‘The worst thing is that all the Gazans are starving’

Amjad Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGOs Network, said that Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip are not the only thing sowing devastation across the enclave – so is its blockade.

“I cannot find the real words to describe the real situation,” Shawa told Al Jazeera from Gaza City.

“The worst thing is that all the Gazans are starving. This is the 10th week of closure of the borders. Nothing entered, no supplies … and all the UN agencies, NGOs, private sector are running out of supplies,” Shawa said. “And when we go to the hospitals … there is no medicine, and the beds of the hospitals are full of injured [people].”

Israel’s aid plan seeks control, displacement, and forced starvation in Gaza

Shawa told Al Jazeera that Israel’s proposed plan to let private companies handle aid into Gaza will further deepen the humanitarian catastrophe inside the Strip while giving Israel further control over Palestinians there.

“This military plan to distribute aid is to forcefully displace Palestinians from Gaza North to Rafah and to establish the so-called humanitarian bubbles,” Shawa told Al Jazeera. Israeli authorities won’t distribute aid based on humanitarian principles or security concerns, but will rather monopolise it and decide who can get it, Shawa said.

“It’s kind of militarisation of aid to replace the humanitarian structure that has worked for one and a half years in full capacity,” he said. So far, aid deliveries have been handled by international aid groups and UN organisations.

Shawa said this plan won’t alleviate the suffering of Palestinians. On the contrary, it will cause further displacement, control over calories, and further starvation.

This is part of “the Israeli plan to destroy more and push Gazans to leave Gaza.”

US-Israeli plan for Gaza aid aimed at ‘strangling’ Palestinians: NGO

Gisha, an Israeli NGO working on Palestinian freedom of movement, says the proposal to set up a US-backed foundation to distribute aid in Gaza “is designed to bring about the forced displacement of the population, while exposing them to risk of harm”.

“The plan is the next step in a string of moves aimed at consolidating control over the Strip and strangling the population and anyone trying to provide them relief,” the group said in a statement.

Gisha said the plan also fails to uphold humanitarian principles and will not address the needs of millions of Palestinians struggling to access food, water, medicine and other critical supplies under Israel’s total blockade on the Gaza Strip.

“The organizational infrastructure for aid delivery already exists and is effective, as seen during the ceasefire, and it must be allowed to continue,” the group added.

The US and Israel have developed a plan to distribute supplies in Gaza. The plan does not provide a response to the gaping humanitarian needs created by Israel’s ongoing attacks and blockade and doesn't adhere to basic humanitarian principles. https://t.co/viwgroWgs6 pic.twitter.com/rNa1gIwNCl

— Gisha גישה مسلك (@Gisha_Access) May 14, 2025

Israeli army publishes misleading footage meant to justify targeting of European Gaza Hospital

The Israeli army has released a video clip purporting to show a tunnel beneath the buildings of the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, which the military repeatedly targeted on Tuesday and today.

Al Jazeera’s Sanad verification unit found the images were not related to the hospital and did not provide any evidence supporting the claim of a tunnel at the site.

Sanad added that surveillance camera footage also showed that the army did not issue a warning before a strike on Tuesday or any measures to protect civilians, contrary to its official statement.

Ahh I wondered why I couldn't line it up better when making the comparison to the European hospital a page back, it's not even the right location.

Israeli army orders Palestinians to leave Al-Shifa Hospital, four schools in Gaza City

Avichay Adraee, an Israeli army spokesperson, has issued an order for Palestinians to leave several areas in the Remal neighbourhood of Gaza City.

In a post on X, Adraee accused Hamas of operating in the area and said the military planned to attack “with great force”.

Gaza ministry rejects Israel’s allegations, forced displacement orders

The Ministry of Interior and National Security in Gaza has rejected Israeli claims used to justify forced displacement orders for parts of Gaza City.

Israel’s army earlier said it planned to attack several areas of the city because Hamas was operating there.

“This evening, the Israeli occupation army issued threats to citizens to evacuate large areas and neighborhoods in the south and west of Gaza City, where large numbers of displaced persons are concentrated in shelters,” the ministry said in a statement.

“The allegations made by the occupation army in its announcement threatening civilians are false and baseless. They are merely false claims and attempts to justify its crime of displacing civilians from their homes as part of the occupation’s policy of pressuring civilians.”

