Featured contributor Dr. Yasir Masood delivers a poignant commentary on the ongoing conflict in Gaza, highlighting the severe humanitarian crisis faced by Palestinians under the colonial Zionist project. It describes the devastating impact of the apartheid regime, which inflicts war crimes against the innocent, including children, turning their homes into rubble. Dr. Masood questions the morality of such acts and the silence of the international community, framing it as collaboration.

It challenges the notion of security justifying slaughter and criticizes the hypocrisy of those promoting human rights while supporting the destruction of Palestinian lives. Dr. Masood’s narrative underscores the ideological underpinnings of the violence, masked as liberal democracy, and calls out the double standards of those who finance and support these actions while preaching civilization.

Dr. Masood appeals to the global community to recognize the atrocities in Gaza, asking whether they will continue to ignore the suffering or take a stand, as China has called for. He advocates for an immediate ceasefire, the provision of humanitarian aid, and the establishment of peace that respects Palestinian dignity. Dr. Masood emphasises that choosing to remain silent is equivalent to taking sides in the conflict, urging for a collective outcry against the violations in Gaza.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-04-30/Will-Gaza-remain-under-the-rubble-of-screaming-silence--1CZFDadErGo/p.html

Thirteen killed, dozens under rubble as Israel bombs Gaza amid food crisis

The entire Strip, with a population of two million people, may be on the brink of famine as the World Food Programme runs out of supplies.

Four victims, at least, were killed in a strike on a home in the city’s Sabra neighbourhood on Saturday, with the residents forced to dig the ground with their bare hands to reach people buried in the debris.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence agency, said a lack of rescue equipment has prevented emergency workers from reaching those buried underneath the collapsed building bombed by Israel before dawn.

“Our crews cannot reach them because of the lack of the necessary machinery,” he told the AFP news agency.

Earlier this week, Israeli aircraft destroyed 40 engineering vehicles the civil defence teams were using to remove heavy debris during rescue operations.

Israeli air raids also hit other parts of the Strip on Saturday, including al-Mawasi and Khan Younis, as the besieged territory faces impending mass starvation amid an ongoing genocide.

After 18 months of the Israeli military invasion that has killed more than 51,000 Palestinians, the situation in Gaza “is probably the worst” it has been, the United Nations warned.

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) on Friday said the entire Strip, with a population of two million people, may be on the brink of famine and aid kitchens are “expected to fully run out of food in the coming days”.

Israel’s ongoing blockade has meant no food, fuel or medicine has entered Gaza for two months. For many Palestinians in Gaza, community kitchens were their only source of nutrition after Israeli forces destroyed almost all food production facilities.

WFP has appealed to the international community to put pressure on Israel to lift the blockade, saying more than 116,000 metric tonnes of food assistance – enough to feed one million people for up to four months – are already positioned for delivery “as soon as borders reopen”.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah on Saturday, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said the humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory “has reached a very unprecedented breaking point”.

“Civilians are really struggling to cope with this crisis,” he said.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, said the crisis was “man-made”.

Michael Fakhri, UN rapporteur on the right to food, said Israel is “executing this starvation campaign with no repercussions”.

The World Health Organization said the situation was no different for medical supplies, with WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pleading on X for the aid blockade to end.

At least 2,062 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel resumed its deadly campaign against Hamas on March 18, and more than 50,000 since October 7, 2023. Hamas’s attack on Israel killed 1,218 people, mostly civilians.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/26/13-killed-dozens-under-rubble-as-israel-bombs-gaza-amid-food-crisis

Israel warns of 'larger' Gaza assault as air strikes kill at least 55

Israeli air strikes on Gaza Thursday killed at least 55 people as the military warned of a wider assault if the remaining hostages seized during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel were not released. The strikes came amid mounting pressure from Israeli officials and expanding evacuation orders, deepening the humanitarian crisis in the war-torn enclave.

Gaza rescue teams and medics said Israeli air strikes killed at least 55 people on Thursday, as the military threatened an even larger offensive if hostages were not freed soon.

Israel resumed its military assault in the Gaza Strip on March 18, after the collapse of a two-month ceasefire that had brought a temporary halt to fighting in the blockaded Palestinian territory.

Israel's army chief, visiting troops in Gaza on Thursday, threatened to expand the offensive in Gaza if hostages seized during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel were not released.

"If we do not see progress in the return of the hostages in the near future, we will expand our activities to a larger and more significant operation," Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said.

The warning came as the army issued fresh evacuation orders for northern areas of Gaza ahead of a planned attack.

Earlier in the day, six members of one family – a couple and their four children – were killed when an air strike levelled their home in northern Gaza City, the civil defence agency said in a statement.

Nidal al-Sarafiti, a relative, said the strike happened as the family was sleeping.

"What can I say? The destruction has spared no one," he told AFP.

Nine people were killed and several wounded in another strike on a former police station in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, according to a statement from the Indonesian hospital, where the casualties were taken.

"Everyone started running and screaming, not knowing what to do from the horror and severity of the bombing," said Abdel Qader Sabah, 23, from Jabalia.

Israel's military said it struck a Hamas "command and control centre" in the area but did not say whether it was the police station.

In another deadly attack, the bodies of 12 people were recovered after the Hajj Ali family home, also in Jabalia, was struck, the civil defence said.

Another 28 people were killed in strikes across the territory, medics and the civil defence agency reported.

They came as the Israeli military ordered Palestinians living in the northern areas of Beit Hanoun and Sheikh Zayed to evacuate ahead of an attack.

"Due to ongoing terrorist activities and sniper fire against IDF troops in the area, the IDF is intensely operating in the area," the military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.

The United Nations has warned that Israel's expanding evacuation orders across Gaza are resulting in the "forcible transfer" of people into ever-shrinking areas.

Aid agencies estimate that the vast majority of Gaza's 2.4 million residents have been displaced at least once since the war began.

Killed 'one by one'

In the aftermath of a strike in Khan Younis, AFP footage showed bodies on the ground, including those of a young woman and a boy in body bags, surrounded by grieving relatives kissing and stroking their faces.

"One by one we are getting martyred, dying in pieces," said Rania al-Jumla who lost her sister in another strike in Khan Younis.

Since Israel resumed its military operations, at least 1,978 people have been killed in Gaza, raising the overall death toll to at least 51,355 since the war began, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

The military acknowledged on Thursday that Israeli tank fire had killed a UN worker in the central Gaza city of Deir el-Balah last month, according to an investigation's initial findings.

It had initially denied operating in the area where a Bulgarian employee of United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) was killed on March 19.

Bulgaria said it had received an "official apology" from Israel over the killing.

The findings came after the military on Sunday reported on a separate probe into the killing of 15 Palestinian emergency workers in Gaza.

It admitted that operational failures led to their deaths, and said a field commander would be dismissed.

The war was ignited by the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

During the attack, militants also abducted 251 people and took them to Gaza. Of those, 58 remain in captivity, including 34 the military says are dead.

Israeli officials maintain that the ongoing military campaign is essential to securing the release of the remaining hostages.

However, many families of the captives, along with thousands of protesters, have strongly criticised the authorities for pressing ahead with the offensive rather than striking a deal.

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250424-gaza-rescuers-say-israeli-strikes-kill-53

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