Live: UK halts trade deal talks with Israel, summons ambassador over Gaza

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has recently postponed the deadline for Israel's defence in the case of South Africa v Israel to January 2026. 

The World Court is tasked with determining whether Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

The international community - which swiftly condemned the 7 October attack within hours - has shown a striking reluctance to use the word genocide in this context, instead waiting for the world's highest court to validate the term. 

This hesitance persists even as the refusal to call a spade a spade breeds unimaginable horror.

Worst of all, there remains a risk that the court might ultimately decline to label the events as genocide. 

Read more: ICJ Gaza delay lays bare the moral collapse of international law Opinion by Shahd Hammouri

Five people were killed in an Israeli bombardment targetting a charitable foundation near Al-Jalaa Street in Gaza City, in the central Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera reported.

Meanwhile, the death toll from the Israeli attack on central Gaza’s Bureij camp earlier has reached nine, all from the same family, the outlet said.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) has warned that the ongoing Israeli blockade of Gaza is silently killing increasing numbers of children and called on Israel to lift the aid blockade.

“Today marks two months of siege on the people of Gaza. It is a siege on children, women, older people and ordinary men. They are collectively punished for being born [and] living in Gaza, something not of their making," Unrwa Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X.

“With every additional day, the siege will silently kill more children and women in addition to those killed by bombardments,” Lazzarini wrote. “The State of Israel must lift the siege [and] allow a flow of basic supplies.”

Today marks two months of siege on the people of #Gaza.
It is a siege on children, women, older people & ordinary men.
They are collectively punished for being born & living in Gaza, something not of their making.

The State of Israel must lift the siege + allow a flow of…

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) May 2, 2025

At least 22 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes across Gaza since the start of the day, according to Al Jazeera, citing medical sources.

An Israeli air strike hit a house in Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza and killed eight civilians, according to Al Jazeera.

The report said all victims were from the same family.

A separate strike on the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in the northwest of Gaza City killed two Palestinians and injured several others, Wafa news agency reported.

Everyone aboard an aid flotilla for Gaza that was attacked by Israeli drones in international waters off Malta overnight are "confirmed safe", the Maltese government said in a statement on Friday.

"The vessel had 12 crew members on board and four civilian passengers; no casualties were reported," the statement said, adding that a nearby tug had been directed to aid the vessel.

"The tug arrived on scene and began firefighting operations. By 1:28 am (23:28 GMT Thursday), the fire was reported under control. An Armed Forces of Malta patrol vessel was also dispatched to provide further assistance," the government said.

"By 2:13 am, all crew were confirmed safe but refused to board the tug ... The ship remains outside territorial waters and is being monitored by the competent authorities," the statement concluded.

The Red Cross warned Friday that the humanitarian response in Gaza was on the "verge of total collapse" after two months of Israel blocking aid to the war-torn Palestinian territory.

"Without an immediate resumption of aid deliveries, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will not have access to the food, medicines, and life-saving supplies needed to sustain many of its programmes in Gaza," it said in a statement.

Austria has urged Israel to lift its more than two-month-long total aid blockade on Gaza and called for the release of all Israeli captives held in the enclave.

“After two months of blockade, humanitarian aid for Gaza must be allowed to flow unhindered in accordance with international humanitarian law,” the country’s foreign ministry said in a post on X.

Freedom Flotilla, an activist vessel that set out to break Israel’s Gaza blockade and deliver aid to the besieged Gaza, has a “hole in the vessel” and “is sinking” after a drone attack, Yasemin Acar, a media officer with the group, has told CNN.

“We have 30 international human rights activists on that vessel at this very moment, on a vessel that is sinking,” said Acar.

The group said on X that the ship was attacked off the coast of Malta in international waters twice at 00:23 Maltese time on Friday morning (22:23 GMT on Thursday night), breaching the hull and causing a fire to break out on board.

"Maltese government has not yet responded to the #SOS signal from this civilian humanitarian vessel. Under international maritime law, Malta has an obligation to act & ensure the safety of a civilian ship in distress within its proximity," it said.

BREAKING: At 00:23 Maltese time, a #FreedomFlotilla ship was subjected to a drone attack. The front of the vessel was targeted twice, resulting in a fire and a breach in the hull. The ship is currently located in international waters near #Malta. An #SOS distress signal was sent. pic.twitter.com/J6oEQafuOb

— Freedom Flotilla Coalition (@GazaFFlotilla) May 2, 2025

Good morning, Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the key developments overnight:

• The Palestinian health ministry said that the Israeli military killed Alaa Akhdir, 29, in the village of Beita in the Nablus area in the occupied West Bank.

• The Israeli military says in a statement that its fighter jets launched strikes near Syrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaa’s official residential compound in Damascus.

