Israel's Gaza invasion - Day 541

Amnesty International has said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must be arrested and handed over to the International Criminal Court should he visit Hungary or any other states that are members of the court, Al Jazeera reports.

The rights group made the comment in response to reports that Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has invited Netanyahu to the country this week, an invitation that “shows contempt for international law and confirms that alleged war criminals wanted by the ICC are welcome on the streets of a European Union member state”, Amnesty’s Global Research, Advocacy and Policy head Erika Guevara-Rosas, said in a statement.

The death toll from an attack on a residential home on Yafa Street in Gaza City has risen to 10 people, including three children, who have been killed in the attack, with an unidentified number of others injured, Al Jazeera Arabic reports.

It was reported earlier that Israeli forces had bombed a residential home in Yaffa Street, killing three children and injuring others.

Facebook has platformed more than 100 paid advertisements promoting illegal settlements and far-right settler activity in the occupied West Bank, an Al Jazeera investigation has found, raising concerns that the social media giant is profiting from content that may violate international law.

Among the advertisements identified were also calls for the demolition of Palestinian homes, schools, and playgrounds, as well as fundraising appeals for Israeli military units operating in Gaza.

Facebook’s parent company, Meta, told Al Jazeera that any advertisements that ran on its platforms were reviewed by the company. While it admitted that some of the advertisements had since been removed for “violating our social issues, elections, and politics policies”, it did not specify whether the promotion of illegal settlements built on stolen Palestinian land breached those standards.

Read more here.

Former Israeli hostage Yarden Bibas, whose wife and children were killed while held by Gaza militants, has urged US President Donald Trump to press Israel to end the Israeli invasion to rescue the remaining captives, AFP reports.

In a first interview since being released from the Gaza Strip in February, under a truce deal that has since collapsed, Bibas said Israel’s resumption of military operations this month would not help free the dozens of hostages still held in the Palestinian territory.

“Please stop this war, and help bring all the hostages back”, Bibas said, addressing Trump in an interview with CBS News ‘60 Minutes’ aired late Sunday.

“I know he can help,” said Bibas.

“I’m here because of Trump, I’m here only because of him, I think he’s the only one who can stop this war again”.

The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) has filed a criminal complaint before the Romanian Prosecutor’s Office against an Israeli soldier from the Givati Brigade, Al Jazeera reports.

HRF accuses Orel Benyaish of “committing war crimes and acts of genocide” during Israel’s ongoing military operations in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement, HRF said that “the evidence submitted includes images and videos posted by Benyaish himself, showing his direct involvement in the destruction of residential buildings in the Netzarim corridor”.

“He appears in uniform, smiling in front of homes rigged with explosives. In these same images is fellow soldier Yuval Vagdani, also of the Givati Brigade, who was photographed at the moment explosives were being placed for a controlled demolition. The two acted together, knowingly and deliberately, in destroying civilian homes without any military justification,” it said.

Three people, including two children, have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a house in the town of Abasan al-Jadida, east of Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera Arabic reports.

Earlier, it was reported that a separate strike on Khan Younis had killed six Palestinians, including two children.

At least 80 have been killed and 305 others injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 48 hours, Al Jazeera reports citing the enclave’s health ministry.

The update included 53 killings and 189 injuries from the first day of Eidul Fitr, the ministry said.

The death toll and injuries since March 18 of this year when Israel broke the ceasefire, has reached 1,001 killed and 2,359 wounded, the statement published on Telegram said.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed a total of 50,357 people and injured 114,400 others, the ministry added.

Israeli forces have carried out a series of early-morning raids across the occupied West Bank, including in Nablus and the towns of Tammun, near Tubas; Qabatiya, near Jenin; and Husan, near Bethlehem, according to the Wafa news agency.

In Nablus and the nearby town of Asira ash-Shamaliya, Israeli forces entered Palestinian homes, searched through belongings and temporarily detained and interrogated residents, Wafa reported.

