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.
Ireland’s prime minister, Simon Harris, announced his country’s decision to recognise Palestine in the Dáil on Tuesday, a week after Dublin joined Spain and Norway, pledging to do so. Addressing parliamentarians, Harris said: ‘Recognition is a message for those in Palestine who advocate for a future of peace and democracy.’ After he concluded his speech the chamber gave a round of applause.
The French parliament has suspended a lawmaker for two weeks after he held up a Palestinian flag during a debate over whether France should recognise Palestinian statehood.
Sébastien Delogu, a member of parliament for the hard-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Unbowed (LFI) party from the southern city of Marseille, stood up with the flag during questions to the government.
Speaker Yael Braun-Pivet denounced what she called his “inadmissible” behaviour, and lawmakers voted to suspend him for two weeks and cut his parliamentary allowance by half for two months.
Haaretz reports that Islamic Jihad have published a video of Israeli hostage Sasha Trupanov. It is not clear when the video was filmed.
Trupanov, an employee of Amazon, was abducted on 7 October from kibbutz Nir Oz, along with his grandmother, Irena, his mother, Yelena and Trupanov’s partner, Sapir Cohen. The three women were released late last year.
At the time of her release, Cohen said “During the captivity, there were days when I didn’t know if I would be able to survive. I can’t expand too much, but the tunnels there are crazy things. Thank God I was saved and I hope the state will return the abductees who stayed there.”
Yelena had featured in a hostage video issued by Hamas in October, and her husband, Vitaly, was killed by Hamas on 7 October.
Death toll in new Israeli air attack on displaced people in Rafah rises to 21 – reports
Al Jazeera reports that the death toll in a new Israeli airstrike on an area where displaced Palestinians are being forced to shelter in tents has risen to 21.
It said the air raid targeted al-Mawasi in western Rafah, an area which Israel’s military had designated as a humanitarian area.
For the news network, which this month was banned from operating inside Israel by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, Hind Khoudary reported that at least 13 of those killed were women.
She wrote “Israeli forces targeted another makeshift tent [area] where most of the people were women and children. All the injured and the dead bodies have been transferred to the International Medical Corps field hospital. There are no ambulances. It’s catastrophic and horrifying being injured and not being able to get transferred from one place to another because of lack of fuel.”
The claims have not been independently verified.
Reuters reports, citing Egypt’s Al-Qahera News state-affiliated TV channel, that an Egyptian security delegation is trying to reactivate talks to reach a truce in Gaza and release hostages, in coordination with Qatar and the US.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday condemned the “abrupt halt” of desperately needed medical evacuations from Gaza, which came to a full stop when Israel launched its military offensive on Rafah three weeks ago.
The United Nations health agency has long been pleading for Israeli permission to evacuate more critically ill and severely wounded people from Gaza.
Thousands of Gazans are estimated to require urgent medical evacuation but few have been able to leave the besieged Palestinian territory since war erupted there nearly eight months ago.
WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said that since Israel launched its military offensive in the densely crowded southern city of Rafah in early May, “there’s been an abrupt halt to all medical evacuations”.
She warned that the cut-off obviously meant more people will die waiting for treatment.
Before the war in the Gaza Strip erupted after Hamas’s October 7 attacks, around 50 to 100 people left the enclave every day with medical referrals for complex treatments that were not available in the Palestinian territory, including for cancer.
“Those people didn’t go away simply because conflict started, so they all still need a referral,” Harris told reporters in Geneva.
And since services in Gaza have been disastrously disrupted by the conflict, far more people need to leave to get services they used to access inside the strip, like chemotherapy or dialysis, she said.
In addition, thousands now need to evacuate after suffering severe trauma injuries in the war.
WHO estimates that there are now typically at any given time “around 10,000 people who need to be evacuated... to receive the much-needed medical treatment elsewhere”, Harris said.
They include more than 6,000 trauma-related patients and at least 2,000 patients with serious chronic conditions, like cancer, she said. Since the complete halt to medical evacuations from Gaza on May 8, an additional 1,000 critically ill and wounded patients have been added to that list, Harris said.
