The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s office has warned that action could be taken against those “threatening to retaliate” or attempting to “impede or intimidate” its officials.

On Sunday, Israel expressed concern that the ICC could be preparing to issue arrest warrants for senior political and military officials on charges related to the conduct of its war on Gaza. The court has given no indication that warrants are imminent and has made no comment on the claims.

And while today’s warning from the ICC does not name any specific cases, it comes after Netanyahu called the possible arrests “a scandal on a historic scale”. He also said any ICC decisions would not affect the actions of Israel, which is not a member of the court.

In a statement posted on X, the ICC prosecutor’s office said that threats against the court or its staff could “constitute an offence against the administration of justice under Art 70 of the Rome Statute”.

It added: “The office insists that all attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence its officials cease immediately.”

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said that he hasn’t seen “any indications” that there is an “active intent” from Hamas to attack US troops.

“Having said that … this is a combat zone and a number of things can happen, and a number of things will happen,” Austin said at a press briefing.

There are some 1,000 US troops currently supporting the construction of a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza. The pier, which is set to open in the coming days, will increase the flow of humanitarian aid into the besieged enclave.

President Joe Biden ordered US personnel not to set foot on Gaza’s shoreline during the pier’s construction.

An international investigation by human rights workers and news media has found that at least four Israeli-linked firms have been selling invasive spyware and cyber surveillance technology to Indonesia, which has no formal diplomatic ties with Israel and is the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

There is marginally more food available throughout Gaza, including in the north, but the risk of famine has not passed, says the World Health Organization (WHO).

Compared with a few months ago, there is “definitely … more basic food, more wheat, but also a little bit more diversified food on the market,” said Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories, during a video media conference.

Food access is also improving in the north, he said, where residents had previously been pushed to eat animal feed or weeds to stay alive, and at least 27 people, including 23 children, starved to death.

Still, the food situation in Gaza remains fragile and many people lack the money to pay for food in the markets, emphasised Ahmed Dahir of the WHO’s Gaza sub-office team.

“We cannot say the risk [of famine] has passed,” Dahir added.

The artillery shelling is intensifying in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, southeast of Gaza City, report our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic. The attacks come after Israeli warplanes bombed a residential home in the same neighbourhood yesterday, killing two civilians and injuring others.

It was an extremely bloody night in Rafah. A residential building was destroyed. At least six Palestinians have been reported killed, including four children.

The attack was carried out after midnight, without any prior warning. It was close to the house I’m sheltering in, in the north of Rafah. The entire area felt the shaking of the bombardment. Those who have been injured have been transported by ambulance to the Kuwaiti Hospital.

Other areas of Gaza have been widely attacked as well, including the Bureij refugee camp, where nine Palestinians have been reported injured. There is also ongoing artillery bombardment of the southeastern part of Gaza City, including the Zeitoun neighbourhood. Eyewitnesses there say constant shelling is targeting residential homes and farmland.

Amid the ongoing bombardment, the humanitarian situation has not significantly changed. Within the past 24 hours, only 212 aid trucks have been allowed into the territory from the Rafah and Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossings, which is not sufficient to meet the immense needs of Gaza’s population.

The death toll from an overnight air strike on a home in northern Rafah has now risen to seven, with four of the victims being children, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum has reported from the southern Gaza district.

Elsewhere in Rafah, especially to the east, there has been a “surge in air strikes and artillery bombardment,” said Abu Azzoum

Israeli military attacks have also intensified in parts of northern Gaza, such as Sheikh Ijlin neighbourhood, as well as in central Gaza, where witnesses say there is “constant intensive artillery bombardment”, according to Abu Azzoum.

“A number of casualties have been transferred to Al-Aqsa Hospital,” he said.

An Israeli air raid has targeted the headquarters of Abasan municipality, located to the east of Khan Younis city, completely destroying it, reported our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.

At least 34,622 Palestinians have been killed and 77,867 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, its Health Ministry says.

The ministry added that 26 people were killed and 51 injured in the latest 24-hour reporting period.

The settlers have reached Jabal al-Urma, a hill on the outskirts of the Palestinian town of Beita in the occupied West Bank, reports the Wafa news agency.

Within the town of Beita, sirens have gone off warning residents of a potential settler attack, according to Wafa.

The United Kingdom has announced new sanctions on “extremist Israeli groups” and a number of individuals who it said were behind violence in the occupied West Bank, according to a statement by the UK foreign ministry.

“This latest package of sanctions targets two groups leading these attacks, and four individuals who are directly responsible for egregious violence against Palestinian civilians,” it said.

The Israeli authorities must clamp down on those responsible for the attacks in question, the statement added.

Police in Portland said they detained a driver who accelerated his vehicle towards pro-Palestine demonstrators on the campus of Portland State University in Oregon and then ran off spraying what appeared to be pepper spray towards those who confronted him after the incident.

People screamed as the vehicle accelerated towards the crowd, The Associated Press news agency reports, but the driver braked at the last minute.

