Live: Gaza death toll nears 50,700

The US on Wednesday said it is sanctioning "financial facilitators, procurement operatives, and companies operating as part of a global illicit finance network" supporting the Houthis.

"In coordination with Iran-backed Houthi financier, Sa’id al-Jamal, the network of actors designated today has procured millions of dollars of commodities from Russia, including weapons, dual-use materials, and stolen Ukrainian grain, for shipment to Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen," State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement. 

"Those designated today include two Russia-based Afghan brothers who assisted Sa’id al-Jamal in orchestrating shipments of stolen Ukrainian grain from Crimea to Yemen," she added.

The Trump administration "also identified eight digital asset wallets used by the Houthis to transfer funds associated with the group’s activities", she said. 

The Ministry of Interior in Gaza on Wednesday said it was mourning the deaths of two members of the police force after they were killed in an Israeli air strike.

"We mourn the martyrdom of Captain Mureed Mohammed Farjallah and Lieutenant Younis Mohammed al-Masharfa, who were killed in an Israeli bombardment targeting a group of police officers and personnel in Deir al-Balah," the statement said.

"Five other police personnel were injured. The targeting also resulted in martyrs and wounded among civilians."

The Quds News Network is reporting that nine people have been killed, four of them children, in an Israeli air strike on Gaza's al-Nasr area, northeast of Rafah in the southern part of the enclave.

With 68 people killed earlier on Wednesday, it is shaping up to be the deadliest day for Palestinians since Israel resumed its war on the strip on 18 March. 

Al Jazeera cited Gaza medical sources as saying that 68 Palestinians have been killed since dawn in Israeli raids across the besieged enclave. 

The United Kingdom does not support the Israeli army's expansion of its military offensive in Gaza, the UK's Middle East minister Hamish Falconer told parliament on Wednesday as Israeli officials declared a plan to seize "large areas" of Gaza.

"We are deeply concerned about the resumption of hostilities in Gaza. The UK does not support an expansion of Israel's military operations," Falconer said.

He added that there is a "serious risk Israel is not simply acting in its own legitimate self defence".

Asked about Israel's full ban on aid to Gaza, Falconer said: "we have determined that there is a serious risk of breaches of international humanitarian law by the Israeli government. We will continue to press them on these points."

“Aid should never be used as a political tool, Israel must restart the flow of aid immediately. Blocking goods supplies and power entering Gaza risks breaching international humanitarian law and should not be happening. We’re doing everything we can to alleviate that situation.”

Hungary is reportely planning to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) during a controversial visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week.

The plan to withdraw from the court, which has issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu over charges of war crimes in Gaza, has been reported by the Israeli and Hungarian media.

Hungary was among the first countries that ratified the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC in 2002. 

All 125 states parties to the statute are under a legal obligation to arrest and surrender Netanyahu to the Hague-based court. 

Read more: Hungary 'expected to withdraw from ICC' during Netanyahu visit

The death toll in Gaza as a result of Israeli attacks today has reached 50 since dawn, accordding to Al Jazeera citing Palestinian medics. 

The attacks included air strikes on Khan Younis in southern Gaza and the Jabalia refugee camp in the north. 

Hamas on Wednesday codemned the Israeli attack on a clinic belonging to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) as "a continuation of genocide and a reflection of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s disregard for international laws and humanitarian norms."

The movement denied Israeli claims that the clinic was being used as a headquarters for its Jabalia Battalion, dismissing the allegations as "blatant fabrications aimed at justifying this heinous crime."

The Israeli army on Wednesday killed 19 Palestinians, including nine children, in an attack on an Unrwa clinic that was sheltering displaced civilians in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials.

Margaret Satterthwaite, UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, on Wednesday denounced today's planned visit by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Hungary, a state party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

"As a member of the ICC, Hungary must arrest Netanyahu when he is in Hungary,” the UN's top expert on judicial independence told Middle East Eye.

Netanyahu’s visit came after an invitation in November by his Hungarian counterpart and ally Viktor Orban, a right-wing nationalist, who declared that he would not implement the ICC’s arrest warrant. 

It marks Netanyahu’s first trip to an ICC member state since the court issued arrest warrants for him and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on 21 November 2024. 

“International justice only works if states live up to their commitments,” said Satterthwaite.

“Central among the commitments embedded in the Rome Statute is the promise to cooperate with the Court by carrying out arrest warrants,” she added.

Satterthwaite cited article 87 of the Rome Statute, saying that failing to arrest Netanyahu would effectively amount to preventing the court from exercising its functions.

