Gaza Unrest
Live Reporting
Israel frustrated with US handling of talks: Report
Israeli officials have told Axios that the US government knew about the ceasefire deal proposal Egypt and Qatar negotiated with Hamas, but it did not inform Israel before Hamas announced yesterday it agreed to it.
Three Israeli officials said Hamas’s announcement took the Israeli government by surprise, according to the publication. Israel did not get the text of the group’s response from the mediators until an hour after Hamas released its statement, the officials said.
When the Israeli side read Hamas’s response, they were surprised to see it contained “many new elements” that were not part of a previous proposal that Israel agreed on and that was presented to Hamas by the US, Egypt and Qatar 10 days ago, according to the officials.
“It looked like a whole new proposal,” one official was quoted as saying by Axios.
A senior US official pushed back, telling the website that “American diplomats have been engaged with Israeli counterparts. There have been no surprises.”
Turkey says Israel’s Rafah operation is another war crime
“By carrying out a ground attack on Rafah, just a day after Hamas approved Qatar and Egypt’s proposal for a ceasefire deal, Israel has added another to the war crimes it has committed in Palestinian territories since October 7,” Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz says in a post on X.
Ankara would continue working for the Israeli leadership to be legally punished, he added.
Egypt condemns Israel’s Rafah operation
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry has said the Israeli military operation in Rafah threatens efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza.
The ministry’s statement came shortly after the Israeli military took control of the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
Twenty-two arrested in latest West Bank raids
Israeli forces have detained 22 people throughout the occupied West Bank in the last day, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.
Most arrests took place in the Tulkarem governorate, known as a centre of Palestinian resistance, while others occurred in the governorates of Ramallah, Bethlehem, Nablus, Jericho and Tubas.
The latest round of arrests bring the total number of Palestinians detained in the West Bank since October 7 to 8,610, according to the Prisoner’s Society.
Gaza aid halted as Israeli tanks take control of Rafah border crossing
Reuters reports that aid flow to Gaza has halted through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt following Israeli forces taking control of the Palestinian side of the frontier.
Three sources in humanitarian relief told the news agency that shipments of crucial supplies had halted.
Senior UN officials have repeatedly warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in Rafah should Israel launch a ground invasion of what was until recently a last refuge from Israeli attacks.
Israeli protesters call on Netanyahu to accept truce deal
Pressure is building on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at home, after Hamas agreed to a ceasefire proposal brokered by Qatar and Egypt.
Thousands of people held demonstrations in Tel Aviv, demanding the government accept the deal and bring the captives held in Gaza back home.
Israel military takes over Rafah crossing as city ‘very close to a full invasion’
It’s been a very difficult night the past 12 hours. It’s been very violent, very bloody and full of destruction, as the Israeli military has deployed all kinds of weaponry in the eastern part of Rafah.
As of this hour, the Israeli military has officially taken over the Rafah crossing – it’s strategically cutting off the Gaza Strip and sealing it off from the region.
It’s not only a point of entry for passengers to get in or out of Gaza, but since the beginning of this war, it has been a major point of humanitarian aid to get into Gaza.
With the Israeli military presence there right now, we can safely say that we’re looking at a very difficult situation in terms of getting humanitarian aid into Gaza.
At the same time, when we look at the location of the Rafah crossing, at almost the centre of the city, that indicates that we’re very close to a full invasion of Rafah.
Two explosions reported near ship travelling south of Yemen’s Aden
The UK’s Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said it has received a report of two explosions in close proximity to a merchant vessel traveling some 150km (82 nautical miles) south of the Yemeni city of Aden.
According to the UKMTO, the “master of the merchant vessel” said all crew and the ship was safe following the explosions, the Reuters news agency reports.
Houthi fighters in Yemen have launched repeated drone and missile strikes on shipping in the Red Sea, Bab el-Mandab Strait and Gulf of Aden that they say have links to Israel.
Staunch supporters of the Palestinian cause, Houthi officials say the attacks on shipping will end when Israel ends its war on Gaza.
Rafah border crossing closed as Israeli tanks deploy: Report
The crossing, Gaza’s main aid lifeline, has been forced to shut on the Palestinian side due to the presence of Israeli tanks, according to a spokesperson for the Gaza border authority quoted by Reuters.
Israeli military bombs house in western Rafah, killing three
Three people have been killed in an Israeli air attack on a house belonging to the al-Darbi family west of Rafah city, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.
This adds to the at least 12 other people who have been killed in separate strikes on Rafah overnight, as the Israeli military intensifies its bombardment of the city in southern Gaza.
Israeli protesters block road to stop Gaza humanitarian aid trucks
About a dozen far-right Israeli protesters have blocked the Latrun Interchange of Highway 1 in the occupied West Bank to stop trucks carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, Israeli media reports.
The Kan broadcaster published footage showing police intervening as protesters from the Tzav 9 activist group chanted and waved Israeli flags in front of the trucks on Monday night.
The Ynetnews outlet also reported that the protesters grabbed food and other aid from the trucks and threw it to the ground.
The vehicles had been driving via occupied Jerusalem as they carried aid from Jordan to Gaza. A Tzav 9 statement said it will continue to block the trucks until Hamas releases all Israeli captives held in Gaza.
