Gaza live: Israel continues bombing central Gaza
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“Germany is promoting only those Jews who are willing to produce anti-Muslim discourse. Jews who do not perceive Muslims as such are being marked as a threat not just to the German nation but to Jews themselves.”
Udi Raz, 34, is sitting in a cafe in Berlin, where he lives, reflecting on a turbulent six months. Since Israel’s war on Gaza began following the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October, Raz, an Israeli Jew raised in Haifa, has been fired from his job and had the activist group he’s part of labelled antisemitic by Germany’s official antisemitism commissioner.
Last Friday, German authorities arrested Raz, a board member of Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East, after they cancelled and then banned the group’s three-day conference on Palestine.
READ MORE: Israeli activist laments Germany's 'persecution' of pro-Palestine Jews
Gaza's health ministry said that 71 people have been killed by Israeli attacks on the enclave in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 33,970 since 7 October.
An additional 76,770 have been wounded since the start of the war.
Qatar's prime minister has said the Gulf state is re-evaluating its role as mediator between Israel and Hamas, adding that Doha's efforts to secure a ceasefire and prisoner release deal were being undermined by politicians with "narrow interests".
Speaking on Wednesday, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said he "lamented the political exploitation" of Doha's diplomacy by some politicians who were "marketing their electoral campaigns through the defamation of Qatar's role".
Whilst Sheikh Mohammed did not name the politicians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly criticised Qatar and recently threatened to shut down the local operations of Qatar-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera.
READ MORE: Qatar 're-evaluating' role as mediator between Israel and Hamas
Palestine's Wafa news agency said that Israeli forces arrested at least 40 Palestinians across the West Bank since yesterday.
The arrests included at least two girls among several children.
Israeli forces also reportedly destroyed the homes of two prisoners.
German airline Lufthansa extended its suspension of flights to and from Tehran and Beirut until the end of April.
The company added that its planes will keep avoiding Iranian airspace.
"Our flights to Tehran and Beirut are cancelled up to and including 30 April and we are still not using Iranian airspace until the same date," a spokesperson told the AFP.
Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem won the 2024 World Press Photo of the Year award for his image of a Palestinian woman cradling the body of her five-year-old niece in the Gaza Strip.
The picture was taken on 17 October 2023 at the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis.
The image shows Inas Abu Maamar, 36, holding the body of her niece Saly, who was killed along with her mother and sister when an Israeli missile hit their home in Khan Younis.
"The jury commented on how the image was composed with care and respect, offering at once a metaphorical and literal glimpse into unimaginable loss," the World Press Photo Foundation said.
Lebanon's Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi told the AP that the murder of Mohammad Srour, a Hezbollah-linked Lebanese currency exchanger, in a villa near Beirut earlier this month was likely the work of Israeli intelligence operatives.
"Lebanese security agencies have suspicion or accusations that Mossad was behind this operation," he said, referring to the Israeli spy agency. "The way the crime was carried out led to this suspicion."
Mohammad Srour was sanctioned by the US Treasury over his alleged money transfers from Iran through Hezbollah to Hamas.
Mawlawi said that pistols equipped with silencers and gloves were found in a bucket of water at the scene, along with chemicals apparently intended to remove fingerprints and other evidence. Thousands of dollars in cash were left scattered around Srour's body "as if to dispel any speculation that robbery was the motive," the AP said.
American outlet ABC News quotes a senior US official saying that Israel is unlikely to hit Iran until after Passover, the Jewish holiday that starts on Monday and ends after nightfall on 30 April.
Israel has vowed to respond to Iran's unprecedented barrage of drones and missiles that attacked the country over the weekend. The aerial assault was a retaliation for the reported Israeli strike on Iran's consulate in Damascus, Syria, on 1 April which killed several Iranian officers including top commanders.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has failed to act on a special State Department panel recommendation to "disqualify multiple Israeli military and police units from receiving U.S. aid after reviewing allegations that they committed serious human rights abuses," US news outlet ProPublica reports.
Quoting current and former State Department officials, ProPublica says the panel - the Israel Leahy Vetting Forum - gave its recommendation months ago based on West Bank incidents that took place before the breakout of the ongoing war in Gaza in October.
The incidents include "extrajudicial killings by the Israeli Border Police; an incident in which a battalion gagged, handcuffed and left an elderly Palestinian American man for dead; and an allegation that interrogators tortured and raped a teenager who had been accused of throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails," the outlet says.
"They’ve been sitting in his briefcase since then," one official said.
A State Department spokesperson told ProPublica that "this process is one that demands a careful and full review".
