Israel's Gaza invasion - Day 216

Amnesty International has said that all states must immediately halt the transfer of weapons, parts and ammunition to Israel and Palestinian fighter groups.

In a post on X, the human rights group said there was a risk they could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international law.

Donald Trump has accused election rival Joe Biden of siding with Hamas when he threatened to stop sending US weapons to Israel, calling the president’s stance “disgraceful”, AFP reports

“Crooked Joe is taking the side of these terrorists, just like he has sided with the radical mobs taking over our college campuses,” Trump posted on his Truth Social network, referring to the protests against the bombardment in Gaza that have spread across US universities.

Speaking later to reporters outside the courtroom at his hush money trial in New York, Trump said that “what Biden is doing with respect to Israel is disgraceful.”

“He’s totally abandoned Israel and nobody can believe it,” said the former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

The new prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Mohammed Mustafa, has led a delegation to Riyadh to meet with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Al Jazeera reports.

The PA’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the two discussed ways of “enhancing and coordinating relief efforts in Gaza” along with the mid-to-long-term ways the PA is undertaking promised reforms.

Mustafa also discussed the PA’s “worsening financial crisis” after Israel cut the tax revenues it collects on its behalf along with the “aggression of the occupation” across the West Bank.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry said the two sides discussed developments in Rafah in southern Gaza as well.

US President Joe Biden believes that a major Rafah operation by Israel will not advance the country’s objective of defeating Hamas in Gaza, the White House said according to Reuters.

“Smashing into Rafah, in his view, will not advance that objective,” spokesperson John Kirby said in a briefing with reporters.

Kirby said Hamas had been pressured significantly by Israel and that there were better ways now to go after what remains of the group’s leadership than an operation with significant risk to civilians.

“The argument that somehow we’re walking away from Israel, or we’re not willing to help them defeat Hamas just doesn’t comport with the facts.”

“We still believe that there’s a path forward, but it’s gonna take some leadership on both sides,” said Kirby.

“And it’s going to take a little bit of moral courage on both sides to finally be able to come across that table and ink this deal.”

Kirby said US-Israel consultations were ongoing about alternatives to a major ground operation in Rafah.

“That’s a choice that Israel will have to make,” he said of the offensive in densely packed Rafah.

“And it’s one we hope they don’t.”

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has received a phone call from United Nations chief Antonio Guterres where they discussed Gaza truce talks and the “huge humanitarian consequences” of an Israeli military operation in Rafah, the Egyptian presidency said according to Reuters.

Hamas on Thursday called for an end to airdrops of aid after two Palestinians were killed in northern Gaza when an aid pallet crashed into a warehouse after its parachute failed to open.

Several countries, including the United States, Britain and France, have resorted to regular aid airdrops in northern Gaza, where humanitarian agencies have warned of a looming famine.

On Tuesday, two people died when an aid parachute fell on the roof of a warehouse where residents had gathered to collect relief supplies.

The latest fatalities take to at least 21 the number of people killed when airdrops of aid have gone disastrously wrong, according to the Hamas authorities.

“We reiterate that airdrops pose a real danger to the lives of citizens and do not provide a real solution to alleviate the food crisis plaguing northern Gaza,” Salama Marouf, head of the government’s media office in Gaza, said in a statement.

“We call for an immediate halt to the delivery of aid in this ineffective and erroneous manner, and we call for the full activation of the land crossings to deliver humanitarian aid to northern Gaza.”

Israel has submitted Gaza truce mediators with its reservations about a Hamas proposal for a hostage-release deal, and deems this round of negotiations in Cairo to have ended, a senior Israeli official has said according to Reuters.

The Israeli delegation is returning from the Egyptian capital and Israel will proceed with its operation in Rafah and other parts of the Gaza Strip as planned, the official added.

Hamas and Israeli negotiators have left Cairo “after a two-day round of negotiations” for a truce in Gaza, AFP reports quoting Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News.

Efforts by Egyptian, Qatari and US mediators “are ongoing to bring the two sides’ points of view closer”, the media outlet reported, citing a high-level Egyptian source.