The driver then exited his vehicle and fled while aiming what appeared to be pepper spray towards those trying to catch him.

Police said they found the driver later and he was taken to hospital on a police mental health detention order.

Demonstrators later damaged the car, smashing in windows and spray painting “Free Gaza” on it.


_{A car that attempted to drive through a crowd of pro-Palestine protesters on the Portland State University campus is seen parked and damaged on a campus walkway on May 2,}

Damaging property is not right, why did the police not tow away and impound the car after arresting the driver??



Big police presence there, no cops around where this happened....

US police officer fired gun during operation at Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall

The Premier of Quebec Francois Legault has called on police to dismantle a pro-Palestine encampment on the McGill University campus in Montreal. The McGill University administration has also called on police to remove the dozens of tents that have been set up on the campus since Saturday.

Montreal police spokesman Jean-Pierre Brabant has said his forces are “still evaluating” the situation and said it is not in the interests of the police or the city of Montreal to immediately intervene in a peaceful protest.

Student-led protests have spread from the US to Canada in recent days. Pro-Palestine camps have been erected across some of Canada’s largest universities, with activists demanding they divest from groups conducting business with Israel.

So what is the reason for wanting to dismantle the protest encampment? It's peaceful, no one gets blocked, it's outside. Get off my lawn?

The Paris university said it would close its main site in the French capital on Friday due to a renewed occupation of buildings by pro-Palestinian student protesters.

In a message sent to staff on Thursday evening, university management said their buildings in central Paris “will remain closed tomorrow, Friday, May 3. We ask you to continue to work from home”.

France’s AFP news agency said a committee of pro-Palestinian students had earlier announced a “peaceful sit-in” and said six students were starting a hunger strike “in solidarity with Palestinian victims” in war-torn Gaza.

The Paris regional authority’s right-wing head Valerie Pecresse temporarily suspended funding to the university – which is widely considered France’s top political science school – earlier this week over the antiwar protests, condemning what she called “a minority of radicalised people” and branding the protesters’ calls for an end to the war in Gaza “anti-Semitic hatred”.

A member of the student committee, who identified himself only as Hicham, told AFP that the hunger strikes would continue until the university’s board voted on holding an investigation into its partnerships with Israeli universities.

_{Protesters raise their hands coated in red paint to symbolise blood as they take part in a demonstration in front of Sciences Po Paris, which was occupied by students, in support of Palestinians, in Paris on April 26}

Police enter Sciences Po university in Paris

_{Protesters flash the sign of victory as they are escorted away by French gendarmes}

Hamas officially confirmed in a statement it will send a delegation to Cairo on Saturday to “complete” mediated negotiations. A top leader in the group, Khalil al-Hayya, will lead the delegation.

The group emphasised its previous position that it looks at the proposal in a “positive spirit”.

“We are going to Cairo in the same spirit to reach an agreement. We in Hamas and the Palestinian resistance forces are determined to achieve an agreement that fulfils our people’s demands for a complete cessation of the aggression, the withdrawal of the occupation forces, the return of the displaced, relief and reconstruction, and a serious exchange deal,” a statement said.



Netanyahu is the obstructionist in negotiations: Hamas official

Husam Badran has accused the Israeli prime minister of issuing statements aimed at undermining prospects for a truce.

The senior Hamas official told the Agence France-Presse news agency that the group was in the process of conducting internal dialogues among its leaders and with allied groups before negotiators return to Cairo to continue negotiations towards a truce.

But he warned that Netanyahu’s repeated statements insisting he will send forces into Rafah were calculated to “thwart any possibility of concluding an agreement”. “Netanyahu was the obstructionist in all previous rounds of dialogue and previous negotiations, and it is clear that he still is,” Badran said in a telephone interview.

“He is not interested in reaching an agreement, and therefore, he says words in the media to thwart these current efforts.” Badran reiterated that Hamas’s goal remains a lasting ceasefire and “a complete and comprehensive withdrawal of the occupation forces from the Gaza Strip”.

The negotiations have been over basically the same 3 step plan proposal for over 4 months now...

Israel promises Rafah attack in a week unless Hamas agrees to terms: Report

Rafah invasion could lead to a ‘bloodbath’: WHO

The al-Najjar, al-Helal and Kuwait hospitals are now partially operational in Rafah and would “quickly become nonfunctional”, it says. The European Gaza Hospital in east Khan Younis – also in southern Gaza – which is also partially functional, could become unreachable because of the invasion.

“Given this, the south will be left with six field hospitals and al-Aqsa Hospital, in the middle area, serving as the only referral hospital.”

The Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where hundreds of bodies were dug out of mass graves, some bearing marks of torture, is being restored by the WHO, with the UN organisation and its partners also trying to establish more primary health centres.

.@WHO is deeply concerned that a full-scale military operation in Rafah, #Gaza, could lead to a bloodbath, and further weaken an already broken health system https://t.co/96h19H0Ppm

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 3, 2024

Israel hasn’t presented ‘comprehensive plan’ for Rafah invasion: US