‘No red lines’ for Israeli military in war on the Gaza Strip: Analyst
Antony Loewenstein, author of The Palestine Laboratory, which focuses on Israel’s military-technological complex, said the Israeli military’s reported shelling of the land crossing between Egypt and Gaza in the Rafah area demonstrates that Israel has “no red lines” in its war on the Palestinian territory.
“After the last month, when we’ve consistently heard from President Biden and many in the EU, even in the Arab world, that there is a red line – Israel cannot go into Rafah. That red line does not exist,” Loewenstein told Al Jazeera.
“What we are seeing here, I think, is Netanyahu’s so-called ‘strategy’, which is he realises that within the Israeli public, he is deeply unpopular. His stated aims on October 7, none of them have been achieved. Namely, so-called ‘total victory’ over Hamas. Destroying Hamas or getting all the hostages back. None of that has happened. He therefore feels that continuing the war – so-called ‘forever war’ – is essential.
“It’s important to note that Rafah, as you rightly say, is not just a key crossing point for aid but also for people. The only way Palestinians can get out of Rafah – the ones that are able to leave – is there and if that border shuts, then the roughly 1.5 million Palestinians who are trapped in Rafah have nowhere to go.”
MIT student calls on university to end ‘drone swarm’ research with Israeli military
MIT science student and pro-Palestinian protester Darsh told Al Jazeera’s correspondent Teresa Bo that the university must divest from Israeli interests, particularly ending research with Israel’s military.
“The obvious objective of this encampment is to stand with the people in Gaza and also to ask MIT to divest from the [Israeli military]. It takes money from the [Israeli military] to do research on drone swarms,” Darsh said.
“We don’t want that happening any more.
“There has been so much support from the community today, it was beautiful to see. When they threatened [protesters with] suspension and arrest and eviction from the encampment, there were only 30… And now we see many people who came in really quickly to help support us.
“I think what’s going on now is bigger than any type of graduation or arrests that may happen. There are 5,000 university students in Gaza that have been killed. That’s the same as the MIT undergrad population.
“There are so many children that can’t go to school in Gaza because their schools got bombed and flattened… I don’t think anyone in the world deserves to go to school as long as they [students in Gaza] can’t.”
Four killed in Israeli air attack on eastern Rafah: Report
An Israeli attack on a house in eastern Rafah has killed four people, news outlet the Palestinian Information Center reports.
It said that the Israeli bomb struck the Al-Hams family’s home in the al-Jnaina neighbourhood of the city in southern Gaza.
The Israeli military is carrying out a relentless bombardment of Rafah from land and air, claiming it is striking Hamas targets in the city.
Earlier, we reported that at least eight people were killed in two other strikes on homes in the city.
We will bring you more updates on the situation in Rafah when we have them.
At least eight killed so far in Israeli bombardment of Rafah: Wafa
At least eight people have been killed in Rafah, the Wafa news agency reports, as the Israel military continues its assault on the city in southern Gaza.
The Israeli military has killed five people and injured more after bombing a house in the Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood in the west of Rafah, according to Wafa.
The Israeli military has also killed at least three people, including a child, after bombing a house belonging to the Abu Amra family in western Rafah.
There were celebrations in Gaza on Monday after Hamas said it had accepted an Egyptian- and Qatari-brokered ceasefire deal.
But the Israeli prime minister’s office released a statement saying the “proposal is far from Israel’s requirements” and it will “continue the operation in Rafah to exert military pressure on Hamas”.
US says ‘reviewing’ the Gaza ceasefire proposal
Essentially what it means is making certain that what Hamas is agreeing to is what has been under discussion in recent days and weeks and also making certain that the Israelis are going to go along with the Hamas agreement.
This is largely speculation by analysts here in Washington, but it is the situation that the US is very concerned that any public discussion of the negotiations – the back and forth – could imperil or possibly torch these negotiations.
The US in recent days has been suggesting that it feels real progress was being made towards achieving, at least a temporary, six-week-long ceasefire and it doesn’t want to do anything that could possibly imperil the achievement of at least the temporary ceasefire – if not the entire package which Hamas has been describing all day on Monday.
Israeli war cabinet decides to send negotiators for talks, continue Rafah operation
Following Hamas’s acceptance of a ceasefire proposal put forward by Egypt and Qatar, families of captives in Gaza say the Israeli government must show their commitment to its citizens by accepting the deal and getting their loved ones home.
The Israeli prime minister’s office has released a statement saying that the “Hamas proposal is far from Israel’s requirements”, but it will send a delegation to Cairo to continue negotiations.
The statement added that Israel will “continue the operation in Rafah to exert military pressure on Hamas”.
Hamas accepts Gaza truce proposal, Israel urges Rafah evacuation
RAFAH (AFP) - Hamas on Monday (May 6) said it accepts a proposal for a truce in the seven-month-old war in Gaza, as Israel renewed an order for Palestinians in Rafah to evacuate ahead of a long-threatened invasion of the city.
The Hamas announcement brought cheering crowds onto the street amid tears of happiness, chants of "Allahu Akbar" and celebratory shooting in the air.
