Israel ‘cynically’ exploiting tensions in Syria: Analyst

Israel’s intentions in Syria are an open question, says Rob Geist Pinfold, a lecturer in international security at King’s College London.

“We know that Netanyahu has previously said that Israel will act to defend ‘Druze brothers’ in Syria and any action against them is a red line,” Pinfold told Al Jazeera.

“And I don’t buy this, because hundreds of Druze were killed in the Syrian civil war for over a decade, and Israel did nothing to intervene there. So why is Israel suddenly showing the desire to protect the Druze?” Pinfold said, pointing at Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s statement this week that Israel won’t stop fighting until Syria is fragmented.

“So I think Israel is quite ruthlessly, and, quite frankly, cynically, exploiting the situation here, claiming it is a protector of the Druze when it has no record to show that it has done anything, not even lifted a finger to protect Syrian Druze.”

Same as Israel is using the hostages as an 'excuse' to carry on genocide in Gaza.

Israeli strike on Syrian capital outskirts kills security force member: Report

A source from the Syrian Interior Ministry told Reuters that an Israeli strike on the outskirts of the Syrian capital has killed one member of the country’s new security forces.

Israel said it had struck an “extremist group” preparing to attack members of the Arab Druze minority in Sahnaya, on the edge of Damascus.

But the Syrian Interior Ministry source disputed that claim and said Syrian security forces were looking to put an end to clashes in Sahnaya between armed groups operating outside state control.

Israel says three Syrian-Druze taken for treatment

The Israeli army said three Syrian-Druze were taken from Syria for medical treatment in Israel.

Israel carried out a strike in Syria claiming it targeted those who attacked members of the Druze community.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, without mentioning Israel, that it “categorically” rejected all forms of foreign intervention in its internal affairs.

Israeli forces storm Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron

The Wafa news agency is reporting that “large numbers” of Israeli troops have stormed the revered mosque in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank. It cited an activist as saying that Israeli forces have also set up checkpoints near the mosque and the Old City of Hebron ahead of visits to the area by Jewish settlers.

The Ibrahimi Mosque – known to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs – is revered by Jews, Muslims and Christians alike, as it is the site where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their wives, are believed to be buried.

The site, located in the centre of Hebron, has long been a source of tension between Jews and Muslims.


‘Little girls are now afraid’: Israeli closure of UNRWA schools prompts fears for future

Israeli closure orders for six UN-run schools in occupied East Jerusalem risk depriving some 800 Palestinian students of their right to education, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says.

Israeli authorities ordered the schools in the Shu’fat refugee camp to close by May 8, citing the lack of a licence. Under the orders, no one will be allowed into the schools, including principals, teachers and other staff.

“These orders violate Israel’s obligations under international law,” UNRWA said in a statement, posted on X.

“UNRWA schools in Shu’fat have been part of the social fabric of the camp for decades, enabling children to enjoy high-quality education near their homes,” the UN agency said.

“Little girls are now afraid that their dreams of becoming doctors or scientists will evaporate if they lose their access to education.”

“In less than ten days the closure orders issued by Israeli officials for six UNRWA schools in #EastJerusalem will enter into force, risking the #RightToEducation of some 800 boys and girls. These orders violate Israel's obligations under international law.

In an important show… pic.twitter.com/Q9DIxwXdiC

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) April 30, 2025

Ben-Gvir urges Israeli lawmakers to enact death penalty law for imprisoned ‘terrorists’

Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir has urged the death penalty for those he described as “terrorists” imprisoned in Israel.

“We have changed all the conditions of imprisonment for terrorists,” the far-right minister said in a speech during a police memorial day ceremony at Mount Herzl, local Israeli media outlet Zman reported.

“Let us have a death penalty law for terrorists,” he added.

According to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, the number of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails as of early April 2025 “exceeds 9,900 people, including 3,498 held under administrative detention in the occupied West Bank without trial or charge”.

Wildfires rage near Jerusalem

Major fires have been raging near Jerusalem, Israeli media reports say. Defence Minister Israel Katz called on the army’s chief Eyal Zamir to deploy troops to help.

“We are in a national emergency and we have to concentrate all available forces to save lives and take control of the flames,” a statement from Katz’s office said.

