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

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said on X that Israel's military targeted one of their ambulances in the Tal Sultan area of Rafah. The current status of the crew is unknown.

Throughout its war on Gaza, Israel has decimated the enclaves health infrastructure by laying siege to hospitals, bombing ambulances, and targeting healthcare workers.

🚨Urgent: Occupation forces have directly targeted a Palestine Red Crescent ambulance in the Tel Sultan area of Rafah, and the fate of the crew is still unknown. Coordination is ongoing to reach the targeted area and ascertain the crew's fate.

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) May 29, 2024

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva withdrew Brazilian ambassador to Israel Frederico Meyer from his post amid a diplomatic spat between the two countries.

Earlier this year, Lula made remarks comparing Israel's war on Gaza to the Holocaust, which caused Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz to summon Meyer for a public reprimand at the National Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.

Meyer will now serve as Brazil's special representative to the UN and a new Brazilian ambassador to Israel is set to be announced in due course, Brazil's foreign relations ministry said in a statement.

Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Wednesday that the army has gained “operational control” over the strategic Philadelphi corridor, a 14-kilometre buffer zone along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

“Big news. The IDF has secured the “Philadelphi Corridor” which separates Egypt from the Gaza Strip. This means that we can block the influx of weapons and ammunition from the Sinai into Hamas’ hands,” former Prime Minister of Israel Naftali Bennett said on X in response to the announcement.

The Israeli military had seized portions of the Palestinian side of the corridor earlier this month, sparking outrage from Egyptian officials, who said Israel was violating the terms of the two countries’ 1979 peace treaty.

Israel has targeted a residential neighbourhood in the Syrian city of Baniyas on the Mediterranean coast, killing a girl and injuring 10 civilians, Syrian state media has reported. 

Syria’s air defences intercepted two Israeli targets over the centre of the country on Wednesday, according to ​​Syrian state media.

"Syrian air defence intercepts enemy targets in the skies of the city of Homs," the Sana news agency reported.

The Israeli strikes targeted "at least one military site... in the eastern countryside of Homs, causing plumes of smoke to rise", the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

On Saturday, an Israeli drone strike in central Syria killed two Hezbollah fighters, according to the Observatory.

While Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria, Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel will not allow Iran to expand its presence there.

Following a phone call with Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday, French President Macron said on Wednesday that there should be an end to the "systematic postponement" to both of the implementing of a two-state solution and of the setting up of a Palestinian state.

During the phone call, Macron said he would be prepared to recognise a Palestinian state, but such a move should "come at a useful moment" and not be based on "emotion”.

Macron’s words come amid Tuesday's official recognition of a Palestinian state by fellow European nations Spain, Ireland and Norway.

In response to Algeria submitting a draft resolution to the UN Security Council calling for an end to the Israeli attacks on Rafah, the US deputy ambassador to the UN said it wouldn't be helpful.

"Any kind of additional product on the situation right now probably is not going to be helpful. It's not going to really change the situation on the ground," Robert Wood told reporters at the UN.

Since October, the US has vetoed several draft resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Israel's war on Gaza.

First US reaction on the Algerian draft resolution re #Rafah: It's not going to be helpful.
Here's what the USUN DPR Ambassador Wood said a few minutes ago: pic.twitter.com/SDyYUEXVvj

— Nabil Abi Saab (@NabilAbiSaab) May 29, 2024

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he couldn't verify whether Israel used US-supplied weapons in its Sunday strikes on Rafah which killed at least 45 Palestinians, many of them women and children.

Blinken said an investigation would be needed in order to know what weapons were used and how they were used.

The comments come after the Biden administration spent months writing a report on whether US weapons were used by Israel in violation of international law.

The report said there were reasonable grounds to believe that American weapons were used in contravention of international humanitarian law, but it couldn't make a definitive conclusion.

If you're a social media user, you've likely noticed an AI-generated image about Gaza gaining traction over the past 24 hours.

The viral image, which has stacked a whopping 40m shares on Instagram, has been shared by celebrities including the singer Kehlani, comedian Hasan Minhaj, Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan, and millions of ordinary users alike.

