Compilation of news reports – IAK staff:
NOTE: The Gaza Health Ministry’s daily casualty figures are based on the number of dead and wounded Palestinians brought to hospitals, and does not include victims that are under the rubble or elsewhere, where ambulance and civil defense crews can not reach them.
At least 26 Palestinians, including eight children, were killed on Sunday in a series of Israeli attacks targeting displaced civilians across the Gaza Strip, medics said.
Israel kills a Palestinian woman every hour in Gaza
The Israeli occupation army has killed an average of 21.3 women per day through the direct bombardment of the Gaza Strip since October 2023, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor revealed in a report released today. This, it added, amounts to approximately one Palestinian woman per hour, not including those who have died due to siege, starvation, or lack of medical care.
“The shocking, unprecedented rate at which women are being killed in the Gaza Strip reflects a systematic Israeli pattern of mass killings deliberately targeting Palestinian women, especially mothers,” the rights group added.
Euro-Med Monitor’s field team has documented the killing of thousands of women, “many of them of childbearing age, including thousands of mothers killed alongside their children” in their homes, displacement camps, temporary shelters, or while fleeing in search of safety or trying to protect their children from bombardment.
“The escalating pattern of daily targeting indicates that Israel is using the killing of Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip as a tool to destroy an entire demographic, falling within the crime of genocide under international law,” it warned, adding that this “is an act that directly threatens the future of the Palestinian population.”
Official health records confirm the killing of 12,400 Palestinian women, including 7,920 mothers, during the 582 days of Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip. “Field data further indicates that death rates among mothers, pregnant women, and breastfeeding women have reached unprecedented levels due to direct Israeli bombardment” (continue reading here).
Gaza’s health ministry warns of rising blindness cases amid healthcare shutdown
The Gaza-based health ministry on Sunday warned of a sharp increase in cases of blindness due to a severe shortage of medical supplies and equipment, as the health system continues to deteriorate amid Israel’s ferocious attacks.
In a press statement, the health ministry said that approximately 1,500 people have lost their vision since the start of the war in October 2023, while nearly 4,000 others are at risk of blindness due to the collapse of ophthalmic services.
The ministry added that the entire health sector in Gaza is under “unprecedented pressure,” as most hospitals and clinics have been damaged or forced to shut down due to Israeli airstrikes and shortages in fuel and medical supplies.
The ministry urged the United Nations and international humanitarian agencies to intervene immediately to prevent the collapse of the health system in Gaza.
Abdel Salam Sabah, director of the Gaza Eye Hospital, said in a press statement that the facility is suffering from a lack of basic surgical tools, including equipment used for retinal operations and essential materials such as surgical threads and helium gas.
“The remaining tools are being reused excessively, increasing the risk of contamination and threatening patients’ lives,” Sabah added.
He explained that “the hospital currently operates with only three worn-out surgical scissors, making further eye surgeries nearly impossible.”
He warned that the hospital may soon suspend all surgical procedures unless international organizations provide emergency medical aid.
Local medical sources said that eye injuries caused by explosions and shrapnel are one of the most common outcomes of the conflict, particularly affecting children and women.
RELATED: Gaza’s hospitals cannot provide food to recovering patients
Donald Trump confirmed the news in a social media post, writing that Alexander, 21, “is coming home to his family”.
“This was a step taken in good faith towards the United States and the efforts of the mediators — Qatar and Egypt — to put an end to this very brutal war and return ALL living hostages and remains to their loved ones,” the US president added.
The captive’s release is set to take place on Tuesday, Reuters reports, citing a source familiar with the matter.
Trump begins a trip to the Middle East the same day, although there is no stop in Israel on his schedule as of yet. The president is set to visit Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar (continue reading here).
In a statement shared on Sunday, the group said its dialogue with Washington is part of wider efforts “to achieve a ceasefire, open the crossings, and allow aid to reach our people in the Gaza Strip”.
Hamas also signalled its readiness for broader negotiations aimed at ending the war, saying: “We affirm our readiness to immediately begin intensive negotiations and make serious efforts to reach a final agreement to stop the war.”
The group reiterated it was prepared to negotiate a prisoner exchange deal and to support post-war governance in Gaza by “an independent, professional body”.
There has been no immediate response from the White House.
RELATED: Israel has destroyed only quarter of Hamas’ tunnels in Gaza: Israeli media
Israeli officers admit assault on Gaza ‘kills captives’
According to the report published on Friday, both the government and the military are fully aware that army attacks pose a grave risk to the captives and have, in fact, already led to fatalities.
“The maneuver kills captives, not theoretically, it actually kills them,” a security source told Ynet.
He stated that his main task within intelligence had become “to save the hostages, mainly from ourselves”, referring to the extreme danger Israeli military operations are believed to pose to the hostages’ lives.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz and top military officials have repeatedly insisted that continued military pressure is the only viable strategy to secure the release of captives, 59 of whom are still being held in Gaza.
“Ask any officer in the army today what the current war plan entails, beyond vague talk of ‘pressure’ to bring back the hostages,” the source said. “We’ve been trying that for 19 months. It doesn’t work.”
