This blog has now closed. You can read our latest report on the Israel-Gaza war here and all our coverage on the conflict here
The Israeli military has denied a claim by Hamas’ armed wing that its fighters had captured Israeli soldiers during fighting in Gaza’s Jabalia, Reuters reports.
“The IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] clarifies that there is no incident in which a soldier was abducted,” the military said in a statement.
A spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing had said its fighters had captured Israeli soldiers during fighting in Jabalia but did not say how many soldiers had been abducted.
“Our fighters lured a Zionist force into an ambush inside a tunnel ... The fighters withdrew after they left all members of the force dead, wounded, and captured,” Abu Ubaida, the spokesman for al-Qassam Brigades, said in a recorded message broadcast by Al Jazeera on Sunday.
Updated
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum is releasing some quotes from relatives of hostages who are still held in Gaza by Hamas.
One of the speakers at the rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening is Genia Zohar, aunt of American-Israeli hostage Omer Neutra.
Zohar said:
Today, I count two hundred and thirty-two unbearable days filled with longing since he was taken hostage.
There is no one in the people of Israel who has not felt, since October 7th, that a part of them is missing. The hostages are an integral part of us, and all of us, the entire people of Israel, want them home.
To you, the government of Israel and the war cabinet: do not rest, turn every stone, and exhaust every possibility so that we can reach the Shavuot holiday truly whole, with one heart, with all our brothers and sisters, the captives and hostages, at home! The living to their families and the murdered to burial.
Updated
Here are some images coming through the newswires from Israel, where fresh protests have broken out as Israelis take to the streets in chants for the war to end and for hostages to be released:
Updated
Fresh protests in Israel
Thousands of Israelis are out protesting in Tel Aviv and more widely in other parts of Israel, demanding an end to the war as well as urgent government action to bring home the remaining hostages held in Gaza.
The fresh demonstrations were stretching into the evening.
At one gathering, protesters observed a minute’s silence in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square in honour of the captives whose bodies had been recovered by Israeli troops this month, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
The Israeli army said on Friday that troops had retrieved the bodies of three hostages in an overnight operation in Jabalia in northern Gaza.
Another protest, calling for the resignation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an early election, was held nearby.
The war in Gaza erupted after Hamas’s October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 35,903 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry.
BREAKING: HUGE PROTESTS IN TEL AVIV pic.twitter.com/ORWEe9fHFh
— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) May 25, 2024
Updated
Summary
It’s just after 11pm in Gaza City and Jerusalem and just after 4pm on the east coast of the United States, from where we are currently helming this blog.
Here’s where things stand:
Although Joe Biden boasted about US aid efforts in Gaza during his West Point military academy commencement speech, saying that the US army and navy have built a temporary pier in the Mediterranean “in record time” to deliver aid to Palestinians, efforts on the ground tell a different story. On Saturday, US Centcom announced that four US army vessels were affected by “heavy sea states”. “The vessels broke free from their moorings and two vessels are now anchored on the beach near the pier. The third and fourth vessels are beached on the coast of Israel near Ashkelon,” US Centcom said.
PalTel, or Palestine Telecommunications, announced internet blackouts across Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip due to Israeli bombardment. In a post on X on Saturday evening, PalTel said that its crew was working on restoring services as quickly as possible.
A Hamas official denied on Saturday Israeli media reports that Gaza ceasefire talks would resume in Cairo on Tuesday, according to Reuters. “There is no date,” the Hamas official said, Reuters reports.
The International Court of Justice’s order to Israel does not rule out the entire offensive, Israel says. Following the ICJ’s ruling on Friday ordering Israel to halt its invasion on Rafah, an Israeli official told Reuters anonymously: “The order in regard to the Rafah operation is not a general order.”
Tzachi Hanegbi, Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser, denied that Israel, which has killed nearly 36,000 Palestinians since October, is committing genocide in Gaza. Hanegbi’s comments come as Israel becomes increasingly isolated on the world stage as several European countries including Spain, Norway and Ireland moved to back Palestinian statehood this week amid Israel’s war on Gaza.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) has once again reiterated its calls for all land routes to be opened in order for humanitarian aid to be delivered into Gaza. In a video posted on X, Ocha employee Olga Cherevko said: “We continue to face immense challenges amid extreme insecurity and running out of supplies. Imagine how much more effective we could be if all land routes were to open and this war finally ended?”
The Spanish defence minister said on Saturday that the conflict in Gaza is a “real genocide”, as relations between Israel and Spain worsen after Madrid’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state, reports Reuters. Reuters said it could not immediately reach Israeli officials for comment on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. Israel has strongly rejected accusations made against it by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that it is committing a genocide against Palestinians, saying it is waging war on the Hamas militant group that attacked Israel on 7 October.
The Spanish government demanded on Saturday that Israel comply with an order by the top UN court to immediately stop its bombardment and ground assault on Rafah. “The precautionary measures set out by the ICJ, including that Israel should cease its military offensive in Rafah, are compulsory. Israel must comply with them,” Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Albares wrote on X.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, spoke with Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz over the phone about new efforts to achieve a ceasefire and reopen the Rafah border crossing, Washington said. The brief statement from Blinken’s office made no mention of the international court of justice’s (ICJ) ruling, while a White House spokesperson said that “we’ve been clear and consistent on our position on Rafah”.
