Numbers of children requiring hospitalisation for complications due to severe malnutrition rising as WHO warns ‘health system is collapsing’.
More than 2,700 children below the age of five in Gaza have been diagnosed with acute malnutrition, marking a steep increase in the number of children suffering from the serious medical condition since screening in February, the United Nations reports.
Of almost 47,000 under-fives screened for malnutrition in the second half of May, 5.8 percent (or 2,733 children) were found to be suffering from acute malnutrition, “almost triple the proportion of children diagnosed with malnutrition” three months earlier, the UN said on Thursday.
The number of children with severe acute malnutrition requiring admission to hospital also increased by around double in May compared with earlier months, according to the report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
According to data from the Nutrition Cluster cited by OCHA, more than 16,500 children below the age of five have been detected and treated for severe acute malnutrition in Gaza since January, including 141 children with complications requiring hospitalisation.
Despite the increase in children suffering serious malnutrition and requiring hospitalisation, “there are currently only four stabilisation centres for the treatment of [severe acute malnutrition] with medical complications in the Gaza Strip,” the OCHA report states.
“Stabilisation centres in North Gaza and Rafah have been forced to suspend operations, leaving children in these areas without access to lifesaving treatment,” it adds.
The UN’s latest warning on the health of young children in Gaza comes as the Palestinian territory’s entire population deals with starvation, and the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the enclave’s “health system is collapsing”.
Issuing an appeal for the “urgent protection” of two of Gaza’s last remaining hospitals, the WHO said the “Nasser Medical Complex, the most important referral hospital left in Gaza, and Al-Amal Hospital are at risk of becoming non-functional”.
“The relentless and systematic decimation of hospitals in Gaza has been going on for too long. It must end immediately,” the WHO said in a statement.
“WHO calls for urgent protection of Nasser Medical Complex and Al-Amal Hospital to ensure they remain accessible, functional and safe from attacks and hostilities,” it said.
“Patients seeking refuge and care to save their lives must not risk losing them trying to reach hospitals.”
UN experts, medical officials in Gaza, as well as medical charities, have long accused Israeli forces of deliberately targeting health workers and medical facilities in Gaza in what has been described as a deliberate attempt to make conditions of life unliveable for the Palestinian population in the Strip.
WHO calls for urgent protection of Nasser Medical Complex and Al-Amal Hospital in the Gaza Strip
WHO warns that the #Gaza Strip’s health system is collapsing, with Nasser Medical Complex, the most important referral hospital left in Gaza, and Al-Amal Hospital at risk of becoming… pic.twitter.com/Rd3ZjASuBp
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) June 5, 2025
The administration of President Donald Trump has followed through with a threat to sanction officials on the International Criminal Court (ICC), naming four judges whom it accuses of taking “illegitimate and baseless actions” against the United States and its allies.
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions in a sharply worded written statement.
“The ICC is politicized and falsely claims unfettered discretion to investigate, charge, and prosecute nationals of the United States and our allies,” Rubio wrote.
“This dangerous assertion and abuse of power infringes upon the sovereignty and national security of the United States and our allies, including Israel.”
The four sanctioned judges include Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza of Peru, Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini Gansou of Benin and Beti Hohler of Slovenia.
As a result of the sanctions, the judges will see their US-based property and assets blocked. US-based entities are also forbidden from engaging in transactions with them, including through the “provision of funds, goods or services”.
The ICC quickly issued a statement in response, saying it stood behind its judges and “deplores” the Trump administration’s decision.
“These measures are a clear attempt to undermine the independence of an international judicial institution which operates under the mandate from 125 States Parties from all corners of the globe,” the statement said.
“Targeting those working for accountability does nothing to help civilians trapped in conflict. It only emboldens those who believe they can act with impunity.”
Who are the judges?
In a fact sheet, the State Department explained that Bossa and Ibanez Carranza were sanctioned for authorising an investigation into US troops in Afghanistan in 2020, during Trump’s first term as president.
Previously, the ICC had blocked a request to probe alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan, where the US had been leading a slow-grinding war from 2001 to 2021.
But it reversed course the following year, granting a prosecutor’s request to investigate US forces and members of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for war crimes in “secret detention facilities” in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Afghanistan, the court noted, was a member of the Rome Statute, which includes the 125 countries where the ICC has jurisdiction.
But the Trump administration at the time blasted the court’s decision, calling the ICC a “political institution masquerading as a legal body”. It has long argued that the US, which is not party to the Rome Statute, lies outside the ICC’s jurisdiction.
Another country that is not a member of the Rome Statute is Israel, which has used similar arguments to reject the ICC’s power over its actions in Palestine.
The second pair of judges named in Thursday’s sanctions — Alapini Gansou and Hohler — were sanctioned for their actions against Israeli leaders, according to the US State Department.
The US is Israel’s oldest ally, having been the first to recognise the country in 1948. It has since offered Israel strong support, including for its ongoing war in Gaza, which has killed an estimated 54,607 Palestinians so far.
Experts at the United Nations and human rights organisations have compared Israel’s military campaign in Gaza to a genocide, as reports continue to emerge of alleged human rights abuses.
In November 2024, those accusations spurred the ICC to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who have both been accused of war crimes in Gaza, including intentional attacks on civilians.
Alapini Gansou and Hohler reportedly took part in those proceedings.
Has this happened before?
This is not the first time that the US has issued restrictions against an ICC official since Trump returned to office for a second term on January 20.
Shortly after taking office, Trump issued a broad executive order threatening anyone who participates in ICC investigations with sanctions. Critics warned that such sweeping language could pervert the course of justice, for example by dissuading witnesses from coming forward with evidence.
But Trump argued that the recent arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant necessitated such measures.
He also claimed that the US and Israel were “thriving democracies” that “strictly adhere to the laws of war” and that the ICC’s investigations threatened military members with “harassment, abuse and possible arrest”.
“This malign conduct in turn threatens to infringe upon the sovereignty of the United States and undermines the critical national security and foreign policy work of the United States Government and our allies, including Israel,” the executive order said.
Under that order, the US sanctioned ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, who had petitioned the court for the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant. That, in turn, slowed the investigation into Israel’s actions in Gaza, and Khan later stepped away from his role amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
But Trump has a history of opposing the ICC, stretching back to his first term. In 2019, for instance, Trump announced his administration would deny or yank visas for ICC officials involved in investigating US troops in Afghanistan.
Then, in 2020, he sanctioned ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and a court official named Phakiso Mochochoko for their involvement in the investigation. Those actions were later overturned under President Joe Biden.
Critics, however, warn that Trump’s actions could have dire consequences over the long term for the ICC, which relies on its member countries to execute orders like arrest warrants. The court itself has called for an end to the threats.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the country used armed gangs in Gaza to help fight Hamas, his admission coming after a new wave of military strikes on the besieged Gaza Strip that left at least 52 Palestinians dead.
Netanyahu said the government had “activated” powerful local clans in the enclave on the advice of “security officials”, his video statement posted to X on Thursday coming hours after former Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman accused him of deploying the tactic.
The statement marked the government’s first public acknowledgement that it had backed the armed Palestinian groups based around powerful families, which stand accused by aid workers of carrying out criminal attacks and stealing aid from trucks as starvation stalks the entire territory due to a punishing Israeli blockade.
