- Israeli forces bomb the European Hospital in southern Gaza, killing at least 28 people and wounding dozens more, hours after attacking the nearby Nasser Hospital and killing a journalist who was receiving medical treatment there.
- US President Donald Trump, who is visiting Saudi Arabia, says he’s working to end the “horrible” war on Gaza as soon as possible.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that “there will be no situation where we stop the war”, while the UN’s relief chief calls for global action to “prevent genocide”.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 52,908 Palestinians and wounded 119,721, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The Government Media Office updated the death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.
- An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive.
Palestine’s UN envoy say Israeli aid plan weaponises aid
Riyad Mansour has also spoken at the UN Security Council meeting on Gaza.
He told the council that “time is our enemy” as “hunger eats away at our children”.
Mansour appealed to the council to reject Israel’s plan for “the so-called distribution of humanitarian aid”, saying it continues to pursue “illegal objectives by other means”.
“That plan has been rejected by all UN agencies and all humanitarian organisations as it is just a continuation of the weaponisation of aid,” he said.
It drives “desperate civilians and humanitarians into militarised zones to receive or distribute aid at the peril of their lives, by counting calories”, and “denying aid to many”.
What we know about US-Israeli plan for Gaza aid
- On May 4, Israel’s cabinet endorsed plans to expand the war in Gaza and take control of aid distribution inside the enclave.
- Israeli officials said the aid plan involves moving people from north and central Gaza to the south, where private contractors will distribute aid and ensure the supplies do not fall into the hands of Hamas and other armed groups.
- The US envoy to Israel, Mike Huckabee, sought to rebrand the Israeli plan as a US-led initiative on Friday, saying four distribution centres would be set up in south Gaza and that Israel would only provide security, and not be involved in aid distribution.
- More details of the plan, circulated among aid agencies, said the newly created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation would take over distribution, and that the four hubs would give out food, water and hygiene kits to 1.2 million people, or less than 60 percent of the population.
- Aid agencies have opposed the plan, noting that it seeks to supplant the existing system run by the UN, which has 400 distribution points. They say the proposal will “weaponise” aid and worsen displacement in the enclave.
- Aid officials told the US’s NPR it would advance Israel’s military plans to coerce Palestinians to move from north to south Gaza, with eventual plans for the migration of Palestinians out of the enclave.
Russia, too, slams US-Israeli plan for Gaza aid
The UN Security Council has heard more criticism of the US-Israeli plan for Gaza, this time from the Russian envoy.
“Instead of showing political will and opening border crossings, [Israel] has announced the introduction of a new aid distribution mechanism, which, as we know, was not supported by either the UN Secretariat or its humanitarian partners who acting directly “on the ground”, Vassily Nebenzia said.
“By advancing this initiative, the Israeli leadership is essentially urging the UN agencies to become complicit in Israel’s military operation, thereby jeopardizing the neutrality and impartiality of UN humanitarian activities,” he said.
“In such circumstances, we can hardly expect that, even if the Israeli plans are implemented, it will be possible to effectively provide assistance to the two million Palestinians who are hostage to such political and military decisions.”
Photos: Aftermath of Israeli attack on Gaza’s European Hospital
China urges Israel to lift blockade, says aid ‘must not be weaponised’
China’s envoy, too, has criticised the US-Israeli plan for Gaza aid distribution.
Fu Cong, speaking at the UN Security Council, said that Gaza “has become a living hell” and noted that the global hunger monitor, known as the IPC, has warned that the entire population of the enclave are suffering from severe food shortages.
“Israel must fulfil its obligations as the occupying power under international humanitarian law by immediately lifting the blockade and restoring full access to supplies,” he said.
Fu, without naming the US, said that a “certain country has proposed the so-called humanitarian distribution plan”. He noted that UN agencies have “categorically rejected” it.
“Humanitarian assistance must not be weaponised, and the principles of impartiality, independence and neutrality must be [upheld] at all times,” he said.
