Israel-Palestine conflict

United States President Donald Trump descends on Tuesday on the Middle East for a regional tour that will begin in Saudi Arabia and include stops in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. It is a business trip in every sense of the term, involving potentially trillions of dollars in investment and trade deals.

The UAE, for example, has already pledged $1.4 trillion in investments to the US over 10 years in sectors ranging from artificial intelligence and energy to mining and aluminium production. Saudi Arabia, for its part, has committed to investing $600bn in the US over the next four years. According to the Reuters news agency, Trump will also be offering the kingdom an arms package to the tune of $100bn.

Meanwhile, in keeping with the president’s solid history of nepotism and self-enrichment, it just so happens that the Trump Organization is currently presiding over real estate projects and other business ventures in all three Gulf countries he is slated to visit.

And yet one country is conspicuously absent from the regional itinerary despite being the US’s longstanding BFF in the Middle East: Israel, the nation that has for the past 19 months been perpetrating genocide in the Gaza Strip with the help of gobs of US money and weaponry. The official Palestinian death toll stands at nearly 53,000 and counting.

Although the genocide kicked off on the watch of his predecessor President Joe Biden, Trump was quick to embrace mass slaughter as well, announcing not long after reassuming office that he was “sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job” in Gaza. It appears, however, that Israel is taking a bit too long for the US president’s liking – particularly now that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has prescribed an intensified offensive against an enclave that has already been largely reduced to rubble.

The issue, of course, is not that Trump cares if Palestinian children and adults continue to be massacred and starved to death while Israel takes its sweet time “finishing the job”. Rather, the ongoing genocide is simply hampering his vision of the “Riviera of the Middle East” that will supposedly spring forth from the ruins of Gaza, the creation of which he has outlined as follows: “The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too. We’ll own it.”

So while war may be good for business – just ask the arms industry – it seems that too much war can ultimately be a counterproductive investment, at least from a Trumpian real estate perspective.

In the run-up to Trump’s Middle Eastern expedition, reports increasingly circulated of tensions between the US president and the Israeli prime minister – and not just on the Gaza front. On Sunday, NBC News noted that Netanyahu had been “blindsided – and infuriated – this past week by Trump’s announcement that the US was halting its military campaign against the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen”.

Even more annoying to the Israeli premier, apparently, is Trump’s refusal to endorse military strikes on Iran. Plus, the US has reportedly discarded the demand that Saudi Arabia normalise relations with Israel as a condition for US support for the kingdom’s civilian nuclear programme.

What, then, does the strained Trump-Netanyahu rapport mean for the ever-so-sacred “special relationship” between the US and Israel? According to an article published by the Israeli outlet Ynetnews: “Despite the tensions, Israeli officials insist behind-the-scenes coordination with the Trump administration remains close, with no real policy rift.”

The dispatch goes on to assure readers that US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has “denied rumors that Trump might announce support for a Palestinian state during the visit” to the three Gulf nations. Of course, it’s not quite clear what sort of “Palestinian state” could ever be promoted by the man proposing US ownership of the Gaza Strip and expulsion of the native Palestinian population.

Although Israel may be sidelined on this trip, that doesn’t mean it won’t continue to serve a key function in general US malevolence. Just last month, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir – source of the idea that there is “no reason for a gram of food or aid to enter Gaza” – was hosted by Republican officials at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. After a dinner held in his honour, Ben-Gvir boasted that Republicans had “expressed support for my very clear position on how to act in Gaza and that the food and aid depots should be bombed”.

Flashy trillion-dollar Gulf deals aside, rest assured that the Trump administration remains as committed as ever to capitalising on Israeli atrocities.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Hamas says it will release US-Israeli captive Edan Alexander and confirms direct talks with the US, while Israel insists it has not agreed to any ceasefire – signaling a possible rift with Washington, analysts say.

Amid ferocious Israeli attacks on Yemen, ostensibly in response to Houthi attacks on Israel, surprising news from the United States seemed to shake matters briefly.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that a ceasefire had been agreed between his country and the Houthis, claiming the Houthis had bent the knee and this was a victory for the US.

He also praised the Houthis for their bravery and resilience.

This meant the US would no longer be bombing Yemen, and the Houthis would stop firing at ships in the Red Sea in support of the Palestinians in Gaza.

There was no mention of Israel in Trump’s announcement – a sign, to many, of a possible chill between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Houthis, for their part, made it clear that the deal does not extend to Israel and they would continue their attacks until Israel allowed aid into Gaza, ending the starvation it is imposing on the people there.

Israel left out?

Israel has been launching attacks on Yemen, claiming it wants to deter the Houthis, who took control of Sanaa in 2014 and already fought a years-long war against the internationally recognised Yemeni government.

Israel’s most recent attack, on Sunday, bore an eerie resemblance to how it has operated when bombing the trapped population of Gaza, issuing “warnings” to people in three Yemeni ports in Hodeidah governorate to flee, with less than an hour’s notice.

Whether this escalation is a reaction to the announced US ceasefire remains to be seen, but many analysts have spoken of a widening rift between Netanyahu and Trump.

Netanyahu has reportedly expressed his frustration with Trump’s Middle East policy in private conversations.

He has been publicly against the US administration’s talks with Iran, claiming there is no diplomatic way to resolve differences with Tehran, yet Iran and the US have continued their talks.

He went on to blame Iran for the Houthis’ attacks, claiming Israel’s attacks are a message to the “Houthis’ sponsors”.

Trump, for his part, has seemed unconcerned.

“It’s worth noting Trump didn’t say anything about [Houthi] attacks on Israel, which seem to be continuing amid this escalation,” Nicholas Brumfield, a Yemen analyst, told Al Jazeera.

“In [this] case, it’s a US drawdown because the Houthis haven’t been attacking international shipping,” Brumfield said. “They’ve been attacking Israel. The US has been doing its thing, and the Houthis have been targeting US ships.”

After Israeli attacks on Monday and Tuesday, which killed at least three people and wounded 35 others and damaged Hodeidah Port and Sanaa Airport, the Houthis promised retaliation.

The attacks “will not go unanswered”, the Houthi political bureau said in a statement.

That kind of statement is typical of the Houthis, who have managed to weather more than a decade of attacks by forces with far superior military capabilities.

