The UN's World Food Programme on Friday warned it has depleted all its food stocks in war-ravaged Gaza, where the entry of humanitarian aid has been blocked by Israel since March 2.
"Today, WFP delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meals kitchens in the Gaza Strip. These kitchens are expected to fully run out of food in the coming days", WFP, one of the main providers of food assistance in Gaza, said in a statement.
Israel blocked the entry of all aid into the Palestinian territory of around 2.4 million people days before it resumed its aerial and ground offensive after the collapse of a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.
"For weeks, hot meal kitchens have been the only consistent source of food assistance for people in Gaza. Despite reaching just half the population with only 25 percent of daily food needs, they have provided a critical lifeline," the WFP said Friday.
"No humanitarian or commercial supplies have entered Gaza for more than seven weeks as all main border crossing points remain closed", it added.
"This is the longest closure the Gaza Strip has ever faced, exacerbating already fragile markets and food systems."
WFP's latest statement follows reports from Gaza which highlighted more than 60 Palestinians have been killed in airstrikes on Gaza since the early hours of Thursday, with casualties continuing to rise as Israel intensifies its early morning assault on the enclave.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney urged Israel to allow the World Food Programme to work in Gaza, saying food must not be used as a 'political tool', hours after the UN agency ran out of stocks due to a sustained Israeli blockade on supplies.
"Palestinian civilians must not bear the consequences of Hamas' terrorist crimes," Carney said. "The World Food Programme must be allowed to resume its lifesaving work."
The Israeli army said in the early hours of Saturday that a missile that was launched from Yemen was intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory.
Sirens sounded in a number of areas in Israel following the launch, the Israeli army added in a statement.
There was no immediate comment from Yemen's Houthi rebels, who have been launching attacks against Israel as well as ships they perceive as affiliated to Israel, in what they say is to support the Palestinians in Gaza against the Israeli offensive on the enclave.
Iraq will ship 220,000 tons of wheat to Syria as "a gift", Syrian media said on Friday, citing the director of the General Organization for Grains, adding that the first batch has already arrived in Syria's Deir el-Zor.
The World Health Organization chief warned Friday that medical supplies were running out in Gaza, insisting that Israel's aid blockade of the war-torn Palestinian territory "must end".
After the World Food Programme said that its stocks had depleted in Gaza, where Israel has blocked all aid for more than seven weeks, WHO chief Tedros Adhonom Ghebreyesus warned on X that "the situation is the same with medical supplies. They are running out", insisting: "This aid blockade must end. Lives depend on it."
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Friday condemned Israel's more than seven week aid block on war-ravaged Gaza as "a man-made and politically motivated starvation".
"The Government of Israel continues to block the entry of food + other basics," Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X, hours after the World Food Programme said it had depleted its food stocks in Gaza. "Nearly 2 months of siege. Calls to bring in supplies are going unheeded", Lazzarini added.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he pushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to get more food and medicine into the Gaza territory.
The Israeli military issued a displacement order on Friday for Palestinians residing in three areas in the north of the territory ahead of a planned strike.
"To all those located in the areas of al-Turukman, aj-Jadida, and northeastern Zeitun. This is an early warning ahead of a strike... For your safety, move immediately westward toward Gaza City," the military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.
Israeli forces have killed more than 212 Palestinian journalists since the beginning of the war on Gaza, according to a statement from Gaza’s Government Media Office.
On Thursday, Al Aqsa Radio journalist Saeed Amin Abu Hassanein was killed in an Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah, along with his wife and daughter.
The statement urged the International Federation of Journalists, the Federation of Arab Journalists, and media bodies worldwide to condemn what it described as systematic crimes against Palestinian journalists and media professionals in the Gaza Strip.
Gaza’s Government Media Office has reported that 52 recent deaths over the past few weeks were caused by hunger and malnutrition- a direct consequence of the continued closure of Gaza’s borders.
According to local reports, families queue for hours outside community kitchens, with many returning home empty-handed each morning.
Moshe Saada, a member of Israel's Knesset, said in an interview on Israel's Channel 14 that it is Israel's "duty" to starve Palestinians in Gaza amid the country's deadly assault on the war-battered enclave.
Criticising Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir- who was reported to have denied allegations of advocating mass starvation of Palestinians as a war tactic- Saada argued that he was "mistaken".
