Israel-Palestine Conflict LIVE News & Updates: Israel-Palestine conflict continues unabated with hopes for a ceasefire tenuous at best. More than 200 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 60,000 displaced as Israeli Defence Forces airstrikes on Gaza continue. In Israel, at least 12 residents have been killed in Hamas rocket attacks, while the situation at the border on Lebanon too is volatile, according to reports. Meanwhile, France has led diplomatic efforts at the United Nations Security Council for a ceasefire. Here are the live updates from the Israel-Palestine conflict today:
Pakistan Parliament passes resolution on Israel-Palestine conflict
Pakistan’s Parliament on Monday passed a unanimous resolution condemning Israel’s “systematic oppression” of the people of Palestine and demanded the UN probe the human rights violations. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi moved the resolution in the National Assembly, according to the Radio Pakistan. The resolution “strongly condemned the systematic and institutionalised oppression” of the people of Palestine by Israel. It denounced the attacks by the Israeli regime on worshippers in Al-Aqsa mosque during Ramzan and rejected the continuing practice of expanding settlements through forced evictions.
Israeli medics: 10 wounded, 4 seriously, in strike from Gaza
A strike launched from Gaza on Tuesday wounded 10 people in southern Israel, four of them seriously, Israeli medics reported, as Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers continued to trade attacks.
Egypt announces $500 million to rebuild Gaza
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has announced the allocation of $500 million for reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip. El-Sissi’s office said in a Facebook post Tuesday that Egyptian firms would contribute in the re-building efforts. Egypt, which is leading mediation efforts to reach a cease-fire, has sent some two dozen trucks carrying humanitarian aid and medical supplies to Gaza through the Raffah crossing point. It has also received wounded people from the latest round of violence to be treated in Egyptian hospitals.
Déjà Vu in the Middle East
Given the structural challenge that Israel faces in tackling militants from Gaza, the IDF’s objectives are quite clear—establishing deterrence vis-a-vis Hamas by inflicting high enough costs so that it can have a sobering effect on Hamas behaviour in the future. While many would see in Israel’s response the use of disproportionate force, for IDF the challenge is to ensure that a non-state actor like Hamas working in tandem with some state actors gets the message that Israel has the wherewithal to respond to its provocations.
Israeli Prez speaks to family of Indian caregiver killed in rocket attack from Gaza
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday spoke to the family of the Indian caregiver who was killed on May 11 in a rocket attack by Palestinian militants from Gaza, and conveyed his condolences. Soumya Santosh, 30, who hailed from Kerala’s Idukki district, worked as a caregiver attending to an old woman at a house in the southern Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon. She was talking to her husband Santhosh over a video call in the evening on May 11 when a rocket fired from Gaza directly hit the house where she was working.
Hamas says it targeted Israeli airbases: Local media report
Militants in Gaza fired several rocket barrages at southern and central Israel late yesterday and in the early hours today. According to The Times of Israel, Hamas has claimed that it was targeting the Israeli Air Force bases during the strikes. Red alert sirens were heard in Israeli town along the Gaza border, the southern coastal cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon, in central towns as far north as Rehovot and Palmachim, and at a number of air bases.
Strike from Gaza kills 2 as Israel topples 6-story building
A strike launched from Gaza killed two Thai workers in southern Israel on Tuesday, police said, hours after Israeli airstrikes toppled a six-story building in the Palestinian territory that housed bookstores and educational centres.
All eyes on Hezbollah as tensions rise on the Israel-Lebanon border
Israel’s deadly Gaza offensive has many eyes trained on the Lebanese border for a Hezbollah reaction, but observers argue the Iran-backed movement is unlikely to risk an all-out conflict. Incidents at the Lebanese border in recent days have raised the temperature but, with Lebanon already on its knees amid a deep political and economic crisis, the Shiite group seems intent on refraining from an escalation. Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas, both are designated as terrorist groups by Israel. (AFP)
France seeks UN Security Council resolution
China’s UN ambassador says France is seeking a UN Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants who control Gaza. Zhang Jun, the current council president, confirmed that France’s UN Ambassador Nicolas De Riviere informed the council during the third round of closed consultations Tuesday on the conflict that a resolution was being prepared. The United States has blocked the UN’s most powerful body, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security, from issuing a press statement calling for a halt to the violence, insisting that it would not help diplomatic efforts to end the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
GOP seeks political opening amid tense Israel-Hamas fighting
Republicans trying to drive a wedge between Democrats and chip away at President Joe Biden’s support are zeroing in on the violence in the Middle East, laying blame on his administration and aiming to make his liberal critics the face of the party heading into the midterm elections. GOP Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, both potential White House hopefuls in 2024, have focused in particular on Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and other progressives for criticizing Israel amid an escalating volley of missiles and airstrikes in Hamas-controlled Gaza that has killed hundreds of civilians over the last week. The approach represents a new strategy for Republicans who have struggled to land consistent and effective criticism of Biden and his fellow Democrats during the opening months of his presidency.
Gaza children bearing the brunt in Israel-Hamas conflict
Suzy Ishkontana hardly speaks or eats. It’s been two days since the 7-year-old girl was pulled from the rubble of what was once her family’s home, destroyed amid a barrage of Israeli airstrikes. She spent hours buried in the wreckage as her siblings and mother died around her. Children are being subjected to extensive trauma in Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip. For some, it’s trauma they’ve seen repeatedly throughout their short lives. This is the fourth time in 12 years Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers have gone to war. Each time, Israel has unleashed heavy airstrikes at the densely populated Gaza Strip as it vows to stop Hamas rocket barrages launched toward Israel. According to Gaza health officials, at least 63 children are among the 217 Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza since the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas began on May 10. On the Israeli side, 12 people have been killed by Hamas rockets, all but one of them civilians, including a 5-year-old boy.
Ceasefire still elusive in Israel-Gaza fighting
Israel bombarded Gaza with airstrikes and Palestinian militants kept up cross-border rocket fire on Wednesday, with no firm sign of any imminent ceasefire despite international calls to end more than a week of fighting.
Israel accuses Chinese state TV of “blatant anti-Semitism”
Israel’s Embassy in China is protesting what it describes as “blatant anti-Semitism” on a programme ran by the overseas channel of state broadcaster CCTV discussing the ongoing violence in Gaza and elsewhere. In a tweet, the embassy said we have hoped that the times of the Jews controlling the world’s conspiracy theories were over, unfortunately, anti-Semitism has shown its ugly face again. We are appalled to see blatant anti-Semitism expressed in an official Chinese media outlet,” the tweet said. Calls to the embassy were answered with a message saying it was closed on Wednesday and it wasn’t immediately clear what it objected to in the three-minute segment.