An Israeli official cited by news agency The Associated Press said that one of the groups Netanyahu was referring to was the so-called Popular Forces, led by Yasser Abu Shabab, a local clan leader in Rafah.
Last month, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on the group’s activities – though it was named the “Anti-Terror Service” in the report – saying that sources in Gaza claimed it consisted of roughly 100 armed men operating with the tacit approval of the Israeli military.
In recent weeks, the Abu Shabab group announced online that its fighters were helping protect supply shipments to new US- and Israel-backed distribution centres run by the shadowy Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
“The Israeli opposition claims that there was no consultation within the Israeli government or the Israeli cabinet,” said Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Jordan’s capital Amman. “Netanyahu says that these armed gangs … could essentially help the Israelis defeat Hamas in Gaza.”
“But it’s not going down well within Israel, where people are saying that these are armed criminal enterprises within the Gaza Strip. That they should not be armed and that these are Israeli weapons that are being put in their hands,” she said.
‘Human abattoir’
Netanyahu made his statement on another deadly day in Gaza, the military hitting targets throughout the besieged coastal enclave where the crippling blockade has brought the population to the brink of mass starvation.
Deadly incidents, killing more than 100 and wounding many more, at aid distribution sites run by the GHF since last week have sparked widespread condemnation, with Israeli troops opening fire on Palestinians seeking aid on four separate occasions since last week.
Chris Gunness, former spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), told Al Jazeera that the operations of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation had turned Gaza into a “human abattoir”.
“Hundreds of civilians are herded like animals into fenced-off pens and are slaughtered like cattle in the process,” he said.
Amid growing international condemnation, GHF shuttered operations for a full day on Wednesday, saying the next day that it would reopen two aid distribution centres in the Rafah area of southern Gaza. It did not say when aid distribution would resume.
At least 52 Palestinians were killed on Thursday, according to hospital sources who spoke to Al Jazeera. The sources said 31 bodies had arrived at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, with 21 admitted to Gaza City’s al-Ahli Arab and al-Shifa hospitals.
Israel killed four journalists in an attack on al-Ahli Hospital itself, also known as the Baptist Hospital, in Gaza City
Gaza City local Fadi al-Hindi told Al Jazeera that he had seen one of the strikes on al-Nasser Street, near the al-Shifa Hospital, witnessing scenes of death after running outside his tent to check on his children.
“When I arrived, I saw a man in pieces; he had been riding a bicycle, and the lower half of his body was gone. Everyone in the street was injured, and we started to collect the pieces of the wounded,” he said.
At least three Palestinians were killed in the strike, reportedly including children.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa also reported five deaths in areas around Khan Younis, four west of Beit Lahiya in the north, and one south of Gaza City, as well as the injuring of a child near Bureij in central Gaza.
Wafa also reported that Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians trying to reach an aid centre near Wadi Gaza.
In the meantime, Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya has said in a prerecorded speech that the group did not reject a proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza put forward by US special envoy Steve Witkoff, stating that it had instead requested some changes to ensure an end to the war.
Al-Hayya added that Hamas is ready to engage in further talks and that communications with the mediators are ongoing. Israel broke off a previous truce in March to resume the war in Gaza.
Gaza City – As the Madleen sails towards Gaza to try to deliver life-saving aid to its people, little is known about the woman the boat was named after: Madleen Kulab, Gaza’s only fisherwoman.
When Al Jazeera first met Madleen Kulab (also spelled Madelyn Culab) three years ago, she had two children, was expecting her third and lived a relatively quiet life in Gaza City with her husband, Khader Bakr, 32, also a fisherman.
Madleen, now 30, would sail fearlessly out as far as Israel’s gunship blockade would allow to bring back fish she could sell in a local market to support the family.
When Israel’s war on Gaza began, the family was terrified, then heartbroken when Israel killed Madleen’s father in an air strike near their home in November 2023.
They fled with Madleen nearly nine months pregnant to Khan Younis, then to Rafah, to Deir el-Balah and then Nuseirat.
Now, they are back in what remains of their home in Gaza City, a badly damaged space they returned to when the Israeli army allowed displaced people to head back north in January.
Responsibility and pride
Madleen sits on a battered sofa in her damaged living room, three of her four children sitting with her: baby Waseela, one, on her lap; five-year-old Safinaz beside her; and three-year-old Jamal – the baby she was expecting when Al Jazeera first met her – at the end.
She talks about what it felt like to hear from an Irish activist friend that the ship trying to break the blockade on Gaza would be named after her.
“I was deeply moved. I felt an enormous sense of responsibility and a little pride,” she says with a smile.
“I’m grateful to these activists who have devoted themselves, left their lives and comforts behind, and stood with Gaza despite all the risks,” she says of the group of 12 activists, who include Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.
“This is the highest form of humanity and self-sacrifice in the face of danger.”
Madleen Kulab and her husband, Khader Bakr, with their four children in their damaged Gaza City home [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
Khader sits on another sofa with six-year-old Sandy. He holds out his phone with a photo of the Madleen on it, flying the Palestinian flag.
Madleen has been fishing since she was 15, a familiar figure heading out on her father’s boat, getting to know all the other fishermen and also becoming well-known to international solidarity activists.
In addition to bringing home the fish, Madleen is also a skilled cook, preparing seasonal fish dishes that were so famously tasty that she had a list of clients waiting to buy them from her. Especially popular were the dishes made with Gaza’s ubiquitous sardines.
But now, she can’t fish any more and neither can Khader because Israel destroyed their boats and an entire storage room full of fishing gear during the war.
“We’ve lost everything – the fruit of a lifetime,” she says.
But her loss is not just about income. It’s about identity – her deep connection to the sea and fishing. It’s even about the simple joy of eating fish, which she used to enjoy “10 times a week”.
“Now fish is too expensive if you can find it at all. Only a few fishermen still have any gear left, and they risk their lives just to catch a little,” she says.
“Everything has changed. We now crave fish in the middle of this famine we’re living through.”
The Madleen has several prominent figures on board aiming to break Israel’s siege of Gaza, including climate activist Greta Thunberg and Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
Sleeping on a bare floor, newborn in her arms
After the air strike near the family home in November 2023, Madleen’s family’s first displacement was to Khan Younis, following Israeli army instructions that they would be safer there.
After searching for shelter, they ended up in a small apartment with 40 other displaced relatives, and then Madleen went into labour.
“It was a difficult, brutal birth. No pain relief, no medical care. I was forced to leave the hospital right after giving birth. There were no beds available because of the overwhelming number of wounded,” she says.
When she returned to the shelter, things were just as dire. “We didn’t have a mattress or even a blanket, neither me nor the kids,” she said.
“I had to sleep on the floor with my newborn baby. It was physically exhausting.”
She then had to tend to four children in an enclave where baby formula, diapers and even the most basic food items were almost impossible to find.
The war, she says, has reshaped her understanding of suffering and hardship.
In 2022, she and Khader were struggling to make ends meet between Israel’s gunship blockade and the frequent destruction of their boats. There was also the added burden of being a mother with small children and undertaking such physically taxing work.
But now, things have gotten far worse.
“There’s no such thing as ‘difficult’ any more. Nothing compares to the humiliation, hunger and horror we’ve seen in this war,” she says.
A ship named Madleen
Throughout the war, Madleen remained in touch with international friends and solidarity activists she had met through the years.
