Closing summary
It has just gone 5pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Israel-Gaza war coverage here and on the Middle East here.
Here is a recap of the latest developments:
Bombs used in an Israeli airstrike that caused a huge blaze at a tented area for displaced people in Rafah on Sunday and killed at least 45 people, were made in the US, reported the New York Times (NYT). It cited visual evidence reviewed by the NYT and weapon experts, including “key” details in weapon debris and a unique identifier code that linked weapon fragments, seen in a video, to an aerospace manufacturer based in Colorado.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday hit out at the United Nations and called on the “Islamic world” to react after the latest deadly Israeli strikes in Gaza. “The UN cannot even protect its own staff. What are you waiting for to act? The spirit of the United Nations is dead in Gaza,” Erdoğan told lawmakers from his AKP party. “Israel is not just a threat to Gaza but to all of humanity,” he said, adding: “No state is safe as long as Israel does not follow international law and does not feel bound by international law.”
Algeria is circulating a proposed UN security council resolution that would demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and order Israel to halt its military offensive in the southern city of Rafah immediately. The draft resolution, obtained on Tuesday evening by the Associated Press (AP), demands that the ceasefire be respected by all parties. It also calls for the immediate release of all hostages taken during Hamas’s attack in southern Israel on 7 October.
The former head of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, allegedly threatened a chief prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC) in a series of secret meetings in which he tried to pressure her into abandoning a war crimes investigation, the Guardian has revealed. Yossi Cohen’s covert contacts with the ICC’s then prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, took place in the years leading up to her decision to open a formal investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in occupied Palestinian territories.
The US state department said that it opposes “threats or intimidation” against members of the international criminal court (ICC) in the wake of the Guardian’s reporting on Israel’s secret “war” of surveillance, hacking and threats aimed at sabotaging The Hague’s Israel and Palestine investigation. Spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday that he had read the report, a joint investigation with the Israel-Palestinian +972 magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, and that the state department was examining the matter. Several members of the international law community have said that Israel’s actions may warrant new indictments.
The Biden administration said recent Israeli operations and attacks in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah do not constitute a major ground operation that crosses any US red lines, and that it is also closely monitoring a probe into Sunday’s deadly strike on a tent camp it called “tragic”. Speaking after Israeli tanks were seen near al-Awda mosque, a landmark in central Rafah, national security council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the US was not turning a “blind eye” to the plight of Palestinian civilians.
Israeli tanks conducted a second day of probing attacks across Rafah on Wednesday. Rafah residents told Reuters that Israeli tanks mounted raids into Tel al-Sultan in western Rafah and Yibna and near Shaboura in the centre before retreating to positions near the border with Egypt.
Israel carried out fresh strikes in Rafah on Wednesday. AFP journalists in Rafah reported new strikes early on Wednesday, hours after witnesses and a Palestinian security source said Israeli tanks had penetrated the heart of the city. “People are currently inside their homes because anyone who moves is being shot at by Israeli drones,” resident Abdel Khatib told AFP.
Several people were injured on Wednesday morning by Israeli fire in the eastern area of Rafah, Palestinian health officials said. They said some stores of aid were set ablaze in the area.
According to Reuters, residents said constant Israeli bombardment overnight destroyed many homes in the area, from where most people have fled after orders by Israel to evacuate. Some residents reported seeing what they described as unmanned robotic armoured vehicles opening fire from machine guns in some parts of the city.
The pro-Hamas Shebab news agency, as well as some residents and journalists, reported internet and mobile communications blackouts in some areas of both east and west amid heavy Israeli air and ground bombardment. The Israeli military said it could not confirm the reports.
In northern Gaza, Israeli tanks shelled several Gaza City neighbourhoods, and forces thrust deeper in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight biggest historic refugee camps, with residents saying large residential districts were destroyed by the army.
The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said they confronted Israeli forces with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs, as well as blowing up previously planted explosive devices.
The Israeli military said three soldiers had been killed and three others badly wounded in combat in southern Gaza on Wednesday, without elaborating. Israel’s public broadcaster Kan radio said the soldiers were hurt by an explosive device set off in a building in Rafah.
