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

After Israel sealed Gaza's boundaries last month, Ibrahim al-Madhoun managed to gather a few tins of food.

"Everyone rushed to the market. We usually go for canned food - beans, tuna, rice, grains - things that last. Cheese and other perishables are too expensive and spoil quickly," the Palestinian father told Middle East Eye.

But that small stockpile ran out two weeks ago.

Now, he feeds his family once a day with manakeesh - a thyme-topped Levantine flatbread.

"Even the manakeesh will soon disappear," said the 46-year-old, who lives with his elderly mother and five children.

Read more: 'I have no plan B': Gaza's families left to starve under Israeli aid shutdown

Community kitchens across Gaza are days away from shutting down as food supplies run dry under Israel’s ongoing blockade, Reuters reports.

In Gaza City, Salah Abu Haseera at the Al-Salam Oriental Food kitchen said he fears he may have served one of his final meals to the 20,000 people who rely on his team daily.

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

Only around 70 to 80 makeshift kitchen operations remain and that number is dropping fast.

“In four to five days, these community kitchens will close their doors,” warned Amjad Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGOs Network in Gaza. He said the number was closer to 170 before Israel shut all crossings in early March. Fifteen kitchens shut down just on Monday.

Israel reimposed its full blockade on Gaza on 2 March, abandoning a January ceasefire deal.

This marks the longest complete closure the besieged enclave has ever faced, pushing civilians deeper into crisis.

British and American forces carried out a joint strike in Yemen late Tuesday, targeting what London described as a Houthi drone production site south of the capital, Sanaa.

The UK Ministry of Defence said the operation aimed at dismantling infrastructure used to build drones involved in attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. This claim could not be independently verified. 

Washington has not issued an official statement yet, but the strike comes weeks after President Donald Trump ordered a ramp-up of US operations against the Iran-aligned Houthis, vowing to keep up the pressure until maritime attacks stop.

Meanwhile, Yemeni media reported that a separate US strike on a detention centre for African migrants killed 68 people. A Pentagon official, speaking anonymously, said the US was aware of the reports and had launched an internal assessment, Reuters reported. 

This latest escalation underscores the growing scope of Western involvement in Yemen, as the civilian toll continues to mount.

At least 16 Palestinians have been killed in fresh Israeli bombardments on Gaza since dawn, according to reports from Al Jazeera Arabic.

Twelve of the casualties were reported in central Gaza, where Israeli attacks have intensified in recent hours.

The death toll is expected to rise as air strikes continue across the enclave.

The United States has ramped up its military campaign in Yemen, claiming it has struck “over 1,000 targets” since mid-March.

According to the US military, the air raids have killed a number of Houthi fighters and senior commanders, including officials linked to missile and drone operations. This could not be independently verified. 

The strikes, Washington alleges, aim to weaken the Houthis' military capabilities.

But on the ground, the toll tells a different story.

Houthi officials have accused the US of bombing civilian areas, including homes and infrastructure. The rebel group says women and children have been among the dead, painting a starkly different picture of the ongoing offensive.

The most recent and deadliest incident occurred in Yemen’s northern Saada province on Sunday. A US air strike targeted a detention facility holding African migrants, killing at least 68 people.

A spokesperson for the United Nations later confirmed that preliminary reports point to the victims being migrants.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest developments from the ongoing 18-month Israeli war on Gaza, which resumed six weeks ago after Israel broke the ceasefire: 

• Israeli bombardment continues in Gaza – At least 38 Palestinians were killed by Israel on Tuesday as attacks intensified across the Strip.

• UN rights chief demands urgent action – Volker Turk warns Gaza’s humanitarian crisis risks escalating to an “unseen level” after 60 days of Israel’s total blockade.

• Israel releases 10 Palestinian detainees – Among them is paramedic Asaad Al-Nasasra, who survived an Israeli strike in March that killed 15 emergency workers near Rafah.

• West Bank raids lead to 22 arrests – Israeli forces detained journalist Ali Al-Samoudi during a raid on his Jenin home.

• ICJ examines Israel’s obligations – The International Court of Justice holds a third day of hearings on Israel’s duties as an occupying power in Palestinian territories.

• Qatar and UK push for Gaza truce – Both nations urge an immediate ceasefire, while UN chief Antonio Guterres calls for “irreversible action towards implementing a two-state solution”.