French president Emmanuel Macron received the prime minister of Qatar and the Saudi, Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers on Friday “to press for a ceasefire”, according to Cairo. The French presidency said they held talks on the Gaza war and ways to set up a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
The UK government has criticised the ICJ for ordering Israel to immediately halt its military assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, saying the ruling would strengthen Hamas. “The reason there isn’t a pause in the fighting is because Hamas turned down a very generous hostage deal from Israel. The intervention of these courts – including the ICJ today – will strengthen the view of Hamas that they can hold on to hostages and stay in Gaza,” a UK foreign ministry spokesperson said late on Friday. The spokesperson added: “And if that happens there won’t be either peace, or a two-state solution.”
Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani announced on Saturday that Rome would resume funding for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), at a meeting with Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Mustafa. Tajani said he had informed Mustafa that Rome had “arranged new funding for the Palestinian population, of a total of €35m ($38m)”. He said: “Of this, €5m will be allocated to Unrwa.” The remaining €30m will be allocated to Italy’s “Food for Gaza” initiative in coordination with UN aid agencies.
In spite of the ICJ ruling, Israel carried out strikes on the Gaza Strip on Saturday morning as fighting raged between the army and Hamas’s armed wing. Palestinian witnesses and AFP teams reported Israeli strikes in Rafah and the central city of Deir al-Balah.
Residents and civil emergency services said Israeli tanks entered deep into the area of Jabalia, destroying dozens of houses, shops and roads. The Israeli military said its troops in Jabalia “eliminated dozens of terrorists in close-quarters combat and aerial strikes”. Palestinian medical teams were unable to reach the area, where they believed more people had been killed.
Ten Palestinians, including children and women, were killed and several others injured on Saturday in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the city of Beit Hanoun, north of the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. The news agency reported that medical sources had confirmed the death toll and said that 17 others had sustained injuries in the attack.
G7 finance leaders will call on Israel to maintain correspondent banking links between Israeli and Palestinian banks to allow vital transactions, trade and services to continue, according to a draft joint statement seen by Reuters on Saturday. The statement, which Reuters says is to be released at the end of a G7 finance ministers and central bank governors’ meeting in northern Italy, also calls for Israel “to release withheld clearance revenues to the Palestinian Authority, in view of its urgent fiscal needs”.
Updated
Israel’s invasion of Rafah appears to continue as hostage bodies are recovered.
The Guardian’s Bethan McKernan reports:
Israel appears to be forging ahead with its offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, despite a new ruling from the UN’s top court to halt the assault, which it said is worsening an already “disastrous” humanitarian crisis.
About 900,000 people have fled Rafah, previously the shelter of last resort for 85% of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people, since the Israeli ground operation in the area began on 6 May. At the same time, deliveries of humanitarian supplies and fuel to the Palestinian territory have slowed to a trickle, with the two main aid crossings – Rafah, on the border with Egypt, and nearby Kerem Shalom, a goods crossing linking Gaza with Israel – effectively blocked by the fighting.
On Friday, the International Court of Justice in the Hague (ICJ), which arbitrates disputes between nations, made its third intervention in the conflict so far, ordering Israel to immediately stop its Rafah operation.
The court president, Nawaf Salam, said when announcing the 13-2 majority ruling that Israel is obliged under the UN’s genocide convention not to inflict “conditions of life that would bring about [the Palestinian people’s] physical destruction in whole or in part”.
But Israeli airstrikes on the south and eastern edges of Rafah appeared to escalate even as the ICJ delivered its decision, residents and medics said, as Israeli ground troops edge closer to the overcrowded city centre. Another 30 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in the last 24 hours, Palestinian medics reported on Saturday; battles are also ongoing in northern and central parts of the Strip such as Jabalia and Zeitoun, where forces belonging to the Palestinian militant group Hamas have regrouped.
For the full story, click here:
Updated
A small group of Australians is hoping to set sail and deliver aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
The Guardian’s Rafqa Touma reports:
“My core worry is dying, being killed,” Surya McEwen says.
The Australian care worker is calling from a hotel room in Istanbul, where he is waiting with doctors, nurses, lawyers and activists to set sail on the Gaza “freedom flotilla”, which hopes to deliver aid to Palestinians under Israeli bombardment.
Two other Australians, Daniel Coward and Helen O’Sullivan, are also waiting to sail with the flotilla.
The mission – challenging Israel’s control over the entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza – involves a hierarchy of worry. After the fear of death comes the fear of being arrested, McEwen says. “The way that happens, when it happens, is not a happy picture,” he says.
“But that is personal worry in the context of millions of people in unimaginably devastating situations. Our worry is more for the people in Gaza and the West Bank than it is for ourselves.”
The plan is for one large cargo ship and two passenger ships to sail from Istanbul, explains James Godfrey, a spokesperson for Free Gaza Australia, which is a branch of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.
