our story and subscribe to our channel, DRM News.

Palantir EXPOSED: Killing Palestinians for Profit?

Palestinian journalists from Gaza Ahmed Alnaouq and Hala Hanina discuss the US tech giant Palantir, its role in the Gaza genocide and its £240m contract in the UK's National Health Service.

They're joined by Palestinian author, academic and physician Dr Ghada Karmi and investigative journalist Matt Kennard for the second episode of PDD's new weekly chat show, premiering each Wednesday at 7pm UK time.

Trump extends ceasefire indefinitely as Iran refuses to join peace talks

US President Donald Trump has announced an extension of the two-week ceasefire against Iran for an indefinite period. This was after Iran refused to send its delegation to Pakistan for the second round of peace talks. This also came as a huge setback for Trump who, in a TV interview on Tuesday, boasted about his country's ability to force Iran to accept the peace deal. Rifat Jawaid explains how the IRGC has now taken control of Iran's foreign policy.

Israeli forces demolish homes in Lebanon’s al-Bayyadah

The National News Agency (NNA) is reporting that Israeli forces have demolished a number of homes in the town of Al-Bayyadah in southern Lebanon. Powerful explosions were heard throughout the city of Tyre at dawn due to these demolitions, the NNA said.

A second round of direct talks between Israel and Lebanon is set to take place on Thursday in Washington in an effort to reach an agreement while their fragile ceasefire largely holds.

One killed in Israeli drone attack in Lebanon’s western Bekaa

The National News Agency (NNA) is reporting that an Israeli drone attack targeting the outskirts of Jabbour in western Bekaa has killed one person. The air attack has left two people injured, according to the NNA report.

Lack of basic services forces displacement in south Lebanon

The National News Agency (NNA) reports that villages south of the Litani River experienced a minor wave of displacement overnight and into the morning, with residents heading north towards Sidon and Beirut.

The NNA attributed the movement to a total lack of essential services, including electricity and water, in several towns. Efforts to restore infrastructure remain impossible, while a significant number of homes have either been destroyed or rendered uninhabitable by Israeli attacks.

Israeli drone attack kills two in Bekaa Valley, demolition of Lebanese homes continues

Local media have just reported that a drone attack in the Bekaa Valley killed one person and injured two. It’s also reporting that the Israeli military’s demolitions in the territory that it now occupies on Lebanon’s southern border with Israel have continued, and explosions have been heard just in the last few minutes.

Hezbollah said on Tuesday it had launched rockets in response to Israel’s violations of the ceasefire, which it said included attacks on civilians and demolitions of people’s homes. Israel accused Hezbollah of violating the ceasefire by launching rockets at its soldiers in southern Lebanon.

Israeli forces bomb residential areas of southern Lebanon

Israeli forces have carried out bombings in residential areas in the cities of Bint Jbeil and Khiam and the town of Hanine in southern Lebanon, our colleagues on the ground are reporting.

What’s happening in the occupied West Bank?

As the world’s attention remains largely focused on Trump’s announcement of an extension to the Iran ceasefire, the Israeli army and settlers continue to carry out attacks across the occupied West Bank.

Here are just some of the incidents reported today by the Wafa news agency:

Killings in the occupied West Bank

In the occupied West Bank, four Palestinians were killed on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, including two in an attack by Israeli settlers on al-Mughayyir village, east of Ramallah.

The ministry said a 14-year-old school student, Aws Hamdi al-Na’san, and 32-year-old Jihad Marzouq Abu Na’im were shot dead when settlers attacked the al-Mughayyir Boys School. Four others were wounded. Local officials said Israeli soldiers opened fire while protecting the settlers.

In Hebron, 16-year-old Mohammad Majdi al-Jaabari was killed when he was struck by a vehicle belonging to a security convoy escorting an Israeli minister near the settlement of Kiryat Arba.

Israeli forces attack funeral in occupied West Bank

Israeli forces have attacked mourners attending the funeral of two Palestinians in the village of al-Mughayyir in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian news agency Wafa is reporting.

Citing local sources, it said Israeli forces fired live ammunition, stun grenades and tear gas at the funeral procession for a Palestinian teenager and a Palestinian man, who were killed during a settler attack on a school in the village on Tuesday.

Wafa reported that they were eventually buried in the village cemetery, following funeral prayers at the local mosque.

