Middle East latest: Israeli strikes kill 25 people in Gaza as Supreme Court hears Shin Bet cases

Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip overnight and into Tuesday killed at least 25 people, including eight children and five women, according to Palestinian medics. Gaza's Health Ministry says the bodies of 58 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Israel's Supreme Court ruled that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can't fire the head of the country's internal security agency — at least for the next 12 days. Netanyahu said he was ''puzzled'' by the high court's decision and would continue to interview candidates to replace the head of Shin Bet.

Israel ended a ceasefire with Hamas in March, and has cut off all food, fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza — a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime — while issuing displacement orders that have forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee Israeli bombardments and ground operations.

Israel's war in Gaza, in its 18th month, has killed over 50,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Israel has vowed to escalate the war until Hamas returns dozens of remaining hostages, disarms and leaves the territory.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, and taking 251 others hostage. The group still holds 59 captives — 24 believed to be alive.

Here is the latest:

Israel moves to close UN-run schools in east Jerusalem

Israeli authorities ordered the six schools to close within 30 days, meaning some 800 Palestinian children in east Jerusalem likely won't finish the academic year.

That's according to Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations aid agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, which provides an array of educational and medical services in east Jerusalem and across the region.

Israel has banned UNRWA from operating on its territory since January, although it appears most services in the West Bank and east Jerusalem have continued. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies claim the agency is deeply infiltrated by Hamas. UNRWA rejects that claim.

Israeli police and municipal authorities did not immediately comment on Tuesday's school closure orders.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA's director for the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said Jerusalem municipal officials backed by police entered three of the schools on Tuesday, while a group of over 20 heavily armed border police entered schools in the Shuafat neighborhood.

It's not the first time, he said. Forces entered three of the schools in Shuafat on March 5, with 30 heavily armed Border Police alongside education officials.

Israeli arson attack destroys a Palestinian wedding hall in the West Bank

A Palestinian wedding hall in the Israeli-occupied West Bank was torched overnight, reportedly by Israeli civilians. No one was injured in the fire, which reduced some of the structures to charred remains.

On one building, vandals spraypainted the words ''revenge'' and ''fight the enemy not the lover'' in Hebrew, as well as a Star of David.

Israeli security agencies condemned the vandalism in the town of Biddya and opened an investigation Tuesday. Israeli settlers in the West Bank have been accused of a growing number of attacks on Palestinian villages in retaliation for attacks or perceived efforts to hamper settlement construction.

Israel's internal security chief keeps his job, for now, despite pressure from Netanyahu

Israel's Supreme Court has ruled that the head of the country's internal security agency will stay in his position for at least the next 12 days, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's attempt to fire him last month.

The government and the attorney general have until April 20 to come to a ''creative solution'' regarding Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar's future, the justices said at the close of Tuesday's marathon hearing, which lasted more than 10 hours.

Netanyahu said he was ''puzzled'' by the high court's decision and he would continue to interview candidates to replace Bar.

The stormy hearing, the latest showdown between Netanyahu and the judiciary, was eventually closed to the public after multiple protests interrupted proceedings — including by right-wing members of parliament.

Critics say the decision to fire Bar is tainted by a conflict of interest because the internal security agency is investigating ties between Netanyahu's office and the Gulf Arab state of Qatar. Bar's supporters say Netanyahu demanded loyalty from the head of an organization that is meant to be apolitical.

Since the war began, Netanyahu has fired or forced out a string of top officials, including the defense minister and the military's chief of staff.

UN chief says Israel is failing its obligations as occupying power by blocking aid to Gaza

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says under the Geneva Conventions, Israel has ''unequivocal obligations'' to ensure the delivery of food and medical supplies and to maintain hospitals for Gaza's population.

He said the Fourth Geneva Convention also provides that if part or all of the population is inadequately supplied, ''the occupying power shall agree to relief schemes … and shall facilitate them by all means at its disposal.''

''None of this is happening today,'' Guterres told reporters Tuesday. ''No humanitarian supplies can enter Gaza.''

For more than a month, Israel has blocked food, medicine and commercial supplies from entering the Gaza Strip. Israel insists that enough food to feed the more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza was delivered during the ceasefire, a claim U.N. agencies insist is far from reality.

''As aid has dried up, the floodgates of horror have reopened,'' Guterres said. ''Gaza is a killing field — and civilians are in an endless death loop.''

The U.N. chief again called for the immediate release of all hostages abducted during Hamas' surprise Oct. 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel, a permanent ceasefire and humanitarian access to all parts of Gaza.