Before the cut-off, WHO had received approval from Israel for 5,800 medical evacuations - around just half of the number it had requested since the war began.
Of those 5,800, only 4,900 patients had actually been able to leave, Harris said.
Updated
These are the latest images from Gaza and Israel:
Israeli army says it used small munitions in Rafah airstrike, and fire was caused by secondary blast
The Israeli military says an initial investigation into a strike that sparked a deadly weekend fire in a tent camp in the southern Gaza city of Rafah has found the blaze was caused by a secondary explosion.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesman, said Tuesday that the military fired two 17-kilogram (37-pound) munitions that targeted two senior Hamas militants. He said the munitions would have been too small to ignite a fire on their own and the military is looking into the possibility that weapons were stored in the area.
Palestinian health officials say at least 45 people, around half of them women and children, were killed in Sunday’s strike. The fire also could have ignited fuel, cooking gas canisters or other materials in the densely populated camp housing displaced people.
The strike caused widespread outrage, including from some of Israel’s closest allies. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was the result of a “tragic mishap.”
New strikes in the same western Tel al-Sultan district of Rafah that was hit Sunday killed at least 16 Palestinians, the Palestinian Civil Defense and the Palestinian Red Crescent said Tuesday. Residents reported an escalation of fighting in the southern Gaza city once seen as the territory’s last refuge.
Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead, saying Israeli forces must enter Rafah to dismantle Hamas and return hostages taken in the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war. Israel says it is carrying out limited operations in eastern Rafah along the Gaza-Egypt border. But residents reported heavy bombardment overnight in Tel al-Sultan.
Bethan McKernan is Jerusalem correspondent for the Guardian
Revelations that Israel’s intelligence agencies ran a secret “war” to derail the international criminal court’s investigation into war crimes committed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories proved explosive in Israel on Tuesday, with the story followed up by all major news outlets.
The role played by the former head of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen, in a campaign to pressure an ICC prosecutor, was of particular interest: the career spy, who stepped down in 2021, has long been touted as a potential steadying force, and even prime ministerial material, in Israel’s fractious political scene.
Cohen was for many years a close ally of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, although relations between the pair appear to have soured since 7 October and the ensuing war in Gaza.
In an interview with the Jerusalem Post last November, the former spy chief appeared to confirm rumours of a falling out, saying that he no longer visits the prime minister’s office in person for consultations. “At the moment my relationship with [Netanyahu] is professional and to the point,” he said.
Media personality Rani Rahav, who has previously advised various Israeli prime ministers and other government figures, praised Cohen’s actions regarding the ICC in posts on his social media accounts on Tuesday, saying: “Yossi Cohen deserves all possible appreciation in this matter. [He] acted heroically as expected from a hero of Israel”.
However others said the former Mossad head’s alleged threats against the former ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda were an error of judgment.
Veteran investigative journalist and intelligence expert Yossi Melman alluded to there being more to the story published by the Guardian, and said it was “a mistake” that the spy chief “handled the issue personally instead of sending a junior intelligence officer and then in the event something goes wrong there is room for denial”.
Cohen has been accused of being indiscreet about his spycraft in the past, reportedly telling a mistress about his “strong grip” over agents in the Arab world, including the personal physician of a head of state.
He also attracted attention earlier this year for public comments about how the Israeli government had asked the Gulf petrostate Qatar to fund civilian life in the Gaza Strip, which involved negotiating money transfers to Hamas. The New York Times reported that Cohen believed “there was little oversight over where the money was going.”
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. The move comes on the same days that Ireland, Spain and Norway all formally recognised a Palestinian state.
Seven killed by new Israeli strikes on displaced Palestinians in tents in Rafah – reports
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.
Reuters reports the new Israeli strikes targeted tents of displaced families in the designated humanitarian area in Mawasi in western Rafah, according to medics and residents. Other local media has given the number of casualties as at least 20 people killed. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
The new strike comes just a day after a previous Israeli airstrike caused a huge blaze at a tented area for displaced people in Rafah which medics said killed at least 45 people. Images of charred and dismembered children from that assault prompting an outcry from global leaders. Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in parliament that “something unfortunately went tragically wrong” with that airstrike.
