Israel Atrocities
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Netanyahu says no humanitarian crisis as hundreds of thousands flee Rafah
Israel’s prime minister has insisted there is no “humanitarian catastrophe” in Rafah as he announced nearly 500,000 people had been evacuated from the south Gaza city amid intense fighting, AFP reports.
But even as he announced that hundreds of thousands had been “evacuated”, Benjamin Netanyahu insisted there was no humanitarian crisis in Rafah.
“Our responsible efforts are bearing fruit. So far, in Rafah, close to half a million people have been evacuated from the combat zones. The humanitarian catastrophe that was spoken about did not materialise, nor will it,” the premier said in a statement.
Prominent authors support divestment from companies that profit from Israel
More than 200 authors, including Naomi Klein and Sally Rooney, have signed a letter calling for increased pressure on investment management firm Baillie Gifford — sponsors of the Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction — to divest “from companies that profit from Israeli apartheid, occupation and genocide”, Al Jazeera reports.
The letter was inked by Fossil Free Books, a UK-based group of workers in the literary industry, which has pressured the company to stop investing in the fossil fuel industry. Now, it is also focusing on divestment from Israel as it believes that “solidarity with Palestine and climate justice are inextricably linked”.
Literary organisations that accept sponsorship from Baillie Gifford “can expect escalation, including the expansion of boycotts, increased author withdrawal of labour, and increased disruption until Baillie Gifford divests,” the letter reads.
35,233 Palestinians killed in Israeli bombardment in Gaza, ministry says
At least 35,233 Palestinians have been killed and 79,141 injured in Israeli bombardment in Gaza since October 7, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement according to Reuters.
India says it is working to repatriate UN staffer killed in Gaza
India said on Wednesday it was working to repatriate the body of a former Indian Army officer serving as a UN staffer, who was killed in Gaza when his vehicle was hit by what the UN said was tank fire in Rafah where only Israeli tanks are present.
The staffer, Waibhav Anil Kale, was working with the UN Department of Safety and Security and was heading to the European Hospital in Rafah along with a colleague, who was wounded in the incident. The U.N. said he was the first international UN staffer killed in Gaza since the war began on Oct 7, taking the total UN death toll to 191, opens new tab.
UN Secretary General's deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Tuesday the UN had set up a fact-finding panel to determine the responsibility for Kale's death.
Palestinians call for refugee return on ‘Nakba’ anniversary
Thousands of flag-waving Palestinians marched in northern Israel on Tuesday to commemorate the flight and forced flight of Palestinians during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, and to demand the right of refugees to return.
Many of the about 3,000 people also called for an end to the conflict in Gaza as they took part in the march near the city of Haifa marking the “Nakba”, or “catastrophe”, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven out during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel’s creation.
Many held up Palestinian flags and wore keffiyeh head scarves during the annual Return March, a rare Palestinian demonstration permitted to go ahead in Israel as the crisis in the Gaza Strip rages on.
Hezbollah’s Nasrallah meets Hamas delegation in Beirut
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has met a senior Hamas delegation in Beirut, according to a report by Al Mayadeen channel.
The Hamas delegation is led by Khalil al-Hayya, the group’s deputy head in Gaza. It also included Mohammed Nasr, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, and Osama Hamdan, a senior Lebanon-based spokesperson for the group, according to Al Mayadeen.
During their meeting, parties held an in-depth assessment of the latest developments in Gaza and discussed the status of stalled ceasefire negotiations, said the report, adding that they emphasised their shared commitment towards achieving “victory, regardless of the sacrifices”.
Israel’s impunity threatens global security: Rights lawyer
Failure to hold Israel responsible for its international law violations is not only endangering Palestinians, but the entire world order, said Palestinian rights lawyer Ammar Dweik.
“Israel is acting above international law with no accountability,” Dweik told Al Jazeera in Ramallah. “That’s why it’s going on with the genocide, with war crimes, with crimes against humanity, without any consequences to its leaders.”
He added: “The way Israel is acting is not only making things dangerous for Palestinians but for everyone, because people see the world order collapsing before their eyes.”
Dweik said he held “some hope” international bodies such as the International Criminal Court would take action against Israeli authorities, including through possible indictments, but cautioned that such steps were unlikely to immediately alleviate the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
“This pressure is not enough,” Dweik said. “Too many victims have lost their lives, but still we need to continue this path. It’s not only for Palestinians, but also for the entire world to have a credible, accountability system that is independent, that is efficient.”
EU urges Israel to end Rafah attack ‘immediately’
The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has issued a statement warning Israel that a failure to end the military operation in the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city would undermine ties with the bloc.
