Closing Summary
That’s all for today’s blog. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
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.
At least seven Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in new Israeli strikes on an area of tents housing displaced people West of Rafah on Tuesday, Gaza health authorities have said.
Several Israeli tanks on Tuesday reached the centre of Rafah, witnesses told Reuters, three weeks into a ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip city.
Around one million people have fled Rafah in the past three weeks, the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said on Tuesday.
More than 36,096 Palestinians have been killed and 81,136 have been injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Ireland, Spain and Norway have all formally recognised a Palestinian state today. 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.
Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, has stepped up his attacks on Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, accusing him of being “complicit in inciting the murder of the Jewish people and war crimes”.
The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has called the scenes following the airstrikes in Rafah this weekend “deeply distressing” and has called for a swift, comprehensive and transparent” investigation by the Israel Defense Forces.
Ireland has said its recognition of a Palestinian state does not equal endorsement of Hamas and reiterated its support for the Palestinian Authority.
Micheál Martin, the foreign minister, condemned the “savagery” of the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October last year and urged the international community to give full support to the PA, which rules the West Bank, but not Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas.
The decision to recognise Palestinian statehood created a rare day of unity in the Irish parliament on Tuesday, though opposition parties said it should have happened sooner. A Palestinian flag flew over Leinster House, which houses the Dail and Senate.
However some in the government worry the historic move will be seen as benefiting Hamas. Israel has repeatedly said so. Salman Rushdie recently warned that forming a Palestinian state “right now” would mean a “Taliban-like state”.
Seán Ó Fearghaíl, the Dail speaker, said the chamber wished to “clearly differentiate between Hamas and the Palestinian people”. He also said Ireland treasured its Jewish community.
