Israel’s deadly siege of Gaza Strip enters seventh month after Hamas’ Oct 7 attack
UN says half of Gaza population experiencing “catastrophic” hunger as threat of famine looms
72pc of enclave’s residential buildings destroyed, reconstruction to cost up to $40bn
Israel seizes Rafah crossing amid global outcry
Alarm in Israel at possible ICC legal action over Gaza atrocities
Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), says Khan’s decision to seek arrest warrants “reaffirms the crucial role” of the ICC, Al Jazeera reports.
“Victims of serious abuses in Israel and Palestine have faced a wall of impunity for decades. This principled first step by the prosecutor opens the door to those responsible for the atrocities committed in recent months to answer for their actions at a fair trial,” Jarrah said in a statement.
“ICC member countries should stand ready to resolutely protect the ICC’s independence as hostile pressure is likely to increase while the ICC judges consider Khan’s request.”
US President Joe Biden slammed the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling the move “outrageous”, Reuters reports.
“And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.” Biden said in a statement.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken denounced as “shameful” a bid by the International Criminal Court prosecutor to arrest Israeli leaders, rejecting the court’s authority and saying the move put ceasefire efforts at risk, AFP reports.
“We reject the prosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas. It is shameful,” Blinken said in a statement.
Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn) has also urged the US to suspend all arms transfers to Israel, “given the ICC’s conclusion that Israeli officials at the highest levels are engaging in war crimes for which the court is seeking their arrest”, Al Jazeera reports.
“US officials involved in approving and sending additional weapons to Israel may find themselves next in line facing ICC arrest warrants,” said Raed Jarrar, Dawn’s advocacy director.
Following Khan’s application for arrest warrants, a panel of pre-trial judges will determine whether the evidence supports their issuing.
Sarah Leah Whitson, Dawn’s executive director, also called for warrants to indict Israeli officials for Israel’s ongoing settlement enterprise, which are also war crimes under the Rome Statute.
“Any effort to ‘balance’ warrants against Israeli officials with an equal number of warrants against Palestinian officials would be an embarrassing concession to political calculations,” she said.
A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has denounced requests from the ICC prosecutor for arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and three Hamas leaders, Al Jazeera reports.
“This action is not helpful in relation to reaching a pause in the fighting, getting hostages out or getting humanitarian aid in,” the spokesperson said.
Gazans have spared little thought for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi killed in a helicopter crash, saying he had failed to ease the suffering in the conflict-ridden Palestinian territory, AFP reports.
Gazans in the central city of Deir al-Balah, an area which has been hit by fighting between Hamas and Israeli troops since the October 7 attacks, told AFP that Raisi’s legacy in the Palestinian territory had been tarnished by inaction over their plight.
“He never supported us, never kept his promises, never called for a ceasefire, and never stood by us. He does not concern us at all,” said Naji Khodeir, a resident of the city, which now hosts large numbers of Gazans fleeing fighting further south.
“He means nothing to us and nothing to Gaza,” said Bilal Khodary, a displaced Gazan.
Gazans said they were more concerned with their dire humanitarian situation.
“I only grieve for my people who die every day, for the thousands of victims and martyrs who are falling, and for the fact that no one cares about us,” said Roba al-Azaiza, a Deir al-Balah resident.
“With all this destruction and devastation we’ve faced, no country has paid attention to us,” said Hossam Abdallah.
“Why should I care about this man when he has only brought us ruin? “
The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s office has requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence minister and three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes, Reuters reports.
Here are some reactions to the decision:
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the decision, “equates the victim with the executioner” and encourages Israel to continue its “war of extermination” in Gaza.
Israeli War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz said, “Drawing parallels between the leaders of a democratic country determined to defend itself from despicable terror to leaders of a blood-thirsty terror organisation (Hamas) is a deep distortion of justice and blatant moral bankruptcy.”
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid called the decision to seek arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant “a disaster”.
Israeli finance minister Bezazel Smotrich called the decision a “show of hypocrisy and Jew-hatred”. “Arrest warrants against them are arrest warrants against us all,” he added.
Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s Executive Committee, said, “The Palestinian people have the right to defend themselves … The ICC is required to issue arrest warrants against Israeli officials who are pursuing crimes of genocide in the Gaza Strip.”
The health ministry in Gaza has said that at least 35,562 people have been killed in the territory during more than seven months of fighting between Israel and Hamas, AFP reports.
The toll includes 106 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 79,652 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since October 7.
International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan has sought arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for “criminal responsibility” for war crimes and crimes against humanity on Palestinian territory.
A statement by the ICC prosecutor says, “We submit that the crimes against humanity charged were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population pursuant to state policy.”