After ‘very warm' visit to Trump, Israel's Netanyahu weighs in on Iran and tariffs

Military intervention is the only way to halt Iran's nuclear program, insisted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

''You go in, blow up the facilities, dismantle all the equipment, under American supervision, American execution,'' he said in a video statement Tuesday, citing the U.S.-led intervention in Libya. Otherwise, he said, Iran will drag out talks for years.

Netanyahu repeated his support for U.S. President Donald Trump's controversial plan to force Palestinians to leave Gaza for other countries. He also said Israel would keep working against Turkey's attempts to establish military bases in Syria, and would turn to Trump, who has a good relationship with the Turkish president.

Netanyahu said he told Trump that reducing Israel's trade deficit with the U.S. to zero — per a request from Trump — was ''the least we can do for the United States and its president who do so much for us.''

The U.S. had a $7.4 billion trade deficit in goods last year with Israel, according to the Census Bureau.

Iran's foreign minister says he will have indirect talks with US envoy over Tehran's nuclear program

Iran 's foreign minister said Tuesday he'll meet with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff in Oman for the first negotiations under the Trump administration seeking to halt Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program as tensions remain high in the Middle East.

Speaking to Iranian state television from Algeria, Abbas Araghchi maintained the talks would be indirect, likely with Omani mediators shuttling between the parties. U.S. President Donald Trump, in announcing the negotiations on Monday, described them as direct talks.

There was no immediate acknowledgment from the U.S. that Witkoff would lead the American delegation.

Years of indirect talks under the Biden administration failed to reach any success, as Tehran now enriches uranium up to 60% purity — a technical step away from weapons-grade levels.

Both the U.S. and Israel have threatened Iran with military attack over the nuclear program, while officials in Tehran increasingly warn they could potentially pursue a nuclear bomb. Trump has imposed new sanctions on Iran as part of his ''maximum pressure'' campaign targeting the country.

Gaza Health Ministry says Israeli strikes have killed dozens

Gaza's Health Ministry says the bodies of 58 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours.

Hospitals also received 213 wounded, the ministry said in its daily report Tuesday.

The overall Palestinian death toll in the war rose to at least 50,810 since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the ministry said. Another 115,688 people have been wounded, it said.

It said the dead include 1,499 who have been killed since Israel resumed the war last month, shattering a ceasefire that had taken hold in January.

The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says more than half of those killed have been women and children.

Israeli forces kill Palestinian woman accused of attacking them

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian woman in the occupied West Bank who they said had thrown rocks at them and tried to stab them.

No Israeli soldiers were wounded in Tuesday's shooting, which occurred at a traffic junction near an Israeli settlement.

The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the woman as Amana Yacoub, 30, from the nearby town of Salfit.

There has been a surge in violence in the West Bank since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Rights groups say Israeli forces often use lethal force when their lives are not in danger, while Israel says its troops have to make split-second decisions when operating in a dangerous environment.

Gaza journalist dies of wounds from Israeli strike

A Palestinian photojournalist who was wounded in an Israeli strike on a media tent outside of a hospital has died.

Ahmed Mansour suffered severe burns in the strike early Monday, according to Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis.

The strike killed two other people, including another journalist, and wounded another five reporters.

The Israeli military said the target of the strike was a man it described as a Hamas militant posing as a journalist. He was among those who were wounded.

Israel's high court hears cases against domestic security chief's firing

Israel's Supreme Court is hearing a group of eight cases challenging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's move to dismiss the head of the country's internal security agency.

The hearing sets the stage for what will be the latest showdown between Netanyahu and the judiciary. Any decision it makes is likely to deepen a rift in Israel over the power of the courts over elected lawmakers.

Critics say the decision to fire Ronen Bar is tainted by a conflict of interest because the internal security agency is investigating ties between Netanyahu's office and the Gulf Arab state of Qatar. Bar's supporters say Netanyahu demanded loyalty from the head of an organization that is meant to be apolitical.

Netanyahu says his decision came after a crisis of confidence in his domestic security chief surrounding Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and the ensuing war in Gaza.

Israeli strikes on Gaza kill at least 25 Palestinians, medics say

Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip overnight and into Tuesday killed at least 25 people, including eight children and five women, according to Palestinian medics.

A strike on a home in the central town of Deir al-Balah killed 11 people, including five children as young as two, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies.

Another four people were killed in a separate strike that hit a house in Deir al-Balah, it said.

Another strike in the northern town of Beit Lahiya flattened a home and killed a family of seven, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

A separate strike hit a group of people in an open area northwest of Gaza City, killing four people, including one who was planning to get married next week, the ministry said.

Israel says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because it operates in densely populated areas.