Netanyahu ‘rushing to escalate massacres’ in Gaza, says Hamas

Hamas said that bombing Palestinian homes and committing “massacres” would “bring Netanyahu no form of victory” in Gaza.

Israeli forces intensify attacks on Gaza, killing at least 80 Palestinians since dawn, medics say. Victims include 50 people who were killed in north Gaza.

Russia, China and the UK have rejected a US-Israeli plan for distributing aid in Gaza, instead urging Israel to lift its two-month blockade on Gaza.

US President Donald Trump, who is visiting Saudi Arabia, says he is working to end the conflict in Gaza as soon as possible, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that “there will be no situation where we stop the war”.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 52,908 Palestinians and wounded 119,721, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The Government Media Office updated the death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.

An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive.

Amjad Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGOs Network, said that Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip are not the only thing sowing devastation across the enclave – so is its blockade.

“I cannot find the real words to describe the real situation,” Shawa told Al Jazeera from Gaza City.

“The worst thing is that all the Gazans are starving. This is the 10th week of closure of the borders. Nothing entered, no supplies … and all the UN agencies, NGOs, private sector are running out of supplies,” Shawa said. “And when we go to the hospitals … there is no medicine, and the beds of the hospitals are full of injured [people].”

We have more from Amjad Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGO Network.

Shawa told Al Jazeera that Israel’s proposed plan to let private companies handle aid into Gaza will further deepen the humanitarian catastrophe inside the Strip while giving Israel further control over Palestinians there.

“This military plan to distribute aid is to forcefully displace Palestinians from Gaza North to Rafah and to establish the so-called humanitarian bubbles,” Shawa told Al Jazeera. Israeli authorities won’t distribute aid based on humanitarian principles or security concerns, but will rather monopolise it and decide who can get it, Shawa said.

“It’s kind of militarisation of aid to replace the humanitarian structure that has worked for one and a half years in full capacity,” he said. So far, aid deliveries have been handled by international aid groups and UN organisations.

Shawa said this plan won’t alleviate the suffering of Palestinians. On the contrary, it will cause further displacement, control over calories, and further starvation. This is part of “the Israeli plan to destroy more and push Gazans to leave Gaza.”

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has hit back at French President Emmanuel Macron, who said the EU may revisit cooperation pacts with Israel over Netanyahu’s “shameful” Gaza policy.

“We remember well what happened to Jews in France when they couldn’t defend themselves. President Macron should not lecture us on morality,” Katz said in a statement.

“It is expected that someone who considers himself a friend of Israel would stand by Israel in its war against the murderous terrorist organisation Hamas and the Iranian axis of evil.”

Katz also claimed the Israeli army operates “with the highest level of morality under extremely difficult and complex circumstances – certainly more than anything France has done in its past wars”.

Cases have been brought against Israel and its leaders in international courts on charges that they are committing genocide and war crimes in Gaza. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

Israeli army orders Palestinians to leave Al-Shifa Hospital, four schools in Gaza City

Avichay Adraee, an Israeli army spokesperson, has issued an order for Palestinians to leave several areas in the Remal neighbourhood of Gaza City.

In a post on X, Adraee accused Hamas of operating in the area and said the military planned to attack “with great force”.

Germany’s chancellor calls for action to avert ‘famine’ in Gaza

Germany’s new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has urged all sides to avert a “famine” in Gaza, which has been under an aid blockade by Israel since early March.

“It is a humanitarian obligation on all parties … and I stress, on all parties, that famine in the region be averted as soon as possible,” Merz said in his first government statement in parliament since taking office last week.

He made the comments after the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative released a report on Monday saying Gaza is “confronted with a critical risk of famine” with the vast majority of its 2.1 million people at severe risk.

A UK Labour MP has delivered a speech in parliament calling for the suspension of the delivery of F-35 fighter jet components to Israel.

Andy McDonald backed a campaign brought by Palestinian rights organisations against the British government, which is facing a High Court challenge over the export of such components used by Israel in Gaza.

“We cannot say that we’re observing the Genocide, Geneva Conventions and Rome Statutes if we continue to supply Israel’s military,” he said.