Hani Mahmoud, reporting for Al Jazeera from inside Gaza, has written for the news network that:
Israeli tanks are pushing deeper into Rafah right now from two major axes – first, along the Philadelphi Corridor into the city centre, and second, from the eastern part of Rafah city all the way down to an area known as the al-Awda traffic circle.
Artillery shelling there has reached as far as the vicinity of the Kuwaiti hospital, which has been pushed out of service all day.
Palestinian news agency Wafa, citing the health ministry, said that all the hospitals in the Rafah region were out of service, with the exception of Tal Al-Sultan maternity hospital which was “struggling”.
Earlier this month Benjamin Netanyahu’s government shut down Al Jazeera from operating inside Israel, and last week Israel seized Associated Press camera and broadcasting kit after accusing the agency of violating the country’s new media law by providing content to Al Jazeera.
Ireland, Spain and Norway all formally recognise a Palestinian state
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.
Palestine is now formally recognised by 142 of the 193 member states of the United Nations, and itself has non-member observer status at the body.
The Palestinian flag was flown, alongside the flags of Ukraine and the EU, outside Leinster House in Dublin.
Associated Press notes the UN general assembly voted by a significant margin on 11 May to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine in a sign of growing international support for a vote on full voting membership.
“This is a historic decision that has a single goal, and that is to help Israelis and Palestinians achieve peace,” Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said before his Cabinet certified the decision.
Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz earlier said Sánchez’s government was “being complicit in inciting genocide against Jews and war crimes”. The chief prosecutor of the international criminal court in The Hague is seeking arrest warrants for senior Hamas and Israeli leaders in connection with accusations of war crimes in Gaza and Israel since 7 October.
“There are practical actions you can take as a country to help keep the hope and destination of a two-state solution alive at a time when others are trying to sadly bomb it into oblivion,” Irish prime minister Simon Harris. At the weekend an Israeli airstrike on displaced Palestinians living in tents in Rafah has caused widespread international indignation. “I again call on prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to listen to the world and stop the humanitarian catastrophe we are seeing in Gaza,” Harris said.
The Hamas-led heath authority in Gaza has claimed that over 35,000 Palestinians have been killed during the course of Israel’s relentless bombardment and ground operation on the territory. Harris added that Europe could be doing “a hell of a lot more” with regard to sanctions on Israel.
Norwegian foreign minister Espen Barth Eide said that “for more than 30 years, Norway has been one of the strongest advocates for a Palestinian state. Today, when Norway officially recognises Palestine as a state, is a milestone in the relationship between Norway and Palestine.”
Previously seven member of the 27-nation European Union officially recognized a Palestinian state. Five of them are former east bloc countries who announced recognition in 1988, as did Cyprus, before joining the bloc. Sweden’s recognition came in 2014.
Britain has said no recognition of a Palestinian state could come while Hamas remains in Gaza. France has indicated that it isn’t ready to join other countries in recognizing a Palestinian state, even if it isn’t opposed to the idea in principle. German has said it will not recognise a Palestinian state for the time being.
Investigation reveals how Israeli intelligence agencies tried to derail war crimes prosecution by ICC
An investigation has revealed a nine year “war” on the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague waged by Israel:
An investigation by the Guardian and the Israeli-based magazines +972 and Local Call can 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.
Israeli intelligence captured the communications of numerous ICC officials, including chief prosecutor Karim Khan and his predecessor as prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, intercepting phone calls, messages, emails and documents.
The surveillance was ongoing in recent months, providing Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, with advance knowledge of the prosecutor’s intentions. A recent intercepted communication suggested that Khan wanted to issue arrest warrants against Israelis but was under “tremendous pressure from the United States”, according to a source familiar with its contents.
