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

Two Israeli raids on Sunday killed three people in south Lebanon, official media and a source close to Hezbollah said, as Israel's military claimed attacks targeting the armed group.

Lebanon's Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, has traded regular cross-border fire with Israel since the Palestinian group's 7 October attack on southern Israel.

Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) reported "two martyrs and wounded civilians in the raid that targeted a motorcycle in Aita al-Shaab", a border village.

It said the strike was carried out by an "Israeli drone".

The NNA had earlier said a separate strike by "enemy aircraft" on the border town of Naqura "targeted a motorbike", reporting unspecified casualties.

The Israeli army later said in a statement that "a Hezbollah terrorist was identified exiting a military structure" in the Naqura area, adding that "an aircraft struck and eliminated" the operative.

It also said the army struck "two Hezbollah terrorists who were identified operating" in the Aita al-Shaab area.

Hezbollah announced a fighter had been killed, and a source close to the group said he died in Naqura.

The threat of famine has returned to northern Gaza as Israel continues to restrict the entry of aid from all crossings, the Hamas-led government in the besieged strip has said. 

Salam Marouf, head of the government media office, said Sunday the food security crisis is also worsening in the central and southern districts. 

In a statement, Marouf said relief efforts remain well below the minimum needs. 

Over the past week, around 300 trucks have entered Gaza through the US-built pier and a newly-established crossing point with Israel opened in northern Gaza, he said. 

The minimum daily need in Gaza is 500 trucks per day. 

Meanwhile, Israel continues to block the Rafah crossing with Egypt and limit aid entry via the Karem Shalom crossing with southern Gaza, Marouf added. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to convene his war cabinet on Sunday to discuss the latest efforts towards a Gaza truce and hostage release deal, a senior official told AFP.

An Israeli senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that "the war cabinet is expected to meet in Jerusalem tonight at 2100 (1800 GMT) to discuss a hostage release deal".

The official had said on Saturday that "there is an intention to renew these talks this week" after negotiations involving US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators had stalled in early May.

A member of the Hamas political bureau, Izzat al-Rishq, however, said on Sunday that "regarding the rumours about negotiations, we have not received anything from the mediators" so far.

He insisted on Hamas's long-standing demand for a permanent cessation of hostilities in all of Gaza as "the foundation and the starting point for anything".

Reporting by AFP

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for full military control over the Gaza Strip after Hamas fired its first rocket attack targeting Tel Aviv in months. 

In a statement on social media platform X, Smotrich also said Israel must occupy the whole of Rafah, in the south of Gaza. 

"The State of Israel cannot accept shooting at Sderot, surrounding area and the centre," the far-right minister said. 

"Occupying the whole of Rafah, by all means, now and full control of the IDF [Israeli army] in the entire Gaza Strip. This is the only way we will restore security, this is the only way we will return the kidnapped," he added. 

מדינת ישראל לא יכולה לקבל ירי על תושבי שדרות והעוטף.
לא יכולה לקבל ירי על המרכז,
לא יכולה לקבל שחמאס מחזיק בחטופינו.
לא יכולה לקבל שהחמאס עוד חי ובועט.

הכניסה לרפיח חשובה מאד, דחפתי לכך והתגובה של חמאס בירי למרכז נובעת מכך שהם בלחץ, הם מרגישים את הלחץ הצה״לי על הצוואר.

כיבוש…

— בצלאל סמוטריץ' (@bezalelsm) May 26, 2024

Good afternoon, 

Here's a summary of what has taken place today:

Hamas's military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, said it launched a "big missile" attack on Tel Aviv on Sunday, which struck several cities across central Israel - including Herzliya. This attack marks the first rocket attack in six months since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza. 

Geneva-based NGO Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is warning that famine is spreading rapidly across the Gaza Strip, amid calls by 70 rights groups for international institutions to declare that a famine is taking place in the besieged enclave. 

Meanwhile, the Palestinian health ministry said that Israeli strikes have killed at least 35,984 Palestinians and injured 80,643 since 7 October. 

Recognising the State of Palestine "is justice for the Palestinian people [and] the best guarantee of security for Israel", Spain's foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albares, said on Sunday alongside Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa.

Welcoming Spain's move, with Norway and Ireland, to recognise the Palestinian state  on Tuesday, Mustafa said: "We want to have every country in Europe to do the same."

Reporting by AFP

The Hamas armed wing said it fired a large barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv as sirens sounded throughout central Israel on Sunday. 

It is the first time Hamas has fired long-range rockets at Israel in months.

New figures released by the Palestinian health ministry showed the death toll in Gaza had risen to 35,984 Palestinians and 80,643 wounded from Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip.

The ministry added that Israeli strikes had killed 81 people and injured 223 during the last 24 hours. 

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid criticised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday and said the premier's only interest in Gaza is his "political survival and wreaking havoc in the state of Israel".

Lapid made his comments on X, where he was quoted tweeting a post that appeared to show an Israeli reserve soldier in Gaza directly addressing Netanyahu and threatening him with mutiny if Israel decides to hand over control of Gaza back to the Palestinians.

Earlier this month, Lapid said Netanyahu had "lost control" and criticised his handling of the war in Gaza - citing the death toll of Israeli soldiers and the deteriorating relations with the United States. 