UK rejects US-Israeli plan for Gaza aid
We have more from the UN Security Council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
The United Kingdom’s envoy to the UN, Barbara Woodward, told the council that Israel must lift its blockade on Gaza, which is now in its 10th week, noting that the world’s leading hunger monitor has warned that the whole of the territory is at risk of famine.
She also rejected the US-Israeli plan for aid distribution in Gaza, which seeks to supplant the already existing system run by the UN, saying, “The UK will not support any aid mechanism that seeks to deliver political or military objectives or puts vulnerable civilians at risk.”
She added, “We call on Israel to urgently engage with the UN to ensure a return to delivery of aid in line with humanitarian principles.”
Released Palestinian detainees report torture, thirst in Israeli custody
Israel has released nine more Palestinian detainees arrested after October 7, following last week’s release of 11 prisoners.
The men, aged 30-60, were transferred via the Red Cross to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah where they reported having experienced torture and severe dehydration.
The releases occur against a backdrop of escalating violence across Gaza. Palestinian authorities are demanding the liberation of more prisoners still held in Israeli jails.
Death toll from Israeli attacks in Jabalia rises to 36
That’s according to medical sources.
They say dozens more have been wounded in the raids that hit homes in the town of Jabalia and the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
This brings the total toll from attacks since midnight local time today to at least 42.
We’ll bring you more soon.
Israel’s deadly attacks on Gaza’s hospitals
The bombing of the European Hospital is the latest in a series of Israeli assaults on medical facilities in Gaza.
Israel has bombed and burned at least 36 hospitals across the Strip since the war began, according to officials, despite the fact that such attacks are considered a war crime under the 1949 Geneva Convention.
Here are some of the worst attacks:
- Al-Ahli Hospital: Hundreds of people sheltering in the car park of the facility were killed in an attack in October 2023. In the days leading up to the incident, the hospital director reportedly received warnings from Israel.
- Al-Awda Hospital: An Israeli air raid in November 2023 killed Dr Mahmoud Abu Nujaila and Dr Ahmad al-Sahar of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and another doctor, Ziad al-Tatari. Israeli forces raided the hospital the following month and detained Dr Adnan Al Bursh, who later died in Israeli custody.
- Al-Shifa Medical Complex: Israeli forces stormed the hospital in November 2023, killing at least 25 Palestinians, including three medical workers, and leaving it non-functional. They stormed the hospital a second time in March of last year, killing at least 22 people, according to the UN. After they withdrew, three mass graves were found and at least 80 corpses were retrieved.
- Nasser Medical Complex: Israeli forces laid siege to the facility for more than a week in February last year, killing dozens who approached the site, and then stormed it and arrested more than 200 people. At least eight patients reportedly died during the siege. This year, Israeli forces also bombed the hospital’s emergency department, the male surgical ward and a media tent there, killing several people.
- Kamal Adwan Hospital: The Israeli military laid siege to and raided the facility in December, killing at least 20 Palestinians and arresting more than 240, including its director, Dr Hussam Abu Safia.
Israeli attacks kill 25 in northern Gaza
Medical sources say Israeli forces have launched at least four attacks on the Jabalia area, killing at least 25 people and wounding dozens.
The attacks come after the Israeli military issued a forced displacement order for the region, following rockets fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad towards Israel’s Ashkelon and Sderot.
US envoy touts widely criticised aid plan for Gaza
We’ve been covering a UN Security Council briefing on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Dorothy Shea, Washington’s ambassador to the UN, used her speech to call on aid groups to support the US-Israeli plan for aid distribution in Gaza, through a newly created foundation.
“The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is an independent entity that has been established to provide a secure mechanism, capable of delivering aid directly to those in need, without Hamas stealing, looting or leveraging this assistance for its own ends,” she said.
“We call upon the United Nations, humanitarian organisations and the international community to work with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in providing assistance to civilians,” she added.