‘Goods over humans’: EU condemned for failure to suspend Israel trade deal

Human rights experts, including Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s senior director for research and advocacy, have accused the European Union of “knowingly enabling” Israel’s “grave violations” after two EU countries blocked a move to suspend a trade agreement between the trading bloc and Israel.

“The EU’s failure to suspend its Association Agreement with Israel is a damning betrayal of its own values,” Rosas wrote in a post on X after Germany and Italy blocked a move put forward by Spain, Slovenia and Ireland to suspend the deal.

“Given the overwhelming evidence that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, maintained an apartheid system against Palestinians, and unlawfully occupied their territory, inaction becomes a deliberate choice,” Rosas added.

Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory, also condemned the decision.

“Maintaining trade in times of genocide means valuing goods over humans,” she said in a post on X.

“Markets over life,” she added.

Before Germany and Italy stopped the bid on Tuesday, more than 60 human rights organisations, including Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, had called on the EU and member states to suspend the Association Agreement with Israel.

- Shame Within Borders -

Maintaining trade in times of genocide means valuing goods over humans. Markets over life.
This is not policy: it is a system. A clash of values.

It is either equality, freedom, solidarity. Or it is their contrary.
Please choose. https://t.co/be7L68s6uA

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) April 22, 2026

Ex-Marine exposes Israeli killings at Gaza aid sites

Dave McIntosh, a private security contractor who managed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites, has blown the whistle on Israeli war crimes at Gaza aid sites, in his first ever sit down interview.

00:00 Gaza whistleblower intro
01:56 Site 4: shooting at aid seekers
03:43 'The infamous Green Light' - Israel's real Squid Game
06:50 'They want to make a frenzy'
10:08 'Gaza is like an apocalypse'
12:59 'Straight up murder' - Israel killed a Palestinian child at aid site
18:55 'Are you complicit?'

The former Royal Marines Commando went to Gaza to help deliver food. What he witnessed was a sadistic ‘field day’ for IDF soldiers, who shot at starving Palestinians desperate for food.

Dave showed Declassified previously unseen videos he filmed while working for the controversial GHF. The videos show a ‘sick’ Red Light, Green Light system, which he says was devised by the Israelis to create a frenzy among the aid seekers.

Four detained for protesting reinstatement of Israeli soldiers accused of assaulting Palestinian detainee

Israeli police have arrested four people who protested outside the Sde Teiman detention facility against the Israeli military reinstating soldiers accused of sexually assaulting a Palestinian inmate in the detention camp.

The five soldiers, all from the Force 100 unit assigned to guard military prisons, were allowed to return to service last week despite an ongoing internal military inquiry into their conduct.

Criminal charges against the soldiers had already been dropped, however. They had been accused of 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.

The protesters’ lawyer, Yoni Nussbaum, said the demonstrators are being held at the Beersheba station under suspicion “of endangering human life on a transportation route, obstructing a police officer, unauthorised entry to a military base and disturbing public order”, the Haaretz newspaper reported.

Palestinian killed by Israeli drone attack in northern Gaza

A Palestinian man has been killed and others wounded after an Israeli drone attack in Jabalia town in the north of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

It said the Israeli military struck a group of Palestinians attempting to remove the rubble of their home, in an area which had been almost destroyed during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Earlier at least seven Palestinians were killed in a series of Israeli attacks, including a child who died from injuries sustained days earlier, while 21 were reported on Tuesday to have been injured over a 24-hour period.

The Wafa news agency reported that three Palestinians were killed near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, one of them a man who had recently married. Another Palestinian man was later killed on Tuesday in an Israeli drone attack near the Sheikh Nasser neighbourhood, east of Khan Younis.

In northern Gaza, a Palestinian woman was killed when Israeli naval forces shelled tents sheltering displaced families northwest of Beit Lahiya.

Verified video obtained by Al Jazeera showed the body of Abdullah Dawas, a child wrapped in white cloth for burial, after he succumbed to injuries 10 days after being shot in the head near al-Fakhoura clinic in northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp.

Another Israeli attack on a group of people at the Dawla roundabout in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood killed one person and injured several others.

Earlier, Israeli quadcopter drones dropped explosives on a tent housing displaced Palestinians near Gaza City’s Shujayea area, setting the encampment ablaze.

‘Destruction and casualties’

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Gaza, said Israel was showing “no intention of scaling back its attacks”.

“Israel’s ongoing attacks are not simply causing destruction and casualties but are reigniting fear across communities that have barely had time to recover,” he said.