Air strikes by the US and United Kingdom on Yemen in early 2024 were unable to stop the Houthis’ attacks on Red Sea traffic.

Years of air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s internationally recognised government taught the Houthis to keep their military infrastructure agile, analysts told Al Jazeera.

A senior US government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Al Jazeera that recent US attacks on the Houthis have pushed leaders underground after the killing of some key military commanders.

However, unlike under US President Joe Biden’s administration, the attacks under Trump have been indiscriminate and have led to more civilian deaths. More than 250 people have been killed by US attacks on Yemen since mid-March, including at least 68 people at a centre housing detained African refugees and migrants in late April.

Experts told Al Jazeera that despite the increased ferocity of those attacks, the Houthis have not been deterred.

“The Houthis aren’t going to stop,” Brumfield said.

Israel still striking

The Houthis have made their stance clear vis-à-vis the agreement with the US and the continuation of attacks on Israel, which has also made clear that it plans to keep attacking.

“The stated aim is to deter [the Houthis] or deplete their military capabilities to the point that the Houthis cannot target Israel any more, but these are both very unrealistic goals,” Hannah Porter, an independent Yemen analyst, told Al Jazeera.

Israel already considers that it has diminished the capabilities of two of its biggest foes, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, over the past 19 months.

But trying something like that on the Houthis would be a vastly different challenge, she said.

“Israel has probably not gathered the amount of intel on the Houthis that they have on Hamas or Hezbollah, so tracking and targeting leaders will be harder,” Porter said.

“More importantly, the geographic area is much larger in northern Yemen, meaning that there are far more potential targets.”

“The terrain is a factor, too,” she added. “Northern Yemen is very mountainous with plenty of places to hide people and weapons.”

For now, Israel and the Houthis seem intent on continuing their exchange of attacks. And the first to suffer will be the people of Yemen.

Israel struck numerous targets in recent days in Yemen, including Sanaa’s airport and the port in Hodeidah, which experts said is likely to exacerbate Yemen’s dire humanitarian situation.

Israel destroyed at least three civilian planes in the attacks.

Yemen is already suffering one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. More than 18.2 million people require humanitarian assistance and protection services, according to the United Nations.

More than 17.1 million Yemenis suffer acute food shortages, and about five million are on the brink of famine.

While analysts said Israel’s attacks on ports will not be a “knockout blow”, they are among a matrix of factors that leave many Yemenis in an increasingly precarious position.

“The humanitarian situation will just get worse,” Raiman Al-Hamdani, a Yemen researcher with the international development company ARK, told Al Jazeera.

“Destroying the two main ports of northern Yemen, where the majority of the population lives, coupled with the FTO [“foreign terrorist organisation”] designation with cuts to the aid system around the world and the deteriorating economy … is a recipe for [unprecedented] humanitarian disaster.”

“[Israel’s attacks] are a continuation of its strategy. It’s out of spite, targets civil infrastructure and the policy of creating human suffering,” Al-Hamdani said.

Both sides seem unwilling to stop, however.

“I cannot see anything quite good coming out of this unless the war Israel is waging on Gaza comes to some form of truce,” Al-Hamdani said.

The statement did not indicate when the 21-year-old Alexander would be released.

Hamas has said it will release a US-Israeli captive held in Gaza, as the group confirmed it was engaged in direct talks with the United States towards securing a ceasefire in the war-ravaged enclave and getting aid flowing again to a suffering Palestinian population.

The Palestinian group released a statement on Sunday: “Israeli soldier Edan Alexander, a dual US national, will be released as part of efforts towards a ceasefire” and the reopening of aid crossings.

The statement did not indicate when the 21-year-old Alexander would be released, but it is thought to be in the coming 48 hours.

Israeli media reported that US envoy will be in Israel Monday as part of the deal.

It comes shortly before US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East this week – which does not include a trip to Israel. Trump and Witkoff have frequently mentioned Alexander by name in the past few months.

In its statement on Sunday, Hamas said it was willing to “immediately begin intensive negotiations” that could lead to an agreement to end the war and would see Gaza under a technocratic and independent administration.

“This will ensure calm and stability for many years, along with reconstruction and the end of the blockade”.

There was no immediate comment from either the United States or Israel.

Alexander, who grew up in the United States, was taken from his base during the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack.

Earlier Sunday, two Hamas officials told the AFP news agency that talks were ongoing in the Qatari capital of Doha with the United States and reported “progress” had been made.

One Hamas official, speaking about the talks with the US, said there was “progress made… notably on the entry of aid to the Gaza Strip” and the potential exchange of captives for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.

A second official also reported progress “on the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip”.

Israel shattered the last ceasefire, which lasted two months, on March 18, launching a major offensive in Gaza and ramping up its bombardment of the territory.

It has also cut off all aid to Gaza since March 2, saying it would pressure Hamas to release the remaining captives. None have been released.

Starvation has taken hold across Gaza due to the Israeli blockade.

Earlier this month, the Israeli government approved plans to expand its offensive in the Gaza Strip, with officials talking of retaining a long-term presence there.

The health ministry in Gaza said on Sunday that at least 2,720 people have been killed since Israel resumed its campaign, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,829.

The Israeli military has killed at least 13 Palestinians, including several children and women, in Gaza as it continues to starve the besieged enclave.

Among the victims since dawn on Sunday were three Palestinians killed in a drone strike on a vehicle and two killed in a bombing near residential towers located west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Another two people were killed in artillery shelling of a home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City in the north while the body of a man was recovered near the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza after Israeli warplanes bombed the area a day earlier.

The Israeli military also attacked the Islamic University building in Khan Younis.

فيديو يوثق لحظة قصف الاحتلال الجامعة الإسلامية في منطقة معن شرقي خانيونس جنوبي قطاع غزة. pic.twitter.com/1G8rFhF7Ch

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) May 11, 2025

The latest killings in the daily Israeli bombardment of Gaza came as the enclave has seen no food, water, medicine or fuel enter the territory for 70 days due to Israel’s blockade.

The 2.3 million residents of Gaza are surviving on fast-dwindling supplies and charity kitchens, which have been gradually forced to shut down as they run out of food and hunger spreads.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned on Sunday that the longer the blockade continues, the more irreversible harm is being done to Palestinians.

