Summary of the day
Here is a summary of the day’s main developments so far:
US president Donald Trump said on Thursday he wanted the US to “take” Gaza and turn it into a “freedom zone”, a possible reiteration of a plan he put forward in February for the US to take control of the Palestinian territory to allow for its reconstruction as a luxury leisure and business hub. “I’d be proud to have the United States have it, take it, make it a freedom zone,” Trump said in Qatar.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said that the death toll from Israeli bombardment since dawn on Thursday had risen to 103. Most of the victims, including women and children, were killed in Khan Younis in southern Gaza in airstrikes that hit homes and tents, Palestinian medics said. Gaza’s civil defence agency spokeperson Mahmud Bassal said at least 13 people were “recovered from rubble” after a dawn strike in Khan Younis.
The dead included a journalist working for Qatari television network Al Araby TV, the network announced on social media, saying Hasan Samour had been killed along with 11 members of his family in one of the strikes in Khan Younis.
Trump has arrived in Abu Dhabi, where he was greeted by president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan as he stepped off Air Force One. After addressing US troops at Qatar’s al-Udeid airbase, Trump made his way to the presidental plane where the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, was waiting to see him off.
Trump has said that the US’s air campaign against the Houthi rebels was “very successful, but maybe tomorrow, an attack will be made, in which case we go back on the offensive”. He made the comments on a visit to al-Udeid airbase in Doha, Qatar. Prior to that visit, the president attended a business forum in Qatar where he hailed what he said was a record $200bn deal for Boeing aircraft.
Trump said on Thursday that the USwas getting very close to securing a nuclear deal with Iran, and Tehran had “sort of” agreed to the terms. “We’re in very serious negotiations with Iran for long-term peace,” Trump said on a tour of the Gulf, according to a shared pool report by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Roads have been blocked in the occupied West Bank and a manhunt is under way after Israel’s military chief vowed to find the perpetrators of an attack that killed a pregnant Israeli woman. Far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich called for nearby Palestinian villages to be flattened, while WhatsApp groups for Israeli settlers in the West Bank were rife with calls for vengeance in retaliation for the attack, according to AFP.
Palestinians have been commemorating the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, to honour the more than 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes in the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. Pro-Palestinian protesters in Madrid attended a march on Thursday to commemorate Nakba Day.
In the West Bank village of Tammun, Israeli troops killed five Palestinians in a raid the military described as targeting buildings suspected of being used to plan attacks. “The occupation forces killed five young men after besieging a house in the centre of the village,” Tammun mayor Samir Qteishat told AFP. The Israeli military said “soldiers identified armed terrorists who barricaded themselves in a building”.
Hamas on Thursday accused Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of undermining mediation efforts for a hostage release and ceasefire deal by carrying out military operations in Gaza. “War criminal Netanyahu undermines mediation efforts through deliberate military escalation, showing indifference to his captives, endangering their lives,” Hamas said in a statement referring to hostages held in the Palestinian territory.
Israel’s foreign ministry said it had summoned the Spanish ambassador for a formal reprimand after the country’s prime minister described Israel as a “genocidal state”. Pedro Sánchez made the remarks on Wednesday during an exchange in Spanish parliament in which his government was accused of continuing to trade with Israel. “I want to clarify one thing,” Sánchez said. “We don’t trade with a genocidal state. We don’t.”
“Israel’s blockade has transcended military tactics to become a tool of extermination”, Human Rights Watch (HRW) interim executive director Federico Borello said in a statement on Thursday. HRW said: “The Israeli government’s plan to demolish what remains of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure and concentrate the Palestinian population into a tiny area would amount to an abhorrent escalation of its ongoing crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and acts of genocide.”
Ben Cohen, the co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream, has been charged with “crowding and obstructing” others after he was arrested while protesting against the Gaza blockade during a US Senate hearing. Video film recorded at the hearing and posted by Cohen on social media shows him being hauled out of the committee room, handcuffed and escorted away.
Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan said on Thursday he will discuss the US decision to lift sanctions on Syria and the roadmap ahead in a meeting with his US and Syrian counterparts later in the day. Fidan was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an informal Nato foreign ministers’ meeting in Antalya, Turkey, where he later planned to meet US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Syrian foreign minister Asaad al-Shibani.
Germany’s Lufthansa airline group said on Thursday its suspension of flights to and from Tel Aviv would last until at least 25 May amid ongoing regional conflict. Lufthansa said in a statement the decision to extend the suspension was made “due to the current situation”, without giving further details.
Israel will not fund a new US-led humanitarian operation in the Gaza Strip, but it will facilitate and enable it, Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon told reporters on Thursday.