• Al Jazeera Arabic reported that the Freedom Flotilla activist group vessel was attacked by an Israeli drone off the coast of Gaza when attempting to break Israel’s blockade on the Palestinian enclave.

• Israel’s military said it successfully intercepted a missile launched from Yemen earlier today.

• At least seven people have been killed in overnight Israeli attacks across Gaza over recent hours, Al Jazeera reported, citing medical sources.

• Hamas said its Qassam Brigades fighters carried out a complex ambush in the Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood, west of Rafah in southern Gaza, several days ago, resulting in Israeli military casualties.

• A Jordanian citizen residing in Florida has been sentenced to six years in federal prison for attacking businesses for their perceived support of Israel, the US Justice Department said on Thursday.

• Israel has issued forced evacuation orders in parts of the Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, telling Palestinians to leave within 24 hours as they prepare to demolish 106 houses.

• Israeli attacks killed at least 31 Palestinians over the past 24 hours, including women and children.

A 15-year-old Palestinian child was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City while attempting to get flour for his four younger sisters, reported Al Jazeera.

Fayez Abu Samra went to retrieve flour from his evacuated home in the Shujaiyah neighbourhood of Gaza City. While there, an Israeli drone bombed the area. Those who tried to rescue him were also targeted.

The Israeli military has issued demolition orders for 106 homes and buildings in refugee camps, in the northwest of the West Bank, reported Wafa news agency on Thursday.

They gave residents a 24-hour deadline to evacuate their properties in the Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps via notices given to the Palestinian Coordination and Liaison Office. Targeted homes have been outlined in red in maps that were given along with the notices. The demolitions are being carried out for “military purposes.”

Abdullah Kmeil, governor of Tulkarm, confirmed the orders target 58 buildings in Tulkarm refugee camp and 48 homes in Nour Shams camp. Kmeil described the intended demolitions as a crimes against humanity and asked the international community and human rights organizations to intervene immediately.

Community organizations also issued urgent appeals to the United Nations, the UN Security Council, and international human rights bodies to take immediate action.

The Justice Department has been internally wracked with division between those who wish to penalise student protestors at Columbia University and those who believe such behaviour is unjustified and violates First Amendment rights, reported The New York Times on Thursday.

Emil Bove III’s aggressive investigation – conducted by the civil rights division, which has traditionally protected the rights of minority groups - has apparently resulted in pushback from a federal magistrate judge and an exodus of lawyers from the division in recent weeks.

Following a demonstration on 26 February by Barnard College students against the expulsion of some of their peers, Bove asked the department to investigate membership in the student group Columbia University Apartheid Divest (Cuad). Concerned investigators pushed back on these instructions because it “seemed like a possible violation of their First Amendment rights”.

Bove then tried to obtain a search warrant for non-public data associated with the group’s Instagram account, saying it had been used to “make a threat". Once again, prosecutors pushed back. In late March, Meta suspended Cuad’s account, citing it did not meet “community standards”.

Bennett Gershman, a Pace University law professor who specialises in prosecutorial ethics, said Bove had used “the law enforcement powers of the government to try to intimidate these individuals or destroy their rights” and it was “far past the line of prosecutorial professionalism and the commitment to principles of justice.”

A 29-year-old Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli military during a raid in the town of Beita, located south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, Wafa news agency reported on Thursday.

Ahmad, director of the emergency and ambulance centre at the Palestine Red Crescent in Nablus, said the victim sustained a gunshot wound to the chest during the raid and was transported to Rafidia governmental hospital in Nablus, where he died shortly after his arrival.

In the village of Salem, a nearby village, Israeli forces also shot and injured a 16-year-old boy during the raid.

Wildfires that ignited across the hills around Jerusalem were fuelled partly by hundreds of millions of flammable non-native Aleppo trees planted by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) to obscure or erase evidence of destroyed Palestinian villages.

When Israel was established, paramilitary groups destroyed over half of the villages of Mandate Palestine and uprooted close to 800,000 Palestinians.

While the JNF markets itself as an ecological organisation, it is criticised for its eco-colonialism, which has continued to dispossess Palestinians through its "greening" initiatives.

The JNF credits itself with having planted over 250 million trees since its founding in 1901. A vast majority of the trees, however, are non-native conifers not suitable for the country’s environment.

JNF planted and created areas around Jerusalem, such as Castel National Park over the Palestinian village of al-Qastal, Hakdoshim Forest built over the Palestinian villages of Aqqur, Dayr 'Amr, Bayt Umm al-Mays, Khirbat al-'Umur and Kasla. Hakdoshim Forest was one of the areas affected by wildfires that broke out on Wednesday.