For the full story, click here:
Updated
PalTel, or Palestine Telecommunications, announced internet blackouts across Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip due to Israeli bombardment.
In a post on X on Saturday evening, PalTel said that its crew was working on restoring services as quickly as possible.
أهلنا الكرام في قطاع غزة الحبيب،
— Paltel (@Paltelco) May 25, 2024
نأسف للإعلان عن انقطاع خدمات الإنترنت الثابت في مدينة غزة وشمال القطاع، بسبب العدوان المستمر.
طواقمنا تعمل جاهدة على إعادة الخدمات بأسرع وقت ممكن.
حماكم الله وحمى بلادنا
Since Israel launched its war on Gaza last October, communication blackouts have been frequent across the strip, leaving thousands of surviving Palestinians trapped in the dark and unable to communicate with their families amid Israel’s aerial bombardment.
Updated
A Hamas official denied on Saturday Israeli media reports that Gaza ceasefire talks would resume in Cairo on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
“There is no date,” the Hamas official said, Reuters reports.
The International Court of Justice’s order to Israel does not rule out the entire offensive, Israel says.
Following the ICJ’s ruling on Friday ordering Israel to halt its invasion on Rafah, an Israeli official told Reuters anonymously: “The order in regard to the Rafah operation is not a general order.”
Also, speaking to Israel’s N12 TV on Saturday, Tzachi Hanegbi, Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser, denied that Israel, which has killed nearly 36,000 Palestinians since October, is committing genocide in Gaza, saying:
What they are asking us, is not to commit genocide in Rafah. We did not commit genocide and we will not commit genocide … According to international law, we have the right to defend ourselves and the evidence is that the court is not preventing us from continuing to defend ourselves,.
Hanegbi’s comments come as Israel becomes increasingly isolated on the world stage as several European countries including Spain, Norway and Ireland moved to back Palestinian statehood this week amid Israel’s war on Gaza.
Earlier this year, South Africa launched a case against Israel in the ICJ, accusing it of carrying out genocide in Gaza where more than 2 million Palestinian survivors have been forcibly displaced to “safe zones” that Israel has repeatedly attacked.
Updated
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) has once again reiterated its calls for all land routes to be opened in order for humanitarian aid to be delivered into Gaza.
In a video posted on X, Ocha employee Olga Cherevko said:
When a crisis is as severe as it is in Gaza, what does the response look like? With resources scant and supply network unreliable, humanitarian partners have to be quick and creative …
We continue to face immense challenges amid extreme insecurity and running out of supplies. Imagine how much more effective we could be if all land routes were to open and this war finally ended?
With scant resources and an unreliable supply network, humanitarians in #Gaza must be quick and creative in delivering aid amid massive challenges.
— UN Humanitarian (@UNOCHA) May 25, 2024
But for a more effective response, they need all land routes open and an end to the war.
Hear from our colleague, Olga Cherevko 👇 pic.twitter.com/14dOf5qBP4
Updated
During his West Point military academy speech, Joe Biden briefly mentioned the aid drops carried out by the US air force across Gaza.
“The US air force has conducted food drops bringing tens of thousands of meals to people in Gaza,” Biden said.
The aid drops come as more than 2 million surviving Palestinians face dire humanitarian conditions across Gaza as a result of Israel’s strikes across the strip that have killed nearly 36,000 Palestinians since October.
Israeli restrictions on aid entering Gaza have made life across the narrow strip extremely difficult, with the UN announcing earlier this month that there is a “full-blown famine” now in northern Gaza.
In addition to severe shortages in fuel that have left the few remaining hospitals to operate in the dark, Palestinians are facing restricted access to medical supplies, water and food.
Updated
US aid ships face trouble in Gaza due to heavy seas
As Joe Biden boasted about US aid efforts in Gaza during his West Point military academy commencement speech, saying that the US army and navy has built a temporary pier in the Mediterranean “in record time” to deliver aid to Palestinians, efforts on the ground tell a different story.
On Saturday, US Centcom announced that four US army vessels were affected by “heavy sea states”:
The vessels broke free from their moorings and two vessels are now anchored on the beach near the pier. The third and fourth vessels are beached on the coast of Israel near Ashkelon. Efforts to recover the vessels are under way with assistance from the Israeli navy.
No US personnel will enter Gaza and no injuries have been reported. The pier remains fully functional, US Centcom added, saying that it will release additional updates as they come.
Updated
Spanish defence minister says Gaza war is 'real genocide'
The Spanish defence minister said on Saturday that the conflict in Gaza is a “real genocide”, as relations between Israel and Spain worsen after Madrid’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state, reports Reuters.
Reuters said it could not immediately reach Israeli officials for comment on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.
Israel has strongly rejected accusations made against it by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that it is committing a genocide against Palestinians, saying it is waging war on the Hamas militant group that attacked Israel on 7 October.
According to Reuters, the remark by Spanish defence minister Margarita Robles in an interview with TVE state television echoed a comment by Spanish deputy prime minister Yolanda Díaz, who earlier this week also described the Gaza conflict as a genocide.
