Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 84 Palestinians, the Health Ministry said on Friday.
Among the dead were a Gazan civilian man, his wife, who was four months pregnant, and their two sons and a daughter.
NOTE: The Gaza Health Ministry’s daily casualty figures are based on the number of dead and wounded Palestinians brought to hospitals, and does not include victims that are under the rubble or elsewhere, where ambulance and civil defense crews can not reach them.
Gaza’s Government Media Office suggests that 52 people have died over the past few weeks due to hunger and malnutrition.
The Israeli army has killed 212 Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of its genocidal war in October 2023, the latest being journalist Saeed Abu Hassanein, who died from wounds sustained in an earlier Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
In the West Bank, 17-year-old Abdul Khaleq Jbour succumbed to critical injuries after being shot in the chest by Israeli forces.
RELATED: Heart-wrenching video of girl’s dismembered body, injured brother highlights global silence on Israel’s genocidal war
World Food Program runs out of food stocks in Gaza as aid block persists
“The WFP has depleted all its food stocks for families in Gaza,” a WFP statement said, adding the U.N. agency on Friday delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meals kitchens in Gaza.
“These kitchens are expected to fully run out of food in the coming days,” it added.
The agency said no humanitarian or commercial supplies had entered Gaza for more than seven weeks as all main border crossing points remained closed, resulting in the longest closure the Gaza Strip had ever faced.
Israel has previously denied that Gaza is facing a hunger crisis. The military accuses the Hamas militants who have run Gaza of exploiting aid – which Hamas denies – and says it must keep all supplies out to prevent the fighters from getting it.
More than 116,000 metric tons of food aid, enough to feed one million people for four months, are ready to enter once borders reopen, the agency said.
Meanwhile, the Israeli blockade has caused a staggering increase in food prices, with some essentials rising to an astonishing “1,400 percent above pre-ceasefire levels”, according to UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
NOTE: Israeli officials have provided no evidence that Hamas is stealing aid. On the contrary, Israeli news outlets have reported that the Israeli military itself is behind the looting of aid trucks.
RELATED: Gaza government warns of imminent mass deaths due to Israel’s blockade, urges immediate humanitarian corridor
Half a million newly displaced in Gaza as livable space shrinks under Israeli orders: UNRWA
“Over the last month in Gaza, around half a million people have been newly displaced,” UNRWA said in a statement.
“The multiple displacement orders issued by the Israeli military leave Palestinians with less than a third of Gaza’s area to live in,” the agency said, warning “that remaining space is fragmented, unsafe, and barely livable.”
US plans to evacuate citizens from Gaza ahead of Trump’s Middle East visit, source says
The Trump administration is planning to evacuate 20 US citizens from the Gaza Strip ahead of the president’s visit to the Middle East next month, Middle East Eye can reveal.
The evacuation of US citizens trapped in the besieged Gaza Strip is planned to take place in the coming week and is likely to occur on or before 7 May, a source with knowledge of the matter told MEE.
The plight of US citizens stuck in Gaza has stoked controversy.
In December, nine plaintiffs – a combination of US citizens, permanent US residents, and Americans with immediate family trapped in Gaza – sued the former Biden administration saying it had not done enough to evacuate US citizens from Gaza amid Israel’s attack.
The plaintiffs argued that the US government had violated their right to equal protection under the US constitution by failing to provide the type of “normal and typical” evacuation services that have been extended to US citizens in other wars zones, most recently in Afghanistan and Lebanon.
The State Department has not provided recent figures about how many US citizens remain in the Gaza Strip. The current evacuation will only apply to US citizens, meaning that non-US family members like spouses or children would be left behind.
NOTE: Israeli-American citizens were evacuated from Israel in the very earliest days of the war on Gaza.
Trump says he told Netanyahu to ‘be good to Gaza’ amid ongoing aid blockade
US President Donald Trump said Friday that he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week that he has to be “good” to the “suffering” residents of the besieged Gaza Strip.
Asked if he raised the issue of humanitarian aid deliveries, which Israel has blocked for over seven weeks, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he told Netanyahu during a Tuesday phone call that “you’ve got to be good to Gaza.”
“Those people are suffering. We got to be good to Gaza. We’re going to take care of that,” he said. “There’s a very big need for medicine, food and medicine, and we’re taking care of it.”
Asked whether his administration is pushing the Israelis to allow deliveries of food and medicine, Trump said: “We are.”
Eli Clifton, a senior adviser at the US-based think-thank Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, questioned whether the Republican leader “is shifting back to the failed attempts to shape Netanyahu’s behavior” that were used by Biden.
“This is exactly the type of messaging, exactly the type of statements of concern, that really epitomized the Biden administration,” Clifton said.
He said Biden ultimately was unwilling “to bring US pressure to bear in trying to shape Netanyahu’s behavior – or, at the bare minimum, distance the US from being complicit in what is, by all accounts, a truly horrific humanitarian situation in Gaza”.
Former President Biden had faced widespread criticism from his Democratic Party base for his administration’s Gaza policy, earning him the moniker “Genocide Joe”.
RELATED: Dem Voters Overwhelmingly Say US Should Cut Aid to Israel Until It Stops Attacking Civilians
Israel receives 3 more F-35 fighter jets, boosting fleet to 45
Israel received three more F-35 fighter jets on Thursday, bringing its total fleet of the advanced stealth aircraft to 45, the Israeli army announced on Friday.
“Since the beginning of the war, F-35 jets have been operating at an unprecedented pace,” Avichay Adraee, spokesperson for the Israeli army, said in a statement.
