Israeli army confirms deadly Syria attacks

A military statement says Israeli forces “struck a military site, anti-aircraft cannons and surface-to-air missile infrastructure in Syria” on Friday evening, without giving further details.

The statement comes after Syrian state media reported that Israeli attacks in the vicinity of the Damascus countryside killed at least one, and injured several in Hama.

Israeli air attacks on Syria killed two civilians

Israeli air attacks began at about 12:45am last night [21:45 GMT Friday]. The Israelis say they hit military bases.

That was met with scepticism here in Syria because a lot of those bases, the Syrians say, were actually empty.

So, once again, this is being seen as an escalation by Israel against Syria and a very serious violation of sovereignty. Civilians were hit in these raids. Two people have died and at least eight have been injured.

UN envoy urges Israel to cease attacks on Syria ‘at once’

United Nations special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen has called on Israel “to respect international law and Syria’s sovereignty, unity, territorial integrity and independence”.

“I strongly condemn Israel’s continued and escalating violations of Syria’s sovereignty, including multiple air strikes in Damascus and other cities,” Pedersen said in a post on X.

“I call for these attacks to cease at once and for Israel to stop endangering Syrian civilians …”

@GeirOPedersen I call for these attacks to cease at once and for Israel to stop endangering Syrian civilians and to respect international law and Syria’s sovereignty, unity, territorial integrity, and independence.

— UN Special Envoy for Syria (@UNEnvoySyria) May 3, 2025

Israeli air raid hits car in Lebanon

The National News Agency reports an Israeli air raid hit a vehicle in the Lebanese town of Khartoum, Sidon. Israel has cited security concerns for its continued deadly raids on Lebanon despite a ceasefire agreed to in November 2024.

The Lebanese government said earlier this month at least 190 people have been killed and 485 injured in Lebanon by Israeli attacks since the truce took effect.

Israeli drone targets car in southern Lebanon

Lebanon’s National News Agency reports the Israeli military launched a drone strike on a vehicle in Qabrikha, in the southern Marjayoun district.

Separately, it reported a drone attack between Markaba and Tallousa, where Israeli forces also dropped a sound bomb.

Israel’s bombing is nowhere near the same intensity as it was before the ceasefire began on November 27, and nightly bombing of Beirut’s southern suburbs has stopped.

However, Israel still carries out attacks on occasion, some of which are north of the Litani River, which Hezbollah is required to move its forces north of, as per the truce agreement.

Israeli aircraft near Malta before attack on Freedom Flotilla: Report

An Israeli military aircraft was circling over the south and east of Malta before a Freedom Flotilla vessel was attacked, according to a news report.

The local news outlet Malta Today said flight tracking websites showed the plane circling over Hurd’s Bank just outside the 26km (12-mile) territorial airspace, but the Maltese government has stressed it did not enter.

“The committee clarifies that at no point in time, during the past 48 hours, any aircraft or vessel, currently mentioned in local and foreign media in relation to the case of the vessel Conscience, entered Maltese Sovereign Airspace or the Territorial sea,” Malta Today cited the government as saying late on Friday.

The Conscience was hit twice by what the Freedom Flotilla Coalition said were drones launched by Israel or one of its allies. No direct connection has been officially established between the drone attack and the military aircraft.

Yemen’s Houthis claim responsibility for missile attack on Israel

The Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for a missile launched against Israel earlier in the day. The group’s military spokesperson said that the attack targeted the city of Jaffa. The Israeli army reported the attack earlier, without giving its location.

‘A very dark chapter in human civilization’

A surgeon who volunteered in Gaza has denounced the international community for failing to stop Israel’s ongoing attack and complete blockade of the Strip.

Dr Mohammad Tahir said the “sequential dehumanization of the people of Gaza and Palestine in general” has allowed Israel to get away with killing tens of thousands of civilians.