“Impunity must end, and justice must be brought to bear, regardless of the position or power of the perpetrator." 

Fadi El-Abdallah, the spokesperson of the International Criminal Court, denounced on Wednesday the planned visit by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Hungary, despite the court's arrest warrant against him.

In a statement to Middle East Eye, he said Hungary’s non-compliance with the court’s decision to arrest and surrender Netanyahu to The Hague contradicts the Rome Statute and the EU nation's obligations as a member state of the ICC's founding treaty. 

“This is not only a legal obligation to the Court under the Rome Statute, it is also a responsibility towards other States parties,” he told MEE. 

“When States have concerns in cooperating with the Court, they may consult the Court in a timely and efficient manner,” El-Abdallah explained. “However, it is not for States to unilaterally determine the soundness of the Court’s legal decisions.” 

According to article 119 of the Rome Statute,  “any dispute concerning the judicial functions of the Court shall be settled by the decision of the Court.”

Hamas condemned the visit today by far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in Jerusalem, calling it a “provocative and dangerous escalation.”

The efforts by “the terrorist government led by the war criminal Netanyahu [aims] to Judaize the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and impose a fait accompli on the holy city,” the group said in a statement.

“We call on our Palestinian people and our rebellious youth in the West Bank to escalate the situation of engagement with this arrogant enemy everywhere in defence of our land and holy sites,” said Hamas.

The group also called on Arab and Muslim states “to stop these systematic violations [and] take urgent steps to force the criminal occupation to stop its crimes against our Palestinian people and our Islamic and Christian holy sites”.

For decades, a delicate status quo has governed worship and visits to the site, permitting only Muslims to pray in its courtyards and prayer halls.

However, Israel has long ignored this delicate arrangement between Jordan – the custodian of Islamic and Christian sites in Jerusalem – and Israel, and bypassed the Waqf.

Israel's war on Gaza has been the "worst ever conflict" for journalists, with at least 208 Palestinian media workers killed since October 2023, according to a report by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.

The report, titled News Graveyards: How Dangers to War Reporters Endanger the World, said the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip since October 2023 had "killed more journalists than the US Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War (including the conflicts in Cambodia and Laos), the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and 2000s, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan, combined."

"In 2023, a journalist or media worker was, on average, killed or murdered every four days. In 2024, it was once every three days," said the report.

"Most reporters harmed or killed, as is the case in Gaza, are local journalists."

Just last week, Mohammad Mansour, a correspondent for Palestine Today, and Hossam Shabat, a journalist for Al Jazeera Mubasher, were killed by Israel in two separate attacks.

Read more: Israel's war on Gaza 'worst ever conflict' for journalists: report

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered diplomats to scrutinise some visa applicants' social media content, to bar those suspected of criticising the United States and Israel from entering the country, The New York Times reported.

In a long cable sent to diplomatic missions on 25 March, Rubio said starting immediately, consular officers must refer certain student and exchange visitor visa applicants to the “fraud prevention unit” for a “mandatory social media check,” according to two American officials with knowledge of the cable.

The cable described the type of applicant whose social media posts should be scrutinised as someone who is suspected of having terrorist ties or sympathies; who had a student or exchange visa between 7 October 2023, and 31 August 2024; or who has had a visa terminated since that October date.

The Trump administration says it may have revoked over 300 visas in a crack down on pro-Palestinian students at the US campuses. Rights advocates condemn the move.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered diplomats to scrutinise some visa applicants' social media content, to bar those suspected of criticising the United States and Israel from entering the country, The New York Times reported.

In a long cable sent to diplomatic missions on 25 March, Rubio said starting immediately, consular officers must refer certain student and exchange visitor visa applicants to the “fraud prevention unit” for a “mandatory social media check,” according to two American officials with knowledge of the cable.

The cable described the type of applicant whose social media posts should be scrutinised as someone who is suspected of having terrorist ties or sympathies; who had a student or exchange visa between 7 Oct, 2023, and 31 August, 2024; or who has had a visa terminated since that October date.

The Trump administration says it may have revoked over 300 visas in a crack down on pro-Palestinian voices in the US campuses. Rights advocates condemn the moves.

At least 42 people, including nine children, have been killed in Gaza since dawn in relentless Israeli air strikes, Al Jazeera reported, citing medical sources.

The death toll from the Israeli attack on the Unrwa medical centre in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza has reached 19, according to the director of Gaza’s Health Ministry.