"I do intend to starve the Gazans- that's our duty. Our duty is to expel the Gazans. There are ten countries in the world that want them and are willing to take them in. That's our mission," he said.
Saada further stated that he supports a "full, total siege" on the enclave, despite the Israeli military having enforced a complete blockade on Gaza since March- resulting in no humanitarian aid entering the territory for over 50 days and raising alarm among rights groups over the worsening humanitarian crisis.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that 17-year-old Palestinian male Abd al-Khaliq Jabar was killed from injuries sustained after being targeted by Israeli fire during a military raid on the West Bank village of Salem in the Nablus area.
According to news publication Al Jazeera English, at least 15 Palestinians were killed in Israeli air raids on two homes in southern Gaza's Khan Younis.
More updates to come.
UNRWA states that almost 3,000 aid lorries are prepared to enter Gaza but are being prevented from doing so.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees described the situation in Gaza as "desperate" due to Israel’s ongoing blockade, adding, "Humanitarian aid is being used as a bargaining chip and a weapon of war".
Nearly 3,000 UNRWA trucks of lifesaving aid are ready to enter #Gaza. But the siege imposed by the Israeli authorities has been blocking the entry of supplies for over 50 days now.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) April 25, 2025
The people in #Gaza are hungry and the situation is desperate.
Humanitarian aid is being used as… pic.twitter.com/1E5ozyCBtx
The French foreign ministry helped to evacuate 115 people from Gaza this week and those people have now arrived in France, said the ministry on Friday, adding that France remained opposed to the forced displacement of people from Gaza.
Gaza's Ministry of Health has reported that 84 people were killed and 168 injured in the last 24 hours due to Israeli airstrikes.
The toll includes the bodies of six people who were recovered today after being killed in previous days.
Since October 7, 2023, the total death toll in Gaza from Israeli attacks has risen to 51,439, with 117,416 reported injuries.
The World Food Programme said on Friday it has run out of food stocks in Gaza due to the sustained closure of crossings into the enclave.
"No humanitarian or commercial supplies have entered Gaza for more than seven weeks as all main border crossing points remain closed. This is the longest closure the Gaza Strip has ever faced, exacerbating already fragile markets and food systems," the WFP said in a statement to journalists.
At least two people have been killed in Israeli air and artillery strikes on northern Gaza.
According to local sources cited by Wafa news agency, 70-year-old Majed al-Harazin was killed when Israeli artillery shelled Wadi al-Arayes Street, east of Zeitoun neighbourhood.
In a separate incident, a woman lost her life after being struck by fire from an Israeli quadcopter drone in the al-Qassasib area of Jabalia refugee camp, also in northern Gaza.
According to the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), around half a million people have been newly displaced in Gaza over the past month due to repeated evacuation orders from Israeli forces.
UNRWA’s statement, posted on X, highlighted that "the remaining space is fragmented, unsafe, and barely liveable."
It added, "Overcrowded shelters are in terrible condition, service providers are struggling to operate, and the last resources are being depleted."
Over the last month in #Gaza, around half a million people have been newly displaced.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) April 25, 2025
The multiple displacement orders issued by the Israeli military leave Palestinians with less than a third of Gaza’s area to live in.
That remaining space is fragmented, unsafe, and barely… pic.twitter.com/nrFsfJXLCv
According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the Israeli government will not be sending any official representatives to attend the funeral of Pope Francis, which is scheduled for tomorrow.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his cabinet had been openly critical of the late pope during Israel’s war on Gaza, due to his outspoken condemnation of civilian deaths and Israel’s obstruction of humanitarian aid.
The Houthi-linked outlet Al Masirah TV has reported that the United States carried out at least six air strikes on the Bajil district in Yemen’s Hodeidah governorate.
The strikes come weeks after US President Donald Trump ordered military action in Yemen, claiming it was in response to Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, which they say are tied to Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.
Thousands of Israeli settlers entered the Palestinian town of Kifl Haris, north of Salfit in the occupied West Bank, on Thursday night under heavy military protection.
According to local sources cited by Wafa news agency, Israeli forces stormed the town ahead of the settlers’ arrival, restricting the movement of residents to facilitate the incursion.
Large crowds of settlers then entered the area to perform Talmudic rituals at Islamic shrines.
