- The Israeli military says extensive attacks have been launched over the past 24 hours in the “opening moves” of operation “Gideon’s Chariots”, which will see troops “seize controlled areas in the Gaza Strip”.
- Thousands of Palestinians have been ordered by Israeli forces to flee parts of northern Gaza as indiscriminate air strikes killed at least 115 people in the territory since dawn on Friday.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 53,119 Palestinians and wounded 119,919, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. 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.
Israeli forces storm al-Ein camp, arrest family of stabbing suspect in Jerusalem
The Israeli military has stormed al-Ein refugee camp, west of the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Information Center reports.
Israeli forces have also stormed the village of Qabalan, south of Nablus.
Our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues also report that Israeli forces have arrested the family members of a Palestinian man accused of carrying out a stabbing attack on Thursday at the entrance to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem.
Researchers say Israel is constructing new militarised ‘corridor’ in Gaza
Forensic Architecture, a research group based at Goldsmiths, University of London, says that Israel announced plans for the ‘Morag Corridor’ on April 2.
“Since that time, we’ve identified widespread destruction throughout the remains of Rafah city, and several new Israeli military outposts,” Forensic Architecture said.
As we’ve been reporting, the Israeli military says its new Gaza offensive will see Israeli forces “seize controlled areas in the Gaza Strip”.
Earlier this month, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that Israel had already expelled Palestinians from 70 percent of the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s UN envoy slams UN aid chief for ‘desecration’ of genocide term
As we previously reported, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher told the UN Security Council that Israel is “unashamedly imposing inhumane conditions on civilians” and called on the body to “prevent genocide” in Gaza.
In a letter to Fletcher, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said he is “deeply shocked and disturbed” by the speech, which he called a “deeply irresponsible statement that shattered any notion of neutrality”.
“You had the audacity, in your capacity as a senior UN official, to stand before the Security Council and invoke the charge of genocide without evidence, mandate, or restraint,” Danon wrote.
“To weaponise the word ‘genocide’ against Israel is not just distortion – it is the desecration and subversion of a term with unique force and weight,” he added.
Injuries reported as Israeli forces attack another tent near Khan Younis
We have been reporting on the Israeli military’s overnight attacks across the Gaza Strip, including targeting tents housing displaced Palestinians in Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis.
Our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues now report that at least three Palestinians have been injured by another Israeli air strike on a tent near the Taiba Towers, west of Khan Younis.
We will bring you more information when we have it.
‘No soap, no morphine’ as violence increases in northern Gaza
Afeef Nessouli, a medical volunteer with Glia International, says that the situation in Gaza is “only getting worse with time”.
In northern Gaza, he says that there has been a “shocking uptick in violence” in the past couple of days, but that hospitals are treating “explosive injuries”, including amputations, without resources.
“They don’t have soap, they don’t have morphine,” he said.
Nessouli also said that the ongoing blockade means that people have been suffering from hunger for 70 days.
“Hungry children are eating moulded bread. They’re eating rice off of the ground,” he said.
Gaza hospital runs out of shrouds for ‘proper burial’ of the dead
Hospitals are overwhelmed with the large influx of injured Palestinians arriving to the hospital in the early hours of this morning and throughout the day.
There are no shrouds available inside hospitals and that makes it very difficult for surviving family members to offer a proper burial for their family members and loved ones who were killed in these attacks.
We could clearly hear the loud sound of explosions coming from the eastern part of Gaza City, particularly from Shujayea and Zeitoun neighbourhoods, where the Israeli military, for the past weeks, have been conducting these systematic home demolitions.
In the eastern part of the city … the entire area has been turned into vast fields of rubble and destruction.
US Muslim group condemns Trump’s reported Libya displacement plan
Earlier, we reported that NBC News in the US is reporting that the Trump administration is planning to force one million Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip and move to Libya.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has described the reported plan as “morally reprehensible and a historic crime against humanity”.
“If this news report that the Trump administration truly is plotting the forced transfer of one million Palestinians from their homeland in Gaza to Libya is true, this plan would represent an unprecedented act of ethnic cleansing unseen in modern history,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement.
“Any country or entity that takes part in this war crime would rightly face universal condemnation,” he said.
