Live: Lawyers present genocide risk case against Israel at ICJ

Our live coverage from Gaza will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are some of the day's key developments:

• At least 35 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes across the Gaza Strip since dawn on Wednesday, according to medical sources speaking to Al Jazeera.

• At least 15 people, mostly women and children, have been killed after an Israeli airstrike targeted tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, Gaza's Civil Defence has said.

• Gaza's Government Media Office has sounded the alarm, warning that the besieged enclave is spiralling into a "phase of complete humanitarian collapse" as Israel continues to choke off aid.

• An Israeli air strike targeted the family home of Palestinian journalist Fatima Hassouneh in al-Tuffah neighborhood, Gaza City, killing her alongside 10 members of her family, Wafa news agency reports. 

• Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz has said his country will continue blocking crucial humanitarian aid from entering the war-battered Gaza Strip.

• Israeli troops will remain in the "buffer zones" established in Gaza even after any settlement to end the war, Katz said on Wednesday.

• At least 1,233 Israeli settlers forced their way into the Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyard on the fourth day of Passover, in yet another provocative act that risks inflaming tensions in occupied East Jerusalem, reported Al Jazeera Arabic.

• The International Criminal Court has asked Hungary to explain why it failed to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his recent visit, despite an active ICC warrant for alleged crimes against humanity in Gaza.

At least 15 people, mostly women and children, have been killed after an Israeli airstrike targeted tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, Gaza’s Civil Defence has said.

Officials reported that the bombing sparked fires throughout the camp, with some victims also being burned alive.

British politicians have slammed Foreign Secretary David Lammy for holding an unannounced meeting with the Israeli foreign minister on Tuesday.

Middle East Eye revealed on Tuesday afternoon that Israel's Gideon Saar was visiting the UK on a private trip this week, and then reported on Tuesday evening that he had met the British foreign secretary in London.

The secretive nature of the meeting with a representative of a government accused of widescale human rights abuses has drawn heavy criticism from opposition MPs and politicians.

Independent MP Ayoub Khan told MEE that "it is utterly disgraceful and profoundly disappointing" that Lammy met Saar, especially "at a time when Israel is carrying out one of the most devastating and brutal military campaigns in recent history."

MEE understands that the two discussed Iran's nuclear programme and ongoing negotiations between Israel and Hamas .

Read m0re: UK politicians slam Lammy over secret meeting with Israeli foreign minister

A senior Hamas official on Wednesday said the group has not yet finalised its reply to the latest Israeli proposal for a ceasefire and the release of captives held in Gaza.

Speaking to AFP, Mahmoud Mardawi said: “The movement’s response is still in preparation, and we affirm that there is no room for any partial deal.”

He also made clear that Hamas’s “weapons will not be subject to any negotiations”.

The comments come as international mediators continue to push for a deal to halt the fighting and secure the release of detainees on both sides.

At least 35 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes across the Gaza Strip since dawn on Wednesday, according to medical sources speaking to Al Jazeera.

The raids targeted multiple areas throughout the besieged territory, with reports of intense bombardment continuing into the afternoon.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) has called on US and international media outlets to break their silence over the killing of Palestinian journalist Fatima Hassouneh in Gaza on Wednesday.

An Israeli air raid struck her family home in Gaza City, killing Hassouneh along with 10 relatives.

“American and international media must speak out about Israel’s murder of Fatima Hassouneh and of so many other Palestinian journalists,” Cair's communications director Ibrahim Hooper said in a statement.

He added: “Media silence on this issue sends the dangerous message that Palestinian journalists may be murdered at will by the far-right Israeli government as it seeks to eliminate those who tell the world about its crimes against humanity in Gaza.”

Hassouneh is among more than 200 Palestinian journalists killed by Israel since it launched its war on Gaza, sparking outrage from press freedom groups and human rights organisations.

Houthi-linked media say the United States has carried out more than 68 air strikes across northern, central and western Yemen over the past 24 hours.

The reported barrage marks one of the heaviest rounds of US attacks in recent weeks.

Earlier, the same sources said Washington targeted the Naqil al-Fardah area in Nihm district, located within the Sanaa governorate.

In a separate strike, a Yemeni civilian was reportedly killed when US forces bombed al-Nahda residential neighbourhood in al-Thawra in the capital, Sanaa.

A Yemeni man has been killed in a US air strike on the capital, Sanaa, according to Houthi-linked media.