Its viral impact was met with mixed reactions by social media users, with some noting that videos from Rafah shared by Palestinian journalists were ignored in favour of a more "sanitised" image that inaccurately depicts Rafah as a calm tent city surrounded by mountains.

Click below to read more about the viral "All Eyes on Rafah" image.

'All Eyes on Rafah': Why has the viral graphic sparked so much anger?

The armed wing of Hamas, Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, claimed a series of new attacks targeting Israeli forces in both northern Gaza and the southern city of Rafah, the latter being where Israeli forces have been most recently operating over the past few weeks.

Here is an overview of the attacks they have claimed today:

• Qassam Brigades say it targeted an Israeli Merkava tank with rocket fire in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

• The group said it fired several rockets at a Merkava tank and a D9 military bulldozer in the Yabna camp located in Rafah. They also said it targeted two more tanks in the Salam neighbourhood in Rafah.

• In a neighbourhood in the western part of Rafah, the Qassam Brigades said it attacked a D9 bulldozer with rocket fire.

• The armed group said that its fighters detonated an explosive device on 15 Israeli soldiers in eastern Rafah, claiming to have killed and injured them.

• The group said one of its fighters sniped an Israeli soldier in eastern Rafah.

• Qassam fighters attacked using rocket fire a group of Israeli soldiers stationed in a house in eastern Rafah.

Gadi Eisenkot, a minister in Israel's war cabinet, said it will take “three to five years for a significant stabilisation” in Gaza, followed by “many more” years to form a new government there.

“Whoever says that we will disband a few battalions in Rafah and then return the abductees is sowing a false illusion – this is a much more complex event,” Eisenkot said, as quoted by Israel's Army Radio.

Israeli soldiers have arrested four students in the town of Sarra, in the occupied West Bank, after raiding a school, local Palestinian sources told Al Jazeera English.

The students, who were arrested in the west of the city of Nablus, were named as Majid Muhammad Majid Asthma, Asim Zidane Tawfiq Ghanem, Yacoub Mahmoud Yacoub Ghanem, and Moatasem Ali Mahmoud Turabi.

A CNN analysis of a deadly Israeli air strike on a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah has found that US-made munitions were used in the attack.

Sunday's attack on an overcrowded group of tents in the southern Gaza Strip city killed at least 45 people and injured hundreds.

Footage of the aftermath, including images of a headless child, caused shockwaves across the world, sparking condemnation even by European states allied to Israel.

Video shows chaotic scenes, with panicked survivors running for safety amid the charred bodies, as rescuers and medics try to pull them from the wreckage. It also contains clues as to the weaponry used in the attack, which was analysed by CNN teams.

Read more: Israel used 'US-made weapons' in Rafah massacre

Brazil has recalled its ambassador from Israel, unnamed diplomatic sources were quoted as saying to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The decision to recall Frederico Meyer comes amid tensions between Brazil and Israel over the latter's attacks on Gaza, and an exchange of statements over the war in February.

There are no plans to immediately replace the recalled ambassador, AFP reports.

“There were no conditions for him to return” to Israel, sources told AFP. 

Algeria has brought forward a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and an order for Israel to stop its assault on the southern city of Rafah, the Associated Press (AP) reports.

The proposed resolution, obtained by the AP, asks for all parties to respect the ceasefire, when announced, and also calls for the immediate release of all hostages taken on 7 October.

It says that “the catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip constitutes a threat to regional and international peace and security". It also highlights the “famine spreading throughout the Gaza Strip” and the suffering of more than one million displaced Palestinians in Rafah. 

Algeria’s ambassador to the UN Amar Bendjama told reporters that the draft will be sent to the 15-member security council this evening. 

It is hoped that the resolution will get a quick vote, as early as Wednesday. 

The Chinese ambassador to the UN Fu Cong told reporters: "It is our hope that it can be done as quickly as possible because life is in the balance.”

The US has vetoed several resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield commented on the Algerian proposal saying: "We’re waiting to see it and then we’ll react to it.”