“We cannot ignore what is happening in Gaza, which is a real genocide,” Robles said in the interview, during which she also discussed the Russian invasion of Ukraine and conflicts in Africa.
Reuters reports that Robles also said Madrid’s recognition of Palestine was not a move against Israel, adding that it was designed to help “end violence in Gaza”.
“This is not against anyone, this is not against the Israeli state, this is not against the Israelis, who are people we respect,” she said.
Spain, along with Ireland and Norway, said this week it would recognise a Palestinian state on 28 May, prompting an angry response from Israel, which said it amounted to a “reward for terrorism” and recalled its ambassadors from the three capitals.
Judges at the ICJ, the top UN court, on Friday ordered Israel to immediately halt its military assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, in a landmark emergency ruling in the case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide.
Updated
Joe Biden spoke at the 2024 West Point military academy commencement ceremony, where he briefly mentioned the three US servicemembers killed in a Jordan drone attack in January, saying:
I have always been willing to use force when required to protect our nation, our allies, our core interest. When anyone targets American troops, we will deliver justice to them.
That happened earlier this year, when three heroic members of the US army reserve were killed in an unmanned drone attack in north-east Jordan. In response, we launched dozens of successful airstrikes against Iran-backed militants. And we’ll never forget, honor the memory of those warriors who gave their lives in the fight against terrorism.
Biden did not mention the ICJ’s latest ruling in which the UN’s top court ordered an immediate halt to Israel’s ground invasion of Rafah, nor the growing humanitarian crisis faced by 2 million Palestinians as a result of Israel’s deadly attacks across the strip, which have killed nearly 36,000 Palestinians in the last six months.
Updated
Summary of the day so far
It is 5.45pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. I will shortly be handing the Israel-Gaza war live blog over to the US team.
But first, here are the key developments from today:
The Spanish government demanded on Saturday that Israel comply with an order by the top UN court to immediately stop its bombardment and ground assault on Rafah. “The precautionary measures set out by the ICJ, including that Israel should cease its military offensive in Rafah, are compulsory. Israel must comply with them,” Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Albares wrote on X. “The same goes for a ceasefire, the release of the hostages and access for humanitarian aid [to Gaza],” he wrote, adding that “the suffering of the people of Gaza and the violence must end”.
Mediated negotiations between Israel and Hamas to reach a deal to free Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip are due to restart next week, an official with knowledge of the matter said on Saturday. According to Reuters, the decision to restart the talks came after the head of Israel’s the Mossad intelligence agency met the head of the CIA and the prime minister of Qatar, which has been a mediator, said the source, who declined to be identified by name or nationality given the sensitivity of the issue.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, spoke with Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz over the phone about new efforts to achieve a ceasefire and reopen the Rafah border crossing, Washington said. The brief statement from Blinken’s office made no mention of the international court of justice’s (ICJ) ruling, while a White House spokesperson said that “we’ve been clear and consistent on our position on Rafah.”
French president Emmanuel Macron received the prime minister of Qatar and the Saudi, Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers on Friday “to press for a ceasefire”, according to Cairo. The French presidency said they held talks on the Gaza war and ways to set up a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
The UK government has criticised the ICJ for ordering Israel to immediately halt its military assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, saying the ruling would strengthen Hamas. “The reason there isn’t a pause in the fighting is because Hamas turned down a very generous hostage deal from Israel. The intervention of these courts – including the ICJ today – will strengthen the view of Hamas that they can hold on to hostages and stay in Gaza,” a UK foreign ministry spokesperson said late on Friday. The spokesperson added: “And if that happens there won’t be either peace, or a two-state solution.”
Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani announced on Saturday that Rome would resume funding for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), at a meeting with Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Mustafa. Tajani said he had informed Mustafa that Rome had “arranged new funding for the Palestinian population, of a total of €35m ($38m)”. He said: “Of this, €5m will be allocated to Unrwa.” The remaining €30m will be allocated to Italy’s “Food for Gaza” initiative in coordination with UN aid agencies.
In spite of the ICJ ruling, Israel carried out strikes on the Gaza Strip on Saturday morning as fighting raged between the army and Hamas’s armed wing. Palestinian witnesses and AFP teams reported Israeli strikes in Rafah and the central city of Deir al-Balah.
The Kuwait Speciality hospital in Rafah pleaded for fuel deliveries on Saturday “to ensure its continued operation”, saying it was the only one in Rafah governorate still receiving patients.
Israeli forces killed more than 30 people in new attacks in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical officals said on Saturday. They do not distinguish between civilian and militant casualties.
The Israeli military said it had carried out “operational activity in specific areas of Rafah” on Friday, including killing militants, dismantling part of Hamas’s tunnel system, and locating stashes of weapons.
Residents and civil emergency services said Israeli tanks entered deep into the area of Jabalia, destroying dozens of houses, shops, and roads. The Israeli military said its troops in Jabalia “eliminated dozens of terrorists in close-quarters combat and aerial strikes”. Palestinian medical teams were unable to reach the area, where they believed more people were killed.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad said their fighters had fired anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs at Israeli troops in the north.