The US-Israeli proposal will skirt the existing system for aid delivery, replacing about 400 UN distribution points across Gaza with just four. The UN and other humanitarian organisations have opposed it, calling it dangerous and saying it will effectively worsen displacement in Gaza.
They are instead calling on Israel to lift the two-month blockade of the Strip.
UN agencies also say there is no wide-scale diversion of aid by Hamas, as claimed by the US and Israel.
Death toll from Israel’s attacks rises
Medical sources say at least 51 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across the Strip since midnight today.
These include 45 people who were killed in northern Jabalia.
We’ll bring you more soon.
UN aid chief slams Israel for using ‘starvation as a bargaining chip’
More from Tom Fletcher, who has been addressing the UN Security Council in New York.
The head of the UN’s humanitarian agency, OCHA, said aid organisations are “desperate to resume humanitarian aid at scale across Gaza” after no “food, medicine, water or tents” have entered the enclave “for more than 10 weeks”.
“But Israel denies us access,” Fletcher said. “Placing the objective of depopulating Gaza before the lives of civilians.”
“It is bad enough that the blockade continues. How do you react when Israeli Ministers boast of it?” he asked.
Fletcher also excoriated Israel’s proposal to only allow aid into Gaza if it is delivered through a newly Israeli-designed process that bypasses all existing aid organisations, including the UN.
He said the Israeli-designed proposal “makes aid conditional on political and military aims” and uses “starvation” as “a bargaining chip” while also forcing “further displacement”.
As we’ve been reporting, Fletcher also called on the Security Council to “act now” to “prevent genocide” in Gaza.
Israeli forces bomb two hospitals in Gaza in less than 24 hours
forces have targeted the courtyard and the surroundings of the European hospital in the Gaza Strip in Khan Younis.
This is one of the biggest hospitals across the Gaza Strip.
It was targeted with nine missiles in the courtyard and the hospital’s surroundings.
At least 11 Palestinians have been reported killed [in the hospital], and at least 40 others have been injured and transferred to Nasser Hospital. But according to civil defense teams, more people are still trapped under the sand.
In the same attack, a house very close to the European hospital was also targeted, where at least 10 Palestinians have been killed.
In the past 24 hours two hospitals have been targeted, Nasser Hospital was targeted earlier in the morning.
The famous local journalist Hassan Eslaih was killed in that attack.
And also there has been continuous attacks on different areas across the Gaza Strip, in the south, in the central area and also in the northern area.
The humanitarian situation, is also collapsing. Palestinians are saying that they do not know if they’re going to survive the starvation and the continuous airstrikes.
Israeli forces kill family of four in southern Gaza
Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that a Palestinian man, his wife and their two daughters have been killed in an Israeli drone strike on a tent in Khan Younis.
Three other Palestinians were also wounded when an Israeli drone bombed a house in the town of Abasan al-Kabira, east of Khan Younis.
We’ll bring you more soon.
A recap of recent developments
- Israel has bombed the European Hospital in southern Gaza, killing at least 28 Palestinians and wounding dozens more, hours after launching another deadly attack on the nearby Nasser Hospital.
- Israeli forces also attack Jabalia in northern Gaza, killing four, after issuing a new forced displacement order for the region.
- US President Donald Trump, speaking in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, says he’s working to end Israel’s war on Gaza as soon as possible, adding that the people of the enclave “deserve a much better future”.
- Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says there’s “no way” Israel will halt its war on Gaza, including even if there were a deal to free 10 or more captives from the besieged enclave.
- UN relief chief Tom Fletcher has called on the UN Security Council to “act now” and “prevent genocide” in the Gaza Strip, while French President Emmanuel Macron says Netanyahu’s policy in Gaza is “shameful”.
- Yemen’s Houthis have claimed ballistic missile attack on the Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, but the Israeli military says it intercepted the projectile.
Welcome to our live coverage
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Follow this page for round-the-clock updates on the latest developments.
You can read about the key events from Tuesday, May 13, here.