“I would share my reality with them,” she says.
“They came to understand the situation through me. They felt like family.”
Her friends abroad offered both emotional and financial support, and she is grateful for them, saying they made her feel that Gaza wasn’t forgotten, that people still cared.
She is also grateful for being remembered in the naming of the Madleen, but she worries that Israeli authorities will not let the ship reach Gaza, citing past attempts that were intercepted.
“Intercepting the ship would be the least of it. What’s more worrying is the possibility of a direct assault like what happened to the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara in 2010 when several people were killed.”
Regardless of what happens, Madleen believes the mission’s true message has already been delivered.
“This is a call to break the global silence, to draw the world’s attention to what’s happening in Gaza. The blockade must end, and this war must stop immediately.”
“This is also a message of hope for me. They may have bombed my boat, but my name will remain – and it will sail across the sea.”
Lula criticises Israel during Paris visit, as German FM voices rare criticism of onslaught in Gaza and West Bank settlements.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva accused Israel of carrying out “premeditated genocide” in Gaza during a visit to Paris, as it emerged the military had killed at least 52 people in its latest onslaught in the besieged coastal enclave where a crippling blockade is fuelling starvation.
“What is happening in Gaza is not a war. It’s a genocide being carried out by a highly prepared army against women and children,” said Lula at a joint news conference in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday.
“[It is] a premeditated genocide from a far-right government that is waging a war, including against the interests of its own people,” he said of Israel’s 20-month offensive, which has killed at least 54,607 Palestinians so far, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
At least 52 people were killed on Thursday, including women and children, according to medical sources, who spoke to Al Jazeera, amid growing concern about deadly incidents at aid distribution sites run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation since last week.
While Lula has previously used the term “genocide” to characterise Israel’s actions in Gaza, Macron has reserved judgement, saying last month that it was not for a “political leader to use the term, but up to historians to do so when the time comes”.
The Brazilian leader’s condemnation of Israel’s offensive came as German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told his visiting Israeli counterpart, Gideon Saar, to allow more humanitarian aid into the enclave in accordance with “prevailing international law”.
Last week, Wadephul had said Germany was assessing “whether what is happening in Gaza is in line with international law” and that arms sales to Israel would be evaluated on this basis.
Wadephul also said he was “concerned about the extremely tense situation in the West Bank”, decrying the Israeli government’s announcement that it would allow 22 more settlements in the occupied territory, saying it threatened the two-state solution further.
On Thursday, King Abdullah of Jordan praised Spain for recognising Palestine and calling for an end to the war in Gaza during a meeting with King Felipe in Madrid. He said work was underway to gain European support.
Jordan’s state news agency Petra cited him as saying work was under way to harness European support for an Arab plan to rebuild Gaza without displacing its residents, as threatened by US President Donald Trump this year.
Israel’s international allies are growing louder in their condemnation of its war on Gaza and its continued construction of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
United Nations experts, human rights groups and legal scholars have all previously told Al Jazeera that Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza and committing abuses that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity in the West Bank.
And yet less than two weeks after receiving a stern warning from its Western allies, Israel approved 22 illegal settlements in the West Bank, amounting to what has been described as the largest land grab since Israeli and Palestinian leaders inked the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993.
“Israel is all about showing [the world] who calls the shots. They are saying … you can condemn us all you want, but in the end, you will bow down to us and not the other way around,” said Diana Buttu, a legal scholar and political analyst focused on Israel and Palestine.
The Oslo Accords were ostensibly aimed at creating a Palestinian state, including the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with occupied East Jerusalem as its capital.
However, in practice, Israel has continued to expand illegal settlements and render the two-state solution impossible, analysts told Al Jazeera.
Troubling pattern
Israel has often announced the building of new illegal settlements in response to signals of support for Palestinian statehood from the UN or its allies.
In 2012, Israel went so far as to approve 3,000 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank after the Palestinian Authority (PA) – the entity created out of the Oslo Accords to govern swaths of the West Bank – was granted non-member observer status in the UN General Assembly.
Last year, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, warned that a new illegal settlement would be built for every country that recognises a Palestinian state.
The announcement came after Spain, Norway, and Ireland took the symbolic step in May 2024.
“I certainly think there is a pattern where Israel responds to pressure regarding its occupation – or anything else – by announcing settler expansion,” said Omar Rahman, an expert focused on Israel and Palestine for the Middle East Council for Global Affairs.
“We see that pattern repeated over and over again,” he told Al Jazeera.
As global pressure mounts against Israel’s war on Gaza, Israel has continued to test the patience of its allies.
On May 21, Israeli troops fired warning shots at a group of European, Asian and Arab diplomats who were on an official mission to assess the humanitarian crisis in Jenin refugee camp, which has been subjected to a months-long attack and siege by the Israeli army since the start of the year.
“I don’t know where the red line is. It is clear that there is no red line,” said Buttu.
Justifying inaction
After Zionist militias ethnically cleansed some 750,000 Palestinians to make way for the state of Israel in 1948 – an event referred to as the “Nakba” or catastrophe – Israel has increasingly annexed and occupied the little that remains of Palestinian land.
Annexation of the occupied West Bank has accelerated in recent years thanks to far-right settlers who occupy positions in the Israeli government, said Khaled Elgindy, a visiting scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.
He believes Israel was always planning to approve the 22 illegal settlements irrespective of the joint statement issued by France, the UK and Canada, as it fit in with the state’s ultimate goal of expanding Jewish settlement of the occupied West Bank.
“Nobody can really think that if those countries didn’t issue an announcement that [further] annexation wasn’t going to happen. Of course, it was going to happen,” he told Al Jazeera.
Rahman, from the Middle East Council, believes Israel’s tactic of announcing pre-planned settlement expansion in the face of Western pressure simply aims to dissuade its allies from taking concrete action.
He suspects Canada, the UK and France will likely not slap on targeted sanctions against Israeli officials, as they have threatened to do, instead using the argument that any moves against Israel will lead to a backlash against Palestinians.
“[Canada, UK and France] may say they are acting for the preservation of the two-state solution by not doing anything to save the two-state solution,” Rahman told Al Jazeera.
Analysts believe that sanctions on Israel would be the only way to rescue the two-state solution and end Israel’s war on Gaza, but accept that comprehensive sanctions against the Israeli state would still be unlikely at this stage.
Instead, Western countries like Canada, France and the UK may target sanctions at the far-right ministers most associated with pro-settler policies, Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
“These men … are trying to jam in everything they can do now because they know there is no guarantee they will maintain their positions of power indefinitely,” Elgindy told Al Jazeera.
Buttu fears that European countries will merely resort to more symbolic measures such as “recognising Palestine”, which will have little impact on the ground.
“By the time everyone gets around to recognising Palestine, there won’t be any land [for Palestinians] left,” she told Al Jazeera.
The Netherlands is still supporting the supply chain of Israel’s version of the F-35 fighter jet, more than a year after a court banned direct Dutch exports of F-35 parts to Israel, a report claims.
Research by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) shared with Al Jazeera showsthat the port of Rotterdam is frequented by ships carrying F-35 parts for maintenance and assembly. The ships belong to the Danish shipping giant Maersk.
By examining import data and shipping receipts of Maersk and Lockheed Martin – the United States weapons manufacturer that designed the F-35 – the group found that more than a dozen shipments from Israel travelled through the port of Rotterdam on their way to the US from April 2023 until early 2025.