The Palestinian health minister said on Wednesday there was no indication from Israel that the Rafah crossing, used to bring in essential humanitarian and medical supplies, could be opened soon. “Since it was closed, we have no indication that the Israelis would like it to be opened any time soon,” the minister, Majed Abu Ramadan, told reporters on the sidelines of the World Health Assembly in Geneva.
US aid efforts for Gaza have suffered an embarrassing setback after the temporary pier built by the military broke apart in heavy seas, the Pentagon said on Tuesday. The pier will be pulled out and sent to the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, where US Central Command (Centcom) will repair it.
Israel’s military was in control of 75% of the Phildelphi corridor, a buffer zone between Gaza and Egypt, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said on Wednesday. He added that he expected fighting in Gaza to continue throughout 2024 at least. “Inside Gaza, the IDF is now in control of 75% of the Philadelphi corridor and I believe it will be in control of it all with time. Together with the Egyptians, we must ensure weapon smuggling is prevented,” he told Israel’s public broadcaster Kan.
An Israeli airstrike killed three people overnight in Khan Younis, including Salama Baraka, a former senior Hamas police officer, medics and Hamas media said on Wednesday.
The Palestinian health ministry said several hospitals in areas where the Israeli army is operating had stopped functioning. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it had evacuated its medical teams from its field hospital in the al-Mawasi area, a designated civilian evacuation zone. It cited “the increased threat level from the Israeli occupation, continued artillery and air bombardments in its vicinity, and the complete evacuation of residents from the surrounding area” in its statement.
The PRCS said one of its staff, Issam Aqel, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on his house in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. It said his death rose to 30 the number of staff killed since 7 October, at least 17 of them killed on duty.
Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, met officials from several counties in the Middle East on Wednesday, a day after Spain formally recognised a Palestinian state. “We share with the Arab countries the will and commitment to end violence and make the two-state solution a reality. We trust that recognition will restore hope to the Palestinian people that a future of peace, security and prosperity is possible for the region,” said Sánchez.
Spain’s far-right Vox leader came under fire on Wednesday after surprise talks in Jerusalem with Israel’s prime minister to denounce Madrid’s recognition of Palestinian statehood, with the government accusing him of “fuelling war”. The unexpected trip was only publicised on Tuesday night when Santiago Abascal published photos on X of himself and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The meeting took place on the same day that Spain, Ireland and Norway recognised Palestinian statehood.
Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Albares accused Abascal of inflaming the situation. “Abascal is embracing the policy of falsehoods, slander and insults coming from the most extreme elements of Netanyahu’s government,” he told RTVE public television late on Tuesday. “While some people are fuelling wars, others are trying to find solutions for peace.”
US Republican Nikki Haley met with Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant. In a post on X, Gallant thanked Haley for her solidarity and said they had had a “meaningful discussion … about the importance of strong US-Israel ties in the face of our common enemies, led by Iran”.
French members of parliament on the left have questioned the decision to suspend a lawmaker for two weeks after he held up a Palestinian flag during a parliamentary debate. Sébastien Delogu, a member of parliament for Marseille for the leftwing La France Insoumise party, stood up with the flag during a heated debate over whether France should recognise Palestinian statehood during questions to the government on Tuesday afternoon.
Three police officers were injured and 40 people arrested during a protest in Westminster on Tuesday night, Scotland Yard said. One officer was left with a serious facial injury after she was hit by a bottle thrown from the crowd, while two officers had minor injuries. Metropolitan police said the suspect who threw the bottle had not been identified but police were investigating. Most of the crowd, which was between 8,000 and 10,000 people, left Whitehall without incident.
Discord from last month’s mob attack on pro-Palestinian student activists encamped at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) flared again on Tuesday as academic workers staged a strike on campus protesting UCLA’s response to the violence. Unionised academic researchers, graduate teaching assistants and post-doctoral scholars at UCLA walked off the job over what they regard as unfair labor practices in the university’s handling of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in recent weeks, organisers said.
Tehran’s sea-launched ballistic missile Ghadr has been made available to Yemen’s Houthis, reported Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.
