Live: Lawyers present genocide risk case against Israel at ICJ

About 200 French journalists staged a die-in in Paris and Marseille on Wednesday evening to protest against Israel’s killing of Palestinian journalists and show solidarity with their colleagues in Gaza.

Wearing press vests marked with symbolic red stains, the journalists lay on the steps of the Opera Bastille in the French capital as the names of colleagues killed since the start of the war in October 2023 were read aloud.

They held placards featuring photos of the slain journalists alongside the slogan: “Gaza: faces, not just numbers.”

In the southern city of Marseille, around 160 people gathered for a similar tribute, reading out the names of the victims and observing a minute's silence.

“As journalists, it is our duty to express our solidarity with our Palestinian colleagues and to demand, time and again, the right to enter Gaza,” Reporters Without Borders said in a statement following the protest.

Read more: French journalists stage die-in to protest Israel’s killing of reporters in Gaza

At least 27 people were killed across Gaza today, marking a particularly bloody day, said a report by Al Jazeera, citing medical sources.

Dozens of members of the largest body claiming to represent British Jews have broken with the organisation's leadership over their stance on the war in Gaza.

In an open letter, 36 members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD) criticised the Israeli government for resuming its assault on Gaza, warning that "Israel's soul is being ripped out".

Published in the Financial Times (FT) on Wednesday, the letter is the first public show of opposition to Israel's war on Gaza from within the BoD.

Signatories urged the BoD, which has more than 300 elected deputies, to release a statement criticising the renewed offensive in Gaza last month, but the BoD has not done so.

"The inclination to avert our eyes is strong, as what is happening is unbearable, but our Jewish values compel us to stand up and to speak out," the open letter says.

Read more: UK: Members of prominent Jewish group break with leaders to condemn Israel over Gaza

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said on Thursday that Israel had failed to respect January's ceasefire agreement in Gaza, as he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

"As you know, we reached an agreement months ago, but unfortunately Israel did not abide by this agreement," said the ruler of Qatar, a key mediator of the deal.

Sheikh Tamim said Qatar would "strive to bridge perspectives in order to reach an agreement that ends the suffering of the Palestinian people, especially in Gaza".

Putin recognised Qatar's "serious" mediation efforts and called deaths in the conflict "a tragedy".

"A long-term settlement can only be achieved on the basis of the UN resolution and first of all connected to the establishment of two states," he added.

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said Thursday that Israel had failed to respect January's ceasefire agreement in Gaza, as he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

"As you know, we reached an agreement months ago, but unfortunately, Israel did not abide by this agreement," said the ruler of Qatar, a key mediator of the deal.

Sheikh Tamim said Qatar would "strive to bridge perspectives in order to reach an agreement that ends the suffering of the Palestinian people, especially in Gaza".

Putin recognised Qatar's 'serious' mediation efforts and called deaths in the conflict "a tragedy".

"A long-term settlement can only be achieved on the basis of the UN resolution and first of all connected to the establishment of two states," he added.

US President Donald Trump waved off an Israeli proposal to attack Iran in favour of opening negotiations, according to administration officials. 

Officials and others with knowledge of the discussions told the New York Times that divisions had emerged in the Trump team over how to approach the Islamic Republic. 

According to the New York Times, debate within the Trump administration between anti-Iran hawks and those seeking a more diplomatic route led to a "rough consensus" against military action for the time being. 

Israeli officials had developed plans to attack Iranian nuclear sites in May, with the purported aim of setting back Iranian nuclear ambitions by at least a year. 

Any attack on Iran by Israel would require US support and so far it has not been forthcoming.

Read more: Trump dismissed Israeli plans to attack Iran in favour of negotiations

A portrait of a young amputee from Gaza has won the World Press Photo award for the year 2025. 

The portrait, taken by Doha-based Palestinian photojournalist Samar Abu Elouf for the New York Times, is titled "Mahmoud Ajjour, Aged Nine". 

Elouf, who was evacuated from Gaza to Qatar in December 2023, took the picture of Mahmoud Ajjour on 28 June 2024, when Ajjar was receiving medical treatment in Doha after losing both his arms in an Israeli air strike on Gaza City in March 2024. 

This year’s contest received at least 59,000 submissions from photographers in 141 countries. The winner and two finalists were announced on Thursday, during the press opening of the World Press Photo Exhibition in Amsterdam. 

The exhibition will travel to 60 venues around the world. 

The #WPPh2025 Photo of the Year is ‘Mahmoud Ajjour, Aged Nine’ by @samarabuelouf, for @nytimes. The jury was moved by this portrait of a Palestinian boy which speaks to the devastating long-term costs of war on civilians. Read more: https://t.co/KHmkUjt2Rj pic.twitter.com/QP3lqEBWaR

— World Press Photo (@WorldPressPhoto) April 17, 2025

An Israeli attack on a UN school in Jabalia refugee camp sheltering hundreds of Palestinians has killed six Palestinians.

The attack appears to be a separate incident from an earlier strike on a tent in Jabalia, which killed seven people.

At least 40 Palestinians have been killed and 73 others injured in the Gaza Strip over the last 24 hours as a result of ongoing Israeli attacks, according to medical sources.

The Palestinian death toll since 7 October 2023 has risen to 51,065, with an additional 116,505 individuals injured.

The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners' Society announced the death of prisoner Musab Hassan Adili, aged 20, at Israel's Soroka Medical Center last night, Wafa news agency is reporting. 

In a joint statement, the Commission and the PPS said that Adili, from the village of Osarin south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, had been detained since 22 March 2024 and was sentenced to one year and one month in prison.

He was scheduled to be released in three days. 

Dozens of Israeli settlers have stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem, Al Jazeera is reporting.

Under Jerusalem’s status quo arrangements, non-Muslims are not allowed to worship there.

There have been repeated settler raids on the complex during the Jewish Passover holiday, which is now in its fifth day.

Israeli forces are continuing violent raids across the occupied West Bank on Thursday. 

Al Jazeera is reporting that Israeli forces have made a series of arrests during a raid on the town of Tammun, south of Tubas and in Qabatiya, south of Jenin. Israeli forces have also closed the main streets in the town of as-Samu, south of Hebron and stormed the Beit Ummar village, north of Hebron.

An Israeli air attack on a tent housing displaced Palestinians in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza has killed at least seven people early on Thursday morning. 

Israeli attacks across Gaza have now killed at least 18 Palestinians since midnight local time, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.

According to the Quds News Network and the Palestinian Information Center, most of the casualties were children. 

Harvard University will lose its ability to enrol foreign students if it does not meet the Trump administration's demands to provide information on some visa holders, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has warned.

 The department's security secretary, Kristi Noem, said she wrote a letter to Harvard demanding records on what she called the "illegal and violent activities" of Harvard's foreign student visa holders by 30 April. 

"If Harvard cannot verify it is in full compliance with its reporting requirements, the university will lose the privilege of enrolling foreign students," she said.

Noem also announced on Wednesday the termination of two DHS grants totaling more than $2.7 million to Harvard.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are some of the latest updates from Israel's war on Gaza:

• Israeli air strikes have continued across the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Thursday morning, including one on a tent on northern Gaza's Jabalia which has killed at least seven people.

• An Israeli gunboat, stationed off Gaza's coast, is firing on the west of Gaza City.

• Gaza only has enough food to last a month, with discussions under way about creating "stationary aid centres" under Israeli military control, Israel's public broadcaster Kan said.  

• US fighter jets have carried out more attacks across Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, bombing al-Munirah district in Hodeidah province twice, according to Houthi-affiliated media.