Palestine Crisis
Live Reporting
Qatar welcomes ICJ ruling ordering Israel to immediately facilitate aid entry
The Gulf state has welcomed a new verdict by the international court that calls on Israel to take all the necessary and effective action to ensure basic food supplies arrive without delay to the Palestinian population in Gaza.
Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed the need to “ensure compliance with the implementation of this order, including the opening of crosings, to avoid the famine that threatens the Strip, as well as to prevent the risk of genocide”.
It also affirmed that the “horrific humaitarian reality in the Gaza Strip, inluding the threat to the lives of civilians, requires the international community to firmly stand up to achieve a permanent ceasefire”.
UN’s Francesca Albanese praises ‘courage’ of US official who resigned over Gaza war
The UN’s special rapporteur on Palestine has praised the courage of Annelle Sheline, the US State Department officer who resigned her post to protest the White House’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza.
In a post on social media, Albanese said, “Courage is a heavy gift to carry,” above an earlier post commending Sheline for her “courage and moral standing”.
Albanese added in her message that it was better to be courageous than to have “13,000 small coffins weighing on our conscience” – in an apparent reference to the number of Palestinian children killed in Gaza.
Sheline has explained that her decision to quit as a human rights officer with the State Department was also due to having a young daughter.
“If in the future she were to ask me about what I did as this was happening [in Gaza], I want her to know that I didn’t stay silent. I couldn’t continue to watch what was happening and just keep going to work every day,” Sheline told Al Jazeera.
Will the ICJ’s new orders help the people of Gaza under attack?
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has told Israel to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza unhindered, saying famine is setting in there.
However, the ICJ’s previous orders regarding Israel’s war on Gaza have been ignored.
So what is the significance of this latest ruling, and can it help Gaza’s people?
-
In Photos: Belfast’s pro-Palestinian wall murals express Irish solidarity with people of Gaza
[Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters] 
[Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters] 
[Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters] 
[Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters] 
[Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters]
Suspected Israeli spy arrested in Malaysia with weapons: Report
The Reuters news agency is reporting that authorities in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur have arrested an armed man, who police described as a suspect Israeli spy.
Malaysia’s inspector general of police, Razarudin Husain, told a news conference late on Friday that the 36-year-old suspect, who was found with six handguns and 200 bullets, arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport from the United Arab Emirates on March 12 using what authorities believe to be a fake French passport.
The suspect turned over an Israeli passport upon questioning by police, Razarudin said. The suspect told authorities he had entered Malaysia to track down another Israeli citizen over a family dispute.
According to Reuters, police are investigating if the man is a member of Israeli intelligence.
“We do not fully trust this narrative as we suspect there may be another agenda,” Razarudin said.
A Palestinian scientist was shot dead in Kuala Lumpur in 2018 by two unidentified men in a killing that Hamas suggested was carried out by Israel’s Mossad intelligence service.
Suspected Israeli spy arrested in Malaysia with weapons: Report
The Reuters news agency is reporting that authorities in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur have arrested an armed man, who police described as a suspect Israeli spy.
Malaysia’s inspector general of police, Razarudin Husain, told a news conference late on Friday that the 36-year-old suspect, who was found with six handguns and 200 bullets, arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport from the United Arab Emirates on March 12 using what authorities believe to be a fake French passport.
The suspect turned over an Israeli passport upon questioning by police, Razarudin said. The suspect told authorities he had entered Malaysia to track down another Israeli citizen over a family dispute.
According to Reuters, police are investigating if the man is a member of Israeli intelligence.
“We do not fully trust this narrative as we suspect there may be another agenda,” Razarudin said.
A Palestinian scientist was shot dead in Kuala Lumpur in 2018 by two unidentified men in a killing that Hamas suggested was carried out by Israel’s Mossad intelligence service.
Gaza war evokes memories of Vietnam’s own liberation struggle, past unity with Palestine
Vietnam is witnessing rare political activism in support of Palestinians as Israel’s war on Gaza reminds younger Vietnamese of their country’s fight for liberation during the war against the United States.