The ministry added that it holds Israel responsible for the forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, which it said constitutes “a crime that violates all rules of international law”.

_{Displaced Palestinians shelter in tents in Gaza City on May 11}

Palestinian patients flee al-Shifa Hospital after Israel orders evacuation

Snapshot of Gaza City’s Remal neighbourhood

As we’ve been reporting, the Israeli military has ordered Palestinians to leave several areas in the Remal neighbourhood of Gaza City.

Once considered the beating heart of Gaza, Remal is home to Al-Shifa Hospital – the largest medical complex in the enclave – as well as UN offices, homes and shops.

Al-Shifa sits at the heart of the well-known neighbourhood.

The hospital is also near several UN compounds, including those of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the Office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and the UN Development Programme.

Gaza’s top universities – including the Islamic University of Gaza, Al-Azhar University-Gaza and Al-Aqsa University, which are just a few hundred metres apart – are also located in Remal.

_{A view of the remains of the National Islamic Bank in the Remal neighborhood of Gaza City in April 2024}

Bodies lying on the ground in hospital corridors,’ Gaza doctor says

Mohammad Awad, an emergency doctor at northern Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital, says supply shortages mean his department can’t handle the flow of wounded patients.

“The bodies of the martyrs are lying on the ground in the hospital corridors,” Awad told the AFP news agency.

“There are not enough beds, no medicine, and no means for surgical or medical treatment, which leaves doctors unable to save many of the injured who are dying due to lack of care,” he said.

As we’ve been reporting, Israel has maintained a total blockade on Gaza since early March, barring deliveries of medicine and other critical supplies and pushing the local health network to the brink of collapse.

UNIFIL details Israeli army’s ‘aggressive posture’ in southern Lebanon

The UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon – known as UNIFIL – has detailed an attack yesterday that hit the perimeter of its position south of the village of Kfar Shouba, in the country’s Nabatieh governorate.

“In yesterday’s incident, peacekeepers observed two shots fired from south of the Blue Line with one of them hitting the UNIFIL base,” UNIFIL said in a statement, referring to the 120km (75-mile) “border” line created by the UN between Israel and Lebanon.

“This marks the first time a UNIFIL position has been directly hit” since a ceasefire was reached between Israel and Lebanese group Hezbollah in late November, it said.

“In this period, UNIFIL has observed at least four other incidents involving [Israeli military] fire near its positions along the Blue Line,” UNIFIL added.

According to the agency’s statement, those incidents include:

Qatari PM says told Israel to ‘engage in meaningful negotiations’

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, the Qatari prime minister, says the country had viewed the release of US-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander from Gaza “as a breakthrough” that would help put talks towards ending the war back on track.

“Unfortunately, the Israeli reaction to this was a mass bombing [of Gaza] the next day,” the Qatari leader said in an interview with CNN after an event in Qatar with US President Trump.

Sheikh Mohammed also noted that while Israel sent a delegation to Qatar for talks, “statements coming out of the Israeli government [were] that this delegation is coming to negotiate a hostage deal without ending the war”.

That “is basically sending the signal that we are not interested in negotiations”, he said. “This was a bad signal, and we have highlighted this concern to the Israelis.

“And we told them [the Israelis] that we need to engage in meaningful negotiations” that will see the return of all Israeli captives, end the war, and alleviate humanitarian suffering in the Palestinian enclave”, Sheikh Mohammed said.



Ben & Jerry’s cofounder removed from RFK Jr hearing for Gaza protest

Ben Cohen, one of the cofounders of the famed US ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s, was removed from a congressional committee hearing in Washington, DC, after he interrupted Health and Human Services Director Robert F Kennedy Jr.

Asked why he was being removed, Cohen said: “Congress kills poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs and pays for it by kicking kids off Medicaid in the US.”

You can see part of what happened in the video Cohen shared on X below.

I told Congress they're killing poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs, and they're paying for it by kicking poor kids off Medicaid in the US. This was the authorities' response. pic.twitter.com/uOf7xrzzWM

— Ben Cohen (@YoBenCohen) May 14, 2025

Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to launch operations in Strip by end of May

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has announced it will launch operations in Gaza before the end of the month, adding that Israel has agreed to expand the number of “Secure Distribution Sites” to serve the Strip’s entire population, according to a statement.