It added that the evidence collected by his office “shows that Israel has intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival”.
“No foot soldier, no commander, no civilian leader — no one — can act with impunity.”
The alleged crimes include:
The office of the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor has said it is seeking arrest warrants against three leading Hamas leaders for their alleged roles in the October 7 attacks in Israel, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In his statement, ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan said he had “reasonable grounds to believe” that Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, and Ismail Haniyeh “bear criminal responsibility” for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Israel and the State of Palestine.
“As part of our investigations, my office has interviewed victims and survivors, including former hostages and eyewitnesses from six major attack locations: Kfar Aza; Holit; the location of the Supernova Music Festival; Be’eri; Nir Oz; and Nahal Oz,” the statement said, adding that the probe relied on various evidence, including photos, videos and Hamas members’ statements.
“Speaking with survivors, I heard how the love within a family, the deepest bonds between a parent and a child, were contorted to inflict unfathomable pain through calculated cruelty and extreme callousness. These acts demand accountability,” Khan stated.
Israel intends to broaden its military operation in Rafah, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has told a senior aide to US President Joe Biden, who has warned against major action in the southern Gazan city that may risk mass civilian casualties, Reuters reports.
After weeks of public disagreements with Washington over the Rafah planning, Israel on May 6 ordered Palestinian civilians to evacuate parts of the city and began troop and tank incursions.
“We are committed to broadening the ground operation in Rafah to the end of dismantling Hamas and recovering the hostages,” a statement from Gallant’s office quoted him as telling visiting US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
There was no immediate US comment on the Gallant talks.
The statement from Gallant’s office said he “presented to (National Security) Adviser Sullivan the provisions Israel implemented for evacuating the population from the Rafah area and for setting up the appropriate humanitarian response”.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has estimated more than 810,000 people have fled Rafah in the past two weeks as the exodus continues.
In a post on X, the agency said: “Every time families are displaced, their lives are at serious risk. People are forced to leave everything behind looking for safety. But there’s no safe zone.”
Israel intends to broaden its military sweep of the southern Gazan city of Rafah, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told visiting US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Reuters reports.
“We are committed to broadening the ground operation in Rafah to the end of dismantling Hamas and recovering the hostages,” a statement from Gallant’s office quoted him as saying during the meeting.
The Israeli army has said it killed two Hamas officials who served in the police forces in Gaza in air strikes, Al Jazeera reports.
In a statement on X, the army said Zaher al-Houli, a senior police officer who works in central Gaza camps, was targeted in a strike on Sunday.
A separate attack killed Rami Khalil Faki, who the Israeli military claims is a member of Hamas’s military wing, and a senior officer in the Nuseirat police in central Gaza.
Faki’s deputy and four other Hamas members were killed in the attack that took place on Saturday, it added.
Israel was not involved in the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash that also killed several members of his entourage, an Israeli official told Reuters.
“It wasn’t us,” said the official, who requested anonymity.
The Israeli forces detained three Palestinians in Ramallah’s Deir Jarir town in the occupied West Bank on Monday morning, according to Wafa news agency.
The detentions were carried out in the al-Tira neighbourhood of Budrus village.
Israeli troops also stormed and searched several homes in the town of Silwad.
There is no political will to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza while military operations continue on the ground, Qatar’s Minister of State at the Foreign Ministry, Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, has said, Reuters reports.
Palestinian fighter group Hamas has mourned the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who it said had supported the Palestinian people during the recent conflict with Israel.
Raisi, a hardliner long seen as a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a helicopter crash in mountainous terrain near the Azerbaijan border, officials and state media said.
“These leaders supported the legitimate struggle of our people against the Zionist entity, provided valued support to the Palestinian resistance, and made tireless efforts in solidarity and support in all forums and fields for our people in the steadfast Gaza Strip during the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood,” referring to the current conflict with Israel which began on Oct 7.
“They also made significant political and diplomatic efforts to stop the Zionist aggression against our Palestinian people,” said Hamas in a statement.
Hamas leaders have repeatedly thanked Iran for its military and financial support to the group in their decades-long fight against Israel.
The ongoing siege on Gaza’s al-Awda Hospital is the latest in a series of Israeli attacks on health services in the Palestinian territory.
The World Health Organization has documented 445 Israeli attacks on Gaza’s medical sector that affected 101 health facilities, including 32 hospitals.
Al Jazeera has compiled a list, which include:
Hamas’ armed wing Qassam Brigades has said that they killed and wounded Israeli soldiers, destroyed military vehicles in Jabalia and Rafah and struck the Israeli city of Sderot, TRT World reports.
