Israel-Palestine live: Unicef says over 13,000 children killed in Gaza

Al Jazeera Arabic posted on X scenes of al-Shifa Hospital, where injured Palestinians are being taken to after Israeli forces fired on a crowd of thousands waiting for aid at the Kuwait roundabout in Gaza City.

You can read more about this latest Israeli massacre here.

Hamas said on Thursday that it presented to mediators a comprehensive vision of a truce deal that is based on stopping the Israeli "aggression" against Palestinians in Gaza, providing relief and aid, the return of displaced Gazans to their houses, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

The vision also included the group's stance on the prisoners-hostages exchange deal, Hamas added in a statement, but did not elaborate.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said that the position of Hamas is still based on "unfounded demands".

Reporting by Reuters

Multiple news outlets are reporting of a new Israeli massacre of Palestinians who were waiting for aid to be distributed at the Kuwait roundabout, located east of Gaza City.

A journalist with Al Jazeera has reported nearly fifty Palestinians being killed, MEE could not independently verify the figure.

The attack took place when an Israeli helicopter fired on a crowd of thousands of Palestinians awaiting aid, according to the Quds News Network.

It’s the latest Israeli attack on aid-seeking Palestinians this month and comes as the humanitarian situation further deteriorates in northern Gaza, where aid access has been limited.

When President Joe Biden visited Israel and the occupied West Bank in 2022, he spent barely one hour with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Minus the time spent in translation between the two octogenarians, their conversation lasted 30 minutes, former senior US officials and Palestinian analysts told MEE.

“For the US, the Palestinian Authority was basically irrelevant. The authority wasn’t asking for much and the administration had little interest wasting political capital on them,” Diana Buttu, a former Palestinian peace negotiator, told MEE.

That changed after the Hamas-led 7 October attacks on southern Israel and the subsequent Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.

The US wants the PA to govern Gaza as part of its “day after” plan for when the war ends. On the sidelines of a think tank event in Turkey earlier this month, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said there was “no doubt” the PA would be the one ruling Gaza.

Read the full analysis by clicking below.

The US dips its toes back into Palestinian politics, but has trouble finding its feet

The leader of Yemen's Houthi movement said in a televised speech that the group will expand its operations to prevent Israel-linked ships from passing through the Indian Ocean towards the Cape of Good Hope, in addition to the Red Sea.

Abdul Malik al-Houthi added that 34 Houthi members have been killed since the group began to target shipping lanes, which it says is in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.

A coalition of Chicago-based Muslim and Palestinian groups released a letter announcing it rejected an offer to meet with White House officials over inaction over Washington's stance on Israel’s war on Gaza.

“First, there is no point in more meetings … the White House has not only refused to call for a ceasefire, but also enabled this blatant campaign of ethnic cleansing to take place by providing financial and military means, as well as diplomatic support at the United Nations,” the letter said.

"We believe another meeting would only act to whitewash months of White House inaction."

The move comes ahead of the Illinois primary election slated for next week.
President Joe Biden has received enough delegates to secure his ticket to be the Democratic Party's candidate in the upcoming general election.

However, several states have had sizable populations of voters who cast their ballots for "uncommitted" rather than voting for Biden in the primary election.

The "uncommitted" campaign is being organised as a protest vote against Biden's support for Israel's war.

Reuters is reporting that the Canadian government has paused non-lethal military exports to Israel since January because of the "rapidly evolving situation on the ground".

The news agency cited a Canadian government source who requested anonymity and did not provide further details.

The pause was first reported by the Toronto Star.

The European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza was a "man-made" one.

Borrell made the comments during a briefing with reporters in Washington, and added that world leaders needed to put more pressure on Israel to open crossings and allow humanitarian access to Gaza.

Borrell made a similar call for opening crossings into Gaza ahead of a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed Muhammad Mustafa to form the 19th government, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Mustafa, 69, is an economist and is the chairman of the board of the Palestine Investment Fund.

Last month, Mohammed Shtayyeh resigned as prime minister of the PA, paving the way for the formation of a new government. Axios reported opposition to Mustafa's appointment from Washington because of his closeness to Abbas.

A group of a dozen prominent English-language writers have penned an open letter, in which they have said they will not participate in the upcoming World Voices Festival, organised by the organisation Pen America and taking place on 10-13 May.

The writers participating in the boycott include Naomi Klein; Michelle Alexander; Hisham Matar; Isabella Hammad; Maaza Mengiste; Zaina Arafat; and Susan Muaddi Darraj.

Their letter condemns Pen America, saying that the organisation has failed to support Palestinian writers, and failed to create any support for the ongoing attacks on writers in Gaza, where around 100 journalists have been killed by Israeli forces.

"PEN America has not launched any substantial coordinated support or issued any reports highlighting the scale and scope of the attacks on writers in Gaza, or on Palestinian speech and culture more broadly," the letter said.

"PEN America has done very little to mobilize or inspire its many members - quite unlike recent PEN America campaigns opposing the war in Ukraine and its impact on culture, or PEN International’s “Day of the Dead” honouring journalists killed in Latin America."

A group of pro-Palestinian activists disrupted the distribution centre for The New York Times in Queens, New York, blocking off all entrances to the centre in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Protesters have held several demonstrations in front of, and also inside, The New York Times' office, criticising their coverage of Israel's war on Gaza, which many Palestinian activists have said is biased in favour of Israel.

Banners held by the activists read "Stop the Presses. Free Palestine" and "Consent for genocide manufactured here".

After the blockade, activists flooded the lobby of the Times, shouting for people to unsubscribe from the newspaper.

A satellite image from Maxar Technologies is showing that a jetty is being built just south of Gaza City, in the northern area of the enclave.

The image was posted on X by Washington Post reporter Evan Hill and shows a jetty of around 50 metres on the coast.

It is different from the floating dock that the US announced it will be building to facilitate the delivery of aid from a maritime route from Cyprus.

There are more than a thousand kidney failure patients in Gaza, according to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, and due to a lack of medical services, they are facing a slow death.

The rights monitor said that 20 people have already died of kidney failure, and nearly 60 patients are at risk of death "at any moment".

Hospitals across Gaza continue facing shortages of fuel, medicine, and surgical instruments. The collapse of the healthcare system in the besieged enclave also means that patients are no longer receiving regular dialysis services, a type of treatment for kidney failures.

In an update on X, the UN refugee agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) has said that only a dozen out of Gaza's 36 hospitals remain partly operational.

In Israel's war on Gaza, the Israeli military has on multiple occasions laid siege to hospitals while doctors and patients were still inside.

The UN Population Fund says that only two of these 12 hospitals provide maternity services, with around 180 women giving birth every day.

The United States has announced sanctions against three additional Israeli settlers, and two settlements, in the occupied West Bank.

The sanctioned individuals are Zvi Bar Yosef, Moshe Sharvit, and Neriya Ben Pazi.

The US is also sanctioning Moshes Farm, an Israeli settler outpost founded by Sharvit, and Zvis Farm, which was established by Yosef.

The announcement comes after the US first imposed sanctions on Israeli settlers last month for engaging in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

"There is no justification for extremist violence against civilians or forcing families from their homes, whatever their national origin, ethnicity, race, or religion," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.