The country’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has called on neighbouring countries to provide assistance. Israel has carried out air strikes on two of its four neighbours, Lebanon and Syria, this week alone.

Karma? And look CNN woke up

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/30/middleeast/israel-wildfires-jerusalem-intl/index.html


_{Wildfires raging near Jerusalem forced evacuations in several areas and led to several major road closures on Wednesday, as firefighters struggle to contain the flames amid dry conditions and high winds.}

Israel is seeking international assistance to fight the fires, as the defense minister says the country is “in a time of national emergency.”

“This is perhaps the largest fire ever in the country,” Jerusalem District Fire Department Commander Shmulik Friedman told reporters on Wednesday afternoon. He warned that winds in excess of 60 miles an hour are expected “in the near future,” dramatically increasing the risk of the fires.

Aircraft from Italy, Croatia to help with Israel wildfires

The Israeli prime minister’s office said three aircraft from Italy and Croatia will arrive to help fight fires near Jerusalem that have been rapidly spreading.

“It has so far been agreed that three ‘Canadair’ aircraft from Italy and Croatia will arrive in Israel as soon as possible,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said, following a situational assessment to advance international assistance.

Due to the wildfires, at least 30 people have been injured, including 12 who were hospitalised.

A national emergency has also been declared, and all major Independence Day events are cancelled.

Survivors describe Gaza bombardment as ‘earthquake’

Once again we see air strikes light up the sky across Gaza where residents scramble for cover as massive explosions rocked entire residential buildings in the central and northern part of the Strip.

But in the centre alone, the Nuseirat refugee camp especially was under heavy Israeli bombardment last night with three separate attacks hitting residential buildings while people were still inside.

Those who survived the attack described it as an earthquake that shattered the entire building. In one building, eight were killed in a single attack. Emergency workers are still looking for more. The number of people killed is expected to rise as more family members are still looking for their loved ones.

In two other attacks, six people were killed, all from the same family.

In the north, more apartments have been reduced to rubble due to the heavy artillery and air strikes. Three family members were killed in Jabalia town which has been relentlessly bombed since Israeli forces violated a ceasefire.

A fisherman in Gaza City was killed as he was pulling his boat into the water early this morning.

Meanwhile, hospitals are overwhelmed by the large influx of patients and injuries. Medical staff warn there are many more dying quietly inside emergency words of the remaining health facilities due to the shortage of medical supplies. Medications as simple as painkillers are not available.

And as we report right now, we can hear the sound of systematic demolition of homes of Gaza City’s eastern part of the Shujayea neighbourhood which used to be a vibrant and densely populated area. Now, it has turned into a vast field of rubble.

_{Palestinians assess the damage from the attack in Khan Younis}

Remaining charity kitchens in Gaza could shut down within days

The Reuters news agency is reporting that dozens of local community kitchens in Gaza risk closing down, potentially within days, unless aid is allowed into the Strip.

At the Al-Salam Oriental Food community kitchen in Gaza City, Salah Abu Haseera said he is offering what he fears could be one of the last meals for the 20,000 people he and his colleagues serve daily.

“We face huge challenges in keeping going. We may go out of operation within a week, or maybe less,” Abu Haseera told Reuters by phone.

These kitchens vary from one-room businesses to regular restaurants. “We have 70-80 community kitchens still working in Gaza… In four to five days, these community kitchens will close their doors,” Amjad Shawa, the director of the Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO) in Gaza, told Reuters.

Shawa put the number of operational community kitchens in Gaza before the crossings closed at about 170. He said an additional 15 kitchens closed down on Monday.

Israel, which has abandoned the ceasefire deal agreed with Hamas in January, imposed its total blockade on Gaza on March 2, in a bid to pressure the Palestinian group into agreeing to new terms. The ongoing blockade is the longest such closure the Gaza Strip has ever faced.


_{Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, April 29}

Famine assessment under way in Gaza

The world’s hunger watchdog, known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system, has begun an analysis of the lack of food and malnutrition in the Gaza Strip.

The assessment began on April 28 and will last one week, according to the UN’s humanitarian agency (OCHA). More than 50 trained analysts from UN agencies and aid groups, both from the Gaza Strip and from abroad, are taking part in the exercise, it said.