A flamenco dancer of Palestinian heritage whose image was used in an Israeli government video that accused Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, of helping Hamas by recognising the Palestinian state, has said she is shocked but amused to find herself used for propaganda purposes. “Although there’s no such thing as a coincidence, they chose me – a Palestinian,” she said, adding that it showed how “weak and low” the Israeli government was.
Updated
Algeria proposes UN security council resolution demanding Israel halt offensive in Rafah
Algeria is circulating a proposed UN security council resolution that would demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and order Israel to halt its military offensive in the southern city of Rafah immediately, according to the Associated Press (AP).
The draft resolution, obtained on Tuesday evening by the AP, also demands that the ceasefire be respected by all parties. It also calls for the immediate release of all hostages taken during Hamas’s attack in southern Israel on 7 October.
Some diplomats said they hoped for a quick vote, even as early as Wednesday, the AP reports.
“It is our hope that it can be done as quickly as possible because life is in the balance,” Chinese ambassador Fu Cong told reporters.
US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said: “We’re waiting to see it and then we’ll react to it.” The US has vetoed multiple resolutions demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.
According to the AP, the draft demands compliance with previous security council resolutions that call for the opening of all border crossings and humanitarian access to Gaza’s 2.3 million people who desperately need food and other aid.
The AP reports that the proposed resolution says that “the catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip constitutes a threat to regional and international peace and security.” It also expresses grave concern at “famine spreading throughout the Gaza Strip” and the suffering of Palestinians who took refuge in Rafah.
The resolution, the AP report, would demand that Israel “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in Rafah”.
The draft condemns what it calls “the indiscriminate targeting of civilians, including women and children, and civilian infrastructure” and reiterates the council’s demand for all parties to comply with international law requiring the protection of civilians.
Algeria’s UN ambassador, Amar Bendjama, who is also the Arab representative on the security council, told reporters after emergency closed council consultations on Tuesday that he would be sending the draft resolution to the 15-member council later in the evening.
Spain’s far-right Vox leader came under fire on Wednesday after surprise talks in Jerusalem with Israel’s prime minister to denounce Madrid’s recognition of Palestinian statehood, with the government accusing him of “fuelling war”, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
According to AFP, the unexpected trip was only publicised on Tuesday night when Santiago Abascal published photos on X of himself and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The meeting took place on the same day that Spain, Ireland and Norway recognised Palestinian statehood.
Le he transmitido al primer ministro que la investigación sobre la corrupción de Begoña Gómez es la verdadera causa de la decisión de Sánchez de reconocer al Estado palestino. https://t.co/ymCRLHckAd pic.twitter.com/QpyOXi926C
— Santiago Abascal 🇪🇸 (@Santi_ABASCAL) May 28, 2024
Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez has been sharply critical of the spiralling Palestinian death toll, while Israel has been angered by remarks by Sánchez’s top ministers, including his far-left deputy, who said: “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea”.
AFP reports that in Spain, the far-right Vox and the right wing opposition Popular Party (PP) have both slammed Sánchez for recognising Palestinian statehood.
According to Vox, Abascal hailed Israel’s “firmness” in the Gaza war and told Netanyahu that the Spanish premier “was ready to do anything to cover up his own political and economic corruption”.
Abascal said he told Netanyahu “the real reason” for the Palestinian statehood move was Sánchez trying to divert attention from a graft probe into his wife, reports AFP.
“I told the prime minister that the corruption investigation into Begona Gomez was the real reason Sanchez decided to recognise a Palestinian state,” he wrote on X.
His post sparked a backlash with Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Albares accusing Abascal of inflaming the situation, reports AFP.
“Abascal is embracing the policy of falsehoods, slander and insults coming from the most extreme elements of Netanyahu’s government,” he told RTVE public television late on Tuesday. “While some people are fuelling wars, others are trying to find solutions for peace.”
Updated
Israel in control of 75% of buffer zone along Gaza-Egypt border, official says
Israel’s military was in control of 75% of the Phildelphi corridor, a buffer zone between Gaza and Egypt, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
“Inside Gaza, the IDF is now in control of 75% of the Philadelphi corridor and I believe it will be in control of it all with time. Together with the Egyptians, we must ensure weapon smuggling is prevented,” he told Israel’s public broadcaster Kan, reports Reuters.
Hanegbi added that he expected fighting in Gaza to continue throughout 2024 at least.
