Officials in Gaza say Israeli strikes have killed over 100 people over the past day — the majority of them children and women — as Palestinians grow increasingly desperate in their daily struggle for survival, more than 10 weeks after Israel cut off all imports of humanitarian aid, including food and medicine.

Thousands of people were seen fleeing Gaza City after the Israeli military once again issued forced relocation orders, among them sick and wounded patients at Al-Shifa Hospital who were left to fend for themselves in Gaza’s streets.

Manal al-Ankar: “My daughter was admitted to the hospital as a result of the siege, starvation and malnutrition. … We do not know where to go with the patients. We are fleeing from one death to another. We are dying slowly. Everything we have is over. We are dying a thousand times every day. Until when will this let down? Until when is this siege? Until when is this weakness in our nation?”

Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza continued as Palestinians commemorated the 77th anniversary of the Nakba — which means “catastrophe” in Arabic — when some 700,000 Palestinians fled from or were violently expelled from their homes by Israel’s founders. This is a Palestinian resident of Ramallah who joined Nakba Day marches in the occupied West Bank.

Mohammed Abu Qaiydah: “Despite all of the circumstances, we are maintaining our land and rooted here. Our right of return will never be forgotten, and Palestine will always be Palestine.”

Human Rights Watch is condemning Israel’s plan to demolish Gaza’s remaining civilian infrastructure while concentrating the Palestinian population into a tiny area. HRW said such actions would “amount to an abhorrent escalation of [Israel’s] ongoing crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and acts of genocide,” adding, “Israel’s blockade has transcended military tactics to become a tool of extermination.”

On Wednesday, activists with Taxpayers Against Genocide delivered a complaint to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, D.C., calling on the U.S. to follow its obligations to prevent genocide under the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man. Huwaida Arraf is lead attorney on the case.

Huwaida Arraf: “Because when you support genocide, you basically violate every right that’s guaranteed in the American Declaration, which the United States is held to. The first and foremost among them is the right to life.”

President Donald Trump again called for the U.S. to take over Gaza and turn it into what he called a “freedom zone.” He made the comments earlier today from Qatar as he continues his tour of Gulf states.

On Wednesday, Sheikh Tamim Al Thani welcomed Trump for an official state visit with a lavish ceremony. During his visit, Trump announced Qatar had agreed to deals with U.S. companies worth over $240 billion, including a $96 billion deal for Boeing to sell hundreds of jets to Qatar.

President Donald Trump: “From Boeing, it’s the largest order of jets in the history of Boeing. That’s pretty good. … So, that’s a record, Kelly. And congratulations to Boeing. Get those planes out there.”

The White House says Trump still plans to accept a $400 million luxury jet from Qatar known as the “flying palace” to replace Air Force One, despite bipartisan criticism, including from Senate Majority Leader John Thune and other top Republicans. NBC News reports the cost of converting the plane could take several years at a cost of over $1 billion. Trump is traveling to the United Arab Emirates today for the final leg of his Middle East tour.

In Virginia, Georgetown University scholar Badar Khan Suri has reunited with his family following his release on bail from a Texas ICE jail, after a federal judge on Wednesday ruled his detention violated his rights to free speech and due process. Khan Suri’s release comes one week after Tufts scholar Rümeysa Öztürk was freed from a Louisiana ICE jail and two weeks after Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi was released from ICE custody in Vermont.

Federal agents abducted Khan Suri outside his home in Virginia in March, separating him from his three children and his wife, a U.S. citizen of Palestinian descent. Khan Suri is a peace scholar. He recently wrote from behind bars that he will “leave no avenue unexplored in defying the witch hunt unleashed upon me and others who believe in freedom for Palestinians.”

The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments today on a case stemming from Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship. The Trump administration is challenging the power of federal courts to rule against Trump’s executive order and to impose “nationwide injunctions.”

In other news from D.C., Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told House lawmakers that she backed the idea of suspending habeas corpus to carry out the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. At the hearing, California Democratic Congressmember Eric Swalwell blasted Noem for refusing to disavow President Trump’s use of a photoshopped image of a tattooed hand, which Trump claimed is proof the expelled Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 gang member. This is part of their exchange.

Rep. Eric Swalwell: “You are one of the chief law enforcement officials in the country. What have you done to investigate whether the president misrepresented the reason that that person has been detained?”

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem: “Sir, we spend our time” —

Rep. Eric Swalwell: “Have you — have you done anything to try and figure out whether that was doctored or not?”

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem: “The mission of the Department of Homeland Security is to secure our nation and to make sure that we’re out there going after those that are the worst of the worst, the criminals, the bad actors. Abrego Garcia” —

Rep. Eric Swalwell: “Yes. So, the answer is —

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem: — “is a known terrorist, member of” —

Rep. Eric Swalwell: — “you’ve done nothing to correct the president.”

