No Gaza deal possible as long as Netanyahu in power: Israeli captive’s mother

Captives held in Gaza will not return to Israel as long as Netanyahu is in power, according to Einav Zangauker, the mother of Israeli captive Matan Zangauker.

“I don’t expect anything more from Netanyahu,” she said, according to Israeli Army Radio. “As long as Netanyahu is in power and acts for political and personal reasons, I don’t see how we can come to a deal.”

The Israeli army believes there are 59 captives in Gaza, including 24 still alive. Critics have long accused the prime minister of sabotaging efforts to end the war in Gaza and bring the remaining captives back, triggering nearly weekly demonstrations.

British group raises alert over reported Israeli interference in pro-Palestinian activists’ legal proceedings

A British advocacy group has warned that the Israeli government’s alleged interference in ongoing UK legal proceedings involving pro-Palestinian activists poses a “dangerous” threat to democratic rights and civil liberties.

Anas Mustapha, head of public advocacy at CAGE International, described revelations published by The Guardian newspaper as part of a broader “campaign to criminalise dissent”.

The investigation revealed that the UK Attorney General’s Office shared the contact details of the Crown Prosecution Service and Counter Terrorism Command (SO15) with the deputy Israeli ambassador in the UK in September. This took place during an investigation into an eventual 18 activists who were arrested after a protest at a weapons manufacturer in Bristol.

The group, known as the Filton 18, are linked to the direct-action network Palestine Action, which targets Elbit Systems sites – an arms firm supplying Israel with weapons during its war on Gaza.

“This evidence of political interference is deeply concerning and amounts to an abuse of process. Every additional day the Filton 18 remain detained is a violation of their fundamental rights. They must be freed, and the case against them must be dropped immediately,” Mustapha said.

British Muslim leaders urge Starmer to recognise Palestine, demand Gaza truce

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) is delivering a letter to UK PM Keir Starmer today, calling on him to recognise Palestine as a sovereign state and to demand a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

The letter, signed by a wide coalition of Muslim leaders and organisations from across the UK, warns of the “profound concern” in British Muslim communities over the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

The signatories, representing communities from every region of the UK, urged that the UK government:

Palestinian PM Mustafa briefs British officials on Gaza, occupied West Bank

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamed Mustafa has spoken to the British officials during a visit to London about ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and guaranteeing the “right to freedom, dignity and return” as not just Palestinian demands but as “necessities of international law and our common humanity”.

That’s according to the Palestinian Foreign Ministry. It said on X that the Palestinian government rejects “all attempts by the occupation to displace our people, whether from the Gaza Strip or the West Bank, including Jerusalem”.

“He [Mustafa] called for defending UNRWA’s mandate against the Israeli campaign against it, ensuring sustainable funding to enable it to fulfil its humanitarian and educational duties towards Palestinian refugees, and supporting full membership for the State of Palestine in the United Nations,” it added.

France uses ‘terrorist propaganda’ charge to silence Gaza criticism: French lawyer

French lawyer Rafik Chekkat says the charge of “terrorist propaganda” is being used in France to silence those who speak out about crimes committed in Gaza.

Chekkat is representing French political scientist Francois Burgat, who was detained on July 9 in Aix-en-Provence on charges of “terrorist propaganda”. His arrest followed a complaint by the European Jewish Organization over social media posts he shared in January last year about Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

The prosecutor’s office is calling for Burgat to be given an eight-month suspended prison sentence and fined 4,000 euros ($4,555).

Chekkat argued that Burgat’s case is part of a broader pattern of cracking down on criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza. He said the law regarding “terrorist propaganda” was originally designed to combat armed organisations’ online recruitment efforts but is now “being used to suppress dissenting voices on the issue of Palestine”.

“This is just the visible tip of the oppressive iceberg. That is to say, not only are publicly known figures involved here, but also many lesser-known individuals,” he said. “Sometimes activists and sometimes people not affiliated with any group – even ordinary individuals – have been questioned, prosecuted and some have even been convicted of ‘terrorist propaganda’,” he added.

Day 2 of the ICJ hearings on the Obligations of Israel in relation to the Presence and Activities of the United Nations, Other International Organizations and Third States in and in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

https://www.icj-cij.org/case/196 ( The genocide case is here https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192 )

‘Israel continues to act with impunity’: South Africa’s representative addresses ICJ

Zane Dangor, the chief of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation, has kicked off the second day of hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Here are a few lines of what he said:

ICJ case is about ‘very rights and existence’ of Palestinians

Anisha Patel, a member of the governing council at Law for Palestine, a human rights organisation, has told Al Jazeera that today’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) hearing is about more than just the future of UNRWA – it is about the “very rights and existence of the Palestinian people”.