Ansar Allah-affiliated outlets report that the strike hit the al-Nahda neighbourhood in the al-Thawra district - an area densely populated with civilians.

US warplanes have carried out a series of air raids on Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, according to Houthi-aligned outlet Al Masirah.

The channel reports that 12 strikes hit the al-Hafa area in the al-Sabeen district early today.

It also said US forces targeted sites in the al-Hazm district of al-Jawf governorate, further north. There has been no immediate statement from the US military confirming the operations or identifying the targets.

The US government used inaccurate information published in tabloid newspapers in its case against Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a review of more than one hundred pages of court documents submitted by the Trump administration has found.

ABC News and NBC News reported that the government used articles published in tabloids like The New York Post and The Washington Free Beacon and newspapers such as The Times of India to argue in its case against Khalil that he should be deported because he lied on his green card application.

Among the claims cited in the Trump administration's case against Khalil is that he was a "member of Unrwa", the United Nations Palestinian refugee aid agency that the US has suspended all funding for the past year.

That claim stemmed from articles in The New York Post and the Times of India, both of which linked Unrwa to the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, when they cited Khalil as a former "political affairs officer" for the organisation from June 2023 to November 2023.

Read more: US government cited inaccurate tabloid accounts in its case against Mahmoud Khalil, documents show

The International Criminal Court has asked Hungary to explain why it failed to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his recent visit, despite an active ICC warrant for alleged crimes against humanity in Gaza.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the court requested that Budapest submit a formal clarification by 23 May 2025.

According to the Hague-based tribunal, Netanyahu was in Hungary from 3 to 6 April, months after the ICC issued the arrest warrant in November 2024.

Hungary, as a signatory to the Rome Statute, is obligated to comply with such warrants.
So far, Hungarian officials have not responded to the court’s demand, which was made public earlier today.

The case marks one of the most high-profile challenges to the ICC’s authority, as it presses member states to enforce arrest orders against world leaders accused of serious international crimes.

London's Metropolitan Police is facing accusations of being heavy-handed after three people were "violently" arrested for protesting outside the BBC's offices over the broadcaster's coverage of the war on Gaza.

One protester told Middle East Eye that he was repeatedly punched by officers late on Tuesday after police attempted to carry out an arrest.

"The way the police acted was so violent. I've never seen this level of brutality towards protesters before," Rajiv Sinha, the director of Hindus for Human Rights UK, told MEE.

"A large group of officers made their way through the crowd in a single-file line to arrest one person. We started pushing back and began chanting ‘this is repression’ as they dragged the protesters away."

Sinha said the police vastly outnumbered the small crowd, and highlighted footage posted online which appeared to show officers hitting some of those in attendance.

Read more: UK police accused of being heavy-handed at protest against BBC coverage on Gaza

Israeli bombardments have killed at least 25 Palestinians in Gaza since Wednesday morning, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The death toll in the besieged territory has now reached 1,652 since Israel ended the ceasefire and relaunched its military assault on 18 March.

Another 4,391 people have been injured during the same period, the ministry added.

The strikes have intensified across multiple areas, with civilians bearing the brunt as neighbourhoods continue to be pounded from the air and land.

An Israeli drone strike on Wednesday west of the Khan Younis refugee camp has killed two Palestinians and wounded seven others, according to Al Jazeera’s correspondent on the ground in Gaza.

The attack took place in the southern part of the besieged territory, where Israeli forces continue to ramp up operations.

The correspondent also reported that Israeli warplanes carried out two additional air raids east of Abasan al-Kabira, a town in the Khan Younis governorate.

The UN says at least 420,000 more Palestinians have been forced to flee since Israel resumed its war in Gaza in mid-March—this on top of the hundreds of thousands already uprooted before last week's brief pause.

Aid workers on the ground say there's nothing left to hand out. Acute malnutrition is rising fast, with the UN warning that in March alone, the number of children receiving extra food plummeted by over two-thirds.

Hospitals aren’t faring any better. The Israeli blockade is choking the supply of critical medicines, leaving countless patients in limbo.

Humanitarian access is also shrinking. Out of six UN-planned missions on Wednesday, Israel approved just two. One of the blocked operations was a vital fuel retrieval from Rafah.

Community kitchens are now pushing out over a million meals a day. But with 2.1 million Gazans depending almost entirely on aid, the UN says the situation is “barely manageable”.