Bensouda, who as chief prosecutor opened the ICC’s investigation in 2021, paving the way for last week’s announcement, was also spied on and allegedly threatened.
Read more here: Spying, hacking and intimidation: Israel’s nine-year ‘war’ on the ICC exposed
A merchant vessel off the Yemeni coast took on water and tilted to one side after being targeted with three missiles, British security firm Ambrey said on Tuesday.
The vessel issued a distress call stating it had sustained damage to the cargo hold and was taking on water about 54 nautical miles southwest of Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah, Ambrey said.
“According to the distress call, the vessel was listing,” it said.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said separately on Tuesday that it had received a report of an incident 31 nautical miles southwest of Hodeidah. It gave no further details.
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have launched repeated drone and missile strikes in the Red Sea region since November, later expanding to the Indian Ocean, in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians.
Here are the latest images from Gaza:
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.
Updated
Planet Labs has released before and after satellite imagery of the camp for displaced people northwest of Rafah which was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Sunday. The strike triggered a large fire which has left visible burn marks near the tents we’ve highlighted.
At least 45 people, including many women and children, were killed in the strike and more than 200 were injured.
Updated
The Palestinian flag has been raised over Ireland’s parliament’s as Dublin prepares to officially recognize a Palestinian state on Tuesday.
The Palestinian mission in Dublin is to be upgraded to an embassy and Ireland will upgrade its representative office in Ramallah, in the West Bank, to an embassy.
The moves come amid renewed Irish condemnation of Israeli attacks on Rafah. Europe could be doing a “hell of a lot more” to press for a ceasefire in Gaza and to sanction Israel, said Simon Harris, the taoiseach.
“We have an association agreement that is effectively a trade benefit agreement between Europe and Israel, and I am very confident that the overwhelming majority of people in this country would like to see that agreement reviewed from a human rights point of view,” said Harris.
He accused rejected Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated regret for an air strike that killed at least 45 people. “Unfortunately, we now have a new despicable and disgusting trend emerging where every now and again a particular event of absolute horror seems to take place and the prime minister of Israel comes out and describes this as a tragic mistake.
Israeli strikes on Rafah kill at least 16 Palestinians, first responders say
Israeli strikes on Rafah have killed at least 16 Palestinians, first responders said on Tuesday as residents reported an escalation of fighting in the southern Gaza city.
Strikes overnight killed a total of 16 people in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood in northwest Rafah, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense and the Palestinian Red Crescent, AP reports.
“It was a night of horror,” said Abdel-Rahman Abu Ismail, a Palestinian from Gaza City who has been sheltering in Tel al-Sultan since December. He said he heard “constant sounds” of explosions overnight and into Tuesday morning, with fighter jets and drones flying over the area.
He said it reminded him of the Israeli invasion of of his neighborhood of Shijaiyah in Gaza City, where Israel launched a heavy bombing campaign before sending in ground forces in late 2023. “We saw this before,” he said.
Sayed al-Masri, a Rafah resident, said many families have been forced to flee their homes and shelters, with most heading for the crowded Mawasi area, where giant tent camps have been set up on a barren coastline, or to Khan Younis, a southern city that suffered heavy damage during months of fighting.
“The situation is worsening” in Rafah, al-Masri said.
The latest strikes occurred in the same area where Israel targeted what it said was a Hamas compound on Sunday night. That strike ignited a fire in a camp for displaced Palestinians and killed at least 45 people, according to local health officials, sparking worldwide outrage.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there was a “tragic mishap” on Sunday and the military said it was investigating.
Israel says it is carrying out limited operations in eastern Rafah along the Gaza-Egypt border. But residents reported heavy bombardment overnight in western parts of Rafah as well.
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.
“We urgently need a deal to get hostages out & aid in, with a pause in fighting to allow work towards a long-term sustainable ceasefire,” Cameron wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday morning.
Updated
Here are the latest images from Gaza:
Updated
Medical workers in Gaza ‘exhausted’ and their message is not getting through, the MSF chief has said.
