Israel asks ICC judges to withdraw Netanyahu arrest warrant

Israel has asked judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to withdraw arrest warrants against its prime minister and defence minister while the ICC reviews Israeli challenges to its jurisdiction over the conduct of the Gaza war. https://www.icc-cpi.int/defendant/netanyahu

Documents published on the ICC website also show Israel has asked the court to order the prosecution to suspend its investigation into alleged atrocity crimes in the Palestinian Territories.

The documents are dated May 9 and signed by Israeli Deputy Attorney General Gilad Noam.

The ICC issued arrest warrants on November 21 last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief, as well as a Hamas leader, Ibrahim al-Masri, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict.

The ICC said in February that judges had withdrawn the arrest warrant for al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, following credible reports of his death.


President urges international community to ‘study’ Israel’s plan to take over Gaza aid delivery

Isaac Herzog has called on the UN to back Israel’s plan to control aid delivery in Gaza, arguing it is needed to stop supplies from being diverted to Hamas.

“What Israel has offered, in order to prevent Hamas from controlling [humanitarian aid] distribution … is a new mechanism which will enable the distribution of aid directly to the people of Gaza,” the Israeli president said during a visit to Germany’s capital, Berlin.

The plan – approved by Israel’s cabinet – would reportedly create several aid hubs inside militarised zones in southern Gaza where Palestinians would have to go. The US now says it is establishing a non-governmental foundation to oversee the process, which will be secured by Israeli forces.

UN officials have already condemned the plan to cut international aid groups out of the process and push Palestinians into militarised zones.

“It’s dangerous to ask civilians to go into militarised zones to collect rations,” said UNICEF spokesman James Elder, adding it presents them with an “impossible choice between displacement and death”.

“Humanitarian aid should never be used as a bargaining chip,” he said.

Israel’s “plan” signals its intent to starve Palestinians who resist being expelled from north Gaza, Heidi Matthews, a legal scholar at York University in Canada, told Al Jazeera last week.

“It is inconceivable that the population can be adequately provided for … whilst being crowded into southern Gaza,” she said. “This indicates the genocidal intent to inflict on the Palestinian population of Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

As we’ve reported, Israel has enforced a total aid blockade on Gaza for 71 days. A global hunger monitor says the entire population faces critical famine risk.

They have studied your plans and rejected them.

It's a plan to build a concentration camp in the South, behind the new Morag corridor, mainly for women and children. Using 'aid' to ethnically cleanse Gaza while providing less than the bare minimum to keep at most 60% of the population on the brink of starvation. 4 distribution points (down from 400) and 60 trucks daily (where 800+ are needed to bring the population back from starvation and malnutrition) while 3,000+ aid trucks sit waiting at the border.

Israel must keep attacking Gaza, blocking aid: Ben-Gvir

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has complained that Netanyahu is not waging a ramped-up Gaza offensive fast enough, saying “we are procrastinating and missing an opportunity”.

Addressing the Israeli leader at a party meeting, Ben-Gvir said: “We must not stop. President Trump has already given you backing to ‘open the gates of hell’.”

Ben-Gvir also said Israel should keep blocking food and other aid from reaching Palestinians in the enclave until Hamas is “brought to its knees”, while seizing the moment to “encourage voluntary emigration”, according to Israel’s Srugim news site.

‘Families in Gaza starving while food sitting at the border’

The head of the UN’s World Food Programme has called for the international community to act to get aid into Gaza after today’s IPC report warning the entire Palestinian population in the enclave is at imminent risk of famine.

“Families in Gaza are starving while the food they need is sitting at the border,” Cindy McCain said in a statement.

“It’s imperative that the international community acts urgently to get aid flowing into Gaza again. If we wait until after a famine is confirmed, it will already be too late for many people,” she said.

Catherine Russell, head of the UN child rights agency (UNICEF), added “the risk of famine does not arrive suddenly”.

“It unfolds in places where access to food is blocked where health systems are decimated, and where children are left without the bare minimum to survive. Hunger and acute malnutrition are a daily reality for children across the Gaza Strip,” she said.

“We have repeatedly warned of this trajectory and call again on all parties to prevent a catastrophe.”