“UNRWA has thousands of trucks ready to enter and our teams in Gaza are ready to scale up the delivery,” the organisation said.

Hamas said in a statement on Sunday that Israel is committing a “complex crime”.

Israel’s security cabinet this month approved a plan to fully occupy the Gaza Strip and force another mass displacement of Palestinians.

Israel has also proposed taking over any future humanitarian aid distribution, which would, it said, involve creating designated military zones.

The Humanitarian Country Team, a forum that includes UN agencies, warned that the plan is dangerous and would “contravene fundamental humanitarian principles and appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Sunday that the country would accept a new US mechanism that would start delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza.

A group of American security contractors, former military officers and humanitarian aid officials is proposing to take over the distribution of food and other supplies in Gaza based on plans similar to those designed by Israel.

The plan has been criticised for bypassing the UN and aid groups with expertise in aid delivery and creating only four distribution points that would force a large number of Palestinians to travel to southern Gaza.

According to the latest figures by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on Sunday, at least 52,829 Palestinians have been confirmed killed and 119,554 wounded by Israeli military attacks since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel, which killed an estimated 1,139 people and resulted in more than 200 people taken captive into Gaza.

Pope Leo XIV called for an immediate ceasefire, entry of humanitarian aid and release of all those held in Gaza during his first Sunday blessing since his election as pontiff.

Israel to pay soldiers more before Gaza expansion

The Israeli military planned to intensify its ground occupation of Gaza on Sunday, pulling the Paratroopers Brigade back from its incursions into Syria to be redeployed to Gaza.

The paratroopers have been operating in the occupied Golan Heights and inside Syria since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in December.

Israel withdrew the Nahal Brigade from the occupied West Bank – which has also been under assault for months – in its intended and self-proclaimed push to “conquer” Gaza.

But thousands of Israeli reservists and other members of the Israeli military and security agencies, along with thousands of Israelis demonstrating in the streets, have been calling for an end to the war to bring back all captives.

To address the growing dissatisfaction among soldiers, the Israeli government on Sunday approved a “comprehensive benefit plan” for reservists worth about 3 billion shekels ($838m) that is slated to include a series of economic and social benefits.

The army welcomed the plan approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying in a statement that it is a reflection of soldiers’ “exceptional contribution” to Israeli society.

This comes as United States President Donald Trump, who has reportedly had some differences with Netanyahu in recent weeks over the Gaza war and how to engage with Iran, will launch a tour of the Middle East this week.

Many Christians of the Holy Land rejoiced at the election of Pope Leo XIV as the successor to Saint Peter. Many of us hope that the new pope will follow the legacy of his predecessor, Pope Francis, particularly with regard to issues of justice and peace.

The Holy See has historically played an important role in supporting the Christian presence in the Holy Land, whether through church activities, engagement with influential parties in and around the region, or through material and moral support. This has been reflected in the establishment of institutions such as the Pontifical Mission in Jerusalem, Bethlehem University, the Benedictus Center in Nazareth, and most recently, the donation by Pope Francis of the Popemobile to serve as a mobile clinic for children in Gaza.

Some of the most impactful moments in our recent history have been papal visits to our land — starting with Pope Paul VI in 1964, followed by Pope John Paul II in 2000, Pope Benedict XVI in 2009, and concluding with Pope Francis in 2014.

We, Christians in the Holy Land, hope that Pope Leo XIV will not only come to visit us but also help address some of the challenges we face today in the birthplace of Christianity. As a community of 230,000 people, we are working to strengthen the Christian presence as an active component of the local society, in collaboration with its other components. However, we do need help.

One of the main issues affecting Christian lives in Israel and Palestine is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is a persistent source of regional instability that fuels violence in various forms, which kills many, including Christians.

Rising religious and political extremism makes many of us feel like strangers in our own homeland. Economic deterioration and the declining number of people coming for pilgrimage in the Holy Land due to the conflict are leading to a loss of livelihood and worsening socioeconomic conditions. Widespread despair is driving many to emigrate or plan to leave in the near future, dwindling the numbers of our community.

Many local Christians want the Holy See to engage with key global and regional players to achieve a lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In his last sermon, Pope Francis spoke about the urgent need for peace in Gaza. In his first sermon, Pope Leo XIV called for an immediate ceasefire and delivery of humanitarian aid to the Strip. We welcome these statements and hope he will continue to do his utmost to promote peace in the Holy Land.

In Palestine, the situation remains unclear due to the Israeli occupation of all territories meant to form a Palestinian state, the ongoing war in Gaza, and the limited authority of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank — not to mention Israel’s full annexation of East Jerusalem. This reality calls for thoughtful action by the Church, both at the level of the Holy See and locally, to provide people with hope in these dark times.

In Israel, there is a pressing need for cooperation between the Holy See and the local church — bishops, priests, and believers — to resolve many issues that affect the Christian and non-Christian communities. It is crucial to work with all segments of the local society to pressure the state to treat all its citizens equally and preserve their dignity.

Christians hope that the Holy See can collaborate with us in our efforts to achieve equality. We, as a community, face Israeli laws that discriminate against us based on ethnicity and religion; we need support in our efforts to have such laws repealed.

It is also essential to work towards resolving painful issues that have negatively impacted the Christian presence, such as the case of the villages of Iqrit and Biram, whose Catholic Christian residents were expelled before their homes were destroyed by the Israeli authorities in 1951. Since then, the residents and their descendants have been demanding to return to their ancestral lands, but are being denied this right.

There is also a need for stronger intervention by the Holy See to support Christian institutions operating under Israeli control, which face growing challenges, such as attempts by some municipalities to impose heavy taxes in violation of past agreements, the clear discriminatory underfunding of Christian schools by Israeli authorities, and threats against church property.

Many Christians of the Holy Land also hope that Pope Leo XIV will work to enhance unity among them, including efforts to reach a unified date for major religious holidays, especially Christmas and Easter. They also call for increased joint efforts among churches to organise pilgrimages to the Holy Land that include not only visits to religious sites but also interactions with the faithful who live there. This is important because it would help us raise global awareness about the challenges we face and feel an integral part of the universal Church.