When asked about the types and extent of injuries arising out of an Israeli airstrike in Rafah that left at least 45 people dead, Dr Christos Christou, the Médecins Sans Frontières International president, says his organisation’s medical facility received more than 128 patients, some of whom, after being stabilised, have nowhere to turn for further surgical treatment.
Christou says he and MSF staff are exhausted and the message – that medical aid and the ability to transfer patients out of Gaza for treatment is desperately needed – is not getting through.
Revealed: Israeli spy chief ‘threatened’ ICC prosecutor over war crimes inquiry
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 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.
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”.
As the Guardian reported earlier, the accusation comes after Spain’s labour minister and deputy PM, Yolanda Díaz, used the controversial slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” in a video statement last week.
Díaz later denied allegations of antisemitism and clarified her remarks, saying: “We’ve always had the same position, the recognition of two states from the river to the sea, which share an economy, which share rights, and which, above all, share a peaceful future.”
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Katz said: “Prime minister Sánchez, by not sacking Yolanda Díaz and announcing the recognition of the Palestinian state you are complicit in inciting the murder of the Jewish people and war crimes.”
Khamenei @khamenei_ir, Sinwar y la Vicepresidenta de España @yolanda_diaz_ - llaman a la desaparición del Estado de Israel y el establecimiento de un estado terrorista islámico palestino desde el río hasta el mar.
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) May 28, 2024
Presidente @sanchezcastejon - al no despedir a @yolanda_diaz_ y… pic.twitter.com/Gq4mcRlndo
Updated
Our video team have produced a report on protests in Tel Aviv and New York in the aftermath of the strike a camp for displaced people in Rafah in which dozens of people died.
Israeli tanks reach centre of Rafah, say witnesses
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.
The tanks were spotted near Al-Awda mosque, a central Rafah landmark, the witnesses said. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on their account, saying it would issue a statement about the Rafah operation later.
Israel has been pounding the city with airstrikes and tank fire today, pressing its offensive despite international condemnation of an attack that sparked a blaze in a tent camp for the displaced, killing at least 45 people.
British foreign minister David Cameron has said an investigation by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) into the Rafah air strikes in which at least 45 people died must be “swift, comprehensive and transparent”, again calling for a pause in fighting.
“Deeply distressing scenes following the air strikes in Rafah this weekend. The IDF’s investigation must be swift, comprehensive and transparent,” Cameron said on X.
“We urgently need a deal to get hostages out and aid in, with a pause in fighting to allow work towards a long-term sustainable ceasefire.”
Deeply distressing scenes following the airstrikes in Rafah this weekend.
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) May 28, 2024
The IDF’s investigation must be swift, comprehensive & transparent.
We urgently need a deal to get hostages out & aid in, with a pause in fighting to allow work towards a long-term sustainable…
One million people flee Rafah in three weeks, UNWRA says
Around one million people have fled Rafah in the past three weeks, the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said on Tuesday.
UNRWA said the flight from Rafah “happened with nowhere safe to go and amidst bombardments, lack of food and water, piles of waste and unsuitable living conditions” with assistance and protection now becoming nearly “impossible”.
Since early May, Israel’s military has been carrying out what it says is a limited operation in Rafah to kill fighters and dismantle infrastructure used by Hamas.
It has told civilians to go to an “expanded humanitarian zone” some 20 km (12 miles) away.
Updated
The Spanish, Irish and Norwegian decision to recognise a Palestinian state has drawn a furious reaction from Israel, which has recalled its ambassadors from Madrid, Dublin and Oslo.
In a series of tweets, Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, has accused Spain of giving in to Hamas.
On Sunday, Katz posted a video to X showing flamenco dancers alongside a message that read, “Pedro Sánchez, Hamas thanks you for your service.”
.@sanchezcastejon, Hamas thanks you for your service. pic.twitter.com/Pkdp5diHRX
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) May 26, 2024
In a post the following day, he wrote that “the Israeli people and the Spanish people are friends”, adding that they would not be separated by Sánchez nor by his deputy prime minister, Yolanda Díaz, who was criticised last week for using the controversial slogan “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea”.
