Shujayea attack witnesses say Israeli bombing was “a massacre with the full meaning of the word” as an overwhelmed hospital appeals for blood donations to treat dozens of badly injured survivors.
Israeli forces have begun intense and continuous artillery shelling in northern areas of Rafah in southern Gaza, Al Jazeera reports, citing local Palestinian media.
Heavy Israeli artillery fire has also started in areas to the west of the city of Beit Lahiya in the north of the Palestinian territory.The Health Ministry in Gaza has revised upwards to 50,846 the total number of Palestinians killed in Israel’s war on the territory since October 7, 2023.
A further 115,729 people have been injured in Israeli attacks on the enclave during the same period, the ministry said.
Over the previous 24-hour reporting period, 36 people were killed and transferred to hospitals in Gaza and 41 wounded people were also admitted for treatment.
A further 3,688 people have also been injured in Israeli attacks since the scuttling of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas, the ministry said.
The Israeli military’s assault on Gaza has continued overnight, including a raid on Khan Younis in the south which has killed at least two people.
Rescue crews are scrambling to save dozens of people trapped under the rubble in Gaza City’s Shujayea area, after an Israeli attack on Wednesday which killed at least 35.
More than a dozen Israeli soldiers have arrested well-known Palestinian journalist Samer Khuwaira from his home in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.
Israeli forces have also stormed eastern neighbourhoods in the West Bank city of Tulkarem and forced families to evacuate their homes.
Israeli police have arrested seven demonstrators protesting Israel’s war on Gaza near Prime Minister Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem, The Times of Israel reports.
About 360 Israeli medical professionals, half of them doctors, have signed a letter demanding an investigation and prosecution of Israeli troops involved in the killing of 15 Palestinian emergency workers in Gaza.
Israeli police detain demonstrators staging a protest against the war in Gaza and Israeli attacks, in West Jerusalem on April 09, 2025. Israeli police confiscated the banners carried by the demonstrators, intervened in the demonstrations and detained some demonstrators. ( Mostafa Alkharouf - Anadolu Agency )
Israeli police detain demonstrators staging a protest against Israel’s war on Gaza, in West Jerusalem, Israel, on April 09, 2025 [Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu]
CCTV footage published by a Palestinian activist in the occupied West Bank, Ihab Hassan, reportedly shows two Israeli settlers setting fire to a Palestinian home and vehicle in the occupied West Bank village of Qira, southwest of Nablus.
“If a Palestinian had broken into an Israeli settler’s home and done this, they’d be arrested within hours – or shot dead on the spot. But these settlers? Nothing. Total impunity,” Hassan said in a post on X.
Israel’s Haaretz news outlet reports that about 360 Israeli medical professionals, half of them doctors, have signed a letter demanding an investigation and prosecution of Israeli troops involved in the killing of 15 Palestinian emergency workers in Gaza.
“Killing rescue and medical personnel is a blatant violation of international law,” the letter states, according to the Haaretz report.
There has been international outcry and calls at the United Nations for a full and independent probe into what the Palestine Red Crescent Society said was the deliberate and targeted killing by Israeli forces of eight of its staff as well as six Palestinian Civil Defence workers. A ninth paramedic was taken prisoner.
The Israeli forces, who opened fire on the PRCS’s clearly marked ambulances and emergency vehicles, buried the evidence of their crimes – along with the bodies of the slain paramedics – in shallow pits.
Earlier, we reported that the Israeli military had arrested well-known Palestinian reporter Samer Khuwaira from his home in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.
The Quds News Network has now published footage of the arrest, showing a handcuffed Khuwaira being led out of his apartment complex by more than a dozen armed Israeli soldiers.
As we previously reported, the Yemen-based Houthis have said they have shot down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the al-Jawf governorate, with footage of the aftermath of the incident showing the flaming wreckage.
Since March 15, the US military has targeted the Iran-backed group – which controls large swaths of Yemen – with near-daily air strikes to deter its attacks on vital shipping lanes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The US vice president met with several former captives and the families of captives still being held in Gaza at the White House on Wednesday.
Vance told those present that the Trump administration remains “hopeful” about the chances of Israel and Hamas reaching a deal to secure the release of the 59 remaining captives, according to a readout from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
“President Trump is committed to reuniting the remaining hostages with their families, something that should have happened long before his return to office,” Vance said of the visit on X.
French President Emmanuel Macron said France will likely announce its recognition of the Palestinian state in the coming months.
Macron said he plans to make the announcement at an upcoming joint summit with Saudi Arabia where multiple other countries are also expected to recognise Palestine.
