Israel has signaled both acceptance and rejection of the ceasefire plan, as Netanyahu’s government hangs in the balance; number of bodies recovered in Jabaliya after Israel military’s departure rises to 120; “worst of the worst levels of malnutrition” in Israel-created famine; northern Gaza declared disaster area; NYC Parade, Chabad, Michael Douglas, ADL support Israel’s actions; West Bank death; Maldives stands with Palestine, more…
Netanyahu aide says Israel agreed to Biden’s cease-fire plan for Gaza…but…
NBC News reports: An aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had agreed to the framework for President Joe Biden’s plan to bring an end to the war in Gaza, though he said it was “not a good deal.”
Biden announced Friday that Israel had proposed a three-part plan that would ultimately lead to a complete cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, as well as the release of all hostages who have been held there for the last eight months. It’s “time for this war to end,” Biden said.
A deal is yet to be finalized, and while Biden initially called it an Israeli proposal, Israel’s official position remains unclear.
Appearing on ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby reiterated Biden’s message, calling it an “Israeli proposal, one that they arrived at after intense diplomacy with our own national security team, and over at the State Department.”
Netanyahu appeared to undermine the plan, releasing a statement on Saturday that called a permanent cease-fire in Gaza a “nonstarter” until long-standing conditions for ending the war are met, reiterating that “Israel’s conditions for ending the war have not changed: the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, the freeing of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.”
If Hamas agrees to US truce proposal, Israel will say ‘yes’: White House
AFP reports: The United States said Sunday that if Hamas accepts the proposed multi-phase Gaza truce plan outlined by President Joe Biden, it expects Israel to follow suit.
“This was an Israeli proposal. We have every expectation that if Hamas agrees to the proposal, as was transmitted to them, an Israeli proposal, that Israel would say yes,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told ABC News.
The blueprint was transmitted to Hamas on Thursday night Washington time, Kirby said on the “This Week” talk show.
“We’re waiting for an official response from Hamas,” he added.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, both religious extremists, threatened to leave the coalition and topple the government if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enters a Gaza ceasefire deal that would entail ending the war without the elimination of the Hamas movement.
RECOMMENDED READING (The New Arab): Could Netanyahu ditch Israel’s far-right and accept Biden’s Gaza ceasefire?
(For information on Jewish religious extremism see this.)
White House official says Israel accomplished ‘most military goals’ in Gaza
Times of Israel reports: White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said that Israel accomplished most of its military goals against Hamas.
Asked about Biden’s assertion that Hamas can no longer conduct an attack similar to that of 7 October, 2023, Kirby said that “it is based on accumulation of our own intelligence assessments across the intelligence agencies”.
“We’re also not saying that Hamas has been wiped off the face of the map,” he told ABC News. “We have not said that Hamas has no military capabilities.
“We have not said that they don’t still represent a viable threat to the Israeli people. Of course they do.”
Rescue teams in Jabaliya recover 50 more bodies after pullout of Israeli troops
Sunday, rescue and civil defense teams recovered the bodies of 50 slain individuals from the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, bringing the total number of bodies retrieved since the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation army from the camp to more than 120 martyrs.
This marks the third consecutive day of recovery efforts following the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces from the camp after a deadly ground offensive that lasted over 20 days.
Last Friday, teams recovered over 70 bodies, including 20 children. The search continues for dozens of missing individuals among the rubble of homes, shelters, schools, and hospitals, all of which were not spared from the relentless Israeli bombardment and destruction. Even clinics and facilities belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) were not spared the devastation.
‘Gaza is witnessing the worst of the worst levels of malnutrition’
Save the Children’s Alexandra Saieh says aid organizations fear the situation in Gaza may worsen.
“Gaza is witnessing the worst of the worst levels of malnutrition, especially child malnutrition, and it’s entirely man-made,” Saieh told Al Jazeera.
“Children in Gaza are being starved, they are being deprived of clean water and they are being deprived of adequate medical assistance. And this is all being fuelled by the systematic obstruction of humanitarian aid and the ongoing hostility. A medical point in Tal as-Sultan [Rafah], which was addressing malnutrition, had to close this past week due to [Israeli] attacks in the area.”
Of the 36,000 Palestinians killed by Israel since October 7, 15,000 are children.
Saieh said there might be “an acceleration of deaths due to malnutrition, starvation, disease and dehydration, possibly even higher than what we are already seeing, which is just the tip of the iceberg”.
“We actually fear that the situation is much worse. Back in March, the UN warned of a famine, and we have not as humanitarian organizations been given the access to stave off that famine.”
WATCH: In Gaza, children bear the brunt of the war
Israeli forces destroy dialysis center at Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital
Israeli forces have attacked northern Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital and destroyed the Noura al-Kaabi specialized center for dialysis patients, according to footage obtained by Al Jazeera.
A doctor at the hospital said they had been barely recuperating after reopening the facility in recent weeks, when this latest attack on the hospital occurred.
“Despite going out of service at the beginning of Israel’s invasion of northern Gaza, they still entered the hospital and burned the second and third floors severely,” the doctor said.
“The outer fence was demolished. We have even found detonators in the hospital that were intended for blowing up the hospital but fortunately, and with the grace of God, things are good.”