El pueblo israelí y el pueblo español son pueblos amigos. No permitiremos que nos separaréis ni tú, @sanchezcastejon y @Yolanda_Diaz_, ni los miembros de tu gobierno. pic.twitter.com/lVHZ5v84UU
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) May 27, 2024
Spain’s “historic” decision to recognise the state of Palestine later today has been taken in order to bring about peace between Palestinians and Israelis and has not been taken “against anyone, least of all Israel”, Spain’s prime minister has said.
Speaking an hour before his cabinet meets on Tuesday to formally recognise Palestine – a decision that has infuriated Israel and triggered a diplomatic crisis between the two countries – Pedro Sánchez said the decision was based on justice and international law.
He said:
At the meeting of the council of ministers that will be held today, the government will approve the official recognition of Palestine as a state. With this decision, Spain joins the more than 140 countries that already recognise Palestine. This is a historic decision that has a single goal: to contribute to achieving peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The recognition of the state of Palestine is not only a matter of historical justice with the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people; it is also an imperative need to achieve peace.
It is the only way to recognise the solution that we all recognise as the only possible one to achieve a future of peace – that of a Palestinian state that coexists alongside the state of Israel in peace and security. The state of Palestine must be viable with the West Bank and Gaza connected by a corridor and with East Jerusalem as its capital and it must be unified under the legitimate government of the Palestinian national authority.”
Sánchez said that while it was not up to Spain to define another country’s borders, its position was aligned with those of the UN security council and the EU: “Therefore we won’t recognise change in the 1967 lines other than those agreed to by the parties.”
The prime minister also stressed that “the recognition of Palestine isn’t against anyone – least of all Israel, a friendly nation that Spain values and holds in high regard and with whom we aim to foster the strongest possible relationship”. He said the decision reflected Spain’s “absolute rejection” of Hamas, which opposes the two-state solution.
“From the outset, Spain has strongly condemned the terrorist attacks of 7 October,” he said. “This clear condemnation is the resounding expression of our steadfast commitment in the fight against terrorism.”
Sánchez said Spain would do all in its power to make the two-state solution a reality, and renewed his calls for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza, and for all the Israeli hostages to be released. He also said Spain would work to bring about an international peace conference on the two-state solution.
“The decision that Spain is solemnly adopting today is based on the respect for international law and the defence of the rules-based international order,” he said. “These are the principles that guide us always, no matter the context – both in Gaza/Palestine and in Ukraine. Spain will always defend the proposal and principles established in the UN charter.”
Welcome and opening summary
The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has said his cabinet will recognise a Palestinian state at its Tuesday morning meeting.
Ireland and Norway were also to make official their recognition of a Palestinian state later in the day. While dozens of countries have recognised a Palestinian state, none of the major western powers has done so.
“This is a historic decision that has a single goal, and that is to help Israelis and Palestinians achieve peace,” said Sánchez, standing at the gates of the prime minister’s palace in Madrid, during a televised speech.
The Socialist leader, who announced his country’s decision before parliament last week, has spent months touring European and Middle Eastern countries to garner support for recognition and a cease-fire in Gaza.
Relations between the EU and Israel nosedived Monday, the eve of the diplomatic recognition EU members Ireland and Spain, with Madrid insisting that the EU should take action against Israel for its continued deadly attacks in southern Gaza’s city of Rafah. Norway, which is not an EU member but often aligns its foreign policy with the bloc, handed diplomatic papers to the Palestinian government over the weekend ahead of its formal recognition of a Palestinian state.
Meanwhile Canada is the latest country to react to the airstrikes on Rafah, saying it is horrified by the civilian deaths.
At least 45 people were been killed after the Israeli strike caused a huge blaze at a tented area for displaced people in Rafah, according to medics.
Canada’s Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said in a statement:
We are horrified by strikes that killed Palestinian civilians in Rafah.
Joly added that Canada does not support the Israeli military operation in Rafah:
This level of human suffering must come to an end. We demand an immediate ceasefire.