“Nobody is hiding that they’re using aid as a weapon of war to further their political goals,” Tahir told Al Jazeera. “So it’s not an allegation, it’s a confession. There’s no debate here.”

More than 9,000 Palestinian children have been treated for malnutrition since the start of the year. Tahir said right now it is vulnerable children with chronic disease who are dying, but as Israel’s total blockade enters its third month more will perish.

“What world do we live in that allows this to happen? We’ve entered a very dark chapter in human civilization.”

‘Excruciating anxiety’ as Israel vows to expand Gaza fighting

The families of Israeli captives issued a statement saying they spent the Jewish Sabbath in “excruciating anxiety” after Israeli authorities announced their intention to expand military action in the Gaza Strip, calling up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers.

“Israel is on its way to sinking into the Gaza mud in the name of the illusion that it is possible to achieve any victory without returning our brothers and sisters from captivity,” the Bring Them Home Campaign said on X.

“Expanding the fighting will endanger the kidnapped, the living and the dead alike, will cost the lives of our soldiers, and will exact a heavy price from tens of thousands of reservists and their families.”

The group called on the government to “stop this mistake” and reach an agreement “that will return everyone”.

_{Antigovernment demonstrators rally outside the Israeli army headquarters in Tel Aviv}

When called to war Israelis ‘will obey’

Thousands of people protesting in Israel against Netanyahu’s plan to expand the military assault on Gaza by calling up reserve soldiers is not influential enough, according to Israeli journalist Gideon Levy.

“[Netanyahu] has enough political support to continue because his coalition is very solid right now,” Levy told Al Jazeera, speaking from Tel Aviv.

“It’s the same old protest, which is very courageous and devoted, but is [not] … big enough to influence Netanyahu.”

He added, “There are enough Israelis who are ready to continue with this war. There is something basic of, in the nature of the Israelis that when they are called to war, they will always obey, or at least most of them will obey. It is because they believe in it.”

Crucial humanitarian aid piles up as Gaza stalked by starvation

Al Jazeera has obtained exclusive images taken Saturday morning showing the accumulation of humanitarian aid along the international road south of Egypt’s city of El Arish, waiting to cross into Gaza but prevented by Israel from doing so.

Images show a large number of trucks loaded with food, water, and medical supplies piling up on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. The area around El Arish’s airport has witnessed a backlog of aid trucks for months during Israel’s continuing war and blockade of Gaza.

The humanitarian response in Gaza is on the verge of “total collapse” with Palestinians facing a “daily struggle to survive”, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Growing international outcry over Israel’s deadly Gaza blockade

The longest blockade on Gaza has sparked a growing international outcry, but it has failed to persuade Israel to open the land crossings. More groups accuse Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war. Residents and humanitarians warn that acute malnutrition among children is spiralling.

“We are breaking the bodies and minds of the children of Gaza,” Michael Ryan, executive director of emergencies at the World Health Organization, told reporters in Geneva.

“Because if we don’t do something about it, we are complicit in what is happening before our very eyes … The children should not have to pay the price.”

Israel imposed the total blockade on March 2, and then ended a two-month ceasefire by resuming attacks on March 18, saying both steps were necessary to pressure Hamas into releasing the captives. Before the ceasefire collapsed, Israel believed 59 captives were still inside Gaza, 24 of them alive and still in captivity.

Israeli military issues thousands of call-up notices

The Israeli military has issued call-up notices to thousands of reservists to support an expansion of its attack on Gaza, a day after the government announced an expansion of the war on the Strip.

The reservists will be deployed to Israel’s border with Lebanon and in the occupied West Bank, replacing regular soldiers who will lead a new offensive in Gaza, the news site Ynet reported.

Earlier, the prime minister’s office announced that Benjamin Netanyahu rescheduled his May 7-11 visit to Azerbaijan, citing recent developments in Gaza and Syria.