At least 35,903 Palestinians have been killed and 80,420 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, according to the Gaza health ministry’s latest statement on Saturday. The Hamas-run health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Ten Palestinians, including children and women, were killed and several others injured on Saturday in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the city of Beit Hanoun, north of the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. The news agency reported that medical sources had confirmed the death toll and said that 17 others had sustained injuries in the attack. The Guardian has been unable to independently verify the report.
G7 finance leaders will call on Israel to maintain correspondent banking links between Israeli and Palestinian banks to allow vital transactions, trade and services to continue, according to a draft joint statement seen by Reuters on Saturday. The statement, which Reuters say is to be released at the end of a G7 finance ministers and central bank governors’ meeting in northern Italy, also calls for Israel “to release withheld clearance revenues to the Palestinian Authority, in view of its urgent fiscal needs”.
An Israeli military strike targeted a family home in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood, killing a woman and injuring other people, reported Al Jazeera on Saturday. It attributed the information to “colleagues on the ground”. The publication, citing the Palestinian news agency Wafa, reported that “numerous other neighbourhoods of Gaza City have come under heavy artillery shelling … including Sheikh Ajlin, Tal al-Hawa and Zeitoun”.
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths described Friday’s ICJ ruling as “a moment of clarity”, in a post on social media site X. “At a time when the people of Gaza are staring down famine … it is more critical than ever to heed the calls made over the last seven months: Release the hostages. Agree a ceasefire. End this nightmare,” he wrote.
An Israeli drone strike in central Syria killed two fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement on Saturday, a war monitor said. “An Israeli drone fired two missiles at a Hezbollah car and truck near the town of Qusayr in Homs province, as they were on their way to al-Dabaa military airport, killing at least two Hezbollah fighters and wounding others,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
A French court has found three Syrian officials of the regime of Bashar al-Assad guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes, sentencing them in absentia to life imprisonment on Friday after a landmark trial in Paris.
A car explosion killed one person in Damascus on Saturday, the official Syrian news agency Sana reported, without identifying the victim. Sana quoted a police official as saying “one person was killed when an explosive device exploded in their car in the Mazzeh district”. It did not provide any other details.
Yemen’s Houthis postponed the release of about 100 prisoners belonging to government forces that had previously been announced to take place on Saturday. The head of the Houthi Prisoner Affairs Committee, Abdul Qader al-Murtada, said on X that the delay was caused by “technical reasons”.
Updated
Further to the earlier report that the Houthis had postponed the release of about 100 prisoners belonging to government forces that had previously been announced to take place on Saturday (see 14.07 BST), Reuters has published some additional information.
The head of the Houthi Prisoner Affairs Committee, Abdul Qader al-Murtada, said on X that the delay was caused by “technical reasons”.
Al-Murtada said on Friday that the group would release more than 100 prisoners in what he called “a unilateral humanitarian initiative”.
According to Reuters, the Houthis, an Iran-aligned movement that controls part of Yemen, last released prisoners in April 2023 in an exchange of 250 Houthis for 70 government forces.
More than 30 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza Strip over past day, say medical officals
Israeli forces killed more than 30 people in new attacks in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics said on Saturday, reports Reuters.
The Israeli military said it had carried out “operational activity in specific areas of Rafah” on Friday, including killing militants, dismantling part of Hamas’s tunnel system, and locating stashes of weapons.
So far, fighting has taken place on Rafah’s southern edge and eastern districts, away from the most populated areas, reports Reuters. The US, has called on Israel not to enter more central neighbourhoods, saying Israel has yet to show a credible plan for how this can be done without causing mass casualties.
One Rafah resident, who asked not to be named, told Reuters: “The occupation forces keep the city under bombing, not only east where they invaded but at the center and the western sides, they want to scare people to leave the whole city.”
Reuters also reports that farther north in the coastal territory, where the Israeli military says it is trying to prevent Hamas from reestablishing its hold, Palestinian medical workers reported Israeli airstrikes that they said killed at least 17 people.
A total of 31 Palestinians were killed in the past day in the Gaza Strip, according to local medical officials. They do not distinguish between civilian and militant casualties.
Hamas, which governs Gaza, and the smaller armed group Islamic Jihad said their fighters had fired anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs at Israeli troops in the north.
According to Reuters, residents and civil emergency services said Israeli tanks entered deep into the area of Jabalia, destroying dozens of houses, shops, and roads.
The Israeli military said its troops in Jabalia “eliminated dozens of terrorists in close-quarters combat and aerial strikes.”
Reuters reports that Palestinian medical teams were unable to reach the area, where they believed more people were killed.
Updated
Yemen’s Houthis postponed the release of about 100 prisoners belonging to government forces that had previously been announced to take place on Saturday, according to a Reuters eyewitness.
At least 35,903 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, says Gaza health ministry
At least 35,903 Palestinians have been killed and 80,420 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, according to the Gaza health ministry’s latest statement on Saturday.