“Whilst state representatives address the court in The Hague, Israel is inflicting in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinian people,” the legal expert said. “Having forced the Palestinian people into a dependency on humanitarian assistance, Israel is now completely restricting this humanitarian assistance – with devastating consequences for Palestinians.”

The ICJ is currently holding hearings on Israel’s obligations under international law concerning the presence and activities of the United Nations and other international organisations in the occupied Palestinian territory, as well as the role of third states.

Patel described Israel’s repeated attacks on UNRWA and the UN more broadly – including its premises, personnel, and mandate – as part of efforts “to weaponise humanitarian aid in persistent violation of international law”, adding that “these actions are in violation of Israel’s obligations as a member of the UN – and its obligations under the UN Charter.”

She also emphasised the overriding legal argument presented today. Israel’s presence in the West Bank and Gaza is “unlawful” and it has “no legal authority to impede humanitarian goods or services to the territory”.

The case, she said, is not simply about Israel’s obligations, but whether the larger international legal order can be upheld.


Israel violating UN Charter ‘without any consequence’

Ubai Al-Aboudi, executive director at the Bisan Center for Research and Development in the occupied West Bank’s Ramallah city, has reacted to today’s International Court of Justice hearing, accusing Israel of ongoing violations of international law.

“Today’s case is another example of how Israel is violating the UN Charter without any consequence,” Al-Aboudi told Al Jazeera.

He also criticised what he described as a delay in political action while judicial proceedings are under way. “The people in Gaza are starving, of course Israel has an obligation to facilitate and enable humanitarian organisations, including the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinians.”

Al-Aboudi said Israel has “closed the space for humanitarian work in Gaza and severely restricted it in the West Bank and East Jerusalem”.

“These violations need immediate intervention by states,” he added, “including the stopping of weapons transfers, imposing sanctions, and holding Israeli officials accountable in front of national and international courts.”

UN chief warns Gaza’s humanitarian crisis deteriorating to ‘beyond imagination’

The United Nations secretary-general has given his remarks at the quarterly UN Security Council open debate on the Middle East, including on the situation in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon.

Here is a summary of the key points that Antonio Guterres made:

UN rights chief demands action to stop Gaza ‘catastrophe reaching a new, unseen level’

The UN high commissioner for human rights has called on countries to halt a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, where an Israeli blockade on aid is pushing the Palestinian territory towards a collapse of critical life-saving support.

“As the complete blockade of assistance essential for survival enters its ninth week, there must be concerted international efforts to stop this humanitarian catastrophe from reaching a new, unseen level,” Volker Turk said in a statement.

Supplies are dwindling, and the UN’s World Food Programme said on Friday that it had sent out its “last remaining food stocks”.

The UN rights office cautioned that Gaza bakeries had now stopped working because flour and fuel had run out while the remaining stocks of food were being rapidly depleted.

“Any use of starvation of the civilian population as a method of war constitutes a war crime, and so do all forms of collective punishment,” Turk said.

Situation in besieged Gaza ‘dire on every level’: MSF

As the ICJ continues to hear about Israel’s humanitarian obligations in occupied Palestinian territory, the international humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, says a decision from the judicial body will take significant time, which the people in blockaded Gaza do not have.

“Waiting for any kind of legal recourse to end Israel’s intentional choking of aid, food and medicine into Gaza will condemn yet more Palestinians to avoidable death, while the world watches on impassively, doing nothing to avoid this indiscriminate and abhorrent cruelty,” Claire Nicolet, MSF head of emergencies, said in a statement.

Nicolet added that the situation in Gaza is “dire on every level” after Israel imposed a total ban on humanitarian aid and supplies on March 2, which is “severely limiting” MSF’s capacity as a humanitarian group to respond in “any meaningful or effective way”.

“States need to do more to pressure Israeli authorities into lifting the siege and letting aid enter the war-torn enclave at scale to prevent more suffering and death,” she said.

Main events on April 29th

• The International Court of Justice (ICJ) held a second day of hearings on Israel’s humanitarian obligations to Palestinians as a total Israeli blockade on humanitarian assistance into the Gaza Strip passes 50 days.
• United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk has warned of a “new, unseen level” of humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
• Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has said in an annual report that Israel is carrying out a “live-streamed genocide” in Gaza with support from powerful countries such as the United States. The report states that Israel routinely targets civilians and engages in abuses such as torture and enforced disappearances.
• Israel released 10 Palestinians from detention into Gaza, including Assaad al-Nassasra, an ambulance driver whose whereabouts were unknown for weeks after Israeli forces opened fire on a group of Palestinian emergency workers in Gaza in late March, killing 15 medics. The released detainees say they were tortured while in Israeli facilities, where such practices are said to be widespread.
• A woman was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the village of al-Tira near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces continue to carry out raids.

