Israel Atrocities
Live Reporting
Palestinian minister hails European countries’ state recognition
The move by Spain, Ireland and Norway to recognise the State of Palestine will give a major boost to the cause, the Palestinian Authority’s health minister said, urging other European countries to follow suit.
According to AFP, Maged Abu Ramadan thanked the three countries, their people and their governments for their “courageous decision”, saying it would have a “great political, positive input on the case of Palestine, wherever it will be discussed”.
“I will urge all other European countries to follow these courageous steps,” Abu Ramadan told the UN Correspondents’ association.
“It helps not only defend the Palestinians, but also the whole world, because it says there is still hope, and we should stick to it.”
Brazil recalls ambassador to Israel amid Gaza tensions
Brazil has recalled its ambassador to Israel and will not immediately appoint a replacement, a diplomatic source has told AFP, ratcheting up tensions between the two countries over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Frederico Meyer was initially recalled for consultations with his government after Brazil and Israel exchanged harsh statements in February over the conflict.
“There were no conditions for him to return” to Israel, the source said.
Erdogan calls on ‘Islamic world’ to take action over Gaza
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on the “Islamic world” to take united action following the latest Israeli strikes on Gaza, AFP reports.
“I have some words to say to the Islamic world: what are you waiting for to take a common decision?” Erdogan told lawmakers from his AKP party, adding that “Israel is not just a threat to Gaza but to all of humanity.”
Clashes erupt at Israeli embassy protest in Mexico
Clashes have broken out between police and protesters — rallying against the Israeli military offensive in the southern Gazan city of Rafah — outside the Israeli embassy in Mexico, AFP journalists said.
Some protesters covered their faces and threw stones at riot police, who blocked their path to the diplomatic complex in the city’s Lomas de Chapultepec neighbourhood.
Around 200 people joined the “Urgent Action for Rafah” demonstration, about 30 of whom started to break down barriers preventing them from reaching the Israeli mission. Police officers deployed tear gas and threw back the stones hurled at them by protesters.
PM Mustafa visits Madrid after Spain, Norway and Ireland recognise Palestine
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez met Palestinian PM Mohammad Mustafa and leading officials from several Middle Eastern countries in Madrid after Spain, Ireland and Norway recognised a Palestinian state, AP reports.
Mustafa was joined by Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Qatari PM Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and the foreign ministers for Turkiye and Jordan — members of the group called the Foreign Ministerial Committee of Arabic and Islamic countries for Gaza.
With Spain and Ireland, there are now nine members of the European Union that officially recognise a Palestinian state. Norway is not an EU member, but its foreign policy regularly aligns with the bloc.
‘We expect Gantz to resign from the government’: Israeli opposition leaders
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has met with Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party, and National Unity Party member Gideon Saar.
In a post on X, Lapid said the three had agreed on “an action plan to replace the government for the future of the State of Israel”.
He said they expected Israel’s war cabinet member, Benny Gantz, to resign from the government and join their plans to form a new goverment.
Earlier in the month, Gantz threatened to quit the government if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t provide a clear plan for what happens after the war on Gaza.
Three Israeli soldiers killed in southern Gaza
The Israeli military says three of its soldiers serving in the Nahal Brigade have been killed in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Three others were badly wounded in the incident, the military said, without providing further details.
Israel’s public broadcaster Kan Radio said they were hurt by an explosive device set off in a building in Rafah.
The Nahal Brigade comprises four infantry battalions, including one reconnaissance battalion.
UNICEF: 600,000 children at risk in Gaza
Israel’s military offensive in Rafah has put the lives of 600,000 displaced children at risk, according to UNICEF, with many now malnourished or disabled.
“Rafah is a city of children,” UNICEF’s director of private fundraising and partnerships, Carla Haddad Mardini, wrote in a post on X. “The children in Gaza need a ceasefire now to prevent further suffering.”
Israel using West Bank-style strategy to divide Gaza
Israel’s military is attempting to divide Gaza into small, disconnected pockets, weakening it in much the same way it has the occupied West Bank, says Omar Ashour, professor of security and military studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.