It is carrying out the attacks during its occupation of eastern Gaza as Palestinians, most of them displaced, are crowded into western areas and humanitarian aid remains severely restricted by Israel. Israeli soldiers have regularly opened fire on anyone approaching the areas it occupies and have demolished hundreds of homes there.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 784 Palestinians have been killed and 2,214 wounded since the “ceasefire” took effect while 761 bodies have also been recovered from beneath Gaza’s rubble. Israel’s genocidal war on the enclave has killed at least 72,560 Palestinians and injured 172,560 since it began on October 7, 2023, according to the ministry.

Indonesia denounces Israeli banner raised over ruins of Gaza hospital

Indonesia has accused Israel of flying a “propaganda” banner over the ruins of the Indonesian Hospital built in Gaza with Indonesian funding.

The hospital in northern Gaza near the boundary fence with Israel was opened in late 2015 after Indonesia’s Medical Emergency Rescue Committee, a humanitarian NGO, raised 126 billion rupiah (about $7.3m) in donations for its construction, according to the state news agency Antara.

It was destroyed in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Jakarta said a banner has now been raised over its ruins that alludes to Israel’s 12-day war against Iran last year.

“The use of military symbols and propaganda over the ruins of a destroyed hospital, especially when linked to a specific military operation, is a highly provocative act and cannot be justified,” the Foreign Ministry in Jakarta said.

“This act is an insult to a humanitarian facility built from the solidarity of the Indonesian people for the Palestinian people.”

Indonesia strongly condemns and protests the placement of the “Rising Lion” banner by Israeli forces over the ruins of the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza.

The use of military symbols and propaganda over the ruins of a destroyed hospital, especially when linked to a specific…

— MoFA Indonesia (@Kemlu_RI) April 22, 2026

Gaza newborns fighting for survival as congenital anomalies rise

In the neonatal unit of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, newborns are fighting to survive during what doctors describe as an unprecedented rise in congenital anomalies linked to the conditions of war.

Two-week-old Ahmed is already showing signs of excess fluid in the brain. Sharing his unit is Suheir, two months old, born with multiple deformities affecting his mouth and ears, and Osama, also two months, with a hole in his heart and enlarged ventricles in his brain.

Osama’s mother, Najia Zu’rub, has not left the hospital since he was born.

“I became pregnant with him during the war, and the pregnancy was exhausting due to the lack of food,” she said. “I didn’t even have safe drinking water and was living in inadequate tents. The doctors explained that his condition is not genetic. He is my first child, and there is no family history of such conditions.”

Zaher al-Whaidi, director of the Health Information Unit at the Palestinian Health Ministry, attributed the surge to five factors: widespread hunger, decline in healthcare services, overcrowding, contaminated drinking water and the effects of ongoing air strikes.

Last year, at least 457 neonatal deaths were reported, “a 50 percent increase compared to before the war”, al-Whaidi said.

Israel’s VILEST Crime Yet - The Evidence Is Overwhelming

One day Sde Teiman will be a museum like Auschwitz, never again... 

CNN Accidentally Exposes Israel’s Iran Secret Live

Israel defense minister says awaiting US green light to 'return Iran to Stone Age'

Defence minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that Israel was "prepared to resume the war against Iran", adding that his country was awaiting a green light from the United States to return Iran to "the Stone Age". FRANCE 24's Noga Tarnopolsky reports from Jerusalem.

Number of amputees set to rise in Gaza as Israel blocks aid, NGO warns

The number of amputees in Gaza, already at a record high, could rise as Israel continues to restrict medical aid into the devastated strip, a humanitarian group has warned.

Humanity & Inclusion UK, which works with people living with disabilities, said this week that the scale of amputations carried out in Gaza reached “unprecedented” levels during the genocide.

“Without immediate improvements in access to materials, technical expertise, and patient mobility, the number of amputees, and the severity of their conditions, will continue to rise,” the group warned.

“At the height of the conflict, reports indicated that up to 10 children per day were undergoing one or both leg amputations. Even the most conservative figures point to an exceptionally high number of amputations relative to Gaza’s population, likely placing it among the highest rates of conflict-related amputations per capita globally.”

The World Health Organization estimates that between 5,000 and 6,000 people in Gaza have undergone amputations as of early October 2025, when Israel and Hamas signed a ceasefire agreement. They are among the 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza who have sustained life-changing injuries during the two-year conflict.

