The Trump administration moved forward with the sale of more than 20,000 US-made assault rifles to Israel last month, according to a document seen by Reuters and a source familiar with the matter, pushing ahead with a sale that the administration of former president Joe Biden delayed over concerns they could be used by extremist Israeli settlers.

The State Department sent a notification to Congress on March 6 of the $24 million sale of the Colt Carbine 5.56 mm caliber fully automatic rifles, saying the end user would be the Israeli National Police, according to the document.

The rifle sale is a small transaction next to the billions of dollars worth of weapons that Washington supplies to Israel. But it drew attention when the Biden administration delayed the sale over concerns that the weapons could end up in the hands of Israeli settlers, some of whom have attacked Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israeli forces arrested over 100 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank last week, including women, children and former detainees, a Palestinian rights group said.

The Palestinian Prisoners Society said in a statement that Israeli forces have intensified the detention drive in several West Bank areas, with a recent focus on Masafer Yatta, Al-Fawwar and Dheisheh refugee camps in the south, as well as Jenin and Tulkarem governorates in the north, where raids have been ongoing since January 21.

Arrests were frequently made in conjunction with field grilling, assaults, threats against civilians and their families, widespread infrastructure destruction, home demolitions, hostage-taking and the conversion of civilian homes into military posts, according to the group.

Provost Frank Doyle acknowledges "troubling rumours" as dozens of elite universities face investigations following last year's pro-Palestine and anti-genocide protests that rocked multiple American campuses.

Israeli air strikes on Gaza killed at least 86 more Palestinians, bringing the death toll from Israel's war since October 2023 to 50,609, the Health Ministry said.

A ministry statement said that 287 more injured people were transferred to hospitals in the last 24 hours, taking the number of injuries to 115,063 in the Israeli onslaught.

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian group Hamas, confirmed the death of their leader Hassan Farhat, along with his daughter Janan and son Hamza, in an Israeli air strike on the southern Lebanese city of Sidon.

According to Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee, the attack, which took place Thursday night, targeted Farhat, who was accused of "orchestrating several attacks against Israeli forces".

As alleged war criminals receive red-carpet treatment and institutions of justice are abandoned, the illusion of moral leadership crumbles—revealing a system built on selective accountability and colonial legacy.

Israeli air strikes killed 23 Palestinians and wounded several others in Gaza, while also targeting a water desalination plant.

In the latest attacks, a Palestinian woman and her child were killed, while others sustained injuries in an air strike on the Shujaiya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City.

A medical source confirmed that the number of fatalities from an earlier Israeli attack on the Akkad family's home in the Al-Manara neighborhood of Khan Younis in southern Gaza had risen to 19, up from an initial toll of 13.

A Palestinian man and his wife were also killed in an Israeli airstrike north of Rafah in the southern part of Gaza.

Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that the Israeli military struck the Ghabayen water desalination plant in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood, east of Gaza City, as part of its ongoing "war of thirst" against Palestinians.

Israel is using food and humanitarian aid as weapons in Gaza in its ongoing war on the enclave, said the chief of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Philippe Lazzarini on Thursday voiced concern over the deteriorating situation in Gaza, where Israel continues its blockade and aggressive actions against the population.

"Hunger & desperation spread as food & relief assistance are being weaponized," Lazzarini said in a statement, adding: “It’s been over a month of total siege. The Israeli authorities continue to ban the entry of basics: food, medicine, fuel: a collective punishment.”

He further said that "it’s a symptom of a breakdown of civil order" due to the ongoing siege.

The agency chief emphasised that Palestinians in Gaza are “exhausted as they continue to be locked up in a tiny piece of land,” emphasizing that “aid must be allowed in and the siege must be lifted.”

The Israeli army that it shot and killed a Palestinian who threw stones at troops near the occupied West Bank village of Husan, whose mayor told AFP the boy was 17.

Israeli air strikes killed at least 100 Palestinians across Gaza, including 29 or more sheltering at a school, according to Palestinian medical authorities.

The bodies of 14 children and five women were recovered from the school in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City and the death toll could rise because some of the 70 wounded sustained critical injuries, said Health Ministry spokesman Zaher al-Wahidi.

More than 30 other Gaza residents were killed in strikes on homes in the nearby neighborhood of Shijaiyah, he said, citing records at Ahli Hospital.

Israel attacked a United Nations building used as a shelter a day earlier, killing at least 17 people.