Witnesses reported that settlers also roamed the streets, posting racist slogans on the walls of homes and private properties.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has strongly denounced Israel’s recent attacks on refugee camps and shelters for displaced Palestinians in Gaza, carried out amid an ongoing blockade of aid deliveries. It described the assaults as a “concrete example of a war crime and a crime against humanity”.
In a statement shared on X, ministry spokesperson Ismail Baghaei also slammed the United Nations Security Council for its "inaction" and accused the United States and several European nations of being "accomplices" for supplying weapons to Israel.
"The Foreign Ministry spokesman stressed that the continued impunity of the Zionist regime and the continued killing of defenceless people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and the occupation of parts of Lebanon and Syria, severely threaten peace and security in the West Asian region," the statement read.
It concluded with a call for "serious measures" to stop the "spread of insecurity and confront the expansionism of the apartheid regime".
A child has died from injuries sustained in an Israeli air strike targeting a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, according to Al Jazeera English.
Despite being designated by Israel as a "safe zone", al-Mawasi has been repeatedly targeted by Israeli forces.
Since resuming its offensive in March, Israel has issued multiple evacuation orders directing Palestinians to relocate to the area.
Gaza's civil defence agency reported on Friday that the death toll from an Israeli air strike the day before on a house in the north of the Palestinian territory had risen to 23.
"Civil defence teams recovered 11 bodies last night and this morning following the Israeli bombing that targeted a residential house ... in Jabalia. This is in addition to the 12 victims recovered at the time of the attack yesterday," Mohammad al-Mughayyir, an official with the agency, told AFP.
Protests have taken place across parts of the United States this week in opposition to the visit of Israel’s far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Demonstrations were held on Tuesday and Wednesday in New Haven, where Ben-Gvir delivered a talk to members of Shabtai, a Jewish society affiliated with Yale University.
As previously reported, Ben-Gvir was also scheduled to speak at a synagogue in Long Island, near New York City.
However, the event was cancelled following widespread backlash and public pressure on the organisers.
Footage shared on social media now shows large crowds gathering in New York, waving Palestinian flags and chanting slogans against Ben-Gvir and Israel’s government.
Palestinian protesters in Brooklyn are mobilizing RIGHT NOW to demand baby-killer Itamar Ben Gvir get the hell out of NYC. He’s being hosted at 770 Eastern Parkway by the racist Zionist Lubavitch sect—yes, the same place where tunnels were uncovered. pic.twitter.com/4AZdX0sESY
— Nerdeen Kiswani (@NerdeenKiswani) April 25, 2025
Mossad Director David Barnea is in Doha on Thursday for a meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Thani to discuss a possible hostage deal, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which cited unnamed sources.
Barnea’s involvement is particularly notable as he, along with Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, was excluded from Israel’s official negotiating team by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The talks are currently being led by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who has reportedly opposed direct engagement with Qatar.
Sources said to be familiar with the negotiations told Haaretz that no major breakthrough has yet been achieved to allow the deal to move forward.
Meanwhile, Palestinian sources said Egypt, in coordination with Qatar, is expected to present a new ceasefire proposal by the end of the week.
The US military has claimed that a deadly explosion near the Old City of Sanaa- a UNESCO World Heritage site- was the result of a misfired missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
The blast, which took place on Sunday, killed at least a dozen people and injured around 30 others, according to Houthi health officials.
Dave Eastburn, a spokesperson for US Central Command (CENTCOM), said the casualties reported by the Houthis "likely did occur", but denied any US involvement in the strike.
He noted that the nearest American airstrike at the time was approximately three miles (4.8km) away.
According to Eastburn, the US believes the explosion was caused by a Houthi air defence missile, citing local reports and video footage allegedly showing Arabic writing on missile fragments found at the scene.
However, no further evidence has been publicly provided to support the claim.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered condolences following the death of Pope Francis.
"The State of Israel expresses its deepest condolences to the Catholic Church and the Catholic community worldwide at the passing of Pope Francis. May he rest in peace," read a statement posted by Netanyahu’s office on X.
Earlier this week, the Israeli government had posted – then swiftly deleted – a message of condolence, with Israeli media speculating the move may have been linked to the Pope’s repeated criticism of Israel’s war on Gaza.
In his final public address, read on his behalf during Easter, Pope Francis called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of hostages, and urgent humanitarian aid for the "starving people longing for a peaceful future."
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