In a letter to the Israeli government, the foundation’s executive director, Jake Wood, requested that Israel facilitate the flow of enough aid using existing modalities to Gaza until it is fully operational.

US officials announced the GHF’s establishment last week to implement a new aid distribution system, supplanting the current one run by the United Nations and other international aid agencies.

According to reports, under the proposal, private contractors will be used to secure hubs where Palestinians will be required to gather to collect supplies.

Israel, which has halted the entry of all aid to Gaza since March 2, deepening the humanitarian crisis, has previously said it will not relax the blockade until a system is in place that gives it control over the distribution, insisting that supplies are used to support Hamas.

UN officials have slammed the proposal, saying that aid distribution must be independent, impartial and neutral, in line with humanitarian principles.

Founded in Switzerland on February 11th 2025
https://www.fundraiso.com/en/organisations/gaza-humanitarian-foundation

Papazian David, from Armenia, in London, UK, President

Nice guy.... he was executive director of ANIF before this new scam:

Sketchy Track Record: $6.9 Million and the Armenian National Interests Fund’s Moscow Branch

https://hetq.am/en/article/173101

The Moscow branch office of the Armenian National Interests Fund (ANIF), a foreign direct investment fund operating under the government of Armenia (better known as ANIF), received an allocation of AMD 2.7 billion from ANIF between 2020 and 2024, but the fund’s current management does not have any information about the projects implemented by this branch.

...

During Avinyan's term, from 2019 to 2024, ANIF’s executive director was David Papazian, who was dismissed from his position in January 2024 by the new board of directors.

Five years after the company's creation, in the spring of 2024, Pashinyan's government decided to begin the process of terminating ANIF's activities. Today, ANIF still exists and operates, but its inglorious end is not far off.

Here's more on the background of the rest of the GHF

https://qudsnen.co/aid-or-occupation-private-contractors-and-pro-israel-figures-run-trumps-gaza-humanitarian-foundation/

At best it's another aid pier failure, at worst it's just another scam beginning with delays and more delays.

Main Events on May 14th

• At least 84 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip, including air attacks on northern Gaza’s Jabalia that left at least 50 people dead.
• Thousands of Palestinians have fled parts of Gaza City’s Remal neighbourhood after the Israeli army announced plans to attack because it said Hamas – without providing any evidence – was operating there.
• Hamas says Israel’s bombing campaign would “bring Netanyahu no form of victory” in Gaza, as the group also condemned the Israeli military’s forced evacuation orders.
• US President Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, says he is hopeful that a Gaza deal can be reached after he held talks in Qatar’s capital with Qatari officials and the families of Israeli captives.

It's already May 15th in occupied Palestine, Nakba day.

What is Nakba Day and what does it commemorate?

Every year on May 15, Palestinians mark Nakba Day to commemorate the ethnic cleansing of Palestine upon the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.

Zionist forces expelled about 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and lands between 1947 and 1949, capturing 78 percent of historical Palestine.

Today, Palestinians and their supporters commemorate the Nakba – “catastrophe” in Arabic – with marches, protests and other events.

As Israel continues its deadly military bombardment of Gaza and tries to push Palestinians out of the coastal enclave, many observers say the Nakba never ended.

For more on Nakba Day, check out this Al Jazeera explainer from 2022.

LIVE! from Nakba Day Ceremony in Tel Aviv University

This is what the university is now going to lose funding over.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/408300

Education Minister Yoav Kisch denounces Tel Aviv University over Nakba Day commemorations, warning of budget cuts and accusing the institution of suppressing academic freedom.

"I regret the false morality of Tel Aviv University President Prof. Ariel Porat," Kisch stated. "Porat is among those responsible for undermining the core values of higher education and free speech in Israel. Under his leadership, the university has suppressed pluralistic discourse and effectively curtailed academic freedom."

Kisch drew a comparison to recent developments abroad, saying, "Prof. Porat should take note of what's happening in the US, where similar commemorations have been held. Any student who views Nakba Day as a national day of mourning should consider studying at Birzeit University rather than at the university of Israel's first Zionist city."

He warned that institutions supporting such activities may face financial repercussions: "Israeli law clearly stipulates that any institution promoting or facilitating Nakba Day events risks losing government funding. That is exactly what will happen."