In an apparent message to US President Joe Biden, who has opted to suspend some weapons deliveries to Israel, Netanyahu has posted a video of an address he delivered on Sunday to commemorate the Holocaust, Al Jazeera reports.

In the speech, Netanyahu said, “No amount of pressure … will stop Israel from defending itself” and achieving its objectives.

“Eighty years ago in the Holocaust, the Jewish people were totally defenceless against those who sought our destruction. No nation came to our aid,” he said.

“I pledge here today from Jerusalem on this Holocaust Remembrance Day: If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone. But we know we are not alone because countless decent people around the world support our just cause,” Netanyahu continued.

Iran has freed seven of the 25 crew of a Portuguese-flagged ship that was seized in the Gulf on April 13, AFP reports quoting Portugal’s foreign ministry.

Five Indians, a Filipino and an Estonian from the MSC Aries were released, the ministry said in a statement.

Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has told the country’s “enemies and friends” that it would do whatever necessary to achieve its aims in Gaza and the north, in an apparent response to US pressure to halt its operation in Rafah, Reuters reports.

“I turn to Israel’s enemies as well as to our best of friends and say — the State of Israel cannot be subdued,” he said, according to remarks released by his office.

“We will stand strong, we will achieve our goals — we will hit Hamas, we will hit Hezbollah, and we will achieve security.

“We have no choice, we have no other country. We will do whatever is necessary, and I repeat — whatever is necessary, in order to defend the citizens of Israel, to remove the evil threats against us, and to stand up to those who attempt to destroy us,” he said.

Slovenia’s government has passed a decree on recognising a Palestine state that will be sent to parliament for approval by mid-June, AFP reports.

“The decree for the recognition of Palestine is part of the government’s efforts to end as soon as possible the atrocities in Gaza,” Prime Minister Robert Golob told a news conference adding the final decision could be adopted earlier than a June 13 target date.

“We will continue to follow the progress concerning peace talks, the release of hostages and the reform of the Palestinian authority and, if it proves to be faster, we might end the recognition process earlier,” Golob said.

Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon said she was “glad over the decisive and irreversible step towards recognition”, in a message posted on X.

Turkish Trade Minister Omer Bolat has said that Israeli claims of Ankara easing its trade ban with Israel are “absolutely fictional and have nothing to do with reality”, Reuters reports.

Turkey’s trade ban with Israel will remain in place until a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and humanitarian aid flow to the region is secured, the minister said in a post on X.

Foreign Secretary David Cameron described Britain’s system and scale of arms exports to Israel as completely different to that of the United States, saying the sales it licences are relatively small and policed by strict procedures, Reuters reports.

Cameron was responding to a question on whether Britain would follow the US after it warned that it would withhold weapons from Israel in case of a major invasion of Rafah.

“There’s a very fundamental difference between the US situation and the UK situation,” Cameron said after a speech.

“The US is a massive state supplier of weapons to Israel … we do not have a UK Government supply of weapons to Israel, we have a number of licences, and I think our defence exports to Israel are responsible for significantly less than one per cent of their total.”

Sick and wounded Palestinians are dying by the hour as they remain trapped in Gaza without medical care due to Israel’s closure of border crossings, Al Jazeera reports quoting the enclave’s health ministry.

“The wounded and sick suffer a slow death because there is no treatment and supplies and there is no possibility for them to travel,” the ministry said, adding that Gaza’s only dialysis centre has now closed.

“We launch an urgent and humanitarian appeal for pressure and urgent action to save the lives of these sick and wounded people, open the crossings, and allow the necessary medical and relief trucks to enter the hospitals,” it added.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who often uses social media to harangue political opponents, has posted a love heart emoji between the words Hamas and Biden, allegedly insinuating that the Palestinian group loves US President Joe Biden, Al Jazeera reports.

There are no other comments in his post on the X platform.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, seemingly reacting to the post, called the far-right minister a national liability and urged Netanyahu to immediately fire him.

“If Netanyahu doesn’t dismiss Ben-Gvir today, he puts every soldier in the [Israeli military] and every citizen in the state of Israel in danger,” Lapid wrote on X.