They are comments that have been echoed by other global leaders who have urged the implementation of an international court of justice order to halt Israel’s assault.
The United States said on Monday that Israel must make every possible effort to avoid civilian casualties after the deadly strike in Rafah.
A US national security council spokesperson said in a statement:
As we’ve been clear, Israel must take every precaution possible to protect civilians …
We are actively engaging the IDF and partners on the ground to assess what happened.
But the NSC spokesperson also said that “Israel has a right to go after Hamas, and we understand this strike killed two senior Hamas terrorists who are responsible for attacks against Israeli civilians,” before imploring more caution.
The Israeli military said it had launched a probe into the strike which it said was carried out based on “precise intelligence information”.
It launched the attack on Rafah hours after Hamas unleashed a barrage of rockets towards the Tel Aviv area, most of which were intercepted.
In other developments:
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue fighting in Gaza despite widespread anger over Sunday’s strike in Rafah. At least 45 people were killed after an Israeli airstrike that caused a huge blaze at a tented area for displaced people in Rafah, medics have said. Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said about half of the dead were women, children and older adults. The Israeli strike, one of the deadliest single incidents in the eight-month war to date, came two days after the international court of justice’s ruling ordering Israel to stop its operation in Rafah immediately.
Netanyahu described the airstrike as a “tragic mishap” and said the incident occurred “despite our best efforts not to hurt them”. Israel’s top military prosecutor described the airstrike as “very grave” and said an investigation was under way. The Israeli military said its air force struck a Hamas compound and that the attack was carried out with “precise ammunition and on the basis of precise intelligence”. Hundreds of people gathered in Israeli cities on Monday after the Rafah attack to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Images of charred and dismembered children in Rafah after the Israeli strike have caused an outcry from global leaders and put ceasefire talks in jeopardy. Qatar, a key mediator between Israel and Hamas in attempts to secure a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages, said the Rafah casualties would complicate the protracted negotiations. Israeli media reported that Hamas had decided to pull out of the latest proposed talks over what its senior leadership described as a massacre.
The UN security council is set to convene an emergency meeting Tuesday over the Rafah strike. Diplomats said the council would convene for an emergency session called by Algeria to discuss the attack.
Spain, Ireland and Norway will formally recognise a Palestinian state Tuesday. Israel has described the decision as a “reward” for Hamas more than seven months into the devastating Gaza war. The three European countries believe their initiative has strong symbolic impact, which could encourage others to follow suit, reports AFP.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said he is “outraged” by the Israeli airstrike on Rafah. “These operations must stop. There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian citizens. I call for full respect for international law and an immediate ceasefire,” he posted to X on Monday. Italy’s defence minister, Guido Crosetto, said Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians in Gaza were no longer justifiable in one of the strongest criticisms Rome has made so far against Israel’s war.
Desperately needed aid deliveries to Gaza have ground to a halt, as the Rafah border crossing, and the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing are in effect blocked by the fierce fighting. About 200 aid trucks were supposed to enter Gaza through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing on Sunday after an agreement was reached with Egypt, but UN and Palestinian officials said on Monday that no aid supplies have been distributed.
An Israeli strike targeting a motorcycle in southern Lebanon hit next to a hospital entrance Monday, killing the motorcycle driver and a hospital security guard and wounding several civilians nearby, local health officials said. It was not immediately clear who the driver was or why he was targeted in the strike in the town of Bint Jbeil, reports Associated Press. The Israeli army did not give a statement on the strike but said it had targeted other areas of southern Lebanon in response to “terrorist launches.”
Egypt’s military says a border guard was killed in a shooting in the Rafah border area with Gaza on Monday, where Israeli forces are deployed, adding that a probe had been launched. “The Egyptian armed forces, through the competent authorities, are investigating a shooting incident in the Rafah border area which led to the martyrdom of a guard,” a military statement said. The Israeli military reported a “shooting incident” on the Egyptian border and said it was discussing the incident with Egypt, reports Agence France-Presse.