The source also described the planned expanded ground invasion as offering Hamas “two options: release the hostages and we will kill you, or don’t release them and we will still kill you. Of course, Hamas chooses the second option” (continue reading here).
Pope Leo XIV calls for Gaza ceasefire in first Sunday message
Pope Leo XIV has called for genuine peace in Ukraine and an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in his first Sunday noon blessing as pontiff.
“No more war,” Leo said on Sunday, adding, “the dramatic scenario of a third world war being fought piecemeal.”
“I too address the world’s great powers by repeating the ever-present call ‘never again war’,” he said from the loggia of Saint Peter’s Basilica to an estimated 100,000 people below.
Leo also called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and said he was “profoundly saddened” by the war in the Israeli-besieged enclave.
He said humanitarian relief must be provided to the “exhausted civilian population”, adding that “all hostages” held by the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza must be freed.
Israeli spyware company NSO ordered to pay $167 million to WhatsApp
The Israeli electronic surveillance company NSO Group was ordered to pay $167 million in damages to WhatsApp and its parent company Meta, bringing a close to six years of litigation.
WhatsApp filed suit against NSO in 2019 in U.S. federal court, alleging it hacked 1,400 WhatsApp users, including journalists and government officials, using its Pegasus surveillance tool.
The ruling Tuesday marks a major win for privacy advocates that have fought against the company’s spyware. It is also the latest setback for NSO, which was sanctioned by the United States in November 2021 after revelations that its products enabled repressive regimes to spy on dissidents, journalists and humanitarian workers (continue reading here).
RELATED: Israeli Firm Helped Governments Target Journalists, Activists with 0-Days and Spyware
Signalgate ICYMI: A hacker breached Israeli-made TeleMessage, stole messages, chats
According to Wikileaks: The application that the Trump White House has been using to collect and securely store messages sent on popular commercial encrypted apps has temporarily suspended service in the wake of a security breach, the application’s owner said on Monday.
The application, TeleMessage, is owned by Smarsh, a company based in Portland, Ore., which provides tools for governments to comply with record-keeping regulations and laws. Last week, a Reuters photograph of Mike Waltz, then the national security adviser, showed that he was using the application to read Signal messages on his phone.
Last Sunday, 404 Media reported that a hacker had breached the Israeli company that makes TeleMessage and stolen the contents of some direct messages and group chats sent using its Signal clone, as well as modified versions of WhatsApp, Telegram and WeChat.
Smarsh declined to answer questions, but in a statement, a spokeswoman said that it was investigating “a recent security incident” and that, “Out of an abundance of caution, all TeleMessage services have been temporarily suspended.”
MORE NEWS:
The Guardian: There is suffering everywhere you look, says mother of emaciated baby girl trapped in Gaza
Anadolu Agency: Israel returns body of army soldier killed in Lebanon in 1982
IMEMC Daily Reports
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – MAY 11, 2025:
- At least 53,829 Palestinians killed, 128,041 injured – including:
- at least 52,862 killed in Gaza (~15,600 children)
- at least 967 killed in the West Bank (~196 children)
- at least 119,648 injured in Gaza
- at least 8,393 injured in the West Bank
According to Palestinian authorities, during the ceasefire Jan. 19- March 18 2025, Israeli attacks killed at least 170 Gazans, and Israel committed at least 962 ceasefire violations.
Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 14,000 more are still buried under rubble.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – May 11, 2025: ~1,598 – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 414 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel.
By one count, Israeli attacks have killed approximately 204 Palestinian journalists and media workers; Palestinians have killed 4 Israelis (other groups have tallied between 170 and 263 Palestinian journalists killed – depending on the criteria used).
NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
- Why many Americans are unaware of the massive event in Gaza BEFORE October 7th
- 15 Family Members Killed in Israeli Strike on Gaza; Only Seven-year-old, His Mother Survived
- Israel Targets Gaza’s Last Lifeline for Food and Escalates Civilian Killings amid Widespread Famine
- Israel Must Let International Journalists Into Gaza: Our Call as Foreign Press Association Members
- Israel is starving Gaza to death, and still the world does nothing
- The Trump Administration Is Hiding American Casualties of War
- Inside Waltz’s Ouster: Before Signalgate, Talks With Israel Angered Trump
- “Deprivation by Design”: Israel Intensifies Mass Killing Campaign in Gaza With Starvation and Daily Strikes
- The Vach brothers: creators of October 7 lies, and Israel’s first family of genocide
- Israel’s False Paramedics Story Exemplifies Its Information War Against Palestinians
- Mohsen Mahdawi: I Was Detained for My Beliefs. Who Will Be Next?
- In roadside Gaza attack, Israel kills 4-year-old girl and other children
- On the Day He Was Fired as National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz Used an Israeli App to Archive Signal Messages
- Israel closure orders deny education to 800 Palestinians in Occupied East Jerusalem: UN
- I was forced to burn my beloved books to survive in Gaza
- Israel carrying out ‘live-streamed genocide’ in Gaza, Amnesty says
- Regarding New JFK Disclosures, State Department Refuses to Acknowledge Israel’s Nukes
- They staged protests for Palestine. The consequences have been life-changing
- Biden Officials Admit They Never Pressured Israel for Ceasefire
