Gaza live: Israel to build 'different government' in Gaza, says defence minister

According to Palestinian media reports, Jewish settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque on Tuesday morning, a move that will only inflame tensions in the region.

The former Israeli Mossad chief, Yossi Cohen, threatened the previous International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, in a bid to force her to drop a war crimes investigation against Israel, The Guardian reports.

In a series of covert meetings, which sources that The Guardian spoke with described as tantamount to "'stalking", the Mossad chief is reported to have told Bensouda: “You should help us and let us take care of you. You don’t want to be getting into things that could compromise your security or that of your family.”

According to the report, four sources confirmed that Bensouda had informed a small group of senior ICC officials about Cohen's attempts to sway her as his behaviour became increasingly threatening.

The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has been speaking on the country’s recognition of a Palestinian state.

“The recognition of the state of Palestine is not only a matter of historical justice, but we are all aiming at establishing peace,” he said.

“The only route towards establishing peace is the establishment of a Palestinian state, living side by side with the state of Israel.”

“The state of Palestine must be viable, with the West Bank and Gaza connected by a corridor and with East Jerusalem as its capital,” said Sanchez.

“It must be unified under the legitimate government of the Palestine National Authority.”

Javed Ali, the director of emergency response in Gaza for International Medical Corps, described what he saw following the Israeli attack on a tent camp for civilians sheltering in Rafah that killed 45 people, mostly women and children.

“With this loud air strike that we heard, we just rushed to the hospital and in about five minutes or so after arrival we started seeing ambulances coming in. I think in total we had about 75 patients. Out of those 75, 25 were really critical,” Ali said in a video interview.

“I saw the dead body of a father who was basically holding his child perhaps around three years of age. They were burned and charred. We couldn’t separate them. So we had to put both of them together in a body bag,” he said.

“That was very, very hard.”

State and local governments across the US are scooping up Israeli bonds at record levels, lured by a mix of hefty returns and government incentives for Israeli debt, but the move is sparking backlash among some locals.

States across the US have accelerated their purchase of Israeli bonds since the Hamas-led 7 October attacks on southern Israel. Last year, Israel sold a record $3bn in bonds.

Israel’s need to fund its war on Gaza and the eagerness of many US state governments to buy Israeli debt has led to states becoming massive investors in the country.

Palm Beach County in Florida has now become the world's largest investor in Israeli bonds, with about $700m of its $4.67bn portfolio invested in the foreign country’s market, Joseph Abruzzo, clerk of the circuit court and comptroller, announced in March.

Read more: 'Tax dollars for need, not genocide': Israeli bond buying sparks backlash

Despite staunch opposition from an enraged Israel, Norway on Tuesday began formally recognising an independent Palestinian state, with Spain and Ireland set to follow suit later in the day.

"Norway's formal recognition of Palestine as a state will enter into force on Tuesday 28 May 2024," the Norwegian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "A number of other like minded European countries will also formally recognise Palestine on that same date".

At the request of Algeria, the Arab representative on the council, the United Nations Security Council has scheduled an emergency closed meeting for Tuesday afternoon on the situation in Rafah, two council diplomats told The Associated Press ahead of an official announcement.

“Whether the attack was a war crime or a ‘tragic mistake’, for the people of Gaza, there is no debate. What happened last night was the latest - and possibly most cruel - abomination,” UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said in a statement.

“To call it ‘a mistake’ is a message that means nothing for those killed, those grieving, and those trying to save lives,” added Griffiths. 

The comments followed after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Israel’s deadly attack on displaced Palestinians in Rafah a “tragic mistake”.

At least seven Palestinians have been killed by Israel just 24 hours after the widely condemned Israeli assault that killed at least 45 Palestinians at a tent camp for displaced people in Rafah. 

Al-Jazeera spoke with a Palestinian man who witnessed the attack, who said: “It is a safe zone that is crawling with tents and displaced people. Suddenly, a missile fell on the residence, which was built using some blocks and metal tubing. We saw people out in the street, displaced people and citizens. There were no combatants or anything. It was a safe zone!”

It's day 235 of Israel's war on Gaza. This is a recap of the last few hours to get you up to speed this morning:

• The death toll from Israel’s bombing of a tent camp for displaced Palestinian people in a designated safe zone in Rafah is now 45, most of them women and children
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the deadly attack a “tragic incident” which his government is “investigating”
• An investigation is under way after an Egyptian soldier was killed following a “shooting incident” at the Rafah crossing, news agencies report
• Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong has called for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, saying Israel’s strikes have had “horrific and unacceptable consequences”
• Foreign ministers from the European Union met with their counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar as part of talks concerning a two-state solution to the conflict with Israel

Hello MEE readers. On Monday, international condemnation began to pour in response to Israeli strikes on Sunday that killed at least 45 Palestinians in a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city.

The strikes left the area on fire, ripped off the limbs of several people and left a baby's head severed from its body. The graphic footage sparked enormous outrage after an already eight-month long assault on the Palestinian population of Gaza.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Labour Party leader Steir Karmer, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other world leaders condemned the strikes.

Meanwhile, legal experts said the attack is a breach of international law, specifically after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to halt its offensive on Rafah.

At the Rafah crossing with Egypt, an Egyptian soldier was killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli forces. Cairo said it was investigating the incident.

In other news:

• Yemen's Houthi movement said on Monday they targeted three ships in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, and also targeted two US destroyers in the Red Sea.

• US Centcom announced later on Monday that it destroyed an uncrewed aerial system (UAS) launched from an area controlled by the Houthis.

• A White House National Security Council spokesperson commented on the Israeli strike on displaced Palestinians that killed 45 people, saying that while Israel should "take every precaution" to protect civilians, Israel "has a right to go after Hamas".

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Sunday's air strike on Rafah that killed 45 Palestinians was not intended to cause civilian casualties and would be investigated.

• Israeli forces launched killed two workers at the Kuwait Hospital in Rafah. Later on in the day, the director of the hospital announced that the medical facility was deemed non-operational.

The Kuwait Hospital in Rafah has been shut down and deemed non-operational, the director said, after Israeli strikes on Monday killed two of its staff members.

“Due to the enemy’s expansion of the military operation in Rafah Governorate and the repeated and deliberate attacks on the hospital’s surroundings, the most recent of which was targeting the hospital gate, which led to the death of two staff working in the hospital, as well as the injury of 5 medical staff in a previous targeting, we announce that the Kuwait Specialized Hospital will be out of service,” Suhaib al-Hams said in a statement.

Algeria requested that the UN Security meet to discuss the Israeli strikes on a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah that killed at least 45 people.

The meeting will be a closed consultation, meaning that no resolutions can be voted on.

US Central Command released a statement saying it had destroyed an uncrewed aerial system (UAS) launched from an area controlled by Yemen's Houthi movement.

“It was determined the UAS presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels in the region,” Centcom said in a post on X.

The announcement comes after the Houthis announced earlier on Monday the targeting of three ships in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, as well as the targeting of two US destroyers in the Red Sea.

More than 100 aid trucks reached Gaza on Monday morning, but the assistance has not been distributed amid an ongoing Israeli assault, Reuters reported, citing several unnamed sources.

The sources said the aid was sent after an agreement was made to reroute aid through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Egyptian security sources told Reuters that 123 aid trucks had crossed and handed over the goods to the United Nations. An Israeli source confirmed that aid had been brought into the Gaza side and handed over to partners.

Reporting by Reuters