The F-35 fighter jet has been used by Israel to bomb Gaza from the air with devastating effect. Much of the Strip, where more than 50,000 people have been killed since October 2023, is in ruins.
“Maersk now operates a recurring shipping cycle between Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth facility in Texas and Israel Aerospace Industries in Israel, routed through Rotterdam,” the report stated. “In this cycle, Maersk transports pairs of empty F-35 wing containers from Houston to Ashdod, Israel, where they are loaded with completed F-35 wings. The filled containers are then shipped back to the US for final assembly or repair.”
The researchers noted that Rotterdam is a “key stopover point in this process, and shipments for this cycle have occurred beyond February of 2024”.
Then, a judge at a Dutch appeals court ordered the Netherlands to stop exporting and transiting F-35 parts to Israel, saying there was a “clear risk” they were being used in “serious violations of international humanitarian law”.
The Dutch state immediately lodged an appeal at the Supreme Court, but until a decision is made, it is still bound by the lower court’s ruling.
“The findings in the report show that the port of Rotterdam plays an important role in sustaining the operational capacities of Israel’s F-35 fighter jets. This way, the port of Rotterdam is complicit to international law violations in Gaza,” Gerard Jonkman, director of a Dutch NGO, The Rights Forum, told Al Jazeera.
The Dutch Foreign Ministry told Al Jazeera that the court had subsequently confirmed that the judgement in February 2024 applied only to the export or transit of F-35 parts from the Netherlands to Israel and that the Dutch state had implemented the judgement accordingly.
A spokesperson for the port of Rotterdam told Al Jazeera that the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs was responsible for issuing permits for the transhipment of military goods. Port officials check vessel compliance with environmental and safety regulations for shipping on behalf of the government and municipality of Rotterdam, they said.
“The harbour master receives only limited information regarding vessel cargo. The information received mainly pertains to whether the vessel is carrying hazardous substances. Other aspects of vessel cargo are monitored by various other public authorities, such as customs.”
They said they were “aware” of the February 2024 court ruling.
“All activities in the port must comply with international laws and regulations and the permits issued by the government. If we see any indication that this is not the case, the Port of Rotterdam Authority alerts the competent authority.”
‘The Netherlands is still part of the supply chain’
The Rights Forum was one of three parties, together with the Dutch affiliate of Oxfam and PAX for Peace, the largest peace organisation in the Netherlands, that sued the Dutch state over its export of F-35 parts to Israel.
“In this case, there is no direct export from the Netherlands to Israel, but the Netherlands is still part of the supply chain for the Israeli F-35 programme,” Gerard Jonkman, head of the Rights Forum, said of the Palestinian Youth Movement’s findings. “This way the Netherlands facilitates the Israeli F-35 programme and might breach its obligations under international law.”
PAX for Peace project leader Frank Slijper told Al Jazeera: “This indeed shows that the Netherlands is part of the F-35 supply chain.”
A grassroots organisation, the Palestinian Youth Movement believes that targeting Maersk directly disrupts the flow of weapons in the “supply chain of death used to genocide Palestinians”.
According to the group, Maersk has shipped the wings for every Israeli F-35 since March 2022.
In November 2024, following a decision by Spain to deny docking permission to two ships carrying weapons bound for Israel, Maersk adjusted its routes. The company’s fleet now avoids Spain in favour of Rotterdam and the port of Tangier in Morocco
“Maersk has, for years, knowingly supplied the Israeli military with key weapons components used to carry out genocide in Gaza,” Aisha Nizar of the Palestinian Youth Movement told Al Jazeera. “The company has done so without hesitation, potentially violating multiple arms embargo policies across Europe.”
The F-35 is considered a top-of-the-line fighter jet. The aircraft designed by Lockheed Martin costs at least $80m in its most basic configuration.
Currently, 12 countries operate the jet. F-35 parts are made in the United States and several participating partner countries, giving the project the moniker Joint Strike Fighter.
“It is very sad to see that Maersk is not distancing itself from Israel’s crimes against humanity in Gaza and more broadly continues lending itself to the crucial replenishment of Israel’s armed forces,” Slijper said. “Shipping military supplies for the benefit of Israel’s arms industry and the [Israeli army] risks Maersk being complicit in Israel’s crimes.”
The use of the jet by Israel, the only country with its unique version of the F-35, has been scrutinised since the start of the onslaught in Gaza.
Recently, campaign groups took the United Kingdom government to court in a bid to halt the exports of British-made F-35 parts to Israel.
In a statement to Al Jazeera, Lockheed Martin said: “Foreign military sales are government-to-government transactions, and we closely adhere to US government policy with regard to conducting business with international partners.”
Regarding F-35 shipments, Maersk told Al Jazeera that it upholds a strict policy of not shipping weapons or ammunition to active conflict zones and that it conducted due diligence, particularly in regions affected by active conflicts, including Israel and Gaza, and adapts this due diligence to the changing context. It confirmed, however, that its US subsidiary Maersk Line Limited was one of “many companies supporting the global F-35 supply chain” with transport services.
The F-35 programme includes several coalition countries, including Israel.
“As part of the coalition-building of the F-35, Maersk Line Limited regularly transports parts between participating countries, including Israel, where F-35 wings are manufactured,” it said.
The Education Department accuses the Ivy League school of violating the Civil Rights Act and calls for its accreditor to take action.
The United States Department of Education has notified Columbia University’s accreditor that the Ivy League school allegedly broke federal anti-discrimination laws.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) claimed that Columbia University had “acted with deliberate indifference towards the harassment of Jewish students”.
As a result, they said that Columbia violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits recipients of federal funding from discriminating on the basis of race, colour or national origin.
“Specifically, OCR and HHS OCR found that Columbia failed to meaningfully protect Jewish students against severe and pervasive harassment on Columbia’s campus and consequently denied these students’ equal access to educational opportunities to which they are entitled under the law,” the statement said.
It quoted Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, who accused Columbia University of ignoring the ongoing harassment of Jewish students on its campus since Israel’s war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023.
“This is not only immoral, but also unlawful,” McMahon said
She added that the accreditor, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, has “an obligation to ensure member institutions abide by their standards”.
The commission is one of seven regional bodies that reviews colleges, universities and other institutions of higher education to ensure they meet the standards needed to grant degrees.
McMahon described accreditation institutions as the “gatekeepers of federal student aid” and explained that they decide which schools are eligible for student loans.
“We look forward to the Commission keeping the Department fully informed of actions taken to ensure Columbia’s compliance with accreditation standards including compliance with federal civil rights laws,” McMahon said.
The statement specified that the Education Department and HHS had come to their determination about Columbia University’s civil rights compliance on May 22.
The university has remained in the news with arrests of high-profile student activists like Mahmoud Khalil in March and Mohsen Mahdawi in April.
Mahdawi has since been released, though he, like Khalil, continues to face deportation proceedings.
The administration of President Donald Trump has accused the demonstrators of creating unsafe conditions for Jewish students on campus, something the protest leaders have denied.
It reiterated that allegation in Wednesday’s statement, where it summed up the “noncompliance findings” that allegedly show Columbia at odds with civil rights law.