I had to read that twice, so allowing students to have a (small, isolated) Nakba day commemoration is undermining free speech and academic freedom?
These racists really turn everything on its head.

New attacks kill at least 115 in Gaza

At least 115 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in a wave of Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip, as indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas continue.

At least 61 people were killed overnight and early on Thursday in a barrage of attacks on the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, according to local health officials. In Jabalia in northern Gaza, an Israeli strike on al-Tawbah medical clinic killed at least 15 people and wounded several others, the Health Ministry said.

European hospital out of service, says Gaza health ministry

Recent Israeli attacks have heavily damaged the hospital in Khan Younis, south Gaza, the ministry says in a statement.

Here is some more of what the ministry said:

WHO director says Israeli attack on hospital cut off ‘vital services’

The director of the World Health Organisation has said Israeli attacks close to the European Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis on Tuesday caused “severe damage” to the medical centre, which was forced to close.

“The hospital’s closure has cut off vital services including neurosurgery, cardiac care, and cancer treatment—all unavailable elsewhere in Gaza,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.

“The shutdown also ends the facility’s role as a key hub for medical evacuations, further straining the overwhelmed health system.”

A separate strike near the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, “spread fear, disrupted access, and raised the risk of closure.”

“Hospitals must be protected. They must never be militarized or targeted,” the WHO chief added, before calling for a ceasefire.

European #Gaza Hospital is no longer functional after an attack on 13 May left it severely damaged and inaccessible.

After being there yesterday. @WHO reached the hospital again today to relocate one international Emergency Medical Team—who continued working through the… pic.twitter.com/1gJm66QcUl

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 15, 2025

New Israeli strikes reported in southern Gaza

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting new strikes in Gaza’s southern cities. Several people have been wounded in an Israeli air raid on a house in the town of al-Qarara, north of Khan Younis.

Injuries were also reported following an Israeli bombing of a building in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis.

‘People torn apart’ in deadly Israeli attack on Jabalia clinic

We’ve collected testimonies from people in Jabalia refugee camp, where an Israeli attack on al-Tawbah medical clinic killed at least 13 people today.

Mohammad al-Taramsi said women and children were receiving medical treatment when the clinic was bombed. “The strike was extremely intense – indescribable,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The martyrs were lying on the ground, including children and women … Reaching the area was difficult for ambulances and civilian vehicles because of the massive destruction, and the bodies remained on the ground for a long time.”

Another local resident, Yahya al-Skaafi, said he was collecting the remains of those killed. “The scene was heartbreaking – people torn apart and scattered,” he told Al Jazeera. “The martyrs who were on the upper floor were just body parts. It was a truly tragic situation.”

Khaled Abu Jalloum also said children and women were among those killed. “There was no justification for striking this place. It’s a clinic where people come to get treated, and it contains medicine and medical equipment,” he said.

_{Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli attack on the medical clinic in Jabalia refugee camp}

Israeli military bombs tent housing displaced people in southern Gaza

An Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent in the Palestinian enclave reports that an Israeli fighter jet has bombed a tent housing displaced people in al-Mawasi, southern Gaza, injuring an unspecified number of people.

Israeli gunboats stationed off the coast of northern Gaza have also shelled near the Museum Hotel in Gaza City, while an Israeli fighter jet has also bombed a home in nearby Jabalia.

The Israeli military has bombed the Beit Lahiya area of northern Gaza seven times over recent hours. An Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent on the ground now reports that at least three people have been killed in that attack, while more people have been wounded.

Hundreds flee Beit Lahiya as Israeli ground forces storm area

We have been reporting on the Israeli military’s aerial assault on the Beit Lahiya area of northern Gaza over recent hours. An Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent in the Palestinian enclave now reports that hundreds of Beit Lahiya residents have fled the area as they attempt to escape Israel’s bombardment.

The same correspondent also reports that Israeli ground forces have stormed the city from the western section.

The Quds News Network reports that Israeli soldiers are besieging a shelter west of the city, as they carry out arrests and order displaced women and children to evacuate the area using loudspeakers.

Israel says missile launched from Yemen intercepted

The Israeli military has said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen towards its territory.

“Sirens were sounded in accordance with protocol,” it said in a statement.