As a whole, Christians in the Holy Land, like their fellow Christians around the world, desire to see a father in Pope Leo XIV — a father who visits them and welcomes their visits, consults with them and listens to their concerns, protects them from harm, stands with them when they are attacked or oppressed, and follows in the footsteps of the Church’s founder, who never hesitated to defend the oppressed regardless of how powerful the oppressor might be.

Pope Leo XIV should know that he has many children in the Holy Land who love him and understand how busy he and the Holy See are with so many issues around the world.

In the Holy Land, Christians have prayed — and continue to pray — for his success in his mission, fully aware of how complex it is. But above all, the children need their father — and that is what they expect the most: that he will always stand by their side, despite how busy he might be.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

A Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University in the United States has returned to Boston after spending more than six weeks in an immigration detention centre in Louisiana in what her lawyers call a politically motivated crackdown on free speech.

Upon arrival at Boston Logan International Airport, Rumeysa Ozturk told reporters on Saturday that she was excited to get back to her studies during what has been a “very difficult” period.

“In the last 45 days, I lost both my freedom and also my education during a crucial time for my doctoral studies,” she said. “But I am so grateful for all the support, kindness and care.”

A federal judge on Friday ordered her release pending a final decision on her claim that she was illegally detained.

Ozturk, 30, was detained on March 25 when immigration officials arrested her in Massachusetts, revoked her student visa and transferred her to the detention facility in Louisiana.

Supporters believe Ozturk, a Fulbright scholar from Turkiye, was targeted for having co-written an opinion article in her student newspaper, calling on Tufts University to acknowledge Israel’s war on Gaza as a genocide.

A genocide case against Israel is under way at the International Court of Justice. Last week, the former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell accused Israel of committing genocide.

Ozturk was joined by her lawyers and two of Massachusetts’s Democratic members of Congress, Senator Edward Markey and Representative Ayanna Pressley.

“Today is a tremendous day as we welcome you back, Rumeysa,” Markey said. “You have made millions and millions of people across our country so proud of the way you have fought.”

Ozturk’s lawyers say her visa was revoked without notice and she was not allowed to contact legal counsel for more than a day after her arrest.

Appearing in court via video on Friday, Ozturk spoke of her deteriorating health, including severe asthma attacks in detention, and her hopes of continuing her doctoral research on children and social media.

US District Judge William Sessions granted Ozturk bail, saying she presented no flight risk or danger to the public. He found that her claim of unlawful detention raised serious constitutional questions, including potential violations of her rights to free speech and due process.

Ozturk’s case highlights a practice that has become common under President Donald Trump’s administration. Foreign students have been arrested and hundreds of their student visas revoked for their pro-Palestine views.

Mahmoud Khalil, who led the protests against Israel’s war on Gaza at Columbia University in New York, was among the first students detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on March 8. He remains in custody.

The Trump administration has been accused of conflating criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson previously accused Ozturk, without evidence, of supporting Hamas, which has been designated as a “terrorist” group by the US.

Ozturk denied any wrongdoing and said she will continue to pursue her case. “I have faith in the American system of justice,” she said.

Her legal battle continues in Vermont while immigration hearings proceed separately in Louisiana, where she may participate remotely.

Videos of her arrest, which show masked plainclothes officers taking her from a street in the Boston suburb of Somerville, Massachusetts, went viral and sent a chill across US university campuses.

Her lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union argued that her arrest and detention were unlawfully designed to punish her for speech protected by the US Constitution’s First Amendment and to chill the speech of others.

Pressley, who with two other Democratic members of Congress from Massachusetts visited Ozturk while she was in custody, said she was held in “squalid, inhumane conditions” and denied proper medical care for worsening asthma attacks.

“Rumeysa’s experience was not just an act of cruelty. It was a deliberate, coordinated attempt to intimidate, to instil fear, to send a chilling message to anyone who dares to speak out against injustice,” Pressley said.

At least 21 people, including several children, have been killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since dawn amid a months-long Israeli blockade that has deepened the humanitarian crisis in the war-torn coastal enclave.

Four Palestinians were killed and others were wounded Saturday evening after an Israeli airstrike targeted a tent sheltering displaced families in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip.

Earlier, Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli warplanes bombed a tent in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City on Saturday morning, killing five members of the Tlaib family.

“Three children, their mother and her husband were sleeping inside a tent and were bombed by an [Israeli] occupation aircraft,” family member Omar Abu al-Kass told the AFP news agency.

The strikes came “without warning and without having done anything wrong”, added Abu al-Kass, who said he was the children’s maternal grandfather.

In parallel, a drone attack on Gaza City’s Tuffah neighbourhood left six people dead and one more in the Sheikh Radwan area of the city where Israel bombed an apartment belonging to the Zaqout family.

Further south, Wafa said Israeli gunboats opened “heavy fire” on the shores of Rafah, killing a man identified as Mohammed Saeed al-Bardawil. Two more civilians were injured in an attack on the al-Mawasi humanitarian zone, west of Rafah.

In the past 24 hours, at least 23 Palestinians have been killed and 124 others injured in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.

Israeli blockade

The attacks came amid Israel’s continuing refusal to allow vital supplies into Gaza since March 2, leaving the enclave’s 2.3 million residents dependent on a dwindling number of charity kitchens, which have been shutting down in recent days as food runs out.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said: “There’s barely food … We’re talking about bakeries not operating, we’re talking about zero distribution points and we’re talking about only a few hot meal kitchens still operating.”

Khoudary said people queueing for hours would often leave empty-handed, with remaining kitchens stretching out food that would previously have fed 100 to serve up to 2,000 people.

“We’re seeing more people dying, we’re seeing more children dying due to malnutrition and the lack of food. But it’s not only the lack of food, it’s also the lack of medical supplies, it’s the lack of fuel, cooking gas and it’s the lack of everything,” she said.

Among the charities shuttering operations, the United States-based World Central Kitchen said on Wednesday that it had been forced to close down because it no longer had supplies to bake bread or cook meals.

The United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs appealed for the blockade to be lifted.

“Children are starving, and dying. Community kitchens are shutting down. Clean water is running out,” it said on Friday in a post on X.

