Updates: ‘Earthquake’ as Israeli bombs shake Gaza, US defends Israel at ICJ

For more on Israel’s 60-day siege on the Gaza Strip, check out our story here.

We also have this recap on a US judge’s decision to order the release of Columbia University student and Gaza protest leader Mohsen Mahdawi from detention.

Or read this new opinion column about the value of a photograph, here.

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

• At least 35 Palestinians were killed in the last 24 hours in Israeli attacks across Gaza, including a strike on a building in Nuseirat refugee camp that residents said felt like an “earthquake”.
• The US defended Israel during the third day of hearings at the ICJ on the country’s obligations as an occupying power.
• The Israeli army carried out raids across the occupied West Bank, including in the town of Beita, south of Nablus.
• Yemen’s Houthis say they targeted military sites in Tel Aviv and a US aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, vowing to continue their attacks until the war on Gaza ends.

Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur in the occupied Palestinian territoriy, says Israel’s starvation policy “is intentional, like the destruction it is causing”.

Albanese added in a post on X that world leaders who travelled to Israel to show support for the country after the October 7 attack should return to explain why sanctions on Israel and a protective presence in the occupied Palestinian territory are “unavoidable”.

The Wafa news agency has reported that Israeli settlers set fire to olive groves in Duma, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

The settlers also stabbed a 27-year-old resident in the back. Wafa said he was taken to hospital, but his condition remains unknown.

Palestinians have faced escalating Israeli settler and military violence across the West Bank since the war on Gaza began.

Mohammad Hureini lives in Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank. His video for Al Jazeera shows the daily realities of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.

From the intimidation tactics by Israeli settlers to Palestinian houses being demolished, Hureini shares the day-to-day difficulties of living under the threat of violence and annexation.

Watch the video below:

“The planes struck close by twice. The third time they hit us.”

That’s how Abed Ibrahim Saleh, a 34-year-old from Ethiopia, described Monday’s deadly US strike on a migrant detention centre in Yemen’s Saada governorate.

“Bodies ripped apart. I can’t describe what I saw,” Saleh was quoted as saying by AFP news agency from a nearby hospital, where he and other survivors were recovering.

“A hand here, a leg there,” Saleh said. “I don’t want to remember.”

Hamas says Netanyahu’s comments on a “decisive victory” and dismantling Rafah were a “desperate attempt to cover up his army’s failure in Gaza and convince his audience of an illusion”.

“We affirm that our people’s resistance will continue until the occupation is defeated, and that Rafah will remain a symbol of steadfastness and a nightmare that haunts the invaders,” Hamas said.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Israeli attacks have killed 2,308 people and 5,973 wounded since Israel broke a ceasefire on March 18.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said among those killed were 595 children and 308 women.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says the release of Mohsen Mahdawi is “an important victory in the struggle for not only his freedom, but also in the broader struggle to protect the First Amendment”.

“Every person in America, including immigrants, has a constitutional right to free speech. The Trump administration must stop abducting and disappearing college students because they dared to criticize US support for the Israeli government’s war crimes in Gaza,” CAIR said.

A US judge ordered Mahdawi to be released from detention earlier today. The Columbia University student, who led Gaza protests there last year, was detained earlier this month during a citizenship interview.

You can read more about Mahdawi’s release – and what comes next in his case – in our story here.

Netanyahu thanks Hungary for withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Currently, the ICC has an arrest warrant out for Netanyahu and his defence minister at the time, Yoav Gallant, over their actions during Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed at least 51,000 people since October 2023.

During Netanyahu’s visit to Hungary at the beginning of April, Budapest, a signatory to the ICC and bound by the judicial body’s arrest warrants, announced it was withdrawing because it had become “political”.

Houthis said in addition to “vital and military” sites in Tel Aviv, the group also carried out a military operation targeting a US aircraft carrier called Vinson in the Arabian Sea.

The operation was conducted with “a number of drones”, the group said.

There has been no immediate comment from Israel on the purported firings.

The Houthis have been carrying out attacks in what they say is a show of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, promising to keep up their strikes until Israel ends its war.

The US, Israel’s top ally, has responded with a campaign of aerial bombings against Yemen that have killed many people across the country. A recent strike hit a migrant detention centre in the Saada governorate, killing dozens.

A State Department spokesperson says the Trump administration rejects the decision to take the issue of Israel’s obligations under international law to the ICJ.

Tammy Bruce said in a statement that the referral from the UN General Assembly “is inappropriate because it unduly singles out Israel”.

She added that it “does not advance efforts to achieve progress towards a ceasefire and release of all the hostages” held in Gaza.

The administrations of both Trump and his predecessor Biden have faced widespread criticism for providing Israel with staunch military and diplomatic support as it wages war on Gaza.

The US provides Israel with at least $3.8bn in military assistance annually and Biden authorised billions more in additional support.

Switzerland will enforce a new law banning Hamas and related organisations on May 15.

The government says the law is aimed at preventing the use of the country as a financial hub, adding that it was initially approved in December.

The law, it added, would give Swiss authorities “the necessary tools to take action against Hamas activities or support for the organisation in Switzerland”. It will also permit preventive police measures, including entry bans or expulsions.

The Israeli army said three Syrian-Druze were taken from Syria for medical treatment in Israel.

Israel carried out a strike in Syria claiming it targeted those who attacked members of the Druze community.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, without mentioning Israel, that it “categorically” rejected all forms of foreign intervention in its internal affairs.

Rawan Eleyan, a UNICEF communications associate, says a “state of insecurity” hangs over Gaza.

Daily life is marked by a “lack of supplies, continuous fear and the horrifying sounds of bombardments”, Eleyan said in a video shared on social media. “We need a long-lasting ceasefire to be able as humanitarians to deliver, and work and reach every child in the Gaza Strip,” she said.