The assessment comes as aid agencies warn that Gaza is on the verge of famine with Israel’s total blockade of the Strip entering its 60th day. The IPC had issued at least four warnings since Israel’s war on Gaza began, saying the territory could be teetering on the precipice of famine.

According to the UN, a famine is a situation in which a substantial proportion of a population cannot access adequate food, resulting in widespread acute malnutrition and loss of life by starvation and disease.

For the IPC to declare a famine, it says, three conditions backed by evidence must be met:

• At least 20 percent of the population in that particular area is facing an extreme lack of food.
• At least 30 percent of the children are too thin for their height.
• At least two people out of every 10,000 are dying each day due to outright starvation or to the interaction of malnutrition and disease.

As if Israel is suddenly going to allow aid in when the IPC declares famine. They'll just call them anti-semitic.

Palestinians struggle to survive under Israeli blockade nearing third month

With Israel’s blockade on food, medicine and other supplies now in its 60th day, people in Gaza are struggling to survive and are adopting coping strategies now stretched to the limit.

According to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), widespread displacement has forced many people to abandon food supplies and emergency stocks secured during the ceasefire signed in January.

Bread from UN-supported bakeries is no longer available, and most people cannot bake for themselves due to acute shortages of cooking fuel and the soaring cost of wheat flour, the report said.

Families are mixing crushed pasta with flour to make bread, which means smaller and less frequent meals. They are also giving bread to children or allocating just one piece per family member per day, it said.

People must rely on aid supplies as farmers and breeders can’t access their land, as 70 percent of the enclave has been designated as a “no-go” area or is under displacement orders by the Israeli military, the report added.

In #Gaza, with food supplies dwindling, some families report eating whatever they can find, even when it is no longer safe.

As basic supplies expire and needs grow, UNRWA stands ready to deliver urgently needed aid.

Humanitarian access must be restored. pic.twitter.com/cqZuWpwGjI

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) April 30, 2025

Day 3 of the ICJ hearings on allowing Aid into Gaza https://www.icj-cij.org/case/196

USA and Hungary defend genocide by starvation:

US official tells UN top court ‘serious concerns’ over UNRWA impartiality

Josh Simmons, the US representative at today’s ICJ hearing, has said that there were “serious concerns” about the impartiality of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

“Here there are serious concerns about UNRWA impartiality, including information that Hamas used UNRWA facilities and UNRWA staff participated in the terrorist attack against Israel,” Simmons told judges.

“Israel has therefore ample grounds to question UNRWA impartiality,” Simmons said.

About 40 nations and organisations such as the League of Arab States are taking part in the hearings which are taking place after the UN General Assembly requested the court to produce a non-binding advisory opinion on Israel’s responsibility to ensure the provision of essential supplies to Gaza.

“Given these concerns, it is clear that Israel has no obligation to permit UNRWA specifically to provide humanitarian assistance. UNRWA is not the only option for providing humanitarian assistance in Gaza,” he added.

US projecting, the concerns about US impartiality are far beyond concerns. And of course propagating Israeli lies.

There is still zero evidence that Hamas has used any of the 116 shelters UNWRA runs in Gaza and still zero evidence that any UNWRA staff participated in the terrorist attack. UNWRA did let 9 (out of 13,000) workers go for not having a solid alibi for Oct 7.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/08/1152841

With respect to the remaining nine cases, the evidence obtained by OIOS indicated that the UNRWA staff members may have been involved in the 7 October attacks.

“However, one thing I'd like to point out is that since information used by Israeli officials to support the allegations have remained in Israeli custody, OIOS was not able to independently authenticate most of the information provided to it,” he noted.

US officials lie as much as there Israeli masters.

Hungary alleges ‘politicisation’ of international legal forums at ICJ

Hungarian diplomat Gergo Kocsis has voiced his country’s reservations at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) about the ongoing advisory proceedings on Israel’s obligations in the occupied Palestinian territories.

He said that while ongoing proceedings were intended to tackle particular matters concerning a United Nations member state’s obligations under international law, “the pattern of politicisation of international judicial forums cannot be disregarded in examining this case before the esteemed court”.