‘Failure of humanity’

The blockade is also having a devastating effect on people with chronic illnesses, depriving Palestinians who suffer from diabetes, cancer and rare conditions, of life-saving medication.

Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said: “Doctors here say the tragedy is not in what’s happening, but in what is preventable.”

“These diseases have a treatment, but people of Gaza no longer have access to them, and they say that this is not just a failure of logistics, but of humanity,” he added.

Mahmoud spoke to the father of a 10-year-old boy suffering from diabetes, who said insulin was not available across northern Gaza.

“I spend entire days searching pharmacies, hoping to find it. Sometimes we hear that individuals might have it, so I go to their homes to barter,” he said.

Said al-Soudy, head of emergency in the oncology department of Gaza City’s Al Helou International Hospital, told Al Jazeera: “A large part of patients are struggling to find their essential medications. Without them, their health conditions deteriorate and may become life-threatening.”

Pharmacist Rana Alsamak told Al Jazeera that Palestinians were unable to obtain medication for “multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, hepatitis, chronic illnesses and … immune-related diseases”.

“These conditions now go largely untreated,” she said.

On Friday, the United States said it was establishing the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to coordinate aid deliveries into Gaza, with Israel providing military security for operations. The United Nations rejected the move, saying it would weaponise aid, violate principles of neutrality and cause mass displacement.

Thousands gather demanding an end to the war and the release of Israeli captives in Gaza.

Thousands of Israelis rallied in central Tel Aviv, calling on the government to end the war on Gaza and secure the immediate release of Israeli captives held in the besieged Palestinian enclave.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that in Tel Aviv, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an Israeli campaign group, held its weekly rally Saturday in “Hostages Square”, while another demonstration by families of captives is taking place outside the Israeli military headquarters.

A separate antigovernment protest is also occurring at Habima Square in Tel Aviv.

The Times of Israel reported that Shai Mozes, whose parents were held captive and released in separate exchange deals, told the crowd at the protest in Habima Square that Israel’s “real enemy is not Hamas, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is destroying Israel as a Jewish and democratic state”.

Netanyahu’s critics in Israel have accused the prime minister of extending the war for his own personal and political survival.

Haaretz also reported that protests are expected in other cities, including Jerusalem, Haifa, and Beersheba, as well as at dozens of other sites and intersections across Israel.

After Netanyahu announced an expanded offensive in the Gaza Strip on Monday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum criticised the move in a statement, saying the plan is “sacrificing” those still held in the Palestinian territory.

Hamas releases video of two Israeli captives alive in Gaza

Hamas’s armed wing released a video on Saturday showing two Israeli captives alive in the Gaza Strip, with one of the two men calling to end the 19-month-long war.

Israeli media identified the pair in the undated video as Elkana Bohbot and Yosef Haim Ohana.

The three-minute video released by Hamas’s Qassam Brigades shows one of the captives, identified by media as 36-year-old Bohbot, visibly weak and lying on the floor wrapped in a blanket.

Ohana, 24, speaks in Hebrew in the video, urging the Israeli government to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of all remaining captives.

Bohbot and Ohana were both abducted by Palestinian fighters from the site of a music festival during Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7 2023.

When on March 2, we heard all crossings into Gaza were closed, we thought it would not last more than two weeks. We really wanted a normal Ramadan where we could invite our surviving relatives for iftar and not worry about what food we could find to break our fast.

But it did not turn out this way. We spent the holy month breaking our fast with canned food.

My family, like most families in Gaza, had not stocked up on food or essentials, as no one expected the crossings to close again, or the famine – or even the war – to return.

In the days after the closure, food and other basic goods disappeared from the markets, and prices skyrocketed. A kilogramme of any vegetable jumped to $8 or more, sugar $22 and baby formula $11. A sack of flour previously costing $8, went up to $50; within two months, it reached $300.

Most people in Gaza could not afford these prices. As a result, families, including my own, began reducing the number of meals they eat, limiting themselves to just breakfast and dinner, and shrinking each person’s portion – half a loaf of bread for breakfast a whole one for dinner. Men, women, elderly people and children would stand in front of bakeries and charity kitchens for hours, in shame and sorrow, just to get a few loaves of bread or a small plate of food. For some families, this would be their only food for the day.

All the residents of central Gaza, where I live, relied on only three bakeries: two in Nuseirat and one in Deir el-Balah.

The crowds at these bakeries were overwhelming, blocking roads and halting movement in the area. Every day, there were cases of fainting and suffocation due to the pushing and shoving. In the end, only a small number of those who waited since morning would get bread.

My father would go to the bakery before sunrise to line up, instead of using what’s left of our flour, because we did not know how long this situation would last. But he would find the line already long, dozens having slept outside the bakery. He would stay until noon, then send my brother to take his place in the line. In the end, they would return with nothing.

On March 31, the World Food Programme announced the closure of all of its bakeries, including the three we could access, due to the depletion of flour and the lack of gas needed to run the ovens. This marked the start of true famine.

Soon, charity kitchens started closing as well because they ran out of food stock. Dozens of them shuttered in the past week alone. People grew even more desperate, many taking to local groups on Facebook or Telegram to beg for anyone to sell them a bag of flour at a reasonable price.

We live in a “lucky” neighbourhood where the kitchen still functions.

My niece Dana, who is eight years old, lines up in front of it every day with her friends, waiting for her turn as if it were a game. If she receives a single scoop of food, she comes back running, feeling very proud of herself. And if her turn doesn’t come before the food runs out, she returns in tears, complaining about how unfair this world is.

One day during Ramadan, a boy, displaced with his family to the al-Mufti School near our home, was so desperately trying to get food that he fell into the pot of hot food the charity kitchen was cooking. He suffered severe burns and later died from them.

The signs of famine began becoming apparent everywhere about a month and a half after the closure of the crossings. We see them in every aspect of our lives – sleeping on an empty stomach, rapid weight loss within, pale faces, weak bodies. Climbing stairs now takes us twice the effort.

It has become easier to get sick and more difficult to recover. My nephews, 18-month-old Musab and two-year-old Mohammed, developed high fever and flu-like symptoms during Ramadan. It took them a whole month to get better because of the lack of food and medicine.

My mother has been suffering from severe vision loss due to complications after eye surgery she had in late February. The malnutrition and the lack of eye drops she needed to recover have made her condition much worse.

