Live: Lawyers present genocide risk case against Israel at ICJ

Israeli artillery killed at least two Palestinians and left others wounded in an attack near the university college area south of Gaza City, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.

The head of the Muslim World League (MWL) has urged Britons to talk less about Gaza and more about domestic issues, saying that the UK government should consider integration a matter of national security. 

Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Issa, the former Saudi Arabian justice minister who has headed up the Mecca-based international Islamic NGO since 2016, said in comments to The Times that Israel's war on Gaza has increased division in Britain.

"The problem of integration has been exacerbated by the conflict in Gaza and the politics in the Middle East," he claimed.

"The Muslim World League calls on Muslims and non-Muslims in the UK instead to focus on domestic issues where there are shared concerns. Such as policy areas that unite rather than divide."

Issa made the controversial remarks despite numerous polls which indicate that most people in Britain, irrespective of their religious background, have consistently backed an arms embargo on Israel and ceasefire in Gaza.

Read more: Saudi-funded Muslim World League chief tells Britons to avoid talk about Gaza to integrate

Breaking the Silence, an Israeli veterans' group critical of the country's occupation of Palestinian lands, has released chilling accounts from soldiers involved in creating a "buffer zone" in Gaza.

The testimonies, published in a report titled The Perimeter, reveal the disturbing orders soldiers received to raze vast stretches of Gaza and open fire on anyone who came near.

"Residential buildings, greenhouses, sheds, factories—everything needs to be flattened. That’s the order," said one sergeant major who fought near Khan Younis.

Another soldier, stationed in northern Gaza, detailed how bulldozers were used to obliterate agricultural fields, including olive groves and crops. “A massive excavator just comes through, takes all the soil, rolls it up, and flattens it,” he recalled.

A captain in southern Gaza described how the area around the military’s designated security zone became a “kill zone,” where crossing an invisible line meant a death sentence. "Anyone who crosses a certain line, that we have defined, is considered a threat and is sentenced to death," the captain said.

The report also outlined how Israel sough to destroy Palestinian self-sufficiency in food production with the army razing "around 35 percent of all agriculture in the Gaza Strip."

"This crippled Gaza’s self-sufficiency by increasing its reliance on food entering from IDF-controlled crossings, sabotaging any future attempt at rebuilding sustainably," the report added.

Israeli forces have rounded up at least 38 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office (ASRA).

The latest wave of arrests comes as the Israeli military intensifies its operations across the region.

The breakdown includes 18 arrests in Tubas, nine in Bethlehem, six in Nablus, three in Ramallah, and two in Hebron. 

Israeli forces have shot dead a Palestinian woman near the illegal settlement of Ariel in the occupied West Bank, according to both Israeli and Palestinian media.

The Times of Israel, quoting the Israeli military, claimed the woman threw stones at soldiers and cars before pulling a knife. This could not be independently verified.

On a video call, two EU nationals and an American recently served with deportation orders by Berlin’s state government for attending demonstrations against Israel’s war on Gaza told Middle East Eye they strongly reject accustions of antisemitism and indirect support for Hamas. 

Kasia Wlaszczyk, a Polish culture worker, 31-year-old Irish artist Roberta Murray, and 27-year-old American social work student Cooper Longbottom, were served the deportation orders last month, along with 29-year-old Irish citizen Shane O’Brien.

The four activists have been given less than a month to leave Germany.

Lawyers representing them have filed an injunction to suspend the deportation deadline set for 21 April while they wait for an appeal hearing, which could take a few months. 

The activists hope their case will shed light on the oppression the Palestine solidarity movement is facing in Germany in the wake of Israel’s war on Gaza – and wake up wider German society to the rapid erosion of civil liberties in their country.

Read more: Pro-Palestine activists targeted for deportation hit out at German state repression

The death toll of journalists in Gaza has climbed to 211, according to the Government Media Office, following the killing of journalist Ahmed Mansour.

"We call on all media organisations around the world to condemn the occupation’s systematic crimes against journalists in the Gaza Strip," the office said.

A wedding hall in the occupied West Bank village of Bidiya has been set ablaze and defaced with hate graffiti in Hebrew, in what was an attack by Israeli settlers, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

Messages sprayed on the walls read: "Am Yisrael Chai" ("long live the people of Israel"), "Death to Arabs," and "Revenge."

“Mum, forgive me. This is the path I chose. I wanted to help people. Forgive me, mum. I swear, I only took this path to help people.”

These were the final words of Rifaat Radwan, a young Palestinian paramedic in Gaza. He spoke them while bleeding to death by a clearly marked ambulance, encircled by Israeli soldiers, under the cold night sky of Rafah.

He had gone out with his crew to save the wounded. None would return.

The Israeli army opened fire without warning, killing Radwan and 14 other emergency workers. Their bodies were later unearthed from a shallow grave, some with their hands or legs tied, apparently shot at close range.

They were executed, still in uniform, holding their radios, gloves and medical kits.

Read more: Gaza medic killings: How a voice from beyond the grave destroyed Israel's lie

Palestinians across the occupied West Bank shut down businesses and took to the streets in a one-day general strike, rallying in solidarity with Gaza and condemning Israel’s assault.

But the protests didn’t just face Israeli repression—Hamas is accusing the Palestinian Authority (PA) of cracking down on demonstrators, including arresting several in Ramallah.

In a statement, Hamas called the PA’s actions a “stab in the back” that only serves Israel’s interests.

“The Palestinian Authority is directly and clearly seeking to thwart any popular movement in support of Gaza,” the statement read.

Israeli warplanes pounded Gaza overnight and into Tuesday, killing at least 25 people, Palestinian medics report. Among the dead are eight children and five women the Associated Press reported.

Germany prides itself on being a denazified liberal democracy. 

Yet its unconditional support for Israel is not merely a political position but the core principle of its Staatsrason - a national doctrine holding that support for Israel is central to post-Holocaust Germany, and thus the very foundation of the German state's legitimacy.

This position is inherently contradictory, as liberal democracy, by definition, cannot be reconciled with support for genocide carried out by a fascist apartheid state - let alone one openly aligned with far-right regimes. It demands a serious reality check.

The reality became glaringly evident when the German Commissioner for Jewish Affairs, Felix Klein, withdrew from an upcoming conference set to be held in Jerusalem on combating antisemitism, upon discovering that fascist figures were among the guests.

Read more:  Germany's support for Israel's far-right alliance shatters its 'denazified' facade

Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza has claimed at least 19 lives since dawn, with dozens more wounded, according to Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Defence.

Speaking to AFP, Basal confirmed that several children were among the dead.

Earlier reports put the death toll at six in Beit Lahiya and five in Gaza City, but the numbers are rising as more bodies are pulled from the rubble. 

Senator Chris Van Hollen condemned Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu after the two discussed a so-called plan for Palestinians to "voluntarily" leave Gaza during their White House meeting.

"Let’s be clear: nothing about this is voluntary — it would mean the coerced deportation of 2 million people from Gaza and U.S. taxpayers should have NOTHING to do with it," he wrote on X.

Israeli forces have struck a home in Beit Lahiya, killing at least six people and injuring several others, Palestinian media report.

The early morning attack targeted the Ayesh family’s house, according to Quds News Network.

Rescue teams are scrambling through the rubble, searching for survivors.