Turkey’s president Erdoğan says ‘spirit of United Nations dead in Gaza’
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday hit out at the United Nations and called on the “Islamic world” to react after the latest deadly Israeli strikes in Gaza, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The UN cannot even protect its own staff. What are you waiting for to act? The spirit of the United Nations is dead in Gaza,” Erdoğan told lawmakers from his AKP party, according to AFP.
Erdoğan’s comments came as the UN security council met to discuss a deadly Israeli attack on a displacement camp west of Rafah on Tuesday that killed 21 people, according to a civil defence official in Hamas-run Gaza.
Erdoğan also hit out at fellow Muslim-majority countries for failing to take common action over the Israeli strike, reports AFP.
“I have some words to say to the Islamic world: what are you waiting for to take a common decision?” Erdoğan, who leads a Muslim-majority country of 85 million people, told lawmakers from his AKP party.
“Israel is not just a threat to Gaza but to all of humanity,” he said.
“No state is safe as long as Israel does not follow international law and does not feel bound by international law,” Erdoğan added, repeating an accusation that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza.
Updated
No indication from Israel that Rafah crossing could open soon, Palestinian minister says
The Palestinian health minister said on Wednesday there was no indication from Israel that the Rafah crossing, used to bring in essential humanitarian and medical supplies, could be opened soon, reports Reuters.
“Since it was closed, we have no indication that the Israelis would like it to be opened any time soon,” the minister, Majed Abu Ramadan, told reporters on the sidelines of the World Health Assembly in Geneva.
Rafah was a major entry point for humanitarian relief before Israel stepped up its military offensive on the Gaza side of the border earlier this month and seized control of the crossing from the Palestinian side.
Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, has met with officials from several counties in the Middle East.
“It has been an honor to receive the Arab-Islamic Ministerial Committee on Gaza a day after Spain recognised Palestine as a state,” Sánchez said.
“We share with the Arab countries the will and commitment to end violence and make the two-state solution a reality. We trust that recognition will restore hope to the Palestinian people that a future of peace, security and prosperity is possible for the region.”
Ha sido un honor recibir al Comité Ministerial Árabe-Islámico sobre Gaza un día después de que España haya reconocido a Palestina como Estado. Compartimos con los países árabes la voluntad y el compromiso de poner fin a la violencia y hacer realidad la solución de los dos… pic.twitter.com/LeQVG3rEpE
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) May 29, 2024
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that Tehran’s sea-launched ballistic missile Ghadr has been made available to Yemen’s Houthis, Reuters writes.
Republican Nikki Haley met with Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant.
Gallant thanked Haley for her solidarity.
Meaningful discussion with @NikkiHaley about the importance of strong U.S.-Israel ties in the face of our common enemies, led by Iran. Hamas and Hezbollah not only attack Israel, they attack our shared values and way of life.
— יואב גלנט - Yoav Gallant (@yoavgallant) May 29, 2024
Nikki, thank you for your leadership and friendship. pic.twitter.com/f9kvXQja1F
Updated
French members of parliament on the left have questioned the decision to suspend a lawmaker for two weeks after he held up a Palestinian flag during a parliamentary debate.
Sébastien Delogu, a member of parliament for Marseille for the leftwing La France Insoumise party, stood up with the flag during a heated debate over whether France should recognise Palestinian statehood during questions to the government on Tuesday afternoon.
A meeting of parliamentary representatives voted to suspend Delogu for two weeks and cut his parliamentary allowance by half for two months, the heaviest possible sanction.
Valérie Rabault, a Socialist parliament vice-president, said she found it “deplorable” that a special parliamentary meeting spent an hour deciding Delogu’s sanction when the really serious situation was what was happening in Rafah.
Asked on a visit to Germany on Tuesday if France would recognise Palestinian statehood, president Emmanuel Macron said: “I am totally prepared to recognise a Palestinian state but this recognition must come at a useful moment”.
“I will not do a recognition based on emotion,” he said.
In February, Macron had said that recognising a Palestinian state was no longer “taboo”.