It will do this by creating three separate corridors in the enclave, he told Al Jazeera:
the Netzarim Corridor, which splits Gaza into north and south
a separate east-west division
a 1km (0.6 mile) buffer zone along the Israeli border
Israel’s military, Ashour predicts, will then use these zones as bases from which to launch regular raids into Gaza, in a strategy that avoids full-on military occupation but continues to cause high civilian casualties.
“I think they [Israel’s military] will be based there for the long term and do these heavy raids, similar to the one you’re seeing in Jabalia right now,” Ashour told Al Jazeera. “They go there, undermine the capabilities of whatever they see as a threat, with a lot of civilian casualties because of the population density, and they will keep repeating that.”
Israel is unlikely to forgo this strategy unless the United States withholds extensive weaponry or delivers “serious condemnation”, Ashour said, adding that both scenarios are unlikely.
White House adviser grilled over deadly Rafah attack
When asked by a reporter “how many charred corpses” it would take for Biden to change course on his support for Israel, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said civilian deaths in Rafah are “not something that we’ve turned a blind eye to”.
But when asked what action the Biden administration would take following the attack, which killed at least 45 displaced Palestinians, Kirby said they would need to “wait to see” what an investigation into the incident found out.
US senator labels Israel’s attack on Rafah ‘horrific’
Democratic US Senator Elizabeth Warren has said Israel’s attack on Rafah that killed 45 displaced Palestinian civilians in a tented camp was “horrific”.
“Israel has a duty to protect innocent civilians and Palestinians seeking shelter in Rafah have nowhere safe to go,” she wrote on X.
A community note beneath the tweet, however, highlighted that Warren voted in favour of supplying “Israel with $3.8 billion of weapons”, while she also voted to pause US funding for the UN organisation for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
Israeli forces stop ambulance near Nablus, arrest health worker: Report
The health worker, Sari Muhammad Hafez Qashou, is an anaesthesia technician employed by Martyr Dr Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital in Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank, reports the Wafa news agency.
He was arrested while riding in an ambulance on the way back from Nablus, after transporting a patient to a local hospital, according to Wafa.
Since October 7, Israeli forces have regularly obstructed health services in the West Bank, including blocking the path of ambulances nearly 300 times, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Israelis storm Al-Aqsa Mosque compound
More than a dozen Israelis stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam’s third-holiest site, on Wednesday morning.
In a video published on Telegram by a local media network and verified by Al Jazeera, Israeli police officers are seen walking beside the individuals who entered the compound.
The storming of the compound is a regular occurrence even though entering any part of it is forbidden for Jews due to the sacred nature of the site, according to Jewish law.
Israeli authorities have also repeatedly barred Palestinians from entering the site for Friday prayers since October 7, forcing many to pray on the streets near the Old City.
In previous years, Israeli forces have also attacked Palestinian worshippers inside the mosque.
IFRC chief calls for unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza
Kate Forbes, the president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), has described conditions in the city of Rafah as “atrocious” and called for a ceasefire that would allow humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip.
“We desperately need a political solution that will allow us to have a ceasefire to get aid in,” Forbes told Reuters.
“I plead with the governments on all sides to negotiate a ceasefire so that we can get aid in,” she added.
Clashes as protesters rally outside Israel’s embassy in Mexico
The AFP news agency is reporting clashes between police and protesters outside the Israeli embassy in Mexico’s capital, after some people in the crowd threw stones and tried to take down the barriers blocking their path to the diplomatic mission.
Police used tear gas and threw back the stones hurled at them by protesters as they sought to disperse the crowds, AFP reported.
Some 200 people attended the protest at the diplomatic complex in Mexico City’s Lomas de Chapultepec neighbourhood, rallying against the Israeli attack that killed 45 displaced Palestinians in Rafah, it added.
California academic workers strike in support of pro-Palestinian protests
Student teachers, researchers and lab assistants who work at several universities in the US state of California are on strike.
They say their union contracts were violated by administrators, who called in police to suppress Gaza solidarity protests that erupted on campuses earlier this month.
Israel says fire after attack at Rafah tented camp was ‘unexpected and unintended’
Israel’s military has said that Sunday’s deadly attack on a tent camp near Rafah was a “targeted strike” against a compound housing “senior Hamas terrorists”, and the resulting fire was “unexpected and unintended”.