The Hamas-run health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
Updated
Mediated negotiations between Israel and Hamas to reach a deal to free Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip are due to restart next week, an official with knowledge of the matter said on Saturday.
According to Reuters, the decision to restart the talks came after the head of Israel’s the Mossad intelligence agency met with the head of the CIA and the prime minister of Qatar, which has been a mediator, said the source, who declined to be identified by name or nationality given the sensitivity of the issue.
“At the end of the meeting, it was decided that in the coming week negotiations will open based on new proposals led by the mediators, Egypt and Qatar and with active US involvement,” the source said.
Updated
Spain demands Israel comply with UN court ruling on Rafah
The Spanish government demanded on Saturday that Israel comply with an order by the top UN court to immediately stop its bombardment and ground assault on Rafah, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
According to AFP, Spain stressed that the ruling on Friday by the international court of justice (ICJ) was legally binding.
“The precautionary measures set out by the ICJ, including that Israel should cease its military offensive in Rafah, are compulsory. Israel must comply with them,” Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Albares wrote on X.
“The same goes for a ceasefire, the release of the hostages and access for humanitarian aid [to Gaza],” he wrote, adding that “the suffering of the people of Gaza and the violence must end”.
Las medidas cautelares de @CIJ_ICJ, incluido el cese de la ofensiva de Israel en Rafah, son obligatorias. Exigimos su aplicación.
— José Manuel Albares (@jmalbares) May 25, 2024
También el alto el fuego, la liberación de los rehenes y el acceso humanitario.
El sufrimiento de los gazatíes y la violencia deben terminar.
Spain is one of the European countries to have been most critical of Israel over the war in Gaza.
On Wednesday, Spain, Ireland and Norway said their governments would recognise a Palestinian state from next week.
Israel summoned their envoys to “reprimand” them for the decision and on Friday said it would ban Spain’s consulate in Jerusalem from helping Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Updated
UK says ICJ order to Israel over Rafah 'will strengthen the view of Hamas'
The UK government has criticised the international court of justice (ICJ) for ordering Israel to immediately halt its military assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, saying the ruling would strengthen Hamas, reports Reuters.
The ICJ, which is the highest UN body for hearing disputes between states, made the emergency ruling on Friday in South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide.
“The reason there isn’t a pause in the fighting is because Hamas turned down a very generous hostage deal from Israel. The intervention of these courts – including the ICJ today – will strengthen the view of Hamas that they can hold on to hostages and stay in Gaza,” a UK foreign ministry spokesperson said late on Friday, according to Reuters.
The spokesperson added: “And if that happens there won’t be either peace, or a two-state solution.”
The ICJ, or world court, has no means to enforce its orders, but the ruling highlighted Israel’s global isolation over its military campaign in Gaza.
Israeli strike kills two Hezbollah fighters in Syria, says war monitor
An Israeli drone strike in central Syria killed two fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement on Saturday, a war monitor said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“An Israeli drone fired two missiles at a Hezbollah car and truck near the town of Qusayr in Homs province, as they were on their way to al-Dabaa military airport, killing at least two Hezbollah fighters and wounding others,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
AFP report that it was the third strike against Hezbollah targets in Syria in about a week.
On Monday, Israeli strikes in the Qusayr area, which is close to the Lebanese border, killed eight pro-Iranian fighters, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor with a network of sources in Syria.
At least one Hezbollah fighter was among those killed, a source from Hezbollah told AFP at the time.
Another strike, on 18 May, targeted “a Hezbollah commander and his companion”, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. It did not report any casualties.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence there.
Ten Palestinians, including children and women, were killed and several others injured on Saturday in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the city of Beit Hanoun, north of the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Wafa report that medical sources had confirmed the death toll and said that 17 others had sustained injuries in the attack.
The Guardian has been unable to independently verify the report.
Kuwait hospital in Rafah pleads for fuel deliveries 'to ensure its continued operation'
The Kuwait Speciality hospital in Rafah pleaded for fuel deliveries on Saturday “to ensure its continued operation”, saying it was the only one in Rafah governorate still receiving patients, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said on social media site X on Friday that the situation had reached “a moment of clarity”.
“At a time when the people of Gaza are staring down famine … it is more critical than ever to heed the calls made over the last seven months: Release the hostages. Agree a ceasefire. End this nightmare,” he wrote.
There has been nothing limited about the suffering that Israel's military operation in Rafah has caused.
— Martin Griffiths (@UNReliefChief) May 24, 2024
With today's adoption of Security Council resolution 2730 and the @CIJ_ICJ's order, this is a moment of clarity.
Release the hostages. Agree a ceasefire. End this nightmare. pic.twitter.com/kbwIcrgujs
Updated
French court finds three Syrian officials guilty of crimes against humanity
Kim Willsher is a foreign correspondent based in Paris.
A French court has found three Syrian officials of the regime of Bashar al-Assad guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes, sentencing them in absentia to life imprisonment on Friday after a landmark trial in Paris.
