Palestinian officials say Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza City have left more than 50,000 people displaced and without shelter, as Israeli bombs continue to fall on high-rise buildings, flattening the city’s skyline. Medical sources say Israeli attacks have killed at least 42 Palestinians so far today, including 14 members of a single family — three generations wiped out in a single airstrike. Thousands continue to flee Gaza City after Israel ordered the forced displacement of its 1 million inhabitants. This is Abu Tarek Habboub, whose family was forced to trek south along Gaza’s coastline on foot.
Abu Tarek Habboub: “I have nothing. My 10 children and I are walking in the street heading south. We don’t know where we’re going. We don’t have mattresses or blankets. We don’t even have money or anything. … Maybe death would be better than what we’re living through. I have children who slept in the street yesterday.”
Israeli Forces Arrest 1,500 Palestinians, Including Children, in Mass Raid on Tulkarem
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces rounded up over 1,500 Palestinians in Tulkarem on Thursday, ordering a curfew for the city’s residents. Footage shared by residents showed Israeli soldiers marching Palestinians, including children, through the streets. Tulkarem’s governor urged the U.N. to take action, saying that Israeli forces were “arbitrarily and unjustly” carrying out mass arrests, destroying property and “terrorizing children and women.”
Netanyahu Approves New West Bank Settlements, Warning “There Won’t Be a Palestinian State”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved a plan to dramatically expand illegal West Bank settlements, greenlighting the construction of 3,400 new homes on land Palestinians want for a future state. The expansion into what Israel calls the E1 area would link occupied East Jerusalem to the large Ma’ale Adumim settlement, dividing the West Bank and further isolating Palestinian communities. Netanyahu spoke at a signing ceremony Thursday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “We said there would not be a Palestinian state, and we say again there won’t be a Palestinian state. … This place is ours. We will take care of our country and our security and our heritage.”
U.N. Security Council Condemns Israeli Strike on Qatar
Qatar has held a funeral for five Palestinians and a Qatari security official killed in an Israeli attack targeting Hamas’s diplomatic delegation in Doha on Tuesday. Later today, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani is set to meet with President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff to discuss the Israeli strike.
On Thursday, the United Nations Security Council condemned Israel’s actions in a rare joint statement, after the United States criticized Israel’s “unilateral bombing.” Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon remained defiant, saying Israel had targeted “terrorists” rather than “legitimate politicians, diplomats, or representatives.”
Danny Danon: “Here in this council, some members chose to give Hamas legitimacy, even protection. Israel will not. We will act against the leaders of terror wherever they are hiding.”
Sens. Van Hollen and Merkley Say U.S. Is Complicit in Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians
On Capitol Hill, Democratic Senators Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley released a report Thursday accusing the Israeli government of “collective punishment” and “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza. The senators recently returned from a humanitarian fact-finding mission to the Rafah and Kerem Shalom border crossings into Gaza; they also visited the occupied West Bank and Jordan. This is Senator Van Hollen.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen: “From our trip, from our observations, from our firsthand accounts, it’s clear that the Netanyahu government has gone far beyond targeting Hamas to imposing collective punishment on all the people of Gaza. The title of our report is ‘The Netanyahu Government Is Implementing a Plan to Ethnically Cleanse Gaza of Palestinians. America Is Complicit. The World Must Stop It.’”
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