“The European Union is calling on Israel to refrain from further exacerbating the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and reopen the crossing point of Rafah. Should Israel continue its military operation in Rafah, it would inevitably put a heavy strain on the EU’s relationship with Israel,” it said.
Borrell said the Rafah offensive is “further disrupting the distribution of humanitarian aid” and is causing “more internal displacement, exposure to famine and human suffering”.
His statement also called on all parties to increase their efforts to achieve an immediate ceasefire and the unconditional release of all captives.
May be impossible to return all captives, says far-right Israeli MP
Zvi Sukkot, a member of Israel’s Knesset representing the far-right Religious Zionism Party, says it may be impossible to free all Israeli captives in Gaza and that “national security” concerns should take precedent.
“I wish it were possible to return all the hostages. I’m not sure that’s possible,” Sukkot told Israel’s Radio 103FM. “We need to do everything to return them but not anything that will critically harm national security.
“We think the way to return [the captives] is when Hamas understands it doesn’t have a choice but to return them,” Sukkot added, saying that he believes Israel should intensify its Rafah operation to put more pressure on the group.
There are 132 captives remaining in Gaza, Israel says, but at least 30 are believed to have died during the war.
Palestinians decry lack of Arab support on Nakba Day
Palestinian historian Saleh Abd al-Jawad has told Al Jazeera in the occupied West Bank that Israel’s actions today are even more violent than during the Nakba in 1948.
Currently, he said, “the killing is from one side”.
“There is a civilian population killed with the most sophisticated American weapons, day and night. Minute by minute.”
During the first Nakba, 13,000 Palestinians died over three years. Since October 2023, more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza.
“In the West Bank, we’ve seen multiple raids and killings. There is an active genocide in Gaza,” Jenin Anzawi, from Jenin refugee camp, told Al Jazeera.
Mohammad Abu Ameera, also from Jenin refugee camp, said now Palestinians do not have the support of their Arab neighbours.
“Gaza is at war by itself, it is fighting by itself, being slaughtered by itself,” he said, adding that Arab countries’ armies are not used to fight another country but instead are “used against their own people”.
Battles raging in Rafah, Jabalia
The Israeli army has intensified military attacks by land and air.
Israeli fighter jets are continuing to hammer Jabalia and the Rafah district. In the Jabalia refugee camp, there are ongoing confrontations on the streets. Fighting also continues in the eastern side of Rafah district, including the Jnaina and Salam neighbourhoods.
Over the past couple of hours, we have recorded more victims in central areas of Gaza City. Ten Palestinians have been killed in the city’s Sabra neighbourhood after a UN-run clinic was targeted by Israeli jets. Five Palestinians were also killed in overnight strikes in Bureij refugee camp.
All those victims were brought to Al-Aqsa Hospital for burial preparations.
Palestinians say they face a second Nakba, but this time they are alone
Palestinians have been marking 76 years since the Nakba – the forced displacement of Palestinians in 1948.
Back then, all Arab countries were united against Israel. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank say the ongoing war in Gaza and military expansion in the West Bank are clear evidence of a second Nakba. But this time, they are facing it alone.
Some recall the first Arab-Israeli war, where people from all walks of life fought and died for Palestine in 1948.
Adeeb Nazzal, from Qabatiya, said Iraqi soldiers had fought heroically side by side with Palestinians against Zionists in that war.
“Nowadays [Arab armies] have no say. Everyone is on their own. Everyone wants [to preserve] their own interests,” he said.
Israeli military arrests six people in occupied West Bank raids
The Israeli military has arrested three Palestinians, including two 15-year-old boys, during raids on the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem, the Wafa news agency reports.
Israeli forces have arrested another Palestinian in the village of Husan, west of Bethlehem, according to Wafa, while two men have been arrested and tear gas fired in the Shu’fat camp near Jerusalem.
Israeli raids have also been reported in the towns of Ya’bad and Araba in Jenin Governorate.
UN envoy: Israel ‘creates illusion’ of civilian protection in Gaza where ‘everyone is killable’
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territory, said sanitised jargon used by the Israeli military during its onslaught against civilians in Gaza is designed to “camouflage” killing.
Albanese said Israel’s use of terms from international humanitarian law – such as “evacuation orders” and “safe zones” – “create the illusion that its military operations ensure protection of civilians”.
The reality could not be further from the truth, she said in a post on social media.
“This ‘humanitarian camouflage’ has de facto turned Gaza into a place ‘without civilians’, where everything is destroyable & everyone is killable.”
Palestinian fighters carry out ‘very high daily rate of attacks’ on Israeli forces in Gaza
Palestinian armed groups have “preserved or rebuilt” their fighters and weaponry required to challenge Israeli military operations in northern Gaza, war monitors say, adding that the groups fighting in Jabalia report carrying out – on average – 28 attacks each day on Israeli forces since May 11.