I myself have been unwell. I donated blood to al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat just days before the border was closed and this seriously affected my physical health. Now, I suffer from extreme weakness in my body, weight loss and difficulty focusing. When I went to the doctor, he told me to stop eating canned food and to eat more fruit and meat. He knew that what he was saying was impossible to do, but what else could he say?

Perhaps the most difficult part about this situation is having to explain famine to little children. My nieces and nephews cannot stop asking for things to eat that we simply cannot provide. We struggle to convince them that we are not punishing them by hiding food, but that we simply do not have it.

Five-year-old Khaled keeps asking for meat every day while looking at food pictures on his mother’s phone. He stares at the images and asks whether his martyred father gets to eat all this in heaven. Then he asks when his own turn will come, to join his father and eat with him.

We struggle to answer. We tell him to be patient and that his patience will be rewarded.

I feel helpless seeing daily scenes of famine and desperation. I ask myself, how can the world stay silent while seeing children’s bodies go thin and fragile and the sick and injured die slowly?

The occupation uses every method to kill us – by bombing, starvation, or disease. We have been reduced to begging for a piece of bread. The entire world watches and pretends that it cannot even give us that.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

To prioritise the release of the captives in Gaza, or to continue fighting what critics are calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “forever war” – that is the question increasingly dividing Israel.

Israel’s government, laser-focused on the idea of a total victory against Hamas in Gaza, appears to be opting for the latter.

And that is only increasing the criticism Netanyahu has received since October 2023, firstly for his government’s failure to stop the October 7 attack, and then for failing to end a now 19-month war, or provide a clear vision for what the “day after” in Gaza will look like.

Netanyahu’s decision in March to unilaterally end a ceasefire instead of continuing with an agreement that would have brought home the remaining captives has widened the cracks within Israeli society, as opponents realised that the likelihood of the captives leaving Gaza alive was becoming more remote.

In recent weeks, a wave of open letter writing from within military units has emerged protesting the government’s priorities.

The discontent has also gained traction with the public. Earlier this month, thousands of Israelis gathered outside the Ministry of Defence in Tel Aviv to protest against Netanyahu’s decision to call up a further 60,000 reservists as part of his escalation against the bombed out and besieged Palestinian enclave of Gaza, where his forces have already killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children.

In mid-April, current and former members of the air force, considered one of Israel’s elite units, also released a letter, claiming the war served the “political and personal interests” of Netanyahu, “and not security ones”.

Prompted by the air force, similar protests came from members of the navy, elite units within the military and Israel’s foreign security agency, Mossad.

Political and personal interests 

Accusations that Netanyahu is manipulating the war for his own personal ends predate the breaking of the ceasefire.

In the minds of his critics, the longer the war continues, the longer Netanyahu feels he can defend himself against the numerous threats to his position and even his freedom.

In addition to facing trial on numerous counts of corruption dating back to 2019, he also faces calls to hold an inquiry into the government’s political failings before the October 7 attack.

Netanyahu also faces accusations that members of his office have allegedly been taking payment from Qatar – the Gulf state has previously dismissed the allegations as a “smear campaign” intended to hinder efforts to mediate an end to the conflict.

The continuation of the war allows Netanyahu to distract from those issues, while maintaining a coalition with far-right parties who have made it clear that any end to the war without total victory – which increasingly appears to include the ethnic cleansing of Gaza – would result in their departure from government, and Netanyahu’s likely fall.

And so there are questions about whether Netanyahu’s announcement of a further escalation in Gaza, including the occupation of territory and displacement of its population, will mark an end to the conflict, or simply bog Israel down in the kind of forever war that has so far been to Netanyahu’s benefit.

‘I don’t know if they’re capable of occupying the territory,” former US Special Forces commander, Colonel Seth Krummrich of international security firm Global Guardian told Al Jazeera, “Gaza is just going to soak up people, and that’s before you even think about guarding northern Israel, confronting Iran or guarding the Israeli street,” he said, warning of the potential shortfall in reservists.

“It’s also competing with a tide of growing [domestic] toxicity. When soldiers don’t return home, or don’t go, that’s going to tear at the fabric of Israeli society. It plays out at every dinner table.”

Staying at home 

Israeli media reports suggest that part of that toxicity is playing out in the number of reservists simply not showing up for duty.

The majority of those refusing service are thought to be “grey refusers”. That is, reservists with no ideological objection to the mass killings in Gaza, but rather ones exhausted by repeated tours, away from their families and jobs to support a war with no clear end.

Official numbers of reservists refusing duty are unknown. However, in mid-March, the Israeli national broadcaster, Kan, ran a report disputing official numbers, which claimed that more than 80 percent of those called up for duty had attended, suggesting that the actual figure was closer to 60 percent.

“There has been a steady increase in refusal among reservists,” a spokesperson for the organisation New Profile, which supports people refusing enlistment, said. “However, we often see sharp spikes in response to specific shifts in Israeli government policy, such as the violation of the most recent ceasefire or public statements by officials indicating that the primary objective of the military campaign is no longer the return of hostages and ‘destruction of Hamas’, as initially claimed, but rather the occupation of Gaza, and its ethnic cleansing.”

Also unaddressed is growing public discontent over the ultra-religious Haredi community, whose eight-decade exemption from military service was deemed illegal by the Supreme Court in June of last year.

Despite the shortfall in reservists reporting for duty and others having experienced repeated deployments, in April, the Supreme Court requested an explanation from Netanyahu – who relies upon Haredi support to maintain his coalition – as to why its ruling had not been fully implemented or enforced.

Throughout the war, Netanyahu’s escalations, while often resisted by the captives’ families and their allies, have been cheered on and encouraged by his allies among the far-right, many of whom claim a biblical right to the homes and land of Palestinians.

The apparent conflict between the welfare of the captives and the “total victory” promised by Netanyahu has run almost as long as the conflict itself, with each moment of division seemingly strengthening the prime minister’s position through the critical support of the ultranationalist elements of his cabinet.

Netanyahu’s position has led to conflict with politicians, including his own former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. While Gallant wasn’t opposed to the war in principle – his active support for Netanyahu eventually led to him joining Netanyahu in facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for war crimes – his prioritisation of the captives put him at odds with the prime minister.