In the towns of Tammun, Qabatiya and Husan, Israeli forces also raided and searched Palestinian homes while deploying military vehicles throughout the areas, the report said.

“Since the early hours, Israeli forces have continued to strike across the Gaza Strip. It’s been a deadly 24 hours, especially in Khan Younis, where Israeli forces attacked at least seven houses of different families,” Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary reports from Deir el-Balah, central Gaza Strip.

“This comes during Eid when Palestinians are visiting each other, even though it’s war and the risks are high.

“There has also been endless artillery shelling in the central parts of the Gaza Strip, in Nuseirat, and also in the area very close to the Netzarim Corridor,” she said.

“Explosions have been heard here in Deir el-Balah, and three farmers have been killed in the area. According to the Civil Defence teams and paramedics, it’s very dangerous to go and retrieve their bodies.

“A body of a Palestinian killed in central Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp was transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital [in Deir el-Balah],” Khoudary said.

Al Jazeera reports more about the Israeli air raid near the Jabalia refugee camp.

The strike is reported to have killed three men on Al-Sekka Street, located to the east of the camp.

Two of the victims were in their 30s, and the other was a 19-year-old man.

Al Jazeera‘s Hind Khoudary that three farmers were killed near central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah city.

The Palestinian Information Center says the Israeli forces bombed a group of citizens east of the village of al-Musaddar in central Gaza, killing three people.

Two Palestinians have been killed and others injured as a result of Israeli shelling of areas east of Jabalia in the north of the Gaza Strip, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.

The comments from Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz come after Netanyahu’s office announced plans to appoint a former Navy commander as the next head of the internal security agency, Al Jazeera reports.

Gantz described Netanyahu’s choice, retired Vice Admiral Eli Sharvit, as “an excellent person and commander, ethical and experienced”.

However, by announcing the decision to appoint Sharvit before Israel’s Supreme Court rules on a petition against his predecessor’s dismissal, Netanyahu is continuing “his campaign against the judicial system” and leading Israel “towards a dangerous constitutional crisis”, Gantz said.

“The appointment of the head of the Shin Bet must take place only after a Supreme Court decision,” he added.

Israel’s Arabic-language spokesman has issued a new displacement order for Gaza’s southern Rafah, warning the military will soon “resume intense combat operations” there, Al Jazeera reports.

The spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said people in most of Rafah and the nearby areas of al-Nasr and al-Shawka, should immediately flee to al-Mawasi.

Israeli Army Radio described the order as the most “extensive evacuation since the resumption of fighting”.

More from Jonathan Whittall, the head of UN’s OCHA in Palestine.

In a post on X, the UN staffer described seeing Israel fire on fleeing civilians as he and others travelled to south Gaza to look for the missing medics that Israeli forces killed in Rafah.

“While traveling to the area on the fifth day we encountered hundreds of civilians fleeing under gunfire,” Whitall wrote. “We witnessed a woman shot in the back of the head. When a young man tried to retrieve her, he too was shot. We were able to recover her body using our UN vehicle.”

He also posted a video of the shootings, showing at least two people falling to the ground amid the sound of gunfire. “Another one shot, another one shot, another one shot,” one person is heard saying.

Watermelon Pictures, the independent distributor of Encampments, says the film has set a new record for the “highest opening weekend per theatre average for a documentary”, Al Jazeera reports.

In a post on X, the distributor thanked supporters for “rallying your communities to get to the movies and see this film” and said, “Let’s keep this momentum going!”

Deadline, a US news outlet, reported that the film’s exclusive opening weekend at the Angelika Film Center in New York had sold out screenings, anticipated to bring in more than $80,000.

The documentary tells the story of the student protest movement which began at Columbia University in New York in 2024. It features Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, who is currently in detention fighting the Trump administration’s attempt to deport him.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has picked former navy commander Eli Sharvit to be the next head of the domestic security agency, his office said, despite the supreme court freezing the dismissal of the incumbent, AFP reports.

