Dozens of humanitarian aid groups, including Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam, face expulsion from Gaza and the West Bank as soon as this weekend, unless they hand over detailed personal information about their staff to Israeli authorities. (PRI)

Israel's High Court has temporarily halted a ban on international aid groups from working in the occupied Palestinian territories unless they meet strict new rules. The injunction came ahead of an Israeli deadline for 37 well-known organizations to stop work, something the groups warn will remove a lifeline for vulnerable people and cause "irreparable harm." (BBC News)

Israel's widening war with Iran is deepening Gaza's humanitarian crisis, as new security measures effectively seal the territory off from the outside world. Israel, on Feb. 28, closed all crossings into Gaza—including the Rafah border with Egypt—while also tightening movement restrictions and carrying out raids across the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces killed two Palestinian men in one March 2 raid.

The restrictions came as Israeli and US attacks on Iran triggered an eruption of air and missile strikes across the region. Despite the reopening of the Rafah crossing on March 3, aid groups have warned that the remaining closures are swiftly draining supplies. Food stocks could run out within days, and panic buying and price spikes are spreading. The measures have revived memories of last year's famine, which caused hundreds of hunger-related deaths. (TNH)

The UN and the European Union on April 20 released their final Gaza Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA), estimating Gaza’s recovery needs at $71.4 billion over the next decade.

The RDNA states: "The scale and extent of deprivation across living conditions, livelihoods/income, food security, gender equality, and social inclusion, have pushed back human development in the Gaza Strip by 77 years." This is reflected in the projected collapse of the Human Development Index (HDI) to 0.339 on the 1.0 scale.

The report found an estimated $35.2 billion in physical damages and $22.7 billion in economic losses. The greatest needs fall within a few key sectors requiring billions in funding commitments. This includes $16.2 billion for housing, $10.5 billion for agriculture and food systems, $10 billion for health, and commerce and industry requiring $9 billion.

Less than 50% of hospitals remain even partially functional. Nearly 1.2 million Palestinians have lost their housing, and 1.9 million have been displaced, often numerous times. The report also addressed the severe impacts on women and the mental health needs of nearly 100 percent of children.

More than 71,000 Palestinian fatalities and over 171,000 injuries, resulting in a vast increase in disabilities, have been reported in the last two years. Many people remain missing under the rubble. (Jurist)

A panel of UN experts on April 20 unsuccessfully pleaded with the European Union to immediately suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement at the EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg held on Tuesday.

A motion to suspend the agreement was supported by Spain, Slovenia and Ireland. However, Germany and Italy blocked the bid. Ireland and Spain had pushed to suspend the agreement in 2024, spurring findings that Israel had “likely” breached its obligations under the agreement.

The EU is Israel’s top trade partner. Through the EU-Israel Association Agreement, Israel gains preferential access to European markets and "tariff-free entry of key agricultural products."

Arguing for the agreement’s suspension, the expert panel cited Article 2, which states that all parties to the agreement must respect human rights and democratic principles. (Jurist)

Loyalists of President Mahmoud Abbas won most races in Palestinian municipal elections, April 25—a vote that for the first time in nearly two decades included a city in the besieged Gaza Strip. This was Deir al-Balah, one of the few places where the Israeli military did not conduct a large-scale ground invasion during two years of war, though it still bears many signs of bombardment.

The election was organized by the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, and its involvement is notable given that it was forcibly removed from power in Gaza by Hamas in 2007. Since then, Hamas has controlled the appointment of mayors and municipal council members across the territory. The ballot marked the first elections of any kind in Gaza since 2006, and the first Palestinian polls since Israel's war in the territory began in October 2023. (NYT, Al Jazeera)

Hamas is also set to hold a long-delayed internal election to choose a new leader and political bureau in the coming weeks. Hamas has not had an elected leader since July 2024, when a bomb planted by Israel in Tehran killed head of the Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh, who had been elected to a second term in 2021. Following the assassination, Hamas announced that Yahya Sinwar, its top official in Gaza, would take over as leader, without holding internal elections.

Sinwar, credited as the mastermind of the October 7 assault, assumed the role while in hiding from Israeli air-strikes on the Strip, and his tenure lasted just three months before he was killed in the Rafah area. Since his death, Hamas has not formally named a successor or interim leader. (ToI)

An area of Khan Younis controlled by the al-Mujaida clan is effectively outside Hamas' rule.

Israel's military advance beyond a Gaza ceasefire line has prompted a rebuke from the European Commission.

Speaking to reporters in Brussels on May 4, European Commission spokesperson Anouar El Anouni says the EU rejects any attempt at territorial change in the Gaza Strip. “Let me also recall here that the Trump peace plan itself has been clear, in the sense that Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza,” he said, also citing UN Security Council resolution 2735.

The comments follow an IDF expansion into Gaza, pushing past the so-called yellow and orange lines. The "yellow line" marks a physically-delineated boundary of Israeli-controlled territory, established under the US-brokered ceasefire in October that effectively places around 53% of Gaza under Israeli military control.

Beyond it lies the so-called "orange line," an unmarked buffer zone extending roughly 200 to 500 meters into IDF-declared restricted zones, where Israeli tanks have reportedly advanced in the Jabalia area. (EU Observer)