The Gaza Health Ministry has reported the deaths from the April 24 Gaza attacks, and Hamas denies any Israeli evidence of kidnapping
After Israeli strikes killed seven aid workers in April, Israel opened land routes to deliver aid to the northern part of Gaza, which is currently experiencing famine.
Control of the Gaza side of the crossing is held by the Palestinians. It agreed to temporarily divert traffic through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, Gaza’s main cargo terminal, after a call between U.S. President Joe Biden and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Sunday that the bodies of 81 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to local hospitals over the past 24 hours. The death toll from the war has grown to 35,984. The ministry’s count doesn’t distinguish between civilians and fighters.
Hamas released a video showing a wounded man being dragged through a tunnel after it claimed to have captured an Israeli soldier. The Israeli military denied its soldiers had been kidnapped, and Hamas provided no evidence to back up its claim.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli Army: Israel’s Cold War with the Hamas Regime and the State of Emergency Medical Treatment near the Gaza Strip
A strip of docking and a small U.S. military vessel are near the southern Israeli city of Ashdod. The U.S. Central Command said four of its vessels were affected by rough seas with two of them anchoring near the pier off the Gaza coast and another two in Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel must take over Rafah in order to eliminate Hamas’ last remaining battalions and achieve its goal of “total victory” over the militants, who have recently regrouped in other parts of Gaza where the military had already operated.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under increasing domestic pressure to negotiate a ceasefire deal to bring the remaining hostages home. Israel has been rocked by weekly protests by families of hostages and others calling for the resignation of Netanyahu. The government that he is in has hard liners that don’t want a complete ceasefire.
Scuffles broke out between Israeli police and protesters in Tel Aviv on Saturday after thousands gathered to demonstrate against the government and demand the return of the hostages. The protesters called for Netanyahu’s resignation and demanded new elections.
Last week, three European countries announced they would recognize a Palestinian state, and the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, along with three Hamas leaders.
On Friday, the International court of justice ordered the end of the military offensive by Israel. The top court in the world said that Israel must give investigators access to Gaza.
Israel is unlikely to comply with the orders, and has sharply condemned the ICC’s move toward arrest warrants for its leaders. Israel says it makes every effort to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas because the militants operate in dense, residential areas.
“People [were] literally burned alive in their tents,” Smith told NPR. This is not what I have seen before here in Gaza. Truly one of the most horrific massacres to have occurred in recent days here in Rafah and across the Gaza Strip.”
Dr. James Smith, an emergency doctor who is working just outside Rafah, said that the injured were taken to a trauma stabilization center in Tal al-Sultan and then referred to surrounding field hospitals for further treatment. In the past months, many hospitals were ordered to be evacuated and shut down by the Israeli military.
“At around 6:30 p.m. yesterday, I heard a huge noise. I heard an explosion, it sounded like an earthquake,” he told NPR. I jumped out of the window because I couldn’t get out of the door.
An Israeli strike on the outskirts of Rafah in northern Jordan and a high-level diplomatic dialogue between Saudi Arabia and the United States
The Israeli military said it was targeting a Hamas installation and killed two senior Hamas militants. Dozens of Palestinians were using Tal al-Sultan to shelter after the strike caused a fire in a camp west of Rafah. The area was designated a safe zone by Israel’s military and pamphlets were dropped in the area saying aid would be available there.
Israeli media is reporting that officials say that negotiations are supposed to resume next week. High level discussions were held in Paris between David Barnea, the Israeli Mossad chief, William J. Burns, the U.S. CIA director, and the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Abdulrahma al-Thani.