Here are some of the latest images on the newswires:
Several more hospitals stop functioning, says Palestinian health ministry
The Palestinian health ministry said several hospitals in areas where the Israeli army is operating had stopped functioning, reports Reuters.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it had evacuated its medical teams from its field hospital in the al-Mawasi area, a designated civilian evacuation zone.
It cited “the increased threat level from the Israeli occupation, continued artillery and air bombardments in its vicinity, and the complete evacuation of residents from the surrounding area” in its statement.
Yesterday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) crews evacuated the PRCS Al-Quds Field Hospital from the Mawasi #Rafah area in the western part of the governorate to the Mawasi Khan Yunis area. This action was taken due to the increased threat level from the Israeli… pic.twitter.com/f91Wl1LrAx
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) May 29, 2024
In the nearby city of Khan Younis, an Israeli airstrike killed three people overnight, including Salama Baraka, a former senior Hamas police officer, medics and Hamas media said on Wednesday, reports Reuters.
The PRCS said one of its staff, Issam Aqel, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on his house in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. It said his death rose to 30 the number of staff killed since 7 October, at least 17 of them killed on duty.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) member of the Al-Quds Hospital staff, Issam Rouhi Mohammed Aqel, has been killed. This occurred after his home was targeted last night in Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central governorate. This brings the total number of martyrs among the… pic.twitter.com/62XcINYrZB
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) May 28, 2024
Israel sends tanks into Rafah on raids amid Gaza-wide offensive
Israeli tanks conducted a second day of probing attacks across Rafah on Wednesday, after Washington said the assault did not amount to a major ground incursion of the southern Gazan city that US officials had told Israel to avoid, reports Reuters.
According to the news agency, Israeli tanks advanced to the heart of Rafah for the first time on Tuesday after a night of heavy bombardment, defying an appeal from the international court of justice (ICJ) to end its attack on the city, one of the last places of refuge in Gaza.
The US, Israel’s closest ally, reiterated its opposition to a major Israeli ground offensive in Rafah but said on Tuesday it did not believe such an operation was under way.
Unlike tactics used in Israel’s ground offensive in the rest of Gaza, Rafah residents told Reuters that Israeli tanks mounted raids into Tel al-Sultan in western Rafah and Yibna and near Shaboura in the centre before retreating to positions near the border with Egypt.
The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said they confronted the invading forces with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs, as well as blowing up previously planted explosive devices, reports Reuters.
The Israeli military said three soldiers had been killed and three others badly wounded in combat in southern Gaza on Wednesday, without elaborating. Reuters cites Israel’s public broadcaster Kan radio as saying the soldiers were hurt by an explosive device set off in a building in Rafah.
Palestinian health officials said several people were injured on Wednesday morning by Israeli fire in the eastern area of Rafah, where they also said some stores of aid were set ablaze.
According to Reuters, residents said constant Israeli bombardment overnight destroyed many homes in the area, from where most people have fled after orders by Israel to evacuate.
Some residents reported seeing what they described as unmanned robotic armoured vehicles opening fire from machine guns in some parts of the city.
Reuters reports that the pro-Hamas Shebab news agency, as well as some residents and journalists, reported internet and mobile communications blackouts in some areas of both east and west amid heavy Israeli air and ground bombardment. The Israeli military said it could not confirm the reports.
In northern Gaza, tanks shelled several Gaza City neighbourhoods, and forces thrust deeper in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight biggest historic refugee camps, with residents saying large residential districts were destroyed by the army.
Updated
Sam Jones is Madrid correspondent for the Guardian.
A flamenco dancer of Palestinian heritage whose image was used in an Israeli government video that accused Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, of helping Hamas by recognising the Palestinian state, has said she is shocked but amused to find herself used for propaganda purposes.
On Sunday, Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, posted a video on X that interspersed the figure of two flamenco dancers with footage of Hamas’s terrorist atrocities on 7 October. Its caption read: “Hamas thanks you for your service, Pedro Sánchez”.
But it has transpired that the female flamenco dancer is a 34-year-old performer called Zeinab Sabbah who was born to Palestinian parents in Syria and who has been living in the Spanish city of Granada since 2013. Sabbah, who has been studying flamenco for the past five years, said the video of her dancing had been shot three years ago and taken from an image bank without her knowledge.
