Gaza live: Gaza death toll rises to 35,80
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Israeli forces launched air strikes targeting several towns in Lebanon on Saturday, according to Wafa news agency.
The towns of Ayta al-Shaab, Ramia, and Beit Leif were targeted in southern Lebanon. An Israeli strike also hit the Masnaa area on the Lebanese-Syrian border in the Beqaa Valley.
Overnight, Israeli bombs hit the southern town of Khiam with multiple air strikes. No injuries were reported.
In an opinion piece for Middle East Eye, academic and activist John Rees argues that the key difference between student protests against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and pro-Palestine protests now is the society-wide support in 2024.
He writes: "In the US in the 1960s, the movement was in part driven forward by opposition to the draft. Today's movement has no such immediate spur.
In the UK, the anti-Vietnam War movement was dominated by students, who made up well over half the major anti-war marches. That is not the case today. The mass movement had been mobilising on an unprecedented scale for eight months before the students moved into action in the UK.
In the UK, the largest of the anti-Vietnam War demonstrations in 1968 numbered 100,000 people, smaller than the smallest of the repeated Palestine marches, which was 150,000, and dwarfed by the largest, which numbered 800,000.
Moreover, in 1967 and 1968, there were only two large-scale national marches in the UK. In the last eight months, there have been 14 national demonstrations for Palestine."
You can read the full column below.
Opinion: The crucial difference between the Gaza and Vietnam student protests
A video shows a Palestinian man persistently making pastries amid explosions and gunfire in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. He expressed his determination, stating that he wanted to feed people who were starving. pic.twitter.com/byv0K261jL
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) May 18, 2024
The Israeli military killed a senior Palestinian fighter in an air strike on a building in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Friday night.
The Al-Quds Brigade, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, named the man as Islam Khamayseh. The Palestinian health ministry said that eight other Palestinians were wounded in the raid.
The Israeli military said a fighter jet and helicopter conducted the strike, a rarity in the West Bank, where Israeli air raids are usually carried out by drones.
A general strike and a day of mourning were announced in Jenin following the attack.
Israeli forces also conducted pre-dawn raids across the West Bank, detaining at least 20 Palestinians.
Read more: Israeli air strike kills senior Palestinian fighter in Jenin camp
Austria will release funds to Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, that had been blocked following Israeli allegations that 12 members of the agency's staff participated in Hamas' attack on 7 October.
The decision came after Unrwa launched an action plan to strengthen its internal reviews.
"After a thorough analysis of the action plan, we will release funds to Unrwa again," the Austrian foreign ministry said on Saturday.
A total of 3.4 million euros ($3.70 million) have been budgeted for 2024, with the first payment due to be made in the summer, the ministry said.
Several western countries froze $450m in funds after Israel accused 12 employees, of 13,000 working in the Gaza Strip, of participating in Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel.
Last month, the UN-commissioned Colonna report found that Israeli authorities had not provided "any supporting evidence" to back up allegations of Unrwa staff involvement in the attacks.
Germany has since said that it would continue to fund Unrwa, following the release of the report.
In the Gaza enclave, the agency runs 183 schools, 22 health facilities and seven women's centres, amongst several other facilities.
Its schools are attended by 286,645 students in Gaza, while its medical facilities have 3.4 million average visits per year, according to UN data.
Israeli bombardment of Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza has killed at least 15 Palestinian civilians and wounded 30 others, according to Wafa news agency.
Israeli tanks bombed the entrance of a centre where displaced Palestinians were sheltering in the camp, and also targeted people attempting to return to their homes in the area.
The camp has been under Israeli siege for several days now, with Palestinian families in the camp running out of food, water and medical supplies. Civil defence crews have been unable to reach the camp to retrieve bodies and tend to the wounded.
Elsewhere on Saturday, three Palestinian civilians were killed and others wounded after Israeli strikes targeted a house belonging to the Qadeeh family, east of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
The US is focused on tracking down Hamas's Gaza chief, Yahya Sinwar, amid a new push by the White House to help Israel declare "total victory" so it can bring an end to the war on Gaza, US officials have told Middle East Eye.
Current and former US officials, who spoke with MEE on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the mission, said the US was expanding its search efforts across the region, after believing the 61-year-old was hiding in tunnels deep below Gaza.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, told MEE that the Biden administration is now exploring possibilities that Sinwar fled to Egypt's Sinai peninsula, and from there may have even escaped to either Lebanon or Syria.