So far, Israel has signed contracts for a total of 75 F-35 jets, manufactured by Lockheed Martin.
US continues to attack Yemen
US warplanes conducted airstrikes on multiple regions in Yemen, according to local media. No information on casualties or damage from the strikes was provided.
The US has carried out more than 1,000 airstrikes in Yemen since March 15, killing 217 civilians and injuring over 430, mostly women and children, based on official Houthi data that excludes losses among their forces.
Last month, US President Donald Trump said that he had ordered “decisive and powerful military action” against the Houthi group and later threatened to “completely annihilate them.”
RELATED:
Top Houthi: Yemen to stop attacking US ships if Trump halts bombs
Yemen’s Houthis down 7 US drones worth $200m
Dem Voters Overwhelmingly Say US Should Cut Aid to Israel Until It Stops Attacking Civilians
While 71% of respondents preferred the US condition military aid to Israel, just 20% chose the more moderate option: continuing to support Israel and “its right to defend itself,” while “encouraging efforts to reduce civilian harm and promote long-term peace” – the Biden administration’s posture.
Voters under the age of 45 felt even stronger – with 80% favoring restricting aid and just 13% supporting the status quo posture.
Such numbers were striking, given how the Kamala Harris campaign refused to diverge from the Biden administration on several issues, infamously on Israel and Palestine. That stubborn refusal contributed to Harris’ eventual loss – and in the months since Donald Trump took power, the world has witnessed an even more severe ramp-up of violence against Palestinians and repression of their supporters in the US. The new polling underscores that Democratic voters have coalesced on an opinion starkly different from what the Biden-Harris administration maintained during the final year of its presidency.
US restoring legal status of hundreds of students after abruptly revoking visas
The US government is restoring the legal status of hundreds of international students after a wave of lawsuits challenged the abrupt suspension of their visas.
The sudden policy reversal was announced during a court hearing in Oakland, California, which brought together eight lawsuits filed by international students who argued that the federal government had terminated their right to remain in the US without due process. Attorneys in those cases had asked the court to issue a nationwide injunction covering all students whose official records granting them legal status were terminated since 1 March, and were at risk of deportation.
On Friday, assistant US attorney Elizabeth D Kurlan said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) was developing a new policy to govern how records are terminated on the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (Sevis), a federal database used to track international students’ immigration status. A similar announcement was made in a court in Washington.
In recent weeks, numerous students received notifications that their records were terminated with little explanation, jeopardizing their legal right to remain in the US and sparking outrage and confusion. Some said they had their status revoked for infractions as minor as a speeding ticket.
The news has brought some relief but not a full resolution, with some students saying the change has already caused irreparable harm (continue reading here).
MORE NEWS ON CAMPUS PROTESTS, ARRESTS, DEPORTATIONS, CRACK-DOWNS:
The New Arab: Trump slams US Harvard as ‘antisemitic, far left institution’ as the university prepares to take on US government
Anadolu Agency: ‘Boycott Israel’: University students stage protest in Paris to support Gaza
Middle East Monitor: Yale revokes status of pro-Palestinian group for protesting Israeli minister who backs ethnic cleansing
MORE NEWS:
The New Arab: Israel continues to ‘punish’ Pope Francis even after death over Gaza stance
The New Arab: France accused of working with Israel to ‘voluntarily’ evacuate over 100 Gaza academics
The Cradle: Trump says US will ‘lead the pack’ in potential war against Iran
Ha’aretz: Israeli Air Force Pilots Exposed Classified Info, Incl Preparations for Striking Iran
IMEMC Daily Reports
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – APRIL 25, 2025:
- At least 52,229 Palestinians killed, 125,384 injured – including:
- at least 51,439 killed in Gaza (~15,600 children)
- at least 964 killed in the West Bank (~187 children)
- at least 117,416 injured in Gaza
- at least 8,393 injured in the West Bank
According to Palestinian authorities, during the ceasefire Jan. 19- March 18 2025, Israeli attacks killed at least 150 Gazans, and Israel committed at least 962 ceasefire violations.
Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 11,000 more are still buried under rubble.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – April 25, 2025: ~1,592 – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 409 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel.
NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated
- In Israeli prisons, Palestinians endure “incredibly shocking,” “monstrous” treatment
- How Israel punishes Palestinians for building on their own land
- Trump Admin Enacts Vast Censorship of American Scientists Over Israel
- NSC director overseeing Israel, Iran had worked for Israeli military
- ‘Discrimination’: Arab American event moved from Amazon headquarters
- Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker James Longley on Gaza
- Before Trump bombed Yemen, Biden displaced over half a million
- Wiz acquisition puts Israel in charge of your Google data
- Leahy Law bars US aid to violators of human rights, except Israel
- All Palestinians are saddened by the death of Pope Francis
- How Christian Zionism is helping to crucify the birthplace of Christ
- ‘We smelled the stench of burning human flesh’: Israel burns 8 children to death in Gaza ‘safe zone’
- The suppression of Christianity in Jerusalem – its birthplace
- ‘They are trying to make it unbearable’: Jerusalem Christians face Easter under Israeli crackdown
- WATCH: Through a Child’s Eyes: Genocide of the Palestinian People in Gaza
- Portrait of Palestinian boy who lost both arms in Israeli strike named press photo of the year
- PHOTOS: A ruined university in northern Gaza becomes a refuge
- Power & Pushback: The Trump admin makes its case clear — it is deporting students simply for opposing the Gaza genocide
- Over 110,000 Israelis sign 37 petitions demanding Netanyahu end Gaza war, release hostages