Israel has also used charges of politicisation and even anti-Semitism to delegitimise proceedings against it at the ICJ as well as at the International Criminial Court, which issued arrest warrants last year for current PM Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

At the beginning of April, Hungary announced that it would withdraw from the ICC, with PM Viktor Orban, a staunch defender of Israel, saying at the time that the court had become “politicised”. Orban cited the decision against Israel as the basis of Hungary’s choice to withdraw.

“It is of great importance to maintain the confidence in the work of the court and to abstain from proceedings that may erode that confidence and may create a situation where the court becomes an actor in an ongoing conflict,” Kocsis told judges at the ICJ in The Hague.

“The resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only be achieved through direct negotiations between the parties on the basis of international law,” he added, recalling the ICJ’s 2004 advisory opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

‘Famine is the method, genocide is the goal’

Gaza-based human rights group Al Mezan says that Israel, through its 60-day total blockade on Gaza, is pursuing “a deliberate policy of starvation, enforced with full knowledge of its consequences on two million people”.

In a series of social media posts, the organisation said the Israeli military has bombed at least 28 kitchens and 37 aid centres since its war on Gaza began in October 2023.

In Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, a kitchen that feeds more than 2,000 Palestinian families per day is running out of supplies, Al Mezan said. Staff have reported they may be forced to close within days as a result of a lack of supplies.

“Statements of condemnation without action are meaningless. Blocking life-saving aid to 2 million civilians is not just unacceptable – it is criminal and genocidal,” Al Mezan said. “The blockade must end. Accountability must be ensured.”

Palestinian Prisoners’ advocacy group appeals to WHO

Several groups representing Palestinian prisoners have issued an urgent appeal to the World Health Organization over the situation in Israeli prisons, particularly in the al-Naqab, Megiddo, Gilboa and Ofer prisons, which is leading to an “unprecedented rate of deaths in custody”.

“The appeal highlighted the outbreak of a number of diseases, including scabies, skin disease, and amoebic infections, chronic diarrhoea, continuous vomiting, in addition to other serious skin diseases. Child detainees are also exhibiting symptoms of undiagnosed and untreated dermatological illnesses,” a Telegram statement from Addameer, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, and the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs read.

It added that prisoners were being denied their right to medical care or treatment for the root causes of their illnesses.

“This is not just a public health emergency – it is a humanitarian catastrophe,” the appeal to the WHO noted, adding that at least 65 Palestinian prisoners have died due to starvation and disease since the war on Gaza began in October 2023.

“The deliberate denial of healthcare and hygienic necessities constitutes cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment,” it said.

UNRWA chief rejects ‘unsubstantiated claims to undermine’ agency

Philippe Lazzarini says, “Those using disinformation as a weapon of war must be held accountable.”

Without specifying what disinformation he was referring to, he said in a post on X, “unsubstantiated claims” to undermine the agency “are threatening the lives & wellbeing of UNRWA staff” across Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

As we reported earlier, a US legal representative said during today’s ICJ hearing that there were “serious concerns” with UNRWA’s impartiality.

UNRWA has been a top target of Israel and its supporters, with rights advocates accusing the Israeli government of seeking to dismantle the agency upon which millions of Palestinian refugees across the region rely for assistance.

The war of narratives continue.

Circulating unsubstantiated claims to undermine @UNRWA: a lifeline for 2 million people is ongoing.

Such claims are threatening the lives & wellbeing of UNRWA staff across the #Gaza Strip & the occupied West Bank.

Dehumanising & polarising…

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) April 30, 2025

‘An affront to our humanity’: UN Security Council discussing Gaza

Country representatives have been commenting on the situation in the Middle East during a special Security Council session at UN headquarters in New York. Here’s some of what they said:

‘Israel is starving Gaza as a matter of policy’

Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur in the occupied Palestinian territoriy, says Israel’s starvation policy “is intentional, like the destruction it is causing”.

Albanese added in a post on X that world leaders who travelled to Israel to show support for the country after the October 7 attack should return to explain why sanctions on Israel and a protective presence in the occupied Palestinian territory are “unavoidable”.

Main events on April 30th