Israel Atrocities
Live Reporting
Today’s death toll in Jabalia rises to 15: Report
At least 15 people have been killed and 30 wounded by Israeli attacks in Jabalia today, reports the Wafa news agency.
Many of the casualties took place when a shelter at the entrance of the Jabalia refugee camp was bombed.
We earlier reported that overnight drone and missile attacks in Jabalia killed at least five people, while a separate strike on a school killed another person.
Currently, Israel’s military claims to be fighting Palestinian fighters within Jabalia.
Sweden’s Israel goods ban
In Gothenburg, Sweden, where pro-Palestine protests have gone on for months, the local government has put forward a proposal that would ban goods from occupying powers, including Israel.
“We think the taxpayers in Gothenburg do not want to be included in feeding the war machine”, the city’s deputy mayor, Daniel Bernmar, told Al Jazeera.
White House’s Sullivan to visit Israel on Sunday
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is due in Israel on Sunday after visiting Saudi Arabia today.
Sullivan will meet Israel’s PM, defence minister and war cabinet minister, reports Israel’s Kan broadcaster.
Israel has committed to holding off on any expansion of its Rafah operation until after Sullivan’s visit, reports Israel’s Ynetnews site.
At least 20 Palestinians detained in Israeli raids across occupied West Bank
At least 20 Palestinians have been detained in pre-dawn Israeli raids across the occupied West Bank.
Many of those detained were workers from Gaza who were staying in the Palestinian village of Barta’a, west of Jenin, and the separation barrier.
Close to dawn, Israeli forces raided the refugee camp of Balata, east of Nablus. Residents said Israeli forces were seen mapping roads and filming several areas in the camp.
Other raids targeted Qusra and Burqa villages near Nablus as well as Qalqilya and Beit Ummar town north of Hebron.
Last month, more than 960 Israeli military raids were carried out across the occupied West Bank, with an average of 32 raids carried out every day.
Since October 7, more than 8,750 Palestinians have been detained while 502 people, including 124 children, have been killed in attacks by Israeli forces and settlers across the occupied West Bank.
Gaza aid pier ‘isn’t a substitute’ for land routes, says ICRC
The newly operational dock on Gaza’s coast provides a valuable alternative route for aid, but reopening land routes remains vital to meet humanitarian needs in the Palestinian enclave, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.
“Efforts to create a sea corridor will help mitigate the severity of the conflict on people. However, it isn’t a substitute for the land transportation, [which is] the most efficient and reliable way,” said Hisham Muhanna, ICRC spokesman.
Officials announced that the US-built pier was anchored on Thursday, with President Biden announcing that the first humanitarian shipments passed through on Friday.
Biden added that the dock would be used to deliver “170 metric tonnes of nutrient-rich food bars” to support 11,000 people.
Israeli military claims to hit 70 targets in last day
In its latest war update, Israel’s military says its troops are continuing operations in northern and southern Gaza, and that its jets struck 70 targets across the enclave in the last day.
It added that one strike in Rafah killed a “significant” Islamic Jihad figure who operated as the head of logistics for the organisation’s Rafah brigade.
Israeli ground troops also killed Palestinian fighters in combat in eastern Rafah and Jabalia, according to the military.
Israel’s operation in Rafah, where it previously told Palestinians to take shelter, is causing a humanitarian catastrophe, aid groups warn, so far displacing more than 630,000 people and cutting off vital aid to the Strip.
Its return to Jabalia has left many residents trapped inside evacuation zones with no aid as fierce battles rage on the streets.
No let-up in Israeli attacks on Jabalia, Rafah
The Israeli military is still operating aggressively in the north of Gaza with large-scale air strikes and attacks.
That includes the Jabalia refugee camp where attacks are ongoing.
In Rafah city, the Israeli military is pushing deeper into the central parts with overnight attacks on residential homes in Barbara refugee camp.
This is seen as a new way to expand attacks all the way to the western part of the city, causing more people to flee.
Hamas official and 3 others killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon
At least three people have been killed and several injured in the latest Israeli attack on targets in southern Lebanon.
In a separate incident, Hamas official Sharhabil al-Sayed was also killed in an Israeli drone attack near Lebanon’s border with Syria.
The Israeli military identified al-Sayed as a top al-Jamaa al-Islamiyya operative in Lebanon who cooperated with Hamas, saying he “led and promoted many attacks and acts of terrorism from Lebanese territory”.
Video shows hardship of people displaced as Israel attacks Rafah
Human Rights Watch’s Emina Cerimovic, associate director of disability rights for the New York-based organisation, has shared a video showing the dire conditions Palestinians face after their forced displacement from Rafah.