“After conducting in-depth interviews with seven worthy candidates, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to appoint former Israel navy commander, Vice-Admiral Eli Sharvit as the next director of the ISA (Shin Bet),” his office said in a statement.

It said Sharvit had served in the military for 36 years, including five years as navy commander.

“In that position, he led the force building of the maritime defence of the territorial waters and conducted complex operations against Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran,” the statement said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Sunday it had recovered the bodies of 15 rescuers killed a week ago when Israeli forces targeted ambulances in the Gaza Strip, AFP reports.

Bodies of eight medics from the Red Crescent, six members of Gaza’s civil defence agency and one employee of a UN agency were retrieved, the Red Crescent said in a statement. It said one medic from the Red Crescent remained missing.

The group said those killed “were targeted by the Israeli occupation forces while performing their humanitarian duties as they were heading to the Hashashin area of Rafah to provide first aid to a number of people injured by Israeli shelling in the area”.

“The occupation’s targeting of Red Crescent medics … can only be considered a war crime punishable under international humanitarian law, which the occupation continues to violate before the eyes of the entire world.”

In an earlier statement the Red Crescent said the bodies “were recovered with difficulty as they were buried in the sand, with some showing signs of decomposition”.

Gaza’s civil defence agency also confirmed that 15 bodies had been recovered, adding that the deceased UN employee was from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, also known as UNRWA.

Hungary is set to receive the Israeli prime minister on Wednesday, despite a warrant by the International Criminal Court for his arrest. The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is condemning the move, Al Jazeera reports.

In a post on X, the Geneva-based group said that Hungary, as a signatory to the Rome Statute that created the ICC, is “legally bound to cooperate fully” with the court’s warrants.

It said Hungarian President Viktor Orban’s decision not to enforce the warrant constitutes a “serious breach” of Hungary’s obligations under the Rome Statute.

“By hosting Netanyahu, Hungary is not merely failing to comply with international law—it is providing haven to a fugitive wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity. This is not diplomatic neutrality. It is active complicity that grants impunity to someone who ought to be brought to justice,” it said.

And if other countries fail to hold Hungary accountable, they would “weaken the Court” and “abandon the victims of Gaza to impunity”, the rights group added.

Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the ICC for alleged war crimes in Gaza, including for depriving the civilian population of the Strip of food, water and medical supplies.

Thousands of orphaned children in Gaza are facing a sorrowful Eid amid the ongoing conflict, with many grieving lost parents and enduring dire living conditions.

Ahmed Khalil, a 10-year-old boy, recounts how Israeli soldiers destroyed his home, killed his family and left him and his sister starving in a shelter.

Ahmed, who was shot in the shoulder, now spends his days searching for food and water instead of celebrating Eid as he once did.

Watch Al Jazeera’s report below:

Al-Haq is calling on governments around the world to impose an arms embargo on Israel as it continues to “fragment” the Palestinian population in the occupied West Bank through accelerated land seizures and home demolitions, Al Jazeera reports.

The Ramallah-based rights group also called for sanctions against Israeli individuals involved in the destruction of Palestinian homes, as well as the companies that provide Israel with the bulldozers used in the demolitions.

These include South Korea’s Hyundai, the UK’s JCB and Sweden’s Volvo.

“States must use every means at their disposal to compel Israel to respect international law, including imposing a two-way arms embargo against Israel” and “targeted sanctions on complicit persons and institutions”, Al-Haq said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is calling on the United Nations to investigate the “massacre” of 15 emergency workers in Gaza, including eight paramedics and a UN staff member, Al Jazeera reports.

“The Israeli government must be prevented from committing further atrocities and must be held accountable for the war crimes it has committed with impunity,” CAIR Deputy Executive Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said in a statement.

“The United States and the nations of the world cannot allow this crime against humanity to continue.”

The bodies of the emergency workers were found buried alongside their ambulances, a week after they went missing under heavy Israeli gunfire.

Al Jazeera Arabic reports that Israeli forces attacked a house in Jurat Al-Lot in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, killing at least six people.

At least 10 others were wounded.