The divide over priorities has meant that civility between the government and the captives’ families has increasingly gone out the window, with Netanyahu generally avoiding meeting families with loved ones still captive in Gaza, and far-right politicians engaging in shouting matches with them during meetings in parliament.

Division within Israeli society was not new, Professor Yossi Mekelberg of Chatham House told Al Jazeera, “but wars and conflicts deepen them”.

“Now we have a situation where some people have served anywhere up to 400 days in the army [as reservists], while others are refusing to serve at all and exploiting their political power within the coalition to do so,” Mekelberg added.

“Elsewhere, there are ministers on the extreme right talking about ‘sacrificing’ the hostages for military gain,” something Mekelberg said many regarded as running counter to much of the founding principles of the country and the Jewish faith.

“There’s such toxicity in public discourse,” Mekelberg continued, “We see toxicity against anyone who criticises the war or the prime minister, division between the secular and the religious, and then even divisions within the religious movements.”

The incident comes days after Oman said it mediated a ceasefire deal between the US and the Houthi group.

Air raid sirens were heard in Israel as a missile was launched towards the territory by Yemen’s Houthis, who say they are retaliating against Israeli sites in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel’s military said it intercepted the projectile on Friday using its air defence systems.

There were no reports of injuries or damage from the missile attack, according to a military statement.

The incident came days after Oman said it mediated a ceasefire deal between the United States and the Houthis, with the Yemeni group saying the agreement did not include Israel.

Houthi rebels fired a “hypersonic ballistic missile” towards Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, while also claiming a drone attack “targeting a vital Israeli enemy target” in the same area, according to the group’s military spokesperson, Yahya Saree.

Israeli media reported that air raid sirens were sounded in several areas across central Israel, with people receiving early warning mobile messages about the missile attack.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said that Israel would respond forcefully in Yemen and “wherever necessary”, describing the Houthi missiles as “Iranian”.

‘Going to strike back’

“The Israeli defence minister has released some comments saying that Israel is going to strike back with full force,” said Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Amman, Jordan. “But these comments aren’t really surprising because we’ve heard them from Israel Katz previously when the Houthis had launched any sort of ballistic missile towards Israel.”

However, “this time it’s a little bit different because earlier in the week one of those missiles actually made impact … at quite a strategic location at the main airport inside of central Israel,” Salhut said.

Friday’s missile sent thousands of people “running towards shelters and safe rooms”, she added.

US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that his country would stop bombing Yemen as the Houthis had agreed to stop their attacks on US ships in the Red Sea.

But the Houthis have continued to fire missiles and drones towards Israel, most of which the Israeli military says it has intercepted, without casualties or serious damage occurring.

The Houthis have attacked numerous vessels in the Red Sea linked to Israel and its allies in what they state is an act of solidarity with Palestine.

According to Israeli media, the Houthi group has launched 28 ballistic missiles and dozens of drones at Israel since March 18, when Israel resumed its genocidal war on Gaza.

Israel has been waging a devastating war on the enclave since October 2023, killing more than 50,000 Palestinians, after a Hamas-led attack into southern Israel that month.

Israel’s priority is a ‘wider colonial expansion’, the committee on Israeli practices in occupied territories said.

The world could be witnessing “another Nakba”, or the expulsion of Palestinians, a United Nations special committee has warned.

The committee sounded the alarm on Friday, accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and saying it was inflicting “unimaginable suffering” on Palestinians.

The comments come after Israel announced a plan earlier this week to expel hundreds of thousands of hungry Palestinians from the north of Gaza and confine them in six encampments.

For Palestinians, any forced displacement evokes memories of the “Nakba“, or catastrophe – the mass displacement that accompanied Israel’s creation in 1948.

“Israel continues to inflict unimaginable suffering on the people living under its occupation, whilst rapidly expanding confiscation of land as part of its wider colonial aspirations,” said the UN committee tasked with probing Israeli practices affecting Palestinian rights.

“What we are witnessing could very well be another Nakba,” the committee added, after concluding an annual mission to Amman.

“The goal of wider colonial expansion is clearly the priority of the government of Israel,” its report stated.

“Security operations are used as a smokescreen for rapid land grabbing, mass displacement, dispossession, demolitions, forced evictions and ethnic cleansing, in order to replace the Palestinian communities with Jewish settlers.”

‘Inhuman, degrading treatment’

The committee also noted Israel’s human rights violations against Palestinians.

“According to testimonies, it is evident that the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including sexual violence, is a systematic practice of the Israeli army and security forces, and is widespread in Israeli prisons and military detention camps,” it said.

“The methods read as a playbook of how to try to humiliate, derogate, and strike fear into the hearts of individuals.”

The committee’s mission took place as Israel’s weeks-long total blockade of aid to Gaza continues.

“It is hard to imagine a world in which a government would implement such depraved policies to starve a population to death, whilst trucks of food are sitting only a few kilometres away,” the committee said.

“Yet, this is the sick reality for those in Gaza.”

The UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories was established by the UN General Assembly in December 1968.

During the formation of Israel in 1948, approximately 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes in what became known as “the Nakba”.

The descendants of some 160,000 Palestinians who managed to remain in what became Israel presently make up about 20 percent of its population.

The committee is currently composed of the Sri Lankan, Malaysian and Senegalese ambassadors to the UN in New York.

“If you have love and if you are rooted in your beliefs, no fear can shake you.” Palestinian peace activist Mohsen Mahdawi recounted his arrest and imprisonment to Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey, explaining how he is able to keep up his work.

US-backed Gaza foundation proposal to keep aid from Hamas, but critics slam bypass of UN, Israeli threat to besieged Palestinian civilians.

The United States has said a new foundation is being established to coordinate aid deliveries to Gaza amid Israel’s two-month blockade.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told reporters on Friday that Israel would not be involved in distributing aid in the enclave but would provide security for the operations of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The plan for the “charitable” and “non-governmental” initiative was announced on Thursday by State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce. Although few details were revealed, it appears part of a US-Israeli push to take over the distribution of aid to prevent it from being diverted by Hamas and other groups.

The AP news agency reported that the newly created GHF had issued a proposal to implement a new aid distribution system, supplanting the current one run by the United Nations and other international aid agencies.