“The findings carefully document the hostile environment Jewish students at Columbia University have had to endure for over 19 months, disrupting their education, safety, and well-being,” said Anthony Archeval, acting director of the Office for Civil Rights at HHS, in the statement.
“We encourage Columbia University to work with us to come to an agreement that reflects meaningful changes that will truly protect Jewish students.”
The university did not immediately respond to a request by the Reuters news agency for comment.
The Trump administration and Columbia University were in negotiations over $400m in federal funding for the New York-based Ivy League school. Columbia agreed to a series of demands from the administration in a bid to keep the funds flowing, but the US government has not confirmed whether it will restore the contracts and grants that it paused.
In March, McMahon had said Columbia University was “on the right track” toward recovering its federal funding.
In the New York City mayoral race, a young immigrant who identifies as a democratic socialist is taking on a centrist former governor from a political dynasty.
With state legislator Zohran Mamdani and ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo leading the race, the New York Democratic primary is seen as a reflection of the battle between progressive activists and the conservative old guard of the United States Democratic Party.
The Democratic candidates will meet for a debate on Wednesday night, ahead of the primary vote on June 24.
Missing from the stage will be incumbent Eric Adams who was elected as a Democrat four years ago. The current mayor is running for re-election as an independent amid dwindling popularity.
Here is a look at the elections in the Big Apple and what it could mean for the city and the country.
Why are the primaries important?
New York City is solidly Democratic, so the party’s nominee is likely to cruise to victory in November.
In 2021, then-Democratic candidate Eric Adams beat Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee, by nearly 40 percentage points. Adams has since garnered a national profile.
What’s at stake?
The next mayor will be the executive of the largest city in the United States – tackling numerous issues and pressing challenges, including housing, cost of living, congestion and public transport.
The implications for New Yorkers are obvious, but the outcome of the race will also affect the nearly 65 million people who visit the city every year.
New York is a major financial and cultural hub, not just for the US but for the entire world.
Politically, the primary race could serve as a bellwether for the Democratic Party and the electoral viability of left-wing candidates ahead of the congressional midterm elections next year and the presidential vote two years later.
The job comes with a national profile. The last three New York mayors ran for president.
Mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo speaks during a Democratic mayoral forum at Medgar Evers College in New York City, April 23 [David ‘Dee’ Delgado/Reuters]
Who are the frontrunners?
In the Democratic primaries, the two frontrunners are Cuomo, 67, and Mamdani, 33.
The son of a former governor, Cuomo has an extensive resume. He served as the US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and New York attorney general before becoming the state’s governor in 2011.
He resigned in 2021 after a sexual harassment scandal and is now staging what was once thought to be an unlikely political comeback, rebuilding alliances with politicians who called on him to step down a few years ago.
He is running a campaign focused on improving the management of the city, addressing mental health issues and “combating anti-Semitism”.
If Cuomo is the ultimate insider, Mamdani is his foil as a political insurgent.
Born in Uganda to parents of Indian descent, Mamdani, who is endorsed by the Democratic Socialists for America (DSA), has been serving in the state assembly since 2021.
He is running on a progressive platform that includes freezing rent, eliminating fees for public buses and establishing affordable, city-owned grocery stores.
Mamdani’s rise in the polls has been fuelled by small donors and an “army” of left-wing volunteers.
Candidate for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani waits for the subway following a campaign stop in New York City, US, April 1, 2025 [Brendan McDermid/Reuters]
Who else is running?
Also running on the Democratic side are city comptroller Brad Lander; New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams; former comptroller Scott Stringer; State Senator Jessica Ramos; State Senator Zellnor Myrie; Michael Blake, a political consultant and former state legislator; and Whitney Tilson, an investor.
Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams is running as an independent after the scandals and investigations that have plagued his tenure.
Conservative activist Curtis Sliwa is the sole Republican in the race.
What are the key dates?
The first Democratic debate will take place on June 4, and the second and final one is set to take place on June 12. Early voting starts on June 14, and the primary election is on June 24.
The general election will be on November 4.
Incumbent New York Mayor Eric Adams is running as an independent [File: Julia Nikhinson/AP Photo]
What is ranked choice voting?
In local elections in New York City, one can vote for as many as five candidates at once with the ranked-choice system.
Here’s how it works: Voters choose their candidates in order of favourability. In the first round of counting, the top choice votes are tallied. If no candidate gets more than 50 percent, more counting ensues with the bottom candidate removed.
With each new round, the votes of the eliminated candidate are counted by the next choice on the ballot.
What do the polls say?
Cuomo is leading the race, according to most surveys. An Emerson College poll last week showed the former governor with 35.1 percent support as a first choice – ahead of Mamdani with 22.7 and Lander with 10.5.
Mamdani may appear like a distant second, but his rise in the race has been stunning. He was polling at 1 percent in February, according to an Emerson survey.
The democratic socialist lawmaker does have a path to victory – consolidating the anti-Cuomo vote in the later rounds of counting.
A protest in solidarity with Palestinians in New York City, September 24, 2024 [File: John Taggart/EPA]
Why has Israel-Palestine been a key issue in the race?
The next New York City mayor will not be deciding how much military aid Israel gets or how the US will vote on United Nations Security Council proposals calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Yet, the conflict in the Middle East has been a factor in the local elections.
Mamdani has been an outspoken supporter of Palestinian rights. He participated in a hunger strike outside the White House in November 2023 to demand an end to the war on Gaza.
His positions have sparked outrage from Israel’s backers. Although Mamdani is a citizen, Republican New York City Council member Vickie Paladino called for his deportation on Monday.
Paladino later doubled down in response to the outrage over her statement, claiming that Mamdani would not have been eligible for citizenship under the current regulations due to his involvement in pro-Palestine groups.
For his part, Cuomo has positioned himself as Israel’s top defender, accusing several of his opponents – not just Mamdani – of being too critical of the US ally.
“It’s very simple: anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism,” he said in April.
Fix the City, a pro-Cuomo political group, has received large donations from pro-Israel donors, including $250,000 from billionaire Bill Ackman, according to New York’s Campaign Finance Board.
New York City – home to Columbia University – has seen waves of protests against US support for Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed more than 54,600 Palestinians.
The issue may sway some voters, in part because it is viewed by many Democrats as a litmus test for broader ideological leaning.
More than 100 Palestinians have been killed trying to get aid at distribution centres run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation over the past eight days. This is a timeline of the key events that led to the UN labelling it a ‘death trap’.
Rally is held as British PM Keir Starmer calls Israel’s actions ‘intolerable’, addressing lawmakers in Parliament.
Pro-Palestine campaigners have rallied against Israel’s punishing war on Gaza, gathering outside the British Parliament in London and demanding a full arms embargo and that hard-hitting sanctions be imposed on the Israeli government.
Wednesday’s march, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), came as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer took weekly questions from parliamentarians.
Thousands of protesters created a “Red Line for Palestine”, wearing red while encircling the building.
Starmer told Parliament that Israel’s actions in the besieged and bombarded enclave are “appalling” and “intolerable”.
“It is right to describe these days as dark,” Starmer said. “We have strongly opposed the expansion of Israeli military operations, and settler violence, and the blocking of humanitarian aid.”
Starmer added that the UK has imposed sanctions, suspended free trade negotiations, and is currently considering further sanctions.