The verdicts against Ali Mamlouk, head of the Syrian secret services and security adviser to Assad, Jamil Hassan, who was head of the Syrian air force intelligence unit until 2019 and a member of Assad’s entourage, and Abdel Salam Mahmoud, intelligence director at the notorious Mezzeh detention centre, send a strong message about the long arm of international justice.
The judges ordered that international arrest warrants against the three officials should remain in force. The verdict gives some hope of justice for the families of thousands of Syrians believed to have been tortured to death by intelligence officials working for the Damascus regime.
Mamlouk, 78, Hassan, 72, and Mahmoud, who is in his early 60s, were charged with complicity in the arrest, torture and death of student Patrick Dabbagh, 20, and his father, Mazzen, 48, both Franco-Syrians.
You can read Kim’s full piece here:
Updated
Al Jazeera are reporting that an Israeli military strike has targeted a family home in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood, killing a woman and injuring other people. It attributes the information to “colleagues on the ground”.
The publication, citing the Palestinian news agency Wafa, reports that “numerous other neighbourhoods of Gaza City have come under heavy artillery shelling … including Sheikh Ajlin, Tal al-Hawa and Zeitoun”.
My colleague, Rafqa Touma, who is a reporter for Guardian Australia has written about the Australians hoping to set sail and deliver aid to the people of Gaza on the “freedom flotilla”.
You can read the full news feature here:
G7 finance leaders to call on Israel to maintain Palestinian bank links
G7 finance leaders will call on Israel to maintain correspondent banking links between Israeli and Palestinian banks to allow vital transactions, trade and services to continue, according to a draft joint statement seen by Reuters on Saturday.
The statement, which Reuters say is to be released at the end of a G7 finance ministers and central bank governors’ meeting in northern Italy, also calls for Israel “to release withheld clearance revenues to the Palestinian Authority, in view of its urgent fiscal needs”.
Reuters report that the statement echoes a warning on Thursday from US treasury secretary Janet Yellen, who said the failure to renew a soon-to-expire banking waiver would cut off a critical lifeline for the Palestinian territories amid a devastating conflict in Gaza.
“We call on Israel to take the necessary measures to ensure that correspondent banking services between Israeli and Palestinian banks remain in place, so that vital financial transactions and critical trade and services continue,” the draft statement said, according to Reuters.
Reuters report that the G7 finance leaders also called for the removal or relaxation of other measures “that have negatively impacted commerce to avoid further exacerbating the economic situation in the West Bank”.
Italy to resume funding for Unrwa
Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani announced on Saturday that Rome would resume funding for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), at a meeting with Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Mustafa.
“Italy has decided to resume financing specific projects intended for assistance to Palestinian refugees but only after rigorous controls that guarantee that not even a penny risks ending up supporting terrorism,” he said, according to Agence France- Presse (AFP).
According to AFP, Mustafa was also scheduled to meet Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni on what was his first trip to Europe since being appointed by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in March.
Tajani, whose country holds the G7 presidency this year, offered his government’s “full support” to the Palestinian Authority.
“We are also committed as a G7 presidency to working towards a period of peace. We strongly ask for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza,” he said.
AFP reports that Tajani said he had informed Mustafa that Rome had “arranged new funding for the Palestinian population, of a total of €35m ($38m)”.
“Of this, €5m will be allocated to Unrwa,” he said. The remaining €30m will be allocated to Italy’s “Food for Gaza” initiative in coordination with UN aid agencies.
Unrwa, which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza, has been in crisis since January, when Israel accused about a dozen of its 13,000 Gaza employees of being involved in the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas.
That led many nations, including top donor the US, to abruptly suspend funding to the agency, threatening its efforts to deliver aid in Gaza, although several have since resumed payments.
An independent review of Unrwa, led by French former foreign minister Catherine Colonna, found some “neutrality-related issues” but said Israel had “yet to provide supporting evidence” for its leading allegations.
It also said Unrwa was “irreplaceable and indispensable to Palestinians’ human and economic development” and was, for many, “a humanitarian lifeline”.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images on the newswires:
A car explosion killed one person in Damascus on Saturday, the official Syrian news agency Sana reported, without identifying the victim.
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Sana quoted a police official as saying “one person was killed when an explosive device exploded in their car in the Mazzeh district”. It did not provide any other details.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor with a network of sources on the ground, said three vehicles caught fire in the area.
Efforts have resumed to seek the first ceasefire in Gaza since a week-long truce in November that saw more than 100 hostages released in exchange for 240 Palestinian hostages held in Israeli jails, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
CIA chief Bill Burns was expected to meet Israeli representatives in Paris in a bid to relaunch negotiations, a western source close to the issue said, according to AFP.
Separately, French president Emmanuel Macron received the prime minister of Qatar and the Saudi, Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers on Friday “to press for a ceasefire”, according to Cairo.
The French presidency said they held talks on the Gaza war and ways to set up a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, also spoke with Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz about new efforts to achieve a ceasefire and reopen the Rafah border crossing, Washington said.
Ceasefire talks involving US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators ended shortly after Israel launched the Rafah operation, though Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office this week said the war cabinet had asked the Israeli delegation “to continue negotiations for the return of the hostages”, reports AFP.