She told the Spanish news agency Efe that while she had been shocked to see herself in the video at first, she had come to see the funny side of Israel using images of a Spain-based Palestinian to attack Spain. “Although there’s no such thing as a coincidence, they chose me – a Palestinian,” she said, adding that it showed how “weak and low” the Israeli government was.
“However annoying I find [the video] is nothing in comparison to what’s happening [in Gaza] and what the people there are living through,” Sabbah told El País.
Bethan McKernan is Jerusalem correspondent for the Guardian.
The US state department has said that it opposes “threats or intimidation” against members of the international criminal court (ICC) in the wake of the Guardian’s reporting on Israel’s secret “war” of surveillance, hacking and threats aimed at sabotaging The Hague’s Israel and Palestine investigation.
Spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday that he had read the report, a joint investigation with the Israel-Palestinian +972 magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call and that the state department was examining the matter.
“I don’t want to speak to hypotheticals about what the United States may or may not do,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “But of course we would oppose threats or intimidation against any public official.”
Several members of the international law community have said that Israel’s actions – a nine-year-long campaign in which Israel deployed its intelligence agencies in a bid to derail potential war crimes charges against the country’s political and military leadership – may warrant new indictments.
“It is abundantly clear that many of the examples highlighted in [the] reporting would amount to offences against the administration of justice at the ICC, pursuant to article 70 of the Rome Statute. Such charges should be brought against anyone who has sought to impede, intimidate or corruptly influence the ICC’s officials,” said Matt Cannock, the head of Amnesty International’s centre for international justice in The Hague.
“Where there are reasonable grounds to believe that individuals already indicted by the ICC may have committed such offences, the prosecutor can, indeed should, add these to the list of charges.”
Last Monday, the ICC chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced he was seeking arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and defence minister, Yoav Gallant, as well as for senior Hamas officials. The unprecedented decision marks the first time an ICC prosecutor has sought arrest warrants against the leader of a close western ally.
In response to requests for comment, a spokesperson for Israel’s prime minister’s office said: “the questions forwarded to us are replete with many false and unfounded allegations meant to hurt the state of Israel.”
Discord from last month’s mob attack on pro-Palestinian student activists encamped at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) flared again on Tuesday as academic workers staged a strike on campus protesting UCLA’s response to the violence.
Unionised academic researchers, graduate teaching assistants and post-doctoral scholars at UCLA walked off the job over what they regard as unfair labor practices in the university’s handling of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in recent weeks, organisers said.
They were joined by fellow academic workers at two other University of California campuses – UC Davis near Sacramento, and UC Santa Cruz, where the protest strike began on 20 May.
The strikers are demanding amnesty for grad students and other academic workers who were arrested or face discipline for their involvement in the protests, which union leaders say were peaceful except when counter-demonstrators and other instigators were allowed to provoke unrest.
The state public employee relations board ordered the University of California and the strikers to take part in mediated talks. A representative for the strikers said the parties met once over the weekend.
You can read the full piece here:
The Guardian video team have also put together the below footage from the pro-Palestine protest in Westminster, central London, on Tuesday night.
Three London police hurt as pro-Palestine protesters breach deadline - Met
Three police officers were injured and 40 people arrested during a protest in Westminster on Tuesday night, Scotland Yard said.
One officer was left with a serious facial injury after she was hit by a bottle thrown from the crowd, while two officers had minor injuries.
Metropolitan police said the suspect who threw the bottle had not been identified but police were investigating.
A protest organised by a coalition of groups, including the Palestine Solidarity Group, began about 6pm and was required to end at 8pm, police said.
Most of the crowd, which was between 8,000 and 10,000 people, left Whitehall without incident.
Officers made 40 arrests during a protest in Westminster on Tuesday evening.
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) May 29, 2024
Regrettably three officers were injured, one seriously.
The details of the policing operation are set out below. pic.twitter.com/7dmAQhWWCS
A group of about 500 people remained and police began making a number of arrests for failing to comply.
Police said some of the crowd resisted arrest, which required officers to use force to remove those who had been arrested.
You can read the full report here:
Updated
Bombs used in Israeli airstrike on Rafah camp were made in US, say NYT
The New York Times (NYT) are reporting that bombs used in an Israeli airstrike that caused a huge blaze at a tented area for displaced people in Rafah on Sunday and killed at least 45 people, were made in the US.