_{Children struggle to get food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza}

‘Starvation being deliberately used as a weapon of war’

Reacting to the latest IPC report warning of worsening famine in Gaza, the medical NGO Doctors of the World says it has monitored acute malnutrition in children and mothers across six health centres in the territory over the past 10 months.

In 2024, the group identified nearly one in four infants and 19 percent of pregnant and breastfeeding women as suffering from acute malnutrition.

Simon Tyler, executive director of Doctors of the World UK, said “starvation is being deliberately used as a weapon of war”.

“The continued inaction of the UK alongside some of the most powerful governments in the world in the face of the Israeli authorities’ deadly blockade is indefensible and could be judged as complicity under international law,” Tyler said.

“Their ‘deep concern’ means nothing without action. More than two million people are at stake.”

Gaza starvation: Behind the IPC’s numbers are people

The major headline is that the entire Gaza Strip – about 2.1 million people – is now at risk of famine.

According to a report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), in October of last year, 664,000 Palestinians were facing “emergency levels of hunger”. Now that scenario is up to 925,000.

For “catastrophic levels of hunger,” it was 133,000 in October 2024. It is now up to 244,000. The IPC says that if the Israeli blockade of aid into Gaza is not reversed, that number could go up to 479,000.

Of course, behind all these numbers are names, faces, people – fathers, sons and increasingly mothers and daughters facing increasing starvation in Gaza.

When she cries, you can barely hear the sound’: Palestinian infant starves in Gaza

UNICEF has shared a video showing a five-month-old Palestinian girl named Sewar who is struggling with severe malnutrition in Gaza.

“She is severely, acutely malnourished,” Jonathan Crickx, UNICEF’s Palestine communications chief, said in the clip shared on social media. “If you look at her little legs, she just has the skin on her bones. When she cries, you can barely hear the sound because she’s so exhausted.”

"We have thousands of children affected by acute malnutrition. This must stop. The humanitarian aid must enter at scale inside Gaza.” - UNICEF’s Jonathan Crickx

A new report shows that children in Gaza are at risk of famine amid fighting, closed border crossings & food scarcity. pic.twitter.com/7VLsclydSq

— UNICEF (@UNICEF) May 12, 2025

We do not need to wait for a declaration of #famine in #Gaza to know that people are already starving, sick and dying, while food and medicines are minutes away across the border.  

The analysis released today shows that without immediate access to food and essential supplies,… https://t.co/zVgYzvbwcM pic.twitter.com/E4X0oXZ5yI

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 12, 2025

Spanish court investigates shipping firm over alleged arms shipments to Israel: Report

A court in Barcelona has reportedly opened an investigation into the global shipping giant Maersk over allegations it transported weapons to Israel.

The investigation was prompted by a legal complaint from Prou Complicitat amb Israel (Stop Complicity with Israel), a Catalan campaign group, which claims Maersk ships were involved in delivering F-35 fighter jet components to Israel.

The judge ordered last Wednesday that the captains of two ships, the Nexoe and the Detroit, along with Maersk’s legal representative in Spain, appear in court to testify, though the order was not made public until Monday, Catalan media reported.

The hearing coincided with the docking of the Nexoe in the Port of Barcelona. The vessel is expected to remain in port until 7pm local time (17:00 GMT).

Maersk has denied shipping arms or ammunition to Israel during the war in Gaza. At its annual general meeting in March, a shareholder proposal calling for the company to stop transporting weaponry to Israel was rejected.

Spain suspended arms exports to Israel after the start of the Gaza war and formally recognised the State of Palestine in May.

Film stars, directors slam silence over Gaza ‘genocide’

Hollywood actors, including Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon, denounced “genocide” in Gaza in an open letter released by pro-Palestinian activists on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival.

“We cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza,” said the letter published by French newspaper Liberation.

The letter was signed by 380 world cinema figures including Mark Ruffalo, Javier Bardem, Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, and former Cannes winner Ruben Ostlund, it said.

_{US actor Mark Ruffalo is among the stars who signed the letter}

Dozens of children among 530 arrested by Israeli forces in West Bank last month: Prisoner groups

At least 60 children and 18 women were among 530 Palestinians arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in April, according to Palestinian prisoner organisations.