The short video clip was sent to Cerimovic by Rajab, a 49-year-old physically disabled Palestinian man and father of seven, shows families trying to build temporary shelters on Gaza’s windswept coast.
Rajab told Cerimovic that he has now been displaced eight times in his search for safety as Israel presses on with its war in the Palestinian territory.
“I am very tired and exhausted due to the suffering, displacement, exhaustion, exhaustion, thinking, and escaping death,” he told Cerimovic.
Biden says 170 metric tonnes of food coming through Gaza aid pier
US President Joe Biden has confirmed that the first shipments of humanitarian aid have arrived in Gaza via a temporary US-built pier on the enclave’s coast, including enough supplies for “over 33,000 people”.
“To start, our partners at USAID are using this corridor to deliver 170 metric tons of nutrient-rich food bars to support 11,000 of the most vulnerable children and adults, ready-to-use therapeutic foods, and supplies to support shelter, clean water, and hygiene for over 33,000 people,” he wrote in a post on X.
Biden also said that the US continues to “work with Israel to further increase the amount of aid getting into Gaza by land”.
UK maritime agency says incident reported northwest of Yemen’s Hodeidah
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) has issued a “transit with caution” warning after reports of an “attack” incident 76 nautical miles (about 140 km) northwest of Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah.
The agency said authorities are investigating the incident which was reported at 22:00 GMT.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels said this week that they would escalate their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea with links to Israel in retaliation for the war on Gaza.
Israeli forces arrest Gaza workers during West Bank raids
The Israeli military has arrested workers from Gaza in the town of Barta’a, south of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reports.
The men were “severely beaten” during their arrest inside a residential building, according to Wafa.
Israeli raids have been reported in other locations across the occupied West Bank, including:
The town of Hableh, south of Qalqilya
The town of az-Zawiya, west of Salfit
A man was injured by shrapnel after Israeli forces stormed the village of Urif, south of Nablus
Israeli forces were targeted with a homemade explosive device during their storming of the town of Burqa, northwest of Nablus
OCHA warns that humanitarian supplies running out in Gaza
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned that “there’s almost nothing left to distribute in Gaza”.
“Water and sanitation situation is rapidly deteriorating. With supplies import blocked, people can only resort to using rubble and waste to solve sanitation needs,” OCHA said in a post on X.
The main Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt, now seized by Israel’s military, has been completely shuttered since May 8, causing already meagre humanitarian supplies in Gaza to run out.
Hamas fighters say ‘prepared for a long battle of attrition’
The spokesman for the armed wing of Hamas says in a video message that Palestinians will continue to stand up to the ground invasion of Rafah and other places in Gaza “no matter how long the aggression lasts and regardless of its form”.
“Despite our full desire to stop the aggression against our people, we are prepared for a long battle of attrition against the enemy, dragging them into a swamp where they will gain nothing but the death of their soldiers and the capture of their officers,” said Abu Obeida.
“This is not because we are a great power, but because we are the people of this land and rightful owners.”
The spokesman said Hamas has targeted more than 100 Israeli armoured vehicles, including tanks, troop carriers and bulldozers, along with inflicting casualties on Israeli soldiers by blowing up tunnels, launching rockets and mortars, and through sniping and close-quarters combat.
Israeli military expanding Rafah operation to west of war-torn city
We are seeing more people forced to flee the city of Rafah, Al Jazeera reported.
We are looking at 630,000 people who have already been forced into fleeing that city and into the central part of the Strip.
The Israeli military, in a statement, talked about controlling, effectively right now, half of the distance of the Philadelphia Corridor [ a 14km or 8.7-mile-long strip of land that represents the entirety of the border area between Gaza and Egypt] … and they are only about 5km [3 miles] away from the coastal road.
That means an expansion of their military operation. Their manoeuvres will include the western part of Rafah, where there are thousands of Palestinians – displaced families – sheltering there since the initial weeks of the war.
That means we are going to be seeing way more waves of people fleeing the western part of the city. They are being forced into more displacement to the central area of Gaza, mainly in Deir el-Balah.
Aid reached Gaza for the first time via a US-built temporary pier, but an American official urged Israel to open much more efficient land crossings.
Fierce fighting in northern Gaza as aid starts to roll off US-built pier
CAIRO/GAZA STRIP (Reuters) - Israeli forces battled Hamas fighters in the narrow alleyways of Jabalia in northern Gaza on Friday (May 17) in some of the fiercest engagements since they returned to the area a week ago, while in the south militants attacked tanks massing around Rafah.
Residents said Israeli armour had thrust as far as the market at the heart of Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, and that bulldozers were demolishing homes and shops in the path of the advance.
