Israel's National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said the war in Gaza will last at least another seven months

 

Israel News, Thursday, 30.05.2024     View in browser

U.S. officials told Haaretz the hostages in Gaza won't survive seven more months after Israel's national security adviser said the Gaza war will last at least until the end of 2024. Palestinian Islamic Jihad published a second video of Israeli hostage Sasha Troufanov. The Palestinian Red Crescent said two of its employees were killed in an Israeli strike in Rafah. The amount of humanitarian aid entering the Strip has dropped by two-thirds since Israel began its operation in Rafah, the UN said. War cabinet minister Benny Gantz's party submitted a bill to dissolve Israel's parliament and head to election. Here's what you need to know 237 days into the war     What happened today     ■ HOSTAGES/CEASE-FIRE: Following a statement by Israel's National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi that the war in Gaza will last at least another seven months, senior U.S. officials called on the Israeli government to prioritize a hostage release deal immediately. "Without getting into the question of whether or not the war should indeed last so many months, one thing is clear and must be said: we have to get a deal now. The hostages in Gaza can't wait seven more months. Every passing day increases the likelihood that they won't come back alive," a senior U.S. official told Haaretz. Palestinian Islamic Jihad published a second video of Israeli hostage Sasha Troufanov. ■ GAZA: The Palestinian Red Crescent said two of its employees in an ambulance bearing the organization's markings were killed Wednesday night in an Israeli strike in western Rafah. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said the two were on their way to retrieve bodies and wounded people from the area. Nineteen Palestinian Red Crescent workers have been killed since the war began. The IDF responded that Israeli forces fired at a suspicious car approaching them, and that it was investigating the incident, adding that the ambulance's presence in the area was not coordinated with the army. The IDF reported that the three soