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[Eyad Baba/AFP]
By Alastair McCready, Urooba Jamal, Umut Uras, Federica Marsi and Farah Najjar
Published On 2 May 2025

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2 May 2025 - 23:59
 (23:59 GMT)

Thanks for joining us

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Read more here about the drone attack that hit a Freedom Flotilla vessel preparing to ship aid to Gaza.

You can find here our key takeaways from the ICJ’s hearings into what Israel’s obligations are regarding allowing UN agencies and other relief groups to work in the Palestinian territory it occupies.

2 May 2025 - 23:45
 (23:45 GMT)

Here’s what happened today

We will be closing this live page soon. Here’s a recap of the day’s major developments:

  • At least 43 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since the early hours of Friday.
  • A ship carrying aid to Gaza in a bid to break Israel’s blockade was been hit by drones in international waters off Malta, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the group that organised the mission.
  • The ICJ concluded public hearings into what Israel’s obligations are regarding allowing UN agencies and other relief groups to work in the Palestinian territory it occupies.
  • Israel’s government and army have decided to expand their military operation in Gaza, calling up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers.
  • At least four people have been killed as a result of an Israeli strike in Syria’s Druze-majority Sweida governorate, while a separate strike targeted the vicinity of a village in Syria’s Hama countryside.
  • Seven US strikes hit the Ras Isa oil port in as-Salif district in Hodeidah, as the Houthis claimed responsibility for launching two missiles towards northern Israel.
2 May 2025 - 23:30
 (23:30 GMT)

University of Haifa suspends student group over Gaza protest

The University of Haifa has suspended its campus chapter of Standing Together, a left-wing activist group, following a silent protest against the ongoing war in Gaza.

The demonstration, held on April 23, involved more than a dozen students sitting silently in a campus building for 10 minutes, holding photos of Palestinian children killed in Gaza.

Five days later, the university suspended the group for the remainder of the semester, citing violations of campus regulations due to unauthorised demonstrations.

Alon-Lee Green, co-director of Standing Together, criticised the university’s decision, stating it challenges due process and freedom of expression, according to media reports. He said that the group received no warning or hearing before being informed of the suspension.

2 May 2025 - 23:15
 (23:15 GMT)

Arab League tells ICJ that Israel must facilitate UNRWA’s work

The Arab League told the ICJ that Israel is legally obligated not to disrupt UNRWA’s operations.

Remarks delivered by the league’s representative, Mohamed Helal, said UN activities in the occupied Palestinian territory are fulfilling the UN’s mandate “to safeguard Palestinian welfare until a just resolution is achieved”.

In a statement, the Arab League said Helal emphasised Israel’s obligation as the occupying power under international law are to ensure that it does not obstruct the work of the UN and other states engaged in humanitarian and relief efforts.

“The spokesperson underscored the importance of the forthcoming ICJ advisory opinion in affirming Israel’s legal obligations to facilitate – not hinder – the work of the UN and humanitarian organisations in the occupied territories,” the Arab League said in its statement.

2 May 2025 - 23:00
 (23:00 GMT)

Man in US sentenced to 53 years for murder of Palestinian-American child

A man in the US was sentenced to 53 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of a six-year-old Palestinian American boy, after being found guilty of hate crime charges and murder.

Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak announced the sentence on Friday in the case of 73-year-old Illinois landlord Joseph Czuba.

On October 14, 2023, just days after the start of Israel’s war in Gaza, Czuba attacked two of his tenants, Hanan Shaheen and her young son Wadee Alfayoumi.

Read full story here.

2 May 2025 - 22:45
 (22:45 GMT)
Analysis

Attack on Freedom Flotilla an ‘extremely illegal act’ under international law

The drone attack on the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s vessel while in international waters should be regarded as an “extremely illegal act”, Craig Murray, former head of maritime at the United Kingdom Foreign Ministry, told Al Jazeera.

“It’s a blatant violation of international law and I find the silence on the part of Western powers absolutely remarkable,” Murray said.

“Any civilian ship going about its lawful business – and indeed any military ship on the high seas – has the right to proceed without being attacked, unless you are in a state of war.”

Murray added that Western powers “will know exactly where these drones came from, it’s not a mystery,” but chose to remain silent in a show of “massive hypocrisy”.

2 May 2025 - 22:30
 (22:30 GMT)

WATCH: ‘I wish I could go back’ – Starving girl’s message from Gaza

2 May 2025 - 22:15
 (22:15 GMT)

Gaza media office says Israel using starvation as weapon of war

Gaza’s Government Media Office has released a report accusing Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war, calling it a “crime of genocide” and saying that starvation as a method of warfare is explicitly prohibited under international law.