In related news, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard has fired two senior officials who oversaw the National Intelligence Council’s report contradicting Trump’s rationale for invoking the Alien Enemies Act to expel alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua without due process.

In other immigration news, the Trump administration said it was charging Harvard scientist Kseniia Petrova with smuggling for failing to declare frog samples while she was traveling. Petrova was detained in February and transferred to an ICE facility in Louisiana. She faces political persecution if deported back to her home country of Russia, over her protests against the invasion of Ukraine. Petrova is a highly skilled scientist, whose work could lead to major advances in early cancer detection.

ZA Russian delegation has arrived in Turkey for the first direct peace talks with Ukraine in over three years. But the delegation does not include Russia’s President Vladimir Putin nor its foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov; instead, several of Putin’s deputies are attending. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Russia’s presence “decorative” as he arrived in Ankara today. Zelensky had challenged Putin to negotiate a face-to-face peace deal. Shortly after Russia’s announcement, the White House said President Donald Trump would also skip the peace talks.

On Wednesday, officials in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy said a Russian missile attack on an industrial site killed at least three civilians.

The German charity Sea-Watch reports two children, aged 3 and 4, died after a rubber dinghy carrying refugees from Libya to Italy broke down and was stranded in the Mediterranean. The children died of dehydration. One other person drowned in the journey, and another 59 passengers survived.

In Libya, rival militias traded fire Wednesday in the capital Tripoli, just hours after a truce had been called following the worst fighting in the area in years. The clashes broke out Monday following the killing of the leader of a powerful armed group that’s been accused of major human rights abuses in Libya’s migrant detention facilities. At least six people were killed. Libya is ruled by two main authorities, while armed groups vie for control over the country’s natural resources. A U.N.-recognized government in Tripoli is led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, while a rival administration in the east of the country is controlled by Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army.

Here in New York, the federal sex-trafficking and racketeering trial for '90s hip-hop star and business mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is underway. On Wednesday, his ex-partner Cassie Ventura detailed Diddy's intense physical and sexual abuse during their relationship, including how he forced her to participate in hundreds of drug-fueled sex parties he called “freak-offs.” Ventura also told the court Diddy raped her after their relationship ended. Jurors were shown a video of Diddy beating Ventura, kicking and dragging her on the floor of a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. Sean “Diddy” Combs is accused by multiple women of sexual assault, trafficking and exploitation over decades. He was arrested in September. If convicted, he faces a possible life sentence.

Congressional Democrats grilled Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in back-to-back hearings in the House and Senate Wednesday. Kennedy defended major cuts to HHS as part of the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle federal agencies, insisting key programs would still operate — without offering any concrete plans.

He was also questioned about his response to the growing U.S. measles outbreak and his vaccine skepticism. This is an exchange with Congressmember Mark Pocan.

Rep. Mark Pocan: “If you had a child today, would you vaccinate that child for measles?”

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: “For measles? Probably for measles. I — you know, what I would say is my opinions about vaccines are irrelevant. I have directed” —

Rep. Mark Pocan: “Yeah.”

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: — “Jay Bhattacharya” —

Rep. Mark Pocan: “Sure. No, like I said, I don’t want to” —

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: — “to do the science so that everybody can make that decision. But I, you know” —

Rep. Mark Pocan: “OK. Measles?”

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: “I don’t want to seem like I’m being evasive.”

Rep. Mark Pocan: “Yeah.”

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: “But I don’t think people should be taking advice, medical advice, from me.”

Rep. Mark Pocan: “Right.”

Peace activists disrupted Kennedy’s Senate hearing, leading to their forced removal and the arrest of seven protesters — among them Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen.

Ben Cohen: “Congress kills poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs and pays for it by kicking kids off Medicaid in the U.S.”

RFK Jr. is ordering the FDA to review regulations around the highly prescribed abortion pill mifepristone, citing a new study that experts have called “fatally flawed” and “junk science.” The ACLU said Kennedy is trying to “make it harder for people to get medication abortions based on propaganda pushed out by a Project 2025 sponsor,” while leaving the final decision on the matter to Trump. The ACLU added, “We should all be scared if our access to safe, FDA-approved medications turns on President Trump’s gut instinct rather than credible scientific evidence.”

In another blow for abortion rights, South Carolina’s Supreme Court has upheld the state’s six-week abortion ban, which outlaws nearly all abortions.

House Republicans have successfully pushed through proposals that would slash Medicaid and food stamps as part of Trump’s budget, making his 2017 tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans permanent by taking away essential services for the rest of the country. The measure could leave 8.6 million people without healthcare over the next decade. Some Senate Republicans have voiced concerns over the bill — namely, that it doesn’t include steep enough spending cuts.