Good morning Middle East Eye readers, 

It's just after 11:30am in Palestine and Israel. Here are the latest developments from Israel's war on Gaza, which is now in its eighth month.

• Relentless Israeli shelling continued on Sunday, killing at least 11 Palestinians across Rafah in the early hours, including children, according to media reports. 

• Overnight, Israeli forces raided Jenin and Nablus in the occupied West Bank, with reports of armed clashes heard in both cities. 

• The head of the Egyptian Red Crescent Society in North Sinai told Reuters that about 200 aid trucks, including four fuel trucks, are expected to enter Gaza today through the Karem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza, as the vital Rafah crossing remains closed since Israel seized it earlier this month. 

• Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz said he submitted a proposal to establish a state commission of inquiry into the Hamas-led attack on 7 October and the subsequent war in Gaza, a move that is likely to increase tensions between the minister and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Good evening, Middle East Eye readers.

Our live coverage from Gaza will shortly be closing for the evening.

Here are the day's key developments.

• Israeli forces have killed at least 46 Palestinians and wounded 130 more over the past 24 hours in five "massacres", according to the Palestinian health ministry. This brings the Palestinian death toll in over five months to more than 35,903, with over 80,420 wounded and an estimated 10,000 missing, believed to be dead and buried under rubble.
• Hamas's military wing killed, wounded or captured Israeli soldiers during fighting in the Gaza Strip late on Saturday, according to an official spokesman for the group. Israel denied the claim.
• The Palestinian Wafa news agency said an Israeli air strike killed 10 Palestinians, including children and women, in the city of Beit Hanoun, in the north of the Gaza Strip. 
• An Israeli official said on Saturday that the government had an "intention" to renew "this week" talks aimed at reaching a Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal, after a meeting in Paris between US and Israeli officials. A Hamas official denied reports that Gaza ceasefire talks would resume in Cairo on Tuesday.
• The European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, called on Israel to "immediately" follow the ICJ's ruling to halt its military offensive on Rafah. Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares also demanded the implementation of Friday's ICJ ruling. 
• The British government criticised the ICJ for ordering Israel to immediately halt its military assault on Rafah, saying the ruling would strengthen Hamas.
• The Spanish defence minister said on Saturday the Israeli war on Gaza is a "real genocide", as relations between Israel and Spain worsen following Madrid's decision to recognise a Palestinian state.
• Some Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip have been forcibly displaced up to six times since Israel launched its war on the besieged enclave, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, has said.
• Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced on Saturday that Rome would resume funding for Unrwa, at a meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa.
• Heavy seas battered the US maritime humanitarian mission to Gaza on Saturday, US Central Command (Centcom) said, with four vessels serving a floating aid delivery pier breaking free from their moorings.

Hamas's military wing captured Israeli soldiers during fighting in the Gaza Strip late on Saturday, according to an official spokesman for the group.

In a rare late-night recorded statement published on the group's Telegram channel, Abu Ubaida, spokesman for Al Qassam brigades, said that Hamas fighters had clashed with an Israeli force in the northern Gaza Strip near a tunnel entrance in Jabalia refugee camp.

He said all members of the Israeli force were left either "dead, wounded or captured".

He did not say how many were captured and whether they were dead or alive.

Middle East Eye could not independently verify the claim, but Al Jazeera Arabic released a video which appeared to confirm the incident.

In a statement, the Israeli military denied Al Qassam's claims, saying: "There is no incident in which a soldier was abducted."

A Hamas official denied on Saturday Israeli media reports that Gaza ceasefire talks would resume in Cairo on Tuesday.

"There is no date," the Hamas official told Reuters, asked about the reports.

Israel considers that an order by the World Court to halt its military offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza allows room for some military action there, Israeli officials said.

"What they are asking us, is not to commit genocide in Rafah. We did not commit genocide and we will not commit genocide," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, told Israel's N12 TV on Saturday.

Asked whether the Rafah offensive would continue, Hanegbi said: "According to international law, we have the right to defend ourselves and the evidence is that the court is not preventing us from continuing to defend ourselves."

Another Israeli official pointed to the phrasing of the ruling by the International Court of Justice, or World Court, depicting it as conditional.

"The order in regard to the Rafah operation is not a general order," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Reading out the ruling, the ICJ's president, Nawaf Salam, said the situation in Gaza had deteriorated since the court last ordered Israel to take steps to improve it, and conditions had been met for a new emergency order.

"The state of Israel shall (...) immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part," Salam said.

That wording did not rule out all military action, the Israeli official said.

"We have never, and we will not, conduct any military action in Rafah or elsewhere which may inflict any conditions of life to bring about the destruction of the civilian population in Gaza, not in whole and not in part," the official said.

Reporting by Reuters

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said the "inciting sedition" videos circulated in recent days were "dangerous and disastrous".

His comment on social media platform X came after a video was published on Friday showing a suspected reservist threatening mutiny if the war on Gaza ends before "complete victory", saying he wants to annihilate Palestinians in the besieged enclave.

"The fact that Netanyahu's poison machine and trumpets enthusiastically echo videos calling for fratricidal war and the disbanding of the army is another attempt to escape responsibility for the one who led to the biggest disaster in the history of the Jewish people since the Holocaust," Lapid said. 

"This insanity should be stopped. This government needs to be removed from our lives before it destroys everything that is true and sacred to this country."