But the UK leader, his Foreign Secretary David Lammy, and his government have come under heavy criticism in the UK for not speaking more forcefully backed by actual action earlier in the war, and for not doing enough now as Palestinians face what United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called the “cruellest phase of this cruel conflict”.
Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from London, said the protest went on for several hours and throughout Starmer’s entire speech to Parliament.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators hold a banner outside the Parliament during a demonstration calling for sanctions on Israel over ongoing hunger among Gaza’s war-struck population, in London, Britain [Isabel Infantes/Reuters]
“There was a red line around the whole of Parliament,” Challands said.
“These protesters had formed a cordon, essentially all the way down from Parliament to the first bridge … that goes across to the other side of the [River] Thames, and they came back up … and returned over Westminster Bridge to join up here to make a full loop,” he added.
According to Challands, protesters say that their “red line” is to show that the UK government should have its own red lines when it comes to Gaza.
It has not had “sufficient” red lines in place, he said. “The protesters say there should have been red lines before 54,000 deaths.”
In his remarks, Starmer also called for an end to the siege and said humanitarian aid must reach Gaza quickly and in the required quantities.
Israel has maintained a crippling blockade on the territory, barring the entry of much-needed aid, including food, medicine, clean water, and fuel required by generators. A famine now looms as more than two million people are facing starvation, the UN has warned.
Meanwhile, a controversial, United States-backed group that runs aid distribution points in Gaza – the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – has suspended operations for a full day. The move came after Israeli forces opened fire at hungry aid seekers several times, killing dozens of Palestinians and injuring hundreds more since the organisation started operating in the enclave on May 27.
The killing of people desperately seeking food supplies has triggered mounting international outrage as many say aid is being weaponised and with the UN’s Guterres demanding an independent inquiry.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 54,607 Palestinians and wounded 125,341, according to the Health Ministry.
There was confusion and panic on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla on Tuesday night after a drone was spotted circling overhead, prompting the crew to issue a distress signal while sailing outside Greek territorial waters. The drone was later identified as belonging to the Hellenic Coastguard. The Gaza-bound mission continues undeterred, a month after another flotilla ship was bombed by a drone and set ablaze.
Khan Younis, Gaza – Yazan Musleh, 13, lies in a hospital bed set up in a tent on the grounds of Nasser Hospital, his t-shirt pulled up to reveal a large white bandage on his thin torso.
Beside him, his father, Ihab, sits fretfully, still shaken by the bloodied dawn he and his sons lived through on Sunday when Israeli forces opened fire on thousands of people gathered to receive aid from the Israeli-conceived, and United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Ihab, 40, had taken Yazan and his 15-year-old brother, Yazid, from their shelter in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, to the Rafah distribution point that the GHF operates.
They set out before dawn, walking for about an hour and a half to get to the al-Alam Roundabout roundabout in Rafah, near the distribution point.
Worried about the size of the gathering, hungry crowd, Ihab told his sons to wait for him on an elevation near the GHF gates.
“When I looked behind the hill, I saw several tanks not far away,” he says. “A feeling of dread came over me. What if they opened fire or something happened? I prayed for God’s protection.”
“I was terrified. I immediately looked towards my sons on the hill, and saw Yazan get shot and collapse,” he recalls.
Yazid, also sitting by his brother’s bedside, describes the moments of terror.
“We were standing on the hill as our father told us, and suddenly, the tanks opened fire.” He says. “My brother was hit in the stomach immediately.”
“I saw his intestines spilling out – it was horrifying. Then people helped rush him to the hospital in a donkey cart.”
Down by the gates, Ihab was struggling to reach his sons, trying to fight against the crowd while avoiding the shots still ringing out.
“Shooting was coming from every direction – from tanks, quadcopters.
“I saw people helping my son, eventually dragging him away.”
When Ihab managed to get away from the crowd, he ran as best as his malnourished body could manage, towards Nasser Hospital, in hopes that Yazan had been taken there. It felt like more than an hour, he says.
At Nasser Hospital, he learned that Yazan had been taken into surgery.
“I finally breathed. I thanked God he was still alive. I had completely lost hope,” he says.
Ihab, left, and Iman Musleh hover near their son, Yazan’s, hospital bed in the makeshift tent ward [Abdullah al-Attar/Al Jazeera]
The bullet that hit Yazan had torn through his intestines and spleen, and the doctors say he needs long and intensive treatment.
Sitting by him is his mother, Iman, who asks despairingly why anyone would shoot at people trying to get food. She and Ihab have five children, the youngest is a seven-month-old girl.
“I went to get food for my children. Hunger is killing us,” says Ihab.
“These aid distributions are known to be degrading and humiliating – but we’re desperate. I’m desperate because my children are starving, and even then, we are shot at?”
He had tried to get aid once before, he says, but both times he came away empty-handed.
“The first time, there was a deadly stampede. We barely escaped. This time, my son was wounded and again… nothing,” he says.
But he knows he cannot stop trying.
“I’ll risk it for my family. Either I come back alive or I die. I’m desperate. Hunger is killing us.”
The group distributing aid
The GHF, marketed as a neutral humanitarian mechanism, was launched in early 2025 and uses private US military contractors to “secure the distribution points”.
The GHF’s head, Jake Wood, resigned his post two days before distribution began, citing concerns that the foundation would not be impartial or act in accordance with humanitarian principles.
Five days later, on May 30, the Boston Consulting Group, which had been part of the planning and implementation of the foundation, withdrew its team and terminated its association with GHF.
International aid organisations have been unanimous in criticising the GHF and its methods.
‘We went looking for food for our hungry children’
Lying nearby in the tent ward is Mohammed al-Homs, 40, a father of five.
He had also headed out early on Sunday to try to get some food for his family, but moments after arriving at the al-Alam Roundabout roundabout, “I was shot twice – once in the leg and once in the mouth, shattering my front teeth,” he says.
“I collapsed, there were so many injured and dead around me. Everyone was screaming and running. Gunfire was coming from tanks, drones everywhere. It felt like the end of the world.”
He lay bleeding on the ground for what felt like an hour, as medical teams were not able to reach the injured.
Mohammed al-Homs, father of five, was shot in the mouth and leg [Abdullah al-Attar/Al Jazeera]
Then, word spread that the gates had opened for distribution, and those who could move started heading towards the centre.
It was only then that people could start moving the wounded to a nearby medical point.
“This was my first time trying to get aid, and it will be my last,” Mohammed says.
“I didn’t expect to survive. We went looking for food for our hungry children and were met with drones and tanks.”
‘I never imagined I’d face death for a box of food’
Also in the tent is someone who had succeeded in getting an aid package on the first day of distribution, on May 27, and decided to try again on Sunday: 36-year-old Khaled al-Lahham.
Al-Lahham is taking care of 10 family members: his parents, one aunt, and seven siblings, all of whom are displaced in the tents of al-Mawasi.
He had managed to catch a ride with five friends that morning, driving as close as they could to the al-Alam Roundabout roundabout.
Khaled al-Lahham went to the distribution point to try to secure food for the 10 family members he supports [Abdullah al-Attar/Al Jazeera]
As the distribution time approached, the six friends started getting out of the car.
“Suddenly, there was loud gunfire all around and people screaming. I felt a sharp pain in my leg – a bullet had passed clean through my thigh,” says Khaled, who did not make it fully out of the car.