The Qassam said in a series of statements on Telegram that its fighters carried out joint operations with the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, in Jabalia camp in northern Gaza.
They added that they managed to “engage with a special Zionist force entrenched behind the martyr Imad Akel Mosque, causing casualties among its members.”
They also said they succeeded in “targeting another force on al-Albani Street and managed to detonate a Merkava tank with an explosive device on al-Ajarma Street.”
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says it has not been able to maintain a presence at the Rafah and Karen Abu Salem (known as Kerem Shalom to the Israelis) crossings into Gaza since Israel launched its ground offensive on Rafah city, and is unable to monitor the entry of aid trucks into the region, Al Jazeera reports.
UNRWA previously provided daily reports on the total number of trucks entering the Gaza Strip through these crossings — the vast majority of which were humanitarian deliveries from the UN, the Palestine Red Crescent and other aid organisations.
UNRWA said now, it can only track UN trucks that enter southern Gaza. The agency’s latest figures show only 69 such trucks have crossed into southern Gaza between May 6 to May 19, an average of fewer than five trucks per day.
This is significantly less than the average of 87 UN humanitarian trucks that entered Gaza through the two crossings per day in April.
US President Joe Biden urged Morehouse College graduates not to give up on democracy in a somber commencement address on Sunday, acknowledging their anger over the onslaught in Gaza while warning about risk to American freedoms, Reuters reports.
Biden said he shared graduates’ concerns over the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and was continuing to push for a deal to pause the conflict in exchange for the release of hostages. He said leadership can be “hard and lonely” and said frustration and anger about the conflict permeated his own family.
“This is one of the hardest, most complicated problems in the world. I know it angers and frustrates many of you,” he told the crowd. “It’s a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, that’s why I’ve called for an immediate ceasefire,” Biden said to applause.
A generational divide was apparent at the decorous commencement, as older alumni at times stood and cheered the president while current graduates sat in silence or offered polite applause.
Some students wore keffiyehs — the black-and-white head scarf that has become an emblem of solidarity with the Palestinian cause — around their gowns. A handful of students turned their backs to Biden in silent protest. Morehouse’s valedictorian also called for a permanent and immediate ceasefire, garnering Biden’s applause.
“It’s natural to wonder: Does the democracy you hear about actually work for you?” he said. Even so, he added, Americans must continue “to call out the poison of white supremacy, root out systemic racism. Democracy is still the way.”
Biden is selling his vision to jaded voters who back his policies but are not sold on the 81-year-old candidate himself, including younger Black men, as he faces a rematch against former president Trump, who has used increasingly authoritarian language and already stoked doubts about the election’s legitimacy.
An Israeli strike killed 31 people in central Gaza Sunday, the Palestinian territory’s civil defence agency said, as US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan visited for talks on the conflict, AFP reports.
Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said it was targeting Israeli forces stationed at Rafah crossing — a vital conduit for humanitarian aid that is now closed — with mortar fire.
Israel has also fought and bombed resurgent Hamas forces in northern and central areas of the coastal territory previously considered to be under army control, sparking US warnings that it could become mired in a lengthy counterinsurgency campaign.
In the latest aerial bombardment overnight, Gaza’s civil defence agency said an Israeli strike had killed 31 people and wounded 20 in a home in the central Nuseirat refugee camp.
Israel’s military, which on Sunday reported its aircraft had “struck dozens of terror targets” over the past 24 hours, said it was checking the reports. Witness Yasser Abu Oula told AFP an entire residential complex “was destroyed” and “there are still bodies under the rubble”.
Robert Gates, the former US defence secretary and CIA chief, has supported the Biden administration’s decision to hold back a shipment of “2,000 pound [907kg] bombs” to Israel, saying that such munitions “are not precision-guided” and “inevitably lead to a lot of collateral damage”, Al Jazeera reports.
Gates told the CBS broadcaster that he was “all for providing other kinds of weapons to Israel” to “at least dramatically weaken Hamas for the long-term” but added that “we don’t think the way to do that is to flatten two-thirds of the buildings in Gaza”.
“When our allies ignore us, I think it’s reasonable to take actions that try to get their attention,” he said.
Israeli air attacks have hit several areas across the Gaza Strip tonight, including multiple sites in Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, Wafa news agency reports.
Israeli air attacks also hit the Nuseirat refugee camp and the town of az-Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip, as well as the Jabalia refugee camp in the north, according to Wafa.
No immediate details on the number of people killed and injured in the attacks were available.
Hospitals and other emergency services that usually report on deaths and injuries have been struggling to continue operations after Israel last week blocked land routes used to deliver fuel to run generators, months after cutting off all electricity supply.