The White House referred MEE to comments from US national security advisor Jake Sullivan earlier this week, that he wouldn't comment on intelligence about Sinwar.
The current and former officials did not reference any specific intelligence but said one factor driving the debate was that US intelligence was lagging on Sinwar's last whereabouts.
Read more: US focused on hunting down Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, in bid to end Gaza war
A Panama-flagged crude oil tanker has been attacked around 10 nautical miles from Yemen's coastal city of Mokha, British security firm Ambrey said on Saturday.
Radio communication indicated the ship was hit by a missile and that there was a subsequent fire onboard.
Since November, Yemen's Houthis have carried out several attacks on vessels in the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Earlier on Saturday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency said a ship in the Red Sea was struck by an unknown object and sustained slight damage.
"The vessel and crew are safe and continuing to its next port of call," UKMTO said in an advisory note.
The Houthi attacks have cause major disruption to global shipping for several months, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more costly journeys around Southern Africa.
Hello MEE readers.
Inside Gaza famine and hunger continues to loom over the Palestinian population, with aid trucks continuing to pile up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, which Israel seized last week during its offensive on the area.
The US military said it has begun distributing aid to Gaza through its newly built floating pier, as trucks carrying aid have rolled across it reaching the besieged enclave.
The pier could bring up to 150 truckloads a day to Palestinians, US officials say, which is no substitute for land deliveries, where over 500 trucks entered Gaza on a daily basis prior to the war.
Here's what else you need to know about today's developments:
- Gaza death toll rises to 35,303
- Spain will not authorise ships carrying weapons to Israel to call at its ports, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Friday, after the country refused to let a ship call at the southeastern port of Cartagena
- The Israeli army said the fighting in northern Gaza's Jabalia is highly intense and some of the "most violent" in the entire war on Gaza
- The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that it has not been able to get medical aid into Gaza since 6 May
- Israeli forces rescued the bodies of three hostages from the Gaza Strip, chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Friday
- In a statement on Friday, Hamas said that the US-built pier off the besieged Gaza Strip is no alternative to opening all land crossings that should be under the supervision of Palestinians
- US evacuated 17 American doctors from Gaza: State Department
- Two senior American officials held indirect meeting with Iranian officials in Oman this week in an effort to avoid a regional escalation, according to the Axios news site
Two senior American officials held indirect meeting with Iranian officials in Oman this week in an effort to avoid a regional escalation, according to the Axios news site.
The talks focused on “clarifying the consequences of actions by Iran and its proxies in the region and to discuss US concerns regarding the status of Iran’s nuclear program,” according to two sources quoted in the report.
The Times of Israel reported that White House Middle East enoy Brett McGurk and special envoy on Iran Abram Paley were in Oman this week for the talks.
Israel’s Kan News reported that sources said that the negotiations on a ceasefire and captive-prisoner swap between Hamas and Israel “have been stopped”.
The main sticking point was the cessation of the war in exchange for the release of captives, it said.
“The sources said the gaps between the parties are very large with an emphasis on the definition of the term ‘end of the war’, and the Israeli demand for a veto on the names of ‘terrorists’ that Hamas wants released,” said the news report.
The deepening spat between Egypt and Israel over Rafah’s shuttered border crossing is putting the Biden administration in a bind, as the minor progress it made increasing humanitarian aid into Gaza slows to a snail's pace.
For months, the Biden administration has said it is prioritising surging more humanitarian aid into Gaza. While the amount of aid reaching Gaza had been minimal compared to before Israel’s invasion of the besieged enclave, US officials and aid workers had noted some small gains in deliveries.
The number of aid trucks entering Gaza had nearly doubled from 2,545 in the month of November to 5,671 in April, according to the UN. That amount was just 37 percent of the number of trucks entering Gaza before the war broke out on 7 October, when 80 percent of Gaza’s population relied on aid. But with the closing of Rafah’s border crossing, the situation has deteriorated further.
Read more: Israel-Egypt Rafah spat puts Biden in a bind
The Palestinian health ministry reported that an Israeli Apache aircraft in Jenin killed one and wounded four in a strike on a house, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
One of the injured is seriously wounded.
A house was the target of the assault in the occupied West Bank.
An Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon reported earlier on Friday killed Sharhabil al-Sayed, a Hamas operative in charge of the group’s operations in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley.
News agencies cited unnamed sources as saying al-Sayed was the main target. Hours earlier Israeli attacks killed a Hezbollah fighter and two children according to the group.
An Israeli fighter jet bombed a house in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Friday night, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
So far no casualties have been reported.