At least four people have been killed and several others injured in an Israeli attack on a factory east of Jabalia in northern Gaza, Wafa news agency reported on Monday

Ambulance crews were able to retrieve one body that was near the factory according but had to retreat before they could retrieve the other three bodies after they came under quadcopter fire according to local sources. 

In addition, at least two people were killed, including a child, after Israeli forces bombed the Ain Jalut towers in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.

Since the war began in October 2023, Israeli attacks on the enclave have killed at least 52,365 and wounded 117,905 others, Gaza’s health ministry reported.

Israel is perpetrating a “live-streamed genocide” in Gaza, committing illegal acts with the “specific intent” of wiping out Palestinians, Amnesty International said in its annual report released on Monday.

“…events of the past 12 months – not least Israel’s livestreamed but unheeded genocide of Palestinians in Gaza – have laid bare just how hellish the world can be for so many when the most powerful states jettison international law and disregard multilateral institutions, said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general.

Thee report documents how Israeli forces in Gaza have violated the United Nations Genocide Convention by “causing serious bodily or mental harm to civilians” and “deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction”.

The report also noted that Israel has repeatedly “denied, obstructed and failed to allow and facilitate” humanitarian access to Gaza, and invaded the southern city of Rafah, despite warnings by the international community and the International Court of Justice about the “devastating effect it would have on the civilian population".

It also outlined how Israeli air strikes have frequently struck civilians who were following evacuation orders, while its forces continued to “arbitrarily detain and, in some cases, forcibly disappear Palestinians”.

“States watched on as if powerless, as Israel killed thousands upon thousands of Palestinians, wiping out entire multigenerational families, destroying homes, livelihoods, hospitals and schools.”

Israel and “its powerful allies, first among them the USA, claimed that or acted as if international law did not apply to them”, Callamard observed.

Organisers of a march to commemorate the Nakba on 15 May cancelled the annual event due to restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities.

Former Knesset member Mohammed Barakeh, who is head of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens, said police reduced the number of participants to 700 from thousands in previous years. He also said it banned the waving of Palestinian flags.

Barakeh said people would now gather in former Palestinian villages that were depopulated by Zionist forces in 1948. The ruins of these villages are scattered across Israel.

Nakba is the term used to refer to the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians by Zionist paramilitary forces during the creation of the Israeli state.

Two children were among five civilians killed during an Israeli air strike on tents of displaced people on the al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis in the south of Gaza, Wafa news agency reported on Tuesday. Several others were injured in the attack on Tuesday evening.

The blockade of humanitarian aid for two months into the Gaza Strip by Israel and the ensuing food shortage have resulted in Palestinian fishermen being forced to eat turtle meat, as reported by Al Jazeera on Tuesday. An elderly fisherman shared in a video that he had never eaten turtle meat as food shortages had never been so bad.

Hamas said in a statement it is calling “on all countries of the world and the United Nations institutions to pressure the occupation to end the systematic starvation crime,” Al Jazeera reported on Tuesday.

It also said Israel’s use of “starvation as a weapon” against Palestinians in Gaza represents a “contempt for the international community”.

“The UNRWA Commissioner’s statements about the occupation’s use of UNRWA employees as human shields revealed the brutality of this entity,” the statement went on to say. “We call on all countries of the world and United Nations institutions to pressure the occupation to lift the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.”

It also renewed a call to Arab and Muslim countries to provide urgent relief to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The death toll of Palestinians in Israeli attacks has risen to 34 since early on Tuesday in the Gaza Strip, medical sources told Al Jazeera.

While speaking at a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting on the situation in the Middle East Tuesday in New York, UN secretary general Guterres said “the promise of a two-State solution is at risk of dwindling to the point of disappearance" and urged the international community that they have "a responsibility to prevent perpetual occupation and violence”.

He encouraged member states to “think creatively about the concrete steps they will take to support a viable two-State solution before it is too late”.

While he said the Middle East was marked by violence and volatility, there was also opportunity and potential for positive change. “Across the Middle East, people demand and deserve a better future, not endless conflict and suffering,” he said.

At least four people have been killed and several others injured in an Israeli attack on a factory east of Jabalia in northern Gaza, Wafa news agency reported on Monday.

Ambulance crews were able to retrieve one body that was near the factory but had to retreat before they could retrieve the other three bodies after they came under quadcopter fire, according to local sources. 

In addition, at least two people were killed, including a child, after Israeli forces bombed the Ain Jalut towers in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.

Since the war began in October 2023, Israeli attacks on the enclave have killed at least 52,365 and wounded 117,905 others, Gaza’s health ministry reported.