An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader has said the country will have to change its military stance against building a nuclear weapon if the country faces existential threats, Al Jazeera reports.

“We have no decision to build a nuclear bomb, but should Iran’s existence be threatened, there will be no choice but to change our military doctrine,” Iran’s Student News Network reported Kamal Kharrazi as saying.

The Israeli military has shot a 15-year-old Palestinian boy in the leg in the occupied West Bank city of Qalqilya, Al Jazeera reports citing the Wafa news agency.

Israeli forces fired tear gas and live bullets during their storming of the city in the early hours of this morning, during which they also arrested a man in his 20s, according to Wafa.

The teenager has been taken to hospital and his condition has been described as stable.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said that “around 80,000 people have fled Rafah” following the Israeli ground assault.

“People are facing yet another forced displacement in the Gaza Strip,” the agency said in a post on X.

The agency added that the people who have fled Rafah are “seeking refuge elsewhere”, however, the “toll on these families is unbearable” as “nowhere is safe”.

A vessel carrying aid to a pier built by the US off Gaza set sail from Cyprus, marine tracking websites showed, Reuters reports.

The US flagged Sagamore left the port of Larnaca. US officials have said the vessel will be used to offload supplies onto a floating pier built to expedite aid into the besieged enclave.

There was no immediate comment from Cypriot authorities, which had earlier said the ship would sail as soon as the floating platform was in place, subject to weather conditions.

Ireland, Spain and a number of other European Union member states are considering recognising a Palestinian state on May 21, Reuters reports citing a report by Ireland’s national broadcaster.

RTE News said contacts between Dublin and Madrid, and between Slovenia and Malta, had intensified with a view to the countries jointly recognising Palestinian statehood.

According to the report, the countries have been waiting for a vote by the United Nations General Assembly on May 10 which could lead to the recognition of Palestinians as qualified to become a full UN member.

In a joint statement on March 22, Spain, Ireland, Malta and Slovenia said they had agreed to take the first steps towards recognising a Palestinian state.

At least 34,904 Palestinians have been killed and 78,514 injured in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza since Oct 7, Gaza’s health ministry said in a statement, Reuters reports.

Washington has paused one shipment consisting of 1,800 2,000-pound (907-kg) bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs, Reuters quotes US officials as saying.

Large bombs like 2,000-pound bombs have an impact over a wide area. According to the United Nations: “The pressure from the explosion can rupture lungs, burst sinus cavities and tear off limbs hundreds of meters from the blast site.”

The International Commission for the Red Cross in 2022 reported the use of wide-area explosives in a densely populated area “is very likely to have indiscriminate effects or violate the principle of proportionality”.

After the news broke on Tuesday in Washington, a senior Israeli official declined to confirm the report. “If we have to fight with our fingernails, then we’ll do what we have to do,” the source said. A military spokesperson said any disagreements were resolved in private.

International humanitarian law does not explicitly ban aerial bombing in densely populated areas, however, civilians cannot be targets and a specific military aim must be proportionate to possible civilian casualties or damage.

The statute of the International Criminal Court, which is investigating the Israel-Gaza conflict, lists as a war crime intentionally launching an attack when it is known that civilian death or damage will be “clearly excessive” compared to any direct military advantage.

On the matter of the US suspending a weapon shipment to Israel, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told a Senate hearing that the US was reviewing “near-term security assistance” in the “context of unfolding events in Rafah”.

“We’ve been very clear…from the very beginning that Israel shouldn’t launch a major attack into Rafah without accounting for and protecting the civilians that are in that battlespace,” Reuters quoted Austin as saying.

The US decision was taken due to concerns about the “end-use of the 2,000-pound bombs and the impact they could have in dense urban settings as we have seen in other parts of Gaza,” said a US official speaking on condition of anonymity. The US had carefully reviewed the delivery of weapons that might be used in Rafah, the official said.

The decision was made last week, US officials said. Biden was directly involved. Biden confirmed the pause personally in a CNN interview on Wednesday.