US and UK to back Israel over ICJ ruling
My colleague, Patrick Wintour, who is diplomatic editor for the Guardian, has written an analysis piece on how the US and the UK will reject the international court of justice order directing Israel to end its offensive on Rafah after slowly blurring their red lines that once stated that they could not support a military offensive in the southern Gaza city.
You can read the full piece here:
Updated
Israel strikes Rafah after top UN court orders it to halt offensive
Israel bombed the Gaza Strip, including Rafah, on Saturday, despite an order from the UN’s top court for it to “immediately halt” its military offensive in the southern city, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The Hague-based ICJ, whose orders are legally binding but lack direct enforcement mechanisms, also instructed Israel to keep open the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, which Israel closed before sending troops and tanks into the besieged city and crossing earlier this month.
Israel gave no indication it was preparing to change course in Rafah, insisting the court had got it wrong.
In spite of the ICJ ruling, Israel carried out strikes on the Gaza Strip on Saturday morning as fighting raged between the army and Hamas’s armed wing, reports AFP.
Palestinian witnesses and AFP teams reported Israeli strikes in Rafah and the central city of Deir al-Balah.
“We hope that the court’s decision will put pressure on Israel to end this war of extermination because there is nothing left here,” Oum Mohammad al-Ashqa, a Palestinian woman from Gaza City displaced to Deir al-Balah by the war, told AFP.
Mohammed Saleh, also interviewed by AFP in the central Gazan city, said, “Israel is a state that considers itself above the law. Therefore, I do not believe that the shooting or the war will stop other than by force.”
In its ruling, the ICJ said Israel must “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”.
It ordered Israel to allow UN-mandated investigators “unimpeded access” to Gaza to look into the genocide allegations.
Opening summary
It has just gone 10am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. This is our latest blog covering the Israel-Gaza war and wider Middle East crisis.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has reiterated US opposition to a major Israeli offensive on Rafah, the southern Gaza city where 1.4 million Palestinians had until recently sought refuge, in a phone call with war cabinet minister Benny Gantz.
The brief statement from Blinken’s office came after the UN’s top court ordered Israel to halt its assault on Rafah in a ruling that is expected to further ratchet up pressure on the increasingly isolated country.
But the statement made no mention of the international court of justice’s ruling, while a White House spokesperson merely said that “we’ve been clear and consistent on our position on Rafah.”
The US had previously said any assault on Rafah without “credible” humanitarian provisions for civilians would be a red line. However, after Israel launched an offensive on the city earlier this month it watered down its position.
More on that soon. In other developments:
The UN’s top court voted by a majority of 13 votes to two that Israel must “immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in the Rafah governorate which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that would bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”. The ruling came days after the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court, a separate court also based in The Hague, said he was seeking arrest warrants for senior Hamas and Israeli officials for war crimes, including the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant.
Netanyahu’s office on Friday rejected the ruling in the ICJ case, which was brought by South Africa, calling the country’s allegations of genocide by Israel, “false and outrageous”. In a statement, Netanyahu’s office said the Israeli campaign in Rafah has not and will not “lead to the destruction of the Palestinian civilian population”.
Residents and Palestinian media reported a series of strikes hitting roads and houses in the Shaboura neighbourhood in central Rafah shortly after the ICJ ruling was read out in The Hague. Heavy fighting was also reported in the Jabalia refugee camp in the north. Medics said at least five Palestinians had been killed when houses were hit in Jabalia and more were believed to be trapped under rubble, but that the area could not be reached due to the intensity of the bombardment. In Rafah, residents reported explosions and smoke rising in the distance as tanks advanced further into the eastern district of Jenina.
South Africa described the ICJ ruling was “groundbreaking”. The South Africa international relations department said: “This order is binding and Israel has to adhere to it.” South Africa added that it would be approaching the UN security council with Friday’s ICJ order.
The Palestinian Authority welcomed the ICJ ruling, saying it represented an international consensus to end the war on the Gaza Strip. Hamas also welcomed the decision but said it was not enough and urged an end to Israel’s offensive on all of Gaza. Hamas called on the UN security council to implement the ICJ decision.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said that the EU had to choose between respecting the EU’s support for international institutions or its support for Israel. “What is going to be the answer to the ruling of the international court of justice that has been issued today, what is going to be our position? We will have to choose between our support to international institutions of the rule of law or our support to Israel,” he said.
Egypt and the US have agreed to temporarily send humanitarian aid to the UN in Gaza via Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, the Egyptian presidency said. Only 906 truckloads of humanitarian aid have entered the Gaza Strip since 7 May, after Israel began its military operation in Rafah, according to figures from the UN’s office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha).
More than 200 staff members of EU institutions and agencies have signed a letter expressing “growing concern” over the union’s response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, arguing that it runs contrary to its core values and aim of promoting peace. The letter, signed by 211 people in their personal capacity as citizens and addressed to the EU’s top three officials, begins by condemning the 7 October attacks “in the strongest terms”.
Updated