Saudi Arabia shockingly tells ICJ nothing justifies such ‘barbarity’ in Gaza | Janta Ka Reporter

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday launched an unprecedented attack on Israel by calling the latter’s action in Gaza an act of ethnic cleansing. Speaking at the International Court of Justice, Saudi envoy Mohamed Saud Alnasser didn’t mince his words when he said that nothing justified Israeli ‘barbarity’ against people of Gaza. He also drew the world court’s attention towards Israel’s disregard for international institutions and attempts to destroy UN bodies such as UNRWA.

Israeli Settlers Show Louis Theroux Their Full Colours

US, UK forces conduct joint military operation in Yemen

The UK’s Ministry of Defence says British forces participated in a joint operation with the US military against a Houthi target in Yemen on Tuesday.

The ministry said the Royal Air Force’s Typhoon FGR4s, with air refuelling support from Voyager tankers, bombed a cluster of buildings used by the Houthis to manufacture drones near the capital, Sanaa.

There was no immediate comment from the US military.

Earlier, the Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV reported a series of air raids in the province of Sanaa, in the districts of Bani Matar, Bani Hashish, Al Husn and Hamdan.

It said a number of houses were damaged in the Al Dalia neighbourhood of Bani Hashish district.

The US has been bombarding Yemen on a near-daily basis since last month, when the Houthis, who control most of the country, threatened to resume attacks on Israel-linked ships passing through the Red Sea.


_{The site of a US air strike in Sanaa, Yemen, April 7}

US claims bombing more than 1,000 targets in Yemen since mid-March

The US military says its forces “have hit over 1,000 targets” in Yemen since mid-March, “killing Houthi fighters and leaders, including senior Houthi missile and UAV officials, and degrading their capabilities”.

The Houthis, however, say US attacks have hit residential homes and civilian infrastructure, killing many children and women.

The rebel group said that US forces bombed a detention centre for African migrants in the northern province of Saada on Sunday, killing at least 68 people.

A UN spokesperson later said preliminary information indicated that those killed were migrants.

Does the US want a "well done"? Bragging about killing people, wasting tax payer money to distract from and keep a genocide going...

Survivor describes US attack on Yemen migrant facility

“The planes struck close by twice. The third time they hit us.” That’s how Abed Ibrahim Saleh, a 34-year-old from Ethiopia, described Monday’s deadly US strike on a migrant detention centre in Yemen’s Saada governorate.

“Bodies ripped apart. I can’t describe what I saw,” Saleh was quoted as saying by AFP news agency from a nearby hospital, where he and other survivors were recovering. “A hand here, a leg there,” Saleh said. “I don’t want to remember.”

Lebanon’s Aoun calls on US to pressure Israel to withdraw

President Joseph Aoun has urged a US military delegation, headed by Major-General Jasper Jeffers, the co-chairman of the cessation of hostilities implementation and monitoring mechanism, to pressure Israel to withdraw from areas it still controls in the country and to release Lebanese prisoners.

Aoun told the delegation that the Lebanese army is carrying out its work along the border with Israel, where troops have been confiscating weapons and preventing armed presence.

Israel bombs Syria in ‘warning strike’

The Israeli military carried out an attack against what it says are “extremists” who were preparing to attack members of the Druze minority in the Syrian town of Sahnaya, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said in a joint statement with Defence Minister Israel Katz.

“Israel expects it to act to prevent harm to the Druze,” it added, addressing Syria’s leadership.

Their comments come after sectarian clashes between forces linked to Syria’s new authorities and Druze fighters spread overnight near Damascus, leaving 13 people dead, state media and a monitor group said.

Deadly clashes the previous night in Jaramana, a mainly Druze and Christian suburb southeast of the capital, followed the circulation of an audio recording attributed to a Druze citizen and deemed blasphemous.

Israel has been positioning itself as a defender of the religious minority group for the last several years, using its defence of them as pretext to carry out bombing raids on both Syria and Lebanon.

Last year, a bombing in the Druze town of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, killed at least 12 people and wounded 30 others. Israel accused Lebanon’s Hezbollah of responsibility, which it denied. The weeks after saw a heightening of tensions between Israel and Hezbollah and a rash of bombings across disparate areas of Lebanon, with Israel saying its actions were taken to punish the attackers and defend the Druze.