Calls to allow more aid into the Gaza Strip grow louder as health officials report 20 people in total have now died from malnutrition and dehydration.
“We believe that dozens are dying silently as a result of starvation without reaching hospitals,” Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra says in a statement.
South Africa requests additional action, immediate ceasefire order from International Court of Justice to prevent “full-scale famine” in Gaza.
Houthi-claimed strike on cargo ship causes first deaths since group began attacks on Red Sea shipping in response to Israel’s war on Gaza.
At least 30,717 Palestinians have been killed and 72,156 wounded in Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from the October 7 Hamas attacks stands at 1,139.
Gaza ceasefire deal still possible, US says Matthew Miller, the spokesperson for the US State Department, said Washington believes Israel and Hamas could still reach an agreement on a ceasefire before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins early next week. The comments came amid speculation that negotiations for a 40-day ceasefire and the release of captives were at an impasse. “We continue to believe that the obstacles are not insurmountable and that a deal can be reached,” Miller told a daily press briefing in Washington, DC. “We’re going to continue to push for one,” he said.
In a statement to the ICJ, South Africa says it is compelled to return to the court in light of new facts, particularly widespread malnutrition and starvation in Gaza, brought about by continuing breaches of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Jonathan Kuttab, an international human rights lawyer and a co-founder of the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, discusses these developments with Al Jazeera. The United Nations has warned at least a quarter of Gaza’s population is one step away from famine Israel’s aims in Gaza appear to ‘go beyond destroying Hamas’: EU top diplomat
More on Josep Borrell’s announcement of an EU probe into Israel’s compliance with rights obligations in Gaza. The EU’s top diplomat used strong language to denounce Israeli actions in the Palestinian territory. He expressed concern over Israel’s killing of more than 100 Palestinian aid seekers and said the incident shows that “the international community needs to take decisive steps to save Gazan civilians from both starvation and violence”.
After five months of war, “the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza give the impression that its objectives go beyond destroying Hamas”, Borrell said, quoting an Israeli general who pledged to “turn Gaza into a place that is temporarily or permanently impossible to live in”. “And indeed,” Borrell said, “almost everything that allows a human society to function has been destroyed: civil register, property register, cultural and health infrastructure, most of the schools built by UNRWA”.
In addition to taking steps to end the fighting, the international community must also help secure a state for the Palestinian people, he said. “Despite the refusal of the
Netanyahu government, the international community is united on the question of the two-state solution and will have to advance swiftly on its implementation,” he wrote.
EU aid chief visits UNRWA camp in Ramallah as funding is restored
US military says it struck two Houthi drones in Yemen
The US military’s Central Command has said that it conducted “self-defence strikes” against two drones in Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen that presented an “imminent threat” to vessels in the area. Source: aljazeera.com/news
Saturday, April 18, 2026