The report cites systematic destruction of food sources, blockage of aid, and direct targeting of bakeries, farms and relief centres since Israel’s assault began 19 months ago.

It warned that more than 2.4 million Palestinians are facing hunger and malnutrition due to reduced food truck access and a tightened blockade.

The office called for urgent international action to lift the siege, open border crossings for aid, and prosecute Israeli leaders for war crimes.

2 May 2025 - 22:00
 (22:00 GMT)

Israeli military says drone intercepted, no sirens sounded

Israel’s military said its air force intercepted a “UAV that was launched from the east”.

It did not specify where the drones had been launched from.

Earlier today, the Houthis claimed responsibility for launching two missiles towards northern Israel, targeting the Ramat David military airbase and the Tel Aviv area, as the group continues its military pressure in solidarity with Palestinians.

2 May 2025 - 21:45
 (21:45 GMT)
EXPLAINER

What we know on the attack on the Freedom Flottilla

As we’ve been reporting, a ship intending to carry aid to Gaza was hit by drones while navigating in international waters off Malta, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the group that organised the mission.

Here is what we know:

  • The Conscience, registered under a Palau flag, was hit by what the FFC said were two drones.
  • The group said 30 volunteers were on board the ship which aimed to break Israel’s two-month aid blockade.
  • Malta said everyone on the ship was safe. It told the media that the ship had 16 passengers.
  • Israel has not commented on the attack, which took place at 00:23am Maltese time (22:23 GMT) and blew a hole in the vessel and set the engine ablaze.
  • A member of the FCC, Huwaida Arraf, told Al Jazeera that the vessel was on its way to Malta to load more volunteers and aid. It had not yet officially departed for its mission to bring humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip.
  • Nicole Jenes of the FFC told Al Jazeera that the attack was “an extension of the genocide that is happening in Gaza and cannot pass unpunished”. The group has demanded an investigation.
  • The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said the “deliberate targeting of a civilian aid ship in international waters is a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter, the Law of the Sea, and the Rome Statute, which prohibits the targeting of humanitarian objects”.
2 May 2025 - 21:30
 (21:30 GMT)

Israel announces more demolitions in West Bank refugee camps: Palestinian ministry

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has said Israeli authorities announced the demolition of 106 Palestinian homes in the Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps within 24 hours, calling the move an extension of the “systematic atrocities” inflicted on Gaza.

The ministry said Israel’s “brutal policy of forced displacement” across the West Bank has already ousted more than 40,000 Palestinians.

“These acts constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, aimed at eroding the national and human presence of the Palestinian people in their homeland through one of the most brutal forms of forcible transfer and annexation,” the ministry said on X.

It called for “urgent, serious international action to compel Israel to halt its atrocities and comply with international legitimacy resolutions”.

2 May 2025 - 21:15
 (21:15 GMT)

Israeli strike targets Syria’s Hama countryside

An Israeli air strike targeted the vicinity of a village in Syria’s Hama countryside, Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

The attack comes a day after Israel struck the vicinity of the presidential palace in Damascus, prompting a stern warning from the Syrian presidency.

Since President al-Assad was overthrown in December, Israel has launched hundreds of strikes into Syria, stepping up attacks that it also carried out routinely in previous years, and has deployed troops to a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the occupied Golan Heights.

2 May 2025 - 21:00
 (21:00 GMT)

Security camera captures Israeli settler attack on Palestinian herders in occupied West Bank

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has shared chilling security camera footage of Israeli settlers – some armed with what appear to be assault rifles – raiding the tent encampment of the Palestinian Abu Sief family in the Nablus area of the occupied West Bank.

In the video clip, about 10 masked settlers arrive in a white pick-up truck with a large Israeli flag and three all-terrain vehicles (ATVs). The pick-up rams a car belonging to the Palestinian family, and the settlers then set about stealing the family’s flock of sheep, smashing solar panels and windows, puncturing the tyres of a tractor, destroying and setting fire to tent tarps.

The attack took place on Wednesday night in the presence of guards from a nearby illegal Israeli settlement outpost, who arrived at the scene of the attack in a security ATV with red and blue emergency lights flashing.

Palestinian “community members tried to call the police, but no officers arrived”, B’Tselem said in a post on social media about the attack.

“Settler violence is state violence,” the group said.

2 May 2025 - 20:45
 (20:45 GMT)

US senior adviser says Washington supportive of Lebanon’s army

The Trump administration’s senior adviser for Arab and Middle Eastern affairs said “the US support to the Lebanese army hasn’t stopped” despite Washington’s ally Israel continuing attacks on Lebanese territory after a ceasefire in November formally halted the conflict with Hezbollah.