North Gaza a ‘disaster-stricken area’ – Emergency Committee
The Emergency Committee of North Gaza has declared the Jabalia refugee camp and the entirety of the north as a disaster zone, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reports, after Israeli forces pulled out of Jabalia earlier this week following a 20-day military campaign there.
Here are some more key points made by the committee:
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- The Israeli military completely destroyed 50,000 residential units.
- Public facilities and infrastructure have been either completely destroyed or severely damaged.
- All northern Gaza municipalities have been destroyed and are unable to provide any public services whatsoever.
- Thirty-five water wells have been destroyed in northern Gaza.
- Famine is spreading rapidly as the Israeli military continues to block the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza, particularly the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
NYC Parade, Chabad, Michael Douglas, ADL, WJC support Israel:
Jewish Insider reports:
Tens of thousands of Israel supporters dressed in blue and white danced in the New York streets on Sunday afternoon — and hundreds more waved Israeli flags on parade floats, together singing “Am Yisrael Chai” — the annual parade and show of Jewish pride that takes place along Fifth Avenue…
Actor Michael Douglas is in Israel on a solidarity mission…
ADL’s chief legal officer, Steve Sheinberg, told JI that ADL regularly monitors the finances of anti-Israel groups…
The Chabad on Campus International convention was moved to Israel this year in a show of support…
Chabad’s origin: “At the beginning of his leadership in the early 1950s, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, reaches out to college campuses, sending rabbinical students to serve as a resource for Jewish students on campus.”
[Schneerson said that non-Jews have “satanic souls: and that non-Jews are “created to serve the Jews…”]
175 Chabad campus emissaries’ wives in Israel on solidarity mission…
Chabad feature: “Things That Make Me So Proud to Be a Jew Right Now”
The World Jewish Congress concluded a meeting of the organization’s Executive Committee following a two-day solidarity mission between 21-22 May 2024. The delegation was comprised of representatives from more than two dozen countries as well as student organizations…
Mohammed Al-Baytar, a 17-year-old Palestinian teenager, succumbed Sunday morning to injuries sustained from Israeli occupation forces’ gunfire last night in Aqabat Jaber refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank province of Jericho, according to the Governor of Jericho, Hussein Hamayel.
Last night, Israeli forces raided Aqabat Jaber refugee camp and opened fire on two teenagers near the western cemetery in the camp.
The incident resulted in the immediate murder of 16-year-old Ahmed Ashraf Hmedat and the injury of Al-Baytar, who was subsequently arrested. Medical teams were prevented from reaching him.
Al-Baytar was transported in critical condition by the occupation forces to a hospital in occupied Jerusalem, where he passed away of his wounds this morning.
With the killing of Al-Baytar, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, has risen to 521, including 131 children, while 5,000 others have been injured.
What’s in the new truce deal Biden announced?
The three-phased proposal calls for a ceasefire, the release of Israeli captives and Palestinian prisoners, as well as the reconstruction of Gaza.
First phase:
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- A “full and complete” ceasefire that will last for six weeks and during which Israeli forces will withdraw from Gaza’s population centres
- A number of Israeli captives held in Gaza, including women, the elderly and the wounded will be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners
- Palestinian civilians will return to their homes and neighborhoods in all areas of Gaza, including northern Gaza
- A total of 600 trucks will bring humanitarian aid into Gaza each day
Second phase:
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- Ceasefire to continue as Hamas and Israel negotiate terms of a permanent end to hostilities
- Release of all remaining Israeli captives who are alive, including male soldiers, while Israeli forces withdraw from Gaza
Third phase:
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- A reconstruction plan for Gaza that will involve Arab nations and the international community
- Any final remains of captives who have been killed will be returned to their families
Jabalia resistance: : “We all know that this enemy is fighting Palestinian existence, so they will commit even more horrifying massacres if no one faces them.”
“We live in fear of an inevitable death, but we know here in Jabalia that every soldier who invades our camp feels the same,” Abu Khater said.
“Young fighters affiliated with different factions are wandering in the alleys and waiting for any soldier or vehicle to attack and fight,” he told Mondoweiss. “They are revolting in anger. The occupation is killing their families and destroying their homes.”
“Everyone in the camp who has lost loved ones, family, who has been through harder experiences than death at the hands of the Israeli army…most of them want to fight. Because they lost everything. They live in pain and sorrow. So if they can, they fight.”
“Everyone wants to resist in Jabalia, each in their own way, and whoever cannot confront the army and soldiers will remain here on their land,” Abu Khater explained. “This is our resistance. Steadfastness and survival is also a fight.”
Maldives bans Israeli passport holders over war on Gaza
CNN reports: The Maldives has announced it will ban Israeli passport holders from entering the country amid its war on Hamas in Gaza.
The presidential office of the Indian Ocean island nation, known for its luxurious resorts and endless white sand beaches, made the announcement in a press release Sunday.
Maldivian President Dr Mohamed Muizzu resolved to impose the ban following a recommendation from the cabinet, the release said.
The country’s laws will be amended, and a cabinet subcommittee will be established to oversee the efforts, the president’s office said.
The president announced he is appointing a special envoy to assess Palestinian needs and is setting up a fundraiser to “assist our brothers and sisters in Palestine” with UNRWA, the release said.