Pro-Palestinian art is being produced, discussion evenings have been held, and Palestinian poetry and history books are being translated into Vietnamese.
As one pro-Palestinian Vietnamese activist, Trinh, said: “The more I learn about the history of Palestine, the more I realise how similar our struggles are.”
Palestinian child killed, two injured as Israeli forces storm occupied West Bank’s Qabatiya
Palestine’s state news agency, Wafa, reports that Israeli forces have killed a 13-year-old Palestinian boy and wounded two other young men during an early morning raid on Qabatiya town, located to the south of the Jenin refugee camp.
Citing the director of the al-Razi Hosptial in Jenin, Wafa identified the slain teenager as Moatsem Nabil Abu Abed. Two other young Palestinians were injured by Israeli gunfire, including one who is in serious condition.
According to local sources, Israeli special forces entered the Palestinian town in civilian vehicles ahead of the raid by the army, who then deployed snipers on rooftops, ransacked several homes and arrested a father and son in one household.
Violent confrontations ensued as locals attempted to resist the military raid, according to Wafa
Sixth night of protests in Jordan over Israel’s war on Gaza
Thousands of people rallied near the Israeli embassy in Jordan’s capital Amman on Friday in a sixth night of large-scale protests against Israel.
Heavy security was evident as the protesters waved Palestinian and Jordanian flags and called for an end to Jordan’s unpopular peace treaty with Israel amid its war on Gaza.
The protest passed peacefully, unlike earlier this week when riot police fired tear gas and struck protesters with batons to prevent them from approaching the Israeli embassy compound.
World warns Israel to obey ICJ on Gaza aid as Netanyahu plans Rafah assault
Governments and human rights groups have called on Israel to obey an International Court of Justice order to allow the unimpeded delivery of aid into Gaza, where famine has set in.
Caroline Gennez, Belgium’s minister of development cooperation and urban policy, said “Israel must stop starving civilians and children” and praised the ICJ order in a post on social media.
Amnesty International said the court’s “ruling must serve as a critical reminder to all states of their clear duty to prevent genocide which requires them to ensure that all of the ICJ’s provisional measures are duly implemented”.
Israeli forces target Khan Younis – 22 Palestinians killed in an apartment block
Grieving relatives mourn the dead, including children, who were killed when Israel attacked a residential apartment block in Gaza’s southern Khan Younis city.
Residents say Israeli forces gave them no warning of an attack.
Israel hits Syria in heaviest raid on Iran proxies in months
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Israel carried out its deadliest strikes in months on northern Syria's Aleppo province early on Friday (Mar 29) and said it killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon, stepping up its campaign against Iran's proxies in parallel with its war in Gaza.
Israel has ramped up airstrikes in Syria against both the Lebanese Hezbollah militia and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) since the Iranian-backed Palestinian faction Hamas's attack on Israel on Oct 7, and in recent days its pilots have resumed regular practice for "deep" raids into Lebanon.
In the Israel-Hamas war, an emblematic battle for Al Shifa hospital
GAZA (AFP) - Fighting raged around Gaza City's main Al Shifa hospital on Friday in the 12th day of operations by the Israeli military around the hospital complex. It is the second time in six months that Israeli forces have sought to oust Hamas fighters from the area.
Fighting around the Al-Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip continued on Friday in what is now the Israeli army’s longest-running "targeted operation" in its war against Hamas. This is Israel’s second assault on this hospital complex, the largest and oldest in the Palestinian enclave, since the start of the war on October 7.
Israel's Netanyahu approves new Gaza ceasefire talks
GAZA STRIP: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved on Friday (Mar 29) new talks on a Gaza ceasefire, a day after the world's top court ordered Israel to ensure urgent humanitarian aid reaches people in the Palestinian territory.
But despite a binding United Nations Security Council resolution this week demanding an "immediate ceasefire", fighting continued in Gaza on Friday, including around hospitals.