Israeli military operations and arrests mainly focused on the governorates of Tulkarem and Jenin, a statement released jointly by the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainee Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society and the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.

“This has been accompanied by severe beatings, abuse, and terrorism, including children and women,” the groups said.

The number of arrests in the West Bank since the beginning of Israel’s war in Gaza has reached about 17,000, the statement read.

“This figure includes those arrested and kept in detention by the occupation, as well as those subsequently released. It also does not include the number of arrests in Gaza, which is estimated in the thousands,” it added.

Gaza detainees face ‘systematic abuse and torture’ in Israeli prisons

The Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) says abuses against prisoners from the Gaza Strip are “an integral component of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians”.

In a new report based on the testimonies of 100 former Palestinian detainees, the rights group detailed a number of abuses including beatings, electrocution, and sexual and psychological violence.

PCHR said “detainees were subjected to inhumane conditions and extreme forms of physical and psychological ill-treatment” similar to those documented at the US-run prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“These acts were executed with the intent to destroy the Palestinian population of Gaza,” the rights group said, adding that Palestinian detainees were arrested and tortured “solely on the basis of their identity”.

“PCHR also collected several genocidal statements made by members of the Israeli military during their interactions with the detainees, featuring the destruction of Gaza and the eradication of its people,” it said.

“These statements and the patterns of conduct of the direct perpetrators show their full awareness of the harm they were inflicting and their intention for it to have enduring consequences for the Palestinians of Gaza, far beyond their period of detention.

Israeli forces storm West Bank’s Tubas, position snipers on rooftops: Report

Israeli forces have moved into the city of Tubas in the occupied West Bank, where heavy gunfire has gone off, reports the Palestinian Wafa news agency. Citing local sources, the agency said Israeli forces have raided at least one house in the city and set up snipers on its rooftop.

In addition, Israeli forces have stormed the West Bank town of Bir Nabala, near Jerusalem, and the city of Hebron, where they arrested a young man, said Wafa.

_{Israeli military vehicles operate during an Israeli raid in near Tubas in the occupied West Bank}

Israel’s West Bank land registration serves ‘annexation’: NGO

An Israeli rights group has denounced a government decision to launch extensive land registration for parts of the occupied West Bank, saying it could help advance annexation of the Palestinian territory.

“It is a tool for annexation,” said Yonatan Mizrachi of the Settlement Watch project at Israeli non-governmental organisation Peace Now.

The West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has no comprehensive land registry, with some areas unregistered or residents holding deeds from before the Israeli occupation.

The Israeli security cabinet on Sunday decided to initiate a land registration process in the West Bank’s Area C, which covers more than 60 percent of the territory and is under full Israeli control.

Though the process would likely take “years”, according to Mizrachi, adding Palestinians in Area C could lose land if Israeli authorities do not accept their claim to it. This might lead to “a massive land theft”, Peace Now said. The process could result “in the transfer of ownership of the vast majority of Area C to the [Israeli] state”.

US ‘fed up’ with PM Netanyahu: Opposition politician

Responding to the release of the last known living American captive being held in Gaza, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid says Israeli captives remain in the enclave because their government “did not make a deal to free them”.

“The Americans are fed up with Netanyahu. We are happy to see every hostage return home to their family, to their parents – but those who remain in the tunnels are Israeli citizens,” he said in a post on X.

“They were not released because the Israeli government did not make a deal to free them.”

Edan Alexander on his way back to Israel

The Red Cross received Edan Alexander inside of Gaza and gave him to Israeli forces. He’s now on his way back to Israel via the Kissufim crossing in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

He will then be taken immediately to the Re’im airbase in southern Israel. He’ll be reunited with his mother before he’s then airlifted to a hospital in central Israel, right outside of Tel Aviv.

This is a choreographed schedule that has been in place for Israeli captives who are released from Gaza over the last year and a half.

It’s worth mentioning that the release of Edan Alexander came about because of direct negotiations between Hamas and the United States. There was no Israeli involvement here whatsoever.

Hamas confirms Edan Alexander release ‘to achieve a ceasefire’

The Palestinian group says the US citizen was released “a short while ago following contacts with the US administration”.

“This comes as part of the efforts being made by mediators to achieve a ceasefire, open the crossings, and allow aid and relief to reach our people in the Gaza Strip,” it said in a statement.