In the latest battlefield assessment from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP), the two US-based defence think tanks continue to emphasise that Palestinian armed groups are far from vanquished, and now rebuilding, despite months of war with a vastly better-equipped Israeli army.
“Palestinian militias are sustaining a very high daily rate of attacks targeting Israeli forces in Jabalia,” the ISW/CTP said, noting that Israel’s military is conducting “two re-clearing operations” in the north of the Gaza Strip, where it claimed in December that it had defeated Hamas.
Also, on Tuesday, Palestinian fighters carried out four “indirect fire attacks” from Gaza towards Israel, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad firing rockets from northern Gaza towards Israel’s Sderot area.
Israeli military shoots down two drones fired by Islamic Resistance in Iraq
The Israeli military has said that its fighter jets have shot down two drones heading towards Israeli territory.
Earlier, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-aligned militias in Iraq, said it had launched two drones at the southern Israeli city of Eilat. It said the attack was carried out in defence of Gaza.
The Iraqi armed groups have claimed multiple attacks on US forces stationed in Iraq and Syria, as well as targets in Israel, since October.
Death toll mounts in another bloody night of Israeli attacks across Gaza Strip
Four people have been reported killed and nine injured in an Israeli attack on a residential apartment in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood and a mother and her child were killed in a separate attack on an apartment in the city’s Yarmourk area, according to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.
An Israeli attack drone killed a Palestinian and injured two others when it targeted a group of civilians on Old Gaza Street in Jabalia city in the north of the territory, the Wafa news agency reports.
Air strikes have also hit Gaza City’s Remal and Zeitoun neighbourhoods overnight and Israeli artillery continued to pound the Nuseirat refugee camp as well as other locations in central Gaza, including the Yaban refugee camp.
Israeli naval ships stationed off Gaza were reportedly pounded on the northern coast of the territory, Wafa says.
The news agency also reports that Israeli ground forces blew up buildings in Jabalia and several areas in the north of the territory as well buildings in the as-Salam neighbourhood, east of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
US moving ahead with more than $1bn in weapons for Israel: Reports
The State Department is moving ahead with a more than $1bn package of weapons aid to Israel – including tank rounds, mortars and armoured tactical vehicles – US officials told domestic media.
The package, which is yet to be approved, includes the potential transfer of $700m in tank ammunition, $500m in tactical vehicles and $60m in mortar rounds.
Two anonymous US officials confirmed separately to the Reuters news agency that the weapons aid package had been moved into the congressional review process. Members of the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees review major foreign weapons deals in the US.
The news weapons package comes after President Joe Biden said last week that the US had delayed a single shipment of 1,800 2,000-pound (907kg) bombs and 1,700 500-pound (227kg) bombs to Israel over concerns they may be used against civilians in Israel’s invasion of Rafah.
‘Heart break’ as mothers mourn children killed in Israeli attack on Nuseirat camp
We saw a couple of Palestinian children that were rescued from under the rubble in Nuseriat.
Heart-breaking [scenes] as Palestinian mothers bid farewell to their children discovered under the rubble.
Not only that, rescue workers were having a very hard time as they were trying their best to pull more bodies from under the rubble. The rescue workers were using their bare hands and very basic equipment.
Two of the families that have been killed in this [bombed] house were recently evacuated from Rafah as they thought Nuseirat was a safe space after the Israeli forces asked them to evacuate to the central area of Gaza.
A lot of other Palestinian people are waiting for any news about those still trapped. Unfortunately, after 19 hours of moving rubble and trying to rescue people, the rescue workers said that it was getting dark and they had to leave the bombed house and they are going to return tomorrow morning.
There are still dozens of people trapped and their families are going to wait for them until they are removed from under the rubble.
Women and children make up at least 56 percent of the 35,173 people killed in the Gaza war, the UN says, in a new breakdown, which is the “most comprehensive” to date.
The UN says it informed Israeli authorities of the movements of a UN-marked vehicle carrying staff that was hit in southern Gaza, killing an Indian army colonel working with the UN.
Israeli fighter jets have bombed central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, killing dozens of Palestinians, with children among the fatalities.
Quarter of Gaza's population is displaced again as fighting rages north to south
RAFAH, GAZA (AFP) - Israeli troops fought Hamas fighters in multiple battles across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday (May 14) forcing new waves of Palestinian mass displacement, on a sombre Independence Day for Israel.
Clashes have rocked the densely crowded far southern city of Rafah but also flared again in northern and central Gaza months after troops and tanks first entered those areas.