Former Israel PM calls for ‘civil disobedience’ to remove Netanyahu

Israel’s former Prime Minister Ehud Barak has called for mass “civil disobedience” to topple Benjamin Netanyahu after accusing the current leader of having “declared war on Israel”.

“The State of Israel is not Netanyahu,” Barak told Channel 13. He called on the country’s attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, to submit a demand that Netanyahu recuse himself from office.

Netanyahu said this week defeating Israel’s enemies is more important than securing the release of the remaining captives in Gaza, comments that drew criticism from family members and others.

Israel tells Qatar to ‘decide if it’s on the side of civilisation’

Israel has told Qatar, a mediator in its war with Hamas, to “stop playing both sides with its double talk and decide if it’s on the side of civilisation or if it’s on the side of Hamas barbarism”.

“Israel is fighting a just war with just means,” the Prime Minister’s Office said. “After the October 7 atrocities, Prime Minister Netanyahu defined the War of Redemption as a war between civilisation and barbarism.

“Israel will win this just war with just means,” it added.

Earlier this week, Qatar joined a long list of representatives from governments across the world condemning Israeli actions before the International Court of Justice.

It's the job of a negotiator to hear and present both sides. I guess Trump changed the definition of negotiating to bowing down to the bully.

There is no redemption left for Israel, Netanyahu has gone too far. It's a barbaric war against an entire people, against civilization, against humanitarian and international law, against the UN and against sovereignty of other nations.

Qatar says Israel comments lack ‘political and moral responsibility’

Qatar has rejected earlier Israeli statements calling on the Gulf country to “pick a side” and “decide if it’s on the side of civilisation or if it’s on the side of Hamas barbarism”.

“Portraying the ongoing aggression against Gaza as a defence of ‘civilization’ echoes the rhetoric of regimes throughout history that have used false narratives to justify crimes against innocent civilians,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari wrote on X.

“Meanwhile, the Palestinian people in Gaza are enduring one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of modern times. Is this truly the model of ‘civilization’ being promoted?”

The State of Qatar firmly rejects the inflammatory statements issued by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, which fall far short of the most basic standards of political and moral responsibility. Portraying the ongoing aggression against Gaza as a defense of “civilization”…

— د. ماجد محمد الأنصاري Dr. Majed Al Ansari (@majedalansari) May 3, 2025

Desperate scenes: Gaza people and the fight for food

In Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza, desperate families pushed and shoved at food distribution sites to reach steaming vats of soup.

“We are eight people. I need to provide them with a bite of food,” said Faten al-Sabbagh. “I wish I can find even bread, but there is nothing and we are unable to. The prices are high and there are no salaries.”

Gaza’s community kitchens, distributing meals for thousands, are shuttering. Farmland is mostly inaccessible. Bakeries have closed. Water distribution is grinding to a halt, largely because of a lack of fuel.

In desperate scenes, thousands, many of them Palestinian children, crowd outside community kitchens fighting over food.

The top United Nations court on Friday wrapped a week of hearings on what Israel must do to ensure desperately needed humanitarian aid reaches Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Israeli unit that killed Gaza girl reportedly identified

The Hind Rajab Foundation says after a year-long investigation it has identified the Israeli military unit and commander who killed the six-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza in 2024, her family members, and two medics who tried to save her.

It was under the commander’s direction that “an Israeli tank unit attacked the civilian vehicle of Hind’s family, and later destroyed the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance dispatched to rescue her”, the organisation, which was created in the young girl’s memory, said in a statement.

“We will go after every officer involved – those who gave the orders, those who fired, those who covered it up, and those who let it happen,” the group said, urging the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant.

Rajab was killed on January 29, 2024 when the car she was in with her six family members was hit by Israeli tank fire.

Her family died instantly but the six-year-old remained alive for hours, whispering into a phone with ambulance dispatchers: “I’m so scared … please come.”

The ambulance that was sent to save her was also attacked by Israeli fire, with two medics inside killed instantly.