Reports claim that under the proposal, private contractors will be used to secure hubs where Palestinians will be required to gather to collect supplies.

Israel, which has halted the entry of all aid to Gaza since March 2, deepening the humanitarian crisis, has previously said it will not relax the blockade until a system is in place that gives it control over the distribution, insisting that supplies are used to support Hamas.

The intention to sideline the United Nations has drawn sharp criticism from humanitarian organisations, and it is unclear if the GHF proposal will ease those concerns.

Bruce promised further announcements regarding the proposal would follow soon. “I was hoping to introduce it today, but the foundation will be announcing this shortly,” she said.

The former executive director of the UN World Food Programme David Beasley is in talks with the US, Israel and other key players to head the GHF, reported US outlet Axis, quoting unnamed sources.

Israel’s blockade, implemented about two weeks before it resumed its bombardment of the enclave, has left Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians, most of whom have been displaced multiple times, desperately short of food, fuel, and medicine.

Israeli ‘aid plan’

The US plan appears to be designed along similar lines to a proposal approved by Israel’s security cabinet on Sunday.

Under the scheme, four “Secure Distribution Sites” would be constructed, each intended to serve 300,000 people. Palestinians expelled from northern Gaza would be forced to relocate to reach the centres.

The plan was met by sharp criticism from the UN and other aid groups, who noted that Palestinians have regularly come under attack from Israeli forces while collecting aid.

Addressing those concerns, Huckabee on Friday said “the most significant danger is not doing anything” and “people dying from hunger”.

The aid would be “distributed effectively, but also safely”, the US official insisted, according to Israeli daily Haaretz.

The decision to bypass international aid agencies comes amid growing alarm over famine-like conditions in the besieged territory, where Israel’s near-total blockade has cut off all essential supplies for almost three months.

At least 57 Palestinians have starved to death in Gaza, with most of the victims being children, as well as the sick and elderly.

UN humanitarian agency spokesperson Jens Laerke condemned the effort to dismantle existing aid structures on Tuesday.

“This appears to be a deliberate attempt to weaponise the aid,” he said. “It should be based solely on humanitarian need.”

The Israeli military has been altering commercial drones to carry bombs and surveil people in Gaza, an investigation by Al Jazeera’s Sanad verification agency has found.

According to Sanad, drones manufactured by the Chinese tech giant DJI have been used to attack hospitals and civilian shelters and to surveil Palestinian prisoners being forced to act as human shields for heavily armoured Israeli soldiers.

This is not the first time DJI drones have been modified and used by armies. There were similar reports about both sides of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022.

At the time, DJI suspended all sales to both countries and introduced software modifications that restricted the areas where its drones could be used and how high they could fly.

However, DJI has not stopped selling drones to Israel.

Israel’s use of DJI drones

The Israeli army’s use of DJI drones is not new.

By 2018, DJI drones were reportedly in extensive use across numerous divisions in the Israeli military. The Israeli campaign group Hamushim found evidence that Israeli military-trained operators were using DJI’s Matrice 600 model to drop tear gas on civilian protesters during the following year’s Great March of Return in Gaza.

Despite their previous deployment by the Israeli military, their lethal use against civilians and protected targets in Gaza, as documented in this investigation, is unprecedented.

Al Jazeera has reached out to Israeli authorities to request comment on the findings of this investigation but has received no response by time of publication.

Sanad has documented several DJI drones that have been adapted for military use.

However, it is the powerful DJI Agras drone, developed for agricultural use, that is the most significant.

According to its manufacturers, the DJI Agras can carry a substantial payload and is capable of precision flight.

As Sanad’s investigation shows, it can also be used to deliver an explosive payload to targets beyond the reach of conventional military forces.

In addition to the DJI Agras, the DJI Mavic has been used by the Israeli military across Gaza for reconnaissance and target acquisition.

Similarly, the compact DJI Avata drone, designed for recreational filming, has been repurposed by the Israeli military to navigate and map the intricate tunnel networks beneath Gaza.

Attacks on northern Gaza

By late 2024, Israel had laid siege to Gaza’s north, pushing the population to the brink of famine and imposing conditions described as “apocalyptic” by United Nations observers.

Residents and humanitarian organisations reported an alarming number of what appeared to be civilian drones armed with explosives.

In an incident documented by displaced civilians, footage shared on July 17, 2024, shows a DJI Agras drone dropping a bomb onto the IHH Turkish charity’s building in Jabalia, northern Gaza, less than 100 metres (330ft) from a school serving as a shelter and aid distribution centre.

In November in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, a DJI Agras drone dropped a bomb in a residential neighbourhood where civilians had fled after Israeli shelling of a UN-operated school-turned-shelter.

People who witnessed the bombing told Sanad the attack seemed calculated to instil fear.

Surveillance and urban warfare

Beyond direct attacks, Israeli-modified DJI drones have been used extensively for surveillance and tactical operations throughout Gaza.

In a further incident, footage obtained by Al Jazeera Arabic from one Israeli drone shows a DJI Avata helping to track an unnamed Palestinian being used by heavily armed Israeli soldiers as a human shield – an illegal practice under international law – in Shujaiya in December 2023.

The individual is seen opening the school’s doors to make sure there were no Palestinian fighters inside, closely monitored by another drone that captured the entire operation.

DJI double standards: Gaza vs Ukraine

In 2022, in response to complaints from Ukrainian officials that DJI was sharing critical data with their Russian adversaries, the drone manufacturer suspended all sales to its retail partners in both countries.

DJI explained the move: “We will never accept any use of our products to cause harm, and we will continue striving to improve the world with our work.”

Despite evidence of DJI drones being weaponised by the Israeli military in Gaza, DJI has had no such response.

Responding to direct inquiries from Sanad, DJI said: “Our products are for peaceful and civilian use only, and we absolutely deplore and condemn the use of [DJI] products to cause harm anywhere in the world.”

A subsequent direct query asked if it plans “to halt sales in Israel or implement measures similar to those taken in the Russia-Ukraine conflict”.

But DJI did not respond to the query not has it undertaken any measures to halt sales or impose software restrictions on where drones can fly over Gaza, allowing continued military deployments of their drones by the Israeli military.