“We consider this agreement a historical one because it has clearly, for the first time, stipulated that weapons should be with the Lebanese state and the Lebanese army only,” Massad Boulos told Al Jazeera.

“We know that the US is always supporting the Lebanese army and there is always close cooperation between the US and the Lebanese army and the Lebanese state.”

The Israeli military has carried out multiple air raids in the suburbs of Beirut and has refused to fully withdraw from Lebanese territory, in breach of the terms of the US-brokered agreement.

2 May 2025 - 20:30
 (20:30 GMT)

ICJ hearing on Israel’s obligation to allow aid to Palestine

By Mat Nashed

On Friday, the ICJ concluded public hearings into what Israel’s obligations are regarding allowing UN agencies and other relief groups to work in the Palestinian territory it occupies.

A panel of judges heard arguments from 40 countries since Monday, including China, France, Indonesia, Pakistan, Russia and the UK. The court will likely deliberate for months before making a ruling, requested of it in December by the UN General Assembly.

Many of the participating states rebuked Israel for acutely restricting humanitarian aid into Gaza since launching the war. Israel has cut off all aid – food or medicine – entirely for the last two months, accelerating the starvation and medical crises.

Here are the key takeaways from the hearings.

2 May 2025 - 20:15
 (20:15 GMT)
Analysis

By approving plans to expand operations in Gaza, Israel is ‘upping the ante’

Ori Goldberg, an Israeli political commentator, says Israel’s plans to expand its ground operations in Gaza will sabotage hopes of a ceasefire, but added that the approval of these plans was “less realistic than it might appear”.

“The only path forward for Israel is full occupation. That is something right-winged politicians here have been toying with,” he told Al Jazeera.

“But it is something that brings real political dissent and opposition, even from those who supported Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza.”

There is still “a lot of mistrust” between the people in Israel and the government, he said, despite the fact that many support the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

“There is a sense that this government is being motivated by considerations that don’t have anything to do with security, which is what has been driving the Israeli campaign [in Gaza],” Goldberg said. “I think by approving this, Israel is … upping the ante.”

2 May 2025 - 20:00
 (20:00 GMT)

Israeli forces storm Salfit in occupied West Bank

Sources have told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces stormed the city of Salfit in the occupied West Bank.

This comes after Israeli army sealed off all entrances to the city of Jericho.

2 May 2025 - 19:45
 (19:45 GMT)
EXPLAINER

Have Freedom Flotilla vessels come under fire before?

While Israel has not claimed responsibility for the drone attack on the Conscience, a Freedom Flotilla Coalition ship, vessels used by the group to breach the blockade on Gaza have come under attack by Israel in the past.

In 2010, the Israeli navy stormed the Mavi Marmara, the flagship of a flotilla crewed by the alliance of pro-Palestinian activists, killing nine people on board and a further one from his wounds later.

A UN inquiry found that “six of the deceased were the victims of summary executions, two of whom were shot after they were severely injured and could not defend themselves.” It concluded that the conduct of the Israeli military “was disproportionate and excessive and that they demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary violence”.

Last year, a flotilla of ships set to depart for Gaza was stranded in Turkiye due to administrative roadblocks, after organisers said Israel had been exerting political pressure to impede the voyage.

The coalition said Israel was pressuring the Republic of Guinea Bissau, which triggered a request for an additional inspection and later the withdrawal of its flag from the flotilla’s lead ship, the Akdeniz.

2 May 2025 - 19:30
 (19:30 GMT)

WATCH: ‘Cynicism’ from Druze leaders after Israel’s new attack on Syria

2 May 2025 - 19:15
 (19:15 GMT)

Dozens of Gaza’s rescued treasures on display in Paris

A new exhibition in Paris, titled “Gaza’s Saved Treasures: 5,000 Years of History”, is showcasing around 100 archaeological pieces that highlight Gaza’s legacy as a crossroads of civilisations.

Running from April to November, the exhibit, with amphorae, oil lamps, coins, statuettes, and mosaics on display, tells the story of Gaza as a vital Mediterranean port and cultural meeting point.

Among the most striking items is a dazzling Byzantine mosaic from Jabalia, part of an ecclesiastical complex reflecting Gaza’s early Christian heritage.

According to UNESCO, nearly 70 cultural sites have been destroyed or severely damaged, including the historic Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius, one of the oldest active churches in the world, as Israel continues to wage its assault on the territory.