It cites visual evidence reviewed by the NYT and weapon experts. The NYT write:
Munition debris filmed at the strike location the next day was remnants from a GBU-39, a bomb designed and manufactured in the United States, The Times found. US officials have been pushing Israel to use more of this type of bomb, which they say can reduce civilian casualties.”
Trevor Ball, a former US army explosive ordnance disposal technician and one of the experts quoted in the NYT piece, identified the weapon on X.
US made Small Diameter Bomb(SDB)/GBU-39 fragments visible in the Rafah strike. This is from the rear control section. pic.twitter.com/Jk0jtflGES
— Easybakeoven (@Easybakeovensz) May 27, 2024
The NYT quotes Ball in highlighting that a “key detail in the weapon debris was the tail actuation system, which controls the fins that guide the GBU-39 to a target”.
Again quoting Ball, the NYT write that “the weapon’s unique bolt pattern and slot where the folding fins are stowed were clearly visible in the debris”.
The NYT also say that a unique identifier code that links the weapon to an aerospace manufacturer based in Colorado is visible in a video it has viewed that shows munition fragments.
Updated
US aid to Gaza stalls after temporary pier breaks apart in heavy seas
David Smith is the Guardian’s Washington DC bureau chief.
US aid efforts for Gaza have suffered an embarrassing setback after the temporary pier built by the military broke apart in heavy seas, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
The $320m pier was intended to provide a crucial supply line for aid deliveries by sea to reach starving Palestinians and alleviate a humanitarian catastrophe. Now the effort is on hold for at least a week.
Sabrina Singh, the deputy press secretary for the defence department, told reporters that high seas and a north African weather system had caused a section of the pier to break away on Tuesday morning.
The pier will be pulled out and sent to the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, where US Central Command (Centcom) will repair it.
“The rebuilding and repairing of the pier will take at least over a week, and, following completion, will need to be re-anchored to the coast of Gaza,” Singh said.
“Thus, upon completion of the pier repair and reassembly, the intention is to re-anchor the temporary pier to the coast of Gaza and resume humanitarian aid to the people who need it most.”
Updated
Israeli spy chief ‘threatened’ ICC prosecutor over war crimes inquiry
Harry Davies is an investigations correspondent at the Guardian.
The former head of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, allegedly threatened a chief prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC) in a series of secret meetings in which he tried to pressure her into abandoning a war crimes investigation, the Guardian can reveal.
Yossi Cohen’s covert contacts with the ICC’s then prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, took place in the years leading up to her decision to open a formal investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in occupied Palestinian territories.
That investigation, launched in 2021, culminated last week when Bensouda’s successor, Karim Khan, announced that he was seeking an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over the country’s conduct in its war in Gaza.
The prosecutor’s decision to apply to the ICC’s pre-trial chamber for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, alongside three Hamas leaders, is an outcome Israel’s military and political establishment has long feared.
Cohen’s personal involvement in the operation against the ICC took place when he was the director of the Mossad. His activities were authorised at a high level and justified on the basis the court posed a threat of prosecutions against military personnel, according to a senior Israeli official.
You can read the full piece here:
For today’s First Edition newsletter, Archie Bland focuses on the investigation by the Guardian’s Harry Davies and Bethan McKernan, in collaboration with the Israeli-based magazines +972 and Local Call, which looked at Israel’s nine-year ‘war’ on the international criminal court (ICC).
Bland has spoken to Johann Soufi, an international prosecutor and former head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees’ (Unrwa) legal office in Gaza, about what we have learned about the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fears of the ICC, and how he sought to act on them.
You can read the summary of their conversation here:
White House says Israel’s latest actions in Rafah do not cross US red line
The Biden administration has said recent Israeli operations and attacks in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah do not constitute a major ground operation that crosses any US red lines, and that it is also closely monitoring a probe into Sunday’s deadly strike on a tent camp it called “tragic”.
Speaking after Israeli tanks were seen near al-Awda mosque, a landmark in central Rafah, national security council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the US was not turning a “blind eye” to the plight of Palestinian civilians.