“This step comes after important contacts in which Hamas demonstrated positivity and high flexibility.”

Hamas also urged the US administration “to continue its efforts to end this brutal war waged by the war criminal Netanyahu against children, women, and defenceless civilians in the Gaza Strip”.

Trump not yet using US leverage to end Israel’s war on Gaza

Sami Al-Arian, a political analyst and professor at Istanbul Zaim University, says the Trump administration appears to have told Hamas that if it releases captive Edan Alexander “as a good gesture”, the US president will work to end Israel’s war on Gaza.

Al-Arian explained that Alexander’s release comes amid two irreconcilable positions that Washington is trying to navigate: On one hand, the captives are Hamas’s only leverage in negotiations to reach a ceasefire, while on the other, Israel doesn’t want to end the war.

“Meanwhile, Trump is trying to get these hostages released without having to pay the price that is needed. So he’s basically leaning on both sides,” Al-Arian told Al Jazeera.

The US – which provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel annually – holds “a lot of cards” it can use to pressure its ally to end the war. But so far, Trump has largely failed to do so, the analyst added.

“He is providing them with all the weapons, all the bombs, all the missiles, all the planes, all the tanks, and so on and so forth,” Al-Arian said. “And that has never stopped – he’s not using that leverage in order to get his way.”

Reaction for one Israeli soldier vs millions in besieged Gaza

Sami Al-Arian, a professor from Istanbul Zaim University, has highlighted the glaring contradiction of the reaction to the Israeli soldier’s release and the response to the ongoing devastation in Gaza.

“It is really a sad state of affairs when you have the whole world mobilised for one soldier. Everyone knows him by name, knows his family, where he was born, that he’s 21 years old. And they turn their back on millions of Palestinians after 18 months of a devastating genocide,” Al-Arian told Al Jazeera.

“What does that say about our world? Where is the Muslim-Arab world? Where is the feeling that these people have been deprived of the basic needs for life, and they’re doing absolutely nothing about it? It’s pretty sad.”

Israeli army says Edan Alexander on way to hospital

The released US-Israeli captive is accompanied by his family on his way to an Israeli hospital, the military says. “He will meet with the rest of his family and receive medical treatment,” it said in a statement.

Separately, the White House shared a photo on X appearing to show Alexander holding a handwritten sign that reads, “Thank you President Trump”.

584 DAYS HELD HOSTAGE BY HAMAS — AMERICAN EDAN ALEXANDER IS FREE! 🇺🇸🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/3rvVqfPfdI

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 12, 2025

Israel says it will hold off intensified attacks on Gaza

Israel will carry on with its plan to ramp up the war on Gaza, but it won’t launch it until after Trump’s visit to the Middle East, to allow for a potential new ceasefire deal to emerge, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon also confirmed to reporters that Israel will hold off the start of the expanded military action in Gaza for a few days.

“Israel is preparing a major operation in Gaza; we are not hiding it. We have called up the reserves, and we have the troops ready. And if there will be no development in the negotiations, we will apply pressure, military pressure, in order to make sure that we bring back the hostages and then eliminate Hamas,” Danon said.

“It can be avoided … if the framework that [US] Ambassador Witkoff proposed will be accepted.”

Rights advocates to file complaint accusing US of ‘genocide complicity’

Palestinian rights advocates in the US are planning to file a complaint this week with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) accusing the US government of “complicity in genocide in Gaza”.

Palestinian American lawyer Huwaida Arraf said the complaint is being filed “because the US government has effectively shielded itself from accountability for its international crimes under its own legal system, even for crimes against humanity and genocide”.

The US provides Israel with at least $3.8bn in military assistance annually. Washington has provided billions more since the war on Gaza began in October 2023 and vetoed UN resolutions seeking to get Israel to end its offensive.

“While the United States actively enables and materially supports Israel’s atrocities, it has constructed legal shields at home that deny victims even the chance to seek redress,” Arraf said in a statement.

“The United States cannot continue to finance, arm, and politically cover for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide abroad while remaining immune from international scrutiny. This petition is a call for accountability where none has yet been possible.”

The complaint is to be filed on Wednesday at the IACHR headquarters in Washington, DC.