Israeli military drone bombs tent near Khan Younis
Earlier, we reported that Israeli forces struck a tent housing displaced Palestinians near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, injuring several people.
An Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent in Gaza now reports that an Israeli military drone has bombed another tent housing displaced people west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, causing injuries.
We will bring you updates on this attack when we have them.
Israeli military says it intercepted UAV launched towards country
Israel’s air force intercepted the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which was launched “from the east” a short while ago, according to a post on X.
It did not specify where the drone had been launched from.
No casualties or damage have been reported.
Israeli forces kill grandfather and two grandchildren as they tried to flee Khan Younis
In two separate attacks, the Israeli military killed eight Palestinians. One attack on a group where five people were killed by drone strikes and, in an earlier attack, a grandfather along with two of his grandchildren were killed inside a vehicle that was driving as they were evacuating the eastern part of Khan Younis.
According to the Israeli narrative, this is Hamas infrastructure but a close look at these targets one would easily find out that these are residential homes, temporary shelters, tents and public facilities that have been turned into shelters for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians right after the Israeli military destroyed many of the residential homes in the northern part of the Strip in the past 19 months.
UN relief chief: ‘Let’s not waste time’ with US-backed Gaza aid plan
Tom Fletcher, the UN’s top humanitarian official, has issued a statement again rejecting a US-Israeli-backed plan to seize control of food distribution in Gaza as an alternative to Israel’s 76-day blockade.
“To those proposing an alternative modality for aid distribution, let’s not waste time: We already have a plan,” Fletcher said, adding that 160,000 pallets of aid are “ready to move” into Gaza, “now”.
Fletcher said the UN’s plan is “rooted in the non-negotiable principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence” and is backed by the “vast majority of the international community”.
“It is ready to be activated – today – if we are simply allowed to do our jobs,” he said.
“We demand rapid, safe, and unimpeded aid delivery for civilians in need,” he added. “Let us work.”
Trump says Gaza ‘should become a freedom zone’
The US president has spoken about Gaza in an interview with Fox News, after returning from his Middle East trip.
“Gaza is a nasty place. It’s been that way for years,” Trump said. “I think it should become a freedom zone. It doesn’t work. Every 10 years, they go back, they have Hamas.”
Trump also said he had started working on the humanitarian situation after discussions during his recent travels.
“People are starving. One of the things that one of the three great leaders that I saw two nights ago said to me, ‘please help the people, the Palestinians,’” Trump said.
“So, I’ve already started working on that. It’s a deep problem, but we’ll get it solved.”
Earlier, we reported that Trump is reportedly working on a plan which would see up to one million Palestinians displaced from Gaza to Libya, according to NBC News.
Israeli military bombs tent housing displaced people in central Gaza
Israeli forces are shelling areas southeast of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, according to our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues.
An AJA correspondent in Gaza reports that a tent housing displaced Palestinians near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah has been struck, injuring several people.
Israeli fighter jets are also carrying out bombing operations in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, according to AJA.
No fatalities have been reported in these attacks so far. We will bring you more information when we have it.
A recap of recent developments
- At least 115 Palestinians have been killed in attacks across Gaza since dawn on Friday, as Israel has intensified its bombardment of the enclave.
- The Israeli military has said these “extensive attacks” over the past 24 hours are the initial moves of what it has dubbed Operation Gideon’s Chariots.
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the new offensive is aimed at defeating Hamas, and Israeli forces will not “enter and then exit” Gaza, suggesting they will indefinitely occupy the enclave.
- Under the plan, Netanyahu has also said Gaza’s population “will be moved, for its own protection” to the south of the besieged enclave.
- The plan has been widely condemned, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres saying it will “inevitably lead to countless more civilians killed and the further destruction of Gaza”.
- The leaders of Ireland, Spain, Iceland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway and Slovenia have called on Israel to halt its attacks on Gaza and allow aid into the enclave, dubbing the situation a “man-made catastrophe”.
- Trump is reportedly working on a plan which would see up to one million Palestinians displaced from Gaza to Libya, with the US offering to release billions in frozen funds in exchange, according to NBC News.
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You can read about the key events from Friday, May 16, here.