The attack killed 45 Palestinians when a fire rapidly spread to nearby tents, razing the encampment in the Tal as-Sultan area to the ground. The attack has drawn widespread international condemnation and protests worldwide.
Israeli forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a Tuesday video statement that the military is “investigating what caused the fire” and speculated that there could have been a weapons store next to the compound.
“Our munition alone could not have ignited a fire of this size. I want to repeat it – our munition alone could not have ignited a fire of this size,” he claimed.
Israel denies latest strike on civilian camp near Rafah that killed 21 people
The Israeli military has denied carrying out attacks on a tent camp housing displaced families in al-Mawasi, near Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, which have killed at least 21 people.
“Contrary to the reports from the last few hours, the [Israeli military] did not strike in the Humanitarian Area in al-Mawasi,” it said in a statement.
At least 12 of those killed in Tuesday’s attacks were women, medical officials in Gaza have said, while 64 people were wounded in the attacks, with 10 in critical condition. Israel previously designated al-Mawasi, in western Rafah as a humanitarian area to which Palestinians should evacuate for their safety.
The attack comes just two days after a strike on a tent camp in the Tal as-Sultan area near Rafah killed 45 Palestinians. The strike sparked a fire that spread rapidly, razing the encampment to the ground.
Israeli air raids rain down on Palestinians returning home near Jabalia
Following reports of an Israeli military withdrawal from the al-Faluja area in the west of the Jabalia refugee camp, residents who began to return faced air attacks and artillery fire resulting in dozens killed and injured.
Medical crews and volunteers are tirelessly extracting bodies from under the rubble amid dire conditions, with Israeli forces continuing a 17-day bombing campaign of the area in northern Gaza. The devastation is immense, particularly after Israeli ground forces entered.
Witnesses report ongoing attacks on civilians and rescue teams, hindering evacuation efforts and documentation of the destruction.
WHO delivers fuel, supplies to Gaza City hospital amid intense hostilities
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said the agency delivered 15,000 litres (3,963 gallons) of fuel, 14 hospital beds, medicines and trauma supplies to al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City.
The supplies are enough to cover the needs of 1,500 people, Tedros said in a post on X.
The mission, which managed to reach al-Ahli Hospital “amid ongoing intense hostilities”, was the WHO’s first to the north of the Gaza Strip since May 13.
“Al-Ahli hospital is serving twice the number of people it is designed for, lacking essential surgical supplies, and salaries for the staff. No lifesaving surgery can be performed in the evening due to the lack of specialized staff,” Tedros said.
“Road destruction, lack of safe access and fuel for missions is continuing to impede movement to the north. The city is full of debris and solid waste. We repeat our appeal for a ceasefire.”
Palestine Red Crescent mourns 30th worker killed in Israeli attacks
The humanitarian group said Issam Rouhi Mohammed Aqel, a member of its staff who worked at the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, was killed in an Israeli air raid that hit his home in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
“This brings the total number of martyrs among the PRCS’s staff to 30, of whom 17 were killed while performing their humanitarian duty,” the group said in a post on X.
Algeria drafts UNSC resolution demanding Israel end Rafah invasion
More urgent calls for an end to Israel’s Rafah offensive [are] coming from diplomats, UN officials and humanitarians.
And now, a UN Security Council [UNSC] resolution demanding as much is in the works and being circulated among council members.
Algeria is drafting the text. The country’s ambassador didn’t offer a lot of detail but said he’s hoping to bring it to a vote as quickly as possible.
France has expressed support for such a resolution as have more than 20 humanitarian organisations that include Save the Children and Doctors Without Borders.
They are warning that the humanitarian situation is on the brink of collapse.
There is a regularly scheduled meeting [of the UNSC] on Wednesday about the situation in the Middle East. But it is not clear if there will be enough support among council members yet for this resolution to pass.
Palestinians flee Rafah as Israeli assault intensifies
RAFAH (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Hundreds braved roads in Rafah in south Gaza Tuesday as they fled Israel's expanding ground assault, with increased shelling, tanks in the city centre, and forces positioned on higher ground.
"We are panicking and afraid," 40-year-old Ihab Zorob of west Rafah told AFP.