“The Israelis have said this is a tragic mistake,” Kirby said, referring to the airstrike and fire in an area crowded with refugee tents that Gaza health authorities said killed at least 45 people on Sunday.
Asked if there was anything the White House had seen from Sunday – through to the ongoing ground operations this week – that would prompt a US withdrawal of more military assistance, Kirby said “I believe that’s what I’ve been saying here”.
“We’ve also said we don’t want to see a major ground operation in Rafah that would really make it hard for the Israelis to go after Hamas without causing extensive damage and potentially a large number of deaths. We have not seen that yet,” he said, stating that Israel’s operations on Tuesday were mostly in a corridor on the outskirts of Rafah.
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Opening summary
It has gone 9.30am in Gaza and Tel Aviv, welcome to our latest live blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis.
Israel has carried out fresh strikes in Rafah on Wednesday, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
AFP journalists in Rafah reported new strikes early Wednesday, hours after witnesses and a Palestinian security source said Israeli tanks had penetrated the heart of the city.
“People are currently inside their homes because anyone who moves is being shot at by Israeli drones,” resident Abdel Khatib told AFP.
It comes as the White House says Israel’s operation in Rafah has not crossed a US red line.
“We have not seen them smash into Rafah,” said the US national security council spokesperson, John Kirby.
Meanwhile, Algeria has presented a draft resolution to UN security council members calling for an end to Israel’s offensive in Rafah and an “immediate ceasefire,” according to draft text seen by several news agencies.
The UN security council is scheduled to discuss the war again on Wednesday, but it is not clear when a vote on the resolution will take place.
More on that in a moment but first, here is a summary of the latest developments:
Israeli tanks reached the middle of Rafah on Tuesday, Reuters reported, citing witnesses. They also pushed towards western neighbourhoods, taking positions on the Zurub hilltop, after heavy bombardment. Not all Palestinians sheltering there are able to move, and some have decided there is greater danger in moving given fighting continues across much of Gaza and there is little shelter, food, water or sanitation elsewhere. The Israeli military said its forces continued to operate in the Rafah area, without commenting on reported advances into the city centre.
Israel’s military has denied striking a tent camp west of Rafah on Tuesday after Gaza health authorities said Israeli tank shelling had killed at least 21 people there, in an area Israel has designated a civilian evacuation zone, Reuters reports. Two days after an Israeli airstrike on another camp stirred global condemnation, Gaza emergency services said four tank shells on Tuesday hit a cluster of tents in al-Mawasi, a coastal strip Israel designated as an expanded humanitarian zone where it advised civilians in Rafah to go for safety.
An investigation by the Guardian has revealed how the former head of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, allegedly threatened a chief prosecutor of the international criminal court in a series of secret meetings in which he tried to pressure her into abandoning a war crimes investigation. The investigation, with the Israeli-based magazines +972 and Local Call, can also reveal how Israel has run an almost decade-long secret “war” against the court. The country deployed its intelligence agencies to surveil, hack, pressure, smear and allegedly threaten senior ICC staff in an effort to derail the court’s inquiries.
US aid efforts for Gaza have suffered a setback after the temporary pier built by the military broke apart in heavy seas, the Pentagon said on Tuesday. The $320m pier was intended to provide a crucial supply line for aid deliveries by sea to reach starving Palestinians and alleviate a humanitarian catastrophe. Now the effort is on hold for at least a week.
Ireland, Spain and Norway have all formally recognised a Palestinian state. The joint decision by two European Union countries plus Norway, a nation with a strong diplomatic tradition in peacemaking, may generate momentum for the recognition of a Palestinian state by other EU countries and could spur further steps at the United Nations, which would deepen Israel’s international isolation.
Denmark’s parliament on Tuesday voted down a bill to recognise a Palestinian state, after the Danish foreign minister previously said the necessary preconditions for an independent country were lacking.
Nikki Haley, the failed Republican presidential nominee, signed Israeli artillery shells with the inscription “Finish Them!” on a Memorial Day visit to Israel. The former South Carolina governor’s graphic display of support came on a trip to Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where she was accompanied by Danny Danon, a former Israeli ambassador to the UN and a noted hawkish member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party in the Knesset.
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