Israeli attack sparks fire at Gaza home, burns 11 people to death

Israeli forces continue bombarding Gaza, killing at least 25 Palestinians since dawn, including 11 people who burned to death in Khan Younis.
US forces keep up attacks on Yemen, after the Houthis claim more raids on Israel as well as US aircraft carriers in the Red Sea.Hamas urges global strikes and sit-ins to end Israeli assault on Gaza
Hamas has called for a wave of global protests, strikes, and sit-ins this weekend, urging continued mobilisation until Israel’s assault on Gaza ends and the siege is lifted.

“We value the global movement in support of Gaza and against the Zionist aggression,” the group said, urging people across the Arab world, as well as in Asia, the Americas, and Western countries, to step up their actions.

The group praised the ongoing demonstrations as “a rejection of the genocidal war” against Palestinians being committed by Israel.

Hamas also backed a call by Islamic institutions naming Saturday, 26 April, as a day of widespread strike action in shops and malls across the Muslim world.

Such actions, it said, represent “an expression of solidarity with our people and our right to freedom and independence.”Israel uses Gaza aid as ‘weapon of war’: UNRWA chief
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has issued a stark warning as Gaza endures 50 days of siege by Israeli forces, describing the blockade as “deliberate and man-made”.

“Gaza has become a land of desperation,” Lazzarini posted on X, warning that more than two million people – mostly women and children – are being collectively punished.

The UN official said vital aid, including nearly 3,000 trucks of UNRWA supplies, is stuck outside Gaza, unable to enter while food and medicine inside the Strip rot or run out.

“Hollow words of condemnation” must now turn into action, he said, calling for an immediate end to the siege, a return to the ceasefire, and the release of captives.

“Hunger is spreading,” he added. “Humanitarian aid is being used as a bargaining chip – a weapon of war.”If you’re just joining us
Here are some of the most recent developments:

The Israeli army released the names of more than 60 Palestinians from Gaza who are held in Israeli prisons and camps, according to a joint statement by the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society and the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs.
The Israeli military demolished the family home of Muhammad Shihab, who was involved in a car-ramming attack in July last year which killed a soldier and injured three others.
Wafa and Quds News Network reported that Dr Majed Nasr Ismail was killed in an Israeli air attack on Deir el-Balah in central Gaza this morning.
An Israeli drone targeted a car near the Lebanese town of Baaourta in the Chouf district of Mount Lebanon. Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya said its leader was killed in the attack.
More than half of cancer and blood disease medicines are unavailable in Gaza, according to Alaa Hilles, who heads the hospital pharmacy department at Gaza’s Health Ministry.