Six months after the ceasefire, conditions remain dire due to Israel’s blocking of humanitarian aid from entering the enclave. “The entry of aid remains highly unpredictable, with all materials subject to approval by Israeli authorities,” Humanity & Inclusion UK said. The organisation has itself been prevented from bringing humanitarian supplies and prosthetics to Gaza since February 2025.

Gaza’s second front: The battle against disease-carrying rats

Hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza are living in tents, forced out of their homes by Israeli attacks and forced evacuation orders. With no sign of reconstruction on the horizon, despite the beginning of a ceasefire in October, they are having to manage with the living situation as it is.

That can mean trying to source clean water, figuring out how to get power and internet, finding food, and dealing with disease-carrying pests like rats – a problem that is only getting worse as the summer approaches.

Samah, displaced from Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, has tried to buy rat poison, but says the prices are too high, and they already barely have enough money to feed their family.

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/4/23/gazas-second-front-the-battle-against-disease-carrying-rats

Israeli strike kills five in Gaza, including three children

An Israeli air strike has targeted a group of civilians in northern Gaza, killing at least five Palestinians, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.

“Five Palestinians, including three children, were killed in an Israeli air strike that targeted a group of civilians near Al-Qassam mosque in Beit Lahia,” local health officials said in a statement late on Wednesday.

“Their bodies were taken to Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City,” it added, without specifying the age of the children. The hospital confirmed receiving the bodies.

‘Solutions, not slogans’: Gaza holds first election in 21 years

The central Gaza city is gearing up for a historic municipal election, but residents say they want tangible solutions, not political slogans.



Residents of Gaza’s Deir el-Balah are heading to the polls on Saturday for the territory’s first municipal elections in more than two decades, hoping to restore local governance while still reeling from Israel’s devastating war.

The central city was selected as a testing ground for a revival of the democratic process because it sustained less infrastructural damage than other areas in the besieged enclave. Nevertheless, the scars of Israel’s genocidal war there are stark.

In December 2024, Israeli forces bombed the Deir el-Balah municipality building, killing then-Mayor Diab al-Jarou and 10 staff members as they worked to provide essential services for displaced Palestinians. The deadly attack was carried out despite the Israeli military having designated the city as a “safe zone”.

Today, the Palestinian Central Elections Commission (CEC) – the independent body responsible for administering elections across the Palestinian territories – views the vote as a pivotal milestone.

Jamil al-Khalidi, the CEC’s regional director, told Al Jazeera that the April 25 election will be part of a broader process, including 420 local councils in the occupied West Bank, with Deir el-Balah the sole participating municipality in Gaza.

It marks a significant departure from the policy of administrative appointments that has governed the Strip under Hamas leadership for the past 21 years.

About 70,000 eligible voters over the age of 18 can cast their ballots between 7am and 5pm (04:00-14:00 GMT). To ensure a smooth process, the CEC has launched a toll-free hotline for residents to verify their registration status. Voting will take place at 12 electoral centres in spaces such as local stadiums, women’s activity centres and former clinics. Each centre will be equipped with eight polling stations.

Voters will be selecting from lists of candidates. “The electoral system relies on closed lists,” al-Khalidi explained. Each list must include at least 15 candidates, with a minimum of four women. Voters will first choose one of four lists, then they will cast preference votes for five specific candidates within that list.

The 15 candidates with the most support will form the new local council, while ensuring female representation is maintained.

Formal political parties like Hamas or Fatah are not running under their official banners in this election. Instead, candidates are largely grouped based in tribal or professional alliances.

Clean water, not politics

Four nominally independent lists of candidates are competing for council seats: Peace and Construction, Deir el-Balah Brings Us Together, Future of Deir el-Balah and Renaissance of Deir el-Balah.

In interviews with Al Jazeera, figures including Mohammed Abu Nasser – head of the Peace and Construction list – and Faten Harb – candidate for Renaissance of Deir el-Balah – have been eager to emphasise that their platforms are strictly service-oriented, focused on transparency, and operate “away from partisanship”.

Debate in Gaza persists about candidates’ underlying affiliations in a deeply divided political landscape. Ultimately, however, for many war-weary residents, the return to the ballot box is meaningless unless it translates to real-world improvements for Palestinians.

“The citizen today is not looking for slogans, but for real solutions,” resident Rabha al-Bhaisi told Al Jazeera, pointing to the dire need for basic services such as clean water, electricity and sewage management.