“I was screaming and bleeding while people around me ran and screamed. The shooting was frenzied,” he adds. “There were tanks, quadcopters – fire came from every direction.”
Injured, Khaled could not get out of the car and huddled there until one of his friends managed to return and drive him to the hospital.
“I never imagined I’d face death for a box of food,” Khaled says.
“If they don’t want to distribute the aid, why do they lie to people and kill them like this?
“This is all deliberate. Humiliate us, degrade us, then kill us – for food?”
Israeli military warns access roads to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s (GHF) aid distribution sites are now considered ‘combat zones’.
The United States- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) will suspend aid distribution in the war-torn territory on Wednesday, a day after Israeli forces again opened fire on Palestinian aid seekers near a GHF distribution site, killing at least 27 and injuring more than 100.
Israel’s military also said that approach roads to the aid distribution centres will be “considered combat zones” on Wednesday, and warned that people in Gaza should heed the GHF announcement to stay away.
“We confirm that travel is prohibited tomorrow on roads leading to the distribution centers … and entry to the distribution centers is strictly forbidden,” an Israeli military spokesperson said.
In a post on social media, GHF said the temporary suspension was necessary to allow for “renovation, reorganisation and efficiency improvement work”.
“Due to the ongoing updates, entry to the distribution centre areas is slowly prohibited! Please do not go to the site and follow general instructions. Operations will resume on Thursday. Please continue to follow updates,” the group said.
The temporary suspension of aid comes as more than 100 Palestinian people seeking aid have been reported killed by Israeli forces in the vicinity of GHF distribution centres since the organisation started operating in the enclave on May 27.
The killing of people desperately seeking food supplies has triggered mounting international outrage with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres demanding an independent inquiry into the deaths and for “perpetrators to be held accountable”.
“It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food,” Guterres said.
The Israeli military has admitted it shot at aid seekers on Tuesday, but claimed that they opened fire when “suspects” deviated from a stipulated route as a crowd of Palestinians was making its way to the GHF distribution site in Gaza.
Israel’s military said it is looking into the incident and the reports of casualties.
On Tuesday, GHF named its new executive chairman as US evangelical Christian leader Reverend Dr Johnnie Moore.
Moore, who was an evangelical adviser to the White House during the first term of United States President Donald Trump, said in a statement that GHF was “demonstrating that it is possible to move vast quantities of food to people who need it most — safely, efficiently, and effectively”.
The UN and aid agencies have refused to work with the GHF, accusing the group of lacking neutrality and of being part of Israel’s militarisation of aid in Gaza. Israel has also been accused of “weaponising” hunger in Gaza, which has been brought about by a months-long Israeli blockade on food, medicine, water and other basic essentials entering the war-torn territory.
Moore’s appointment is likely to add to concerns regarding GHF’s operations in Gaza, given his support for the controversial proposal Trump floated in February for the US to take over Gaza, remove the Palestinian population, and focus on real estate development in the territory.
After Trump proposed the idea, Moore posted video of Trump’s remarks on X and wrote: “The USA will take full responsibility for future of Gaza, giving everyone hope & a future.”
Responding on social media to UN chief Guterres’s outrage following the killing of aid seekers in Gaza on Sunday, Moore said: “Mr Secretary-General, it was a lie… spread by terrorists & you’re still spreading it.
The GHF’s founding executive director, former US marine Jake Wood, resigned from his position before the Gaza operation began, questioning the organisation’s “impartiality” and “independence”.
Critics have accused GHF, which has not revealed where its funds come from, of facilitating the Israeli military’s goal of depopulating northern Gaza as it has concentrated aid distribution in the southern part of the territory, forcing thousands of desperate people to make the perilous journey to its locations to receive assistance.
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says authorities investigating whether family knew of planned ‘heinous attack’.
Federal officials in the United States have taken into custody the family of a man suspected of attacking a pro-Israel rally in Boulder, Colorado, over the weekend.
In a video on Tuesday, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that the family of Egyptian national Mohamed Sabry Soliman had been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“This terrorist will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Noem said in the video. “We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it.”
Police have accused the 45-year-old Soliman of throwing Molotov cocktails into a crowd that had gathered for an event organised by Run for Their Lives, a group calling for the release of Israeli captives held in Gaza.
According to an affidavit, Soliman yelled “Free Palestine” while hurling the incendiary devices.
The firebombs injured 12 people, three of whom remain hospitalised. Police have said Soliman planned the attack for more than a year. He is facing federal hate crime charges.
“When he was interviewed about the attack, he said he wanted them all to die, he had no regrets, and he would go back and do it again,” J Bishop Grewell, Colorado’s acting US attorney, said during a news conference Monday.
Soliman said that he acted alone and that nobody else knew of his plans. But officials with the administration of US President Donald Trump said they will investigate whether his wife and five children were aware of the suspect’s intentions.
Administration officials have also highlighted the fact that Soliman, an Egyptian national, was in the US on an expired tourist visa, tying his arrest — and that of his family — to a larger push against undocumented immigration.
“The United States has zero tolerance for foreign visitors who support terrorism,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday.
“Under the Trump administration, aliens will only be admitted into the United States through the legal process and only if they do not bear hostile attitudes towards our citizens, our culture, our government, our institutions or, most importantly, our founding principles.”
Soliman’s family includes a wife and five children. The official White House account on the social media platform X indicated that they “could be deported by tonight”.
“Six One-Way Tickets for Mohamed’s Wife and Five Kids. Final Boarding Call Coming Soon,” Tuesday’s post read.
The attack comes amid rising tensions in the US over Israel’s continued war in Gaza, which United Nations experts and human rights groups have compared to a genocide. It also comes less than two weeks after the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy employees outside a Jewish museum in Washington, DC.
Jewish as well as Muslim and Arab communities have reported sharp upticks in harassment and violence since the war began.
Trump and his allies have used concerns about anti-Semitism as a pretext to push hardline policies on immigration and a crackdown on pro-Palestine activists.
“This is yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland,” Trump said in a social media post on Monday.
But the president and his supporters have themselves faced allegations of leaning into anti-Semitic rhetoric. And his administration’s push to expel foreign nationals has caused alarm among civil liberties groups.
The administration is currently attempting to deport several international students involved in pro-Palestine activity, including a Turkish graduate student named Rumeysa Ozturk.
Her legal team argues that Ozturk appears to have been arrested for co-signing an op-ed calling for an end to the war in Gaza. Ozturk was released from immigrant detention in May following a legal challenge, but she continues to face deportation proceedings.
Israeli forces have killed at least 27 Palestinians and injured 90 more as they opened fire close to an aid distribution site in Rafah, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
The latest killings came early on Tuesday at the Flag Roundabout, near an aid hub operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
It was the third such incident around the Rafah hub in as many days. Gaza’s authorities report that more than 100 aid seekers have been killed since the United States- and Israel-backed GHF started operating in the enclave on May 27, with reports of violence, looting and chaos rife.
The Israeli military said it had fired shots as “a number of suspects” deviated from the regulated routes, on which a crowd was making its way to the GHF distribution complex.
The “suspects” were about 500 metres (approximately 550 yards) from the site, the military said in a statement on Telegram, adding that it was looking into reports of casualties.
The death toll was confirmed by Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s records department.
A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Hisham Mhanna, said 184 wounded people had been taken to its field hospital in Rafah, 19 of whom were found dead on arrival, and eight others died later of their wounds.
Video verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency showed the arrival of dozens of injured people at the hospital.
Lured
Gaza’s Government Media Office accused Israel of “a horrific, intentionally repeated crime”, saying it has been luring starving Palestinians to the GHF centres – controversially opened following an 11-week total blockade to take over most aid distribution from the United Nations and other aid agencies – and then opening fire.
It said Tuesday’s death toll brought the number of aid seekers killed at aid sites in the Rafah governorate and the so-called Netzarim Corridor since GHF launched operations to 102, with 490 others injured.
“It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food,” said Secretary General Antonio Guterres. “I call for an immediate and independent investigation into these events and for perpetrators to be held accountable.”
“We heard from witnesses that there was chaos,” said Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting about Tuesday’s killings from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza. “The Israeli forces just opened fire randomly, shooting Palestinians … using quadcopters and live ammunition.”
Health Ministry officials and doctors said most of the wounded have been hit in their chest and head, she added.
The bloodshed, she continued, had unfolded in the same way as on the previous two days, amid ongoing chaos around the aid distribution centres.
“There’s no process. There’s no system,” she said. “You just need to run first to be able to get the food.”
‘Either way, we will die’
Rasha al-Nahal told The Associated Press news agency that “there was gunfire from all directions”, and that she saw more than a dozen people dead and several wounded on the road.
When she finally made it to the distribution hub, there was no aid, al-Nahal said, adding that Israeli troops “fired at us as we were returning”.
Another witness, Neima al-Aaraj, from Khan Younis, described the shooting as “indiscriminate”.
“I won’t return,” she said. “Either way, we will die.”
Gaza rescuers said Israeli gunfire killed at least 10 Palestinians and wounded more than 100 early on June 1, as thousands of people headed towards a US-backed aid distribution site [AFP]
The Israeli military, in its statement on Telegram, said troops had fired warning shots as people deviated from “designated access routes” and “after the suspects failed to retreat, additional shots were directed near a few individual suspects who advanced toward the troops”.
However, it denied firing on civilians or blocking them from accessing aid.
This account echoes statements around similar incidents on Sunday, when 31 aid seekers were reportedly killed, and on Monday, when three more were killed.
Shati refugee camp, Gaza – Inside a stifling tent in Shati, one of Gaza’s overcrowded displacement camps, 30-year-old Raneem Abu Al-Eish cares for her sisters, Aseel, 51, and Afaf, 33.
They sit close to Raneem, laughing at times and at others growing agitated when the cries of children playing outside get too loud.
Aseel and Afaf suffer from celiac disease and intellectual disabilities that impair their speech, understanding, and behaviour – conditions that have only deepened under the strain of war and displacement.
They struggle to express themselves, often overwhelmed by their environment, Raneem explains. While she doesn’t know the medical term for their condition, the symptoms at times mirror Tourette syndrome.
‘People laugh, it devastates them’
The cramped tent shelters seven family members: Raneem, her two sisters, their elderly parents, and another sister with her husband.
Raneem’s mother is frail, and her father is still recovering from an injury sustained in Israel’s relentless war on Gaza, leaving Raneem to shoulder their care alone.
The family used to live in Jabalia camp’s Block 2, until Israel destroyed their home eight months ago. Since then, they have moved from relatives’ homes to makeshift shelters, then to an overcrowded United Nations school.
Now they are in this tent, which traps sweltering heat by midday and lets the bitter cold seep through its thin walls in the night.
Privacy and dignity are nearly impossible in the crowded tent. “When they need to change, we try to get the others to step out,” Raneem says. “But it’s not always possible.”
Yet that is only part of the ordeal for Aseel and Afaf, who are bullied daily due to their conditions.
“People don’t understand what my sisters go through,” Raneem says softly. “They judge by appearances, assuming they’re fine. But they aren’t. They need care, patience, dignity.”
Life in the camp overwhelms Aseel. “She finds it hard to cope with noise or sudden changes,” Raneem explains. “When that happens, she gets distressed – she shouts, cries, sometimes lashes out.”
Afaf, meanwhile, struggles with involuntary movements and impulsive behaviours. “A small argument or loud voice can trigger her,” Raneem adds.
“She doesn’t know how to control it,” she says, which makes it all the more sad that Afaf is frequently targeted for mockery, especially by children.
Using communal bathrooms brings repeated humiliation. “Every bathroom visit becomes a spectacle. People laugh, make cruel remarks, and it devastates them,” Raneem says.
Aseel al-Eish waters a small plant inside the family’s cramped tent in northern Gaza [Noor Al-Halabi/Al Jazeera]
Israel took their protector
The family’s greatest blow came six months ago, when Mohammad, Raneem’s 22-year-old brother, was taken by Israel.
Mohammad had gone to Kamal Adwan Hospital for surgery after a hand injury. While he was there, Israel raided the hospital on October 25 and seized Mohammad. Since then, the family knows nothing about his whereabouts.
Mohammad was the sibling most adept at navigating the outside world. “He got their medicines, managed hospital visits, dealt with aid agencies,” Raneem explains. “Without him, we’re completely alone.”
Since his detention, the sisters face worsening food shortages and a lack of medical care. “He was their protector,” Raneem says, her voice breaking. “Now we have no one.”
Between March and May, intensified bombing again displaced 436,000 Palestinians, many for the second, third or fourth time since the October 2023 beginning of the war. For families like Raneem’s – already in tents or shelters – each new wave of violence means starting over again, often without food or medicine.
For Aseel and Afaf, even basic nutrition is rife with threats. Celiac sufferers cannot eat gluten, which damages their small intestines.
In a starving Gaza where there is little to eat other than wheat-flour bread, which contains gluten, there is little chance that Raneem can find vegetables or meat for the sisters, especially with Mohammad detained.
Without gluten-free flour, Aseel and Afaf risk severe malnutrition, and they have gotten a dismally small amount of the 80 tonnes of gluten-free flour that aid agencies have thus far delivered to Gaza.
Much of it was blocked by closed borders, damaged roads, and broken distribution systems. “The little that reaches us is too expensive or too late,” Raneem says.
Begging for empathy, again and again
Before the war, Aseel and Afaf had routine medical care at Kamal Adwan Hospital.
Their conditions required special diets, medication, and regular therapy, needs now nearly impossible to meet.
Psychological specialist Dr Sara al-Wahidi says the war has sharply worsened the marginalisation of people with disabilities in Gaza.
“We’ve seen people with disabilities become separated from [their families in] displacement areas – some missing for long periods, sadly later found deceased,” she explains.
A 2025 report estimates that at least 15 percent of Gaza’s displaced population lives with a disability, and they have to navigate the makeshift shelters, whether in encampments, schools, or hospitals, that lack functioning ramps, adapted toilets and basic accessibility.
Raneem also battles social stigma, and despite her efforts – talking with neighbours, seeking support from community elders – ignorance persists.
“People provoke them, mock them. All we ask is understanding,” she says.
Some elders occasionally invite the sisters to their tents for a visit, brief moments of respite in a daily reality where they have no consistent medical or social support.
“We’ve been displaced again and again, from Jabalia to the west, then Gaza City,” Raneem recounts. “Every new place, we have to start over, explaining their condition, begging for patience.
“These aren’t just war victims,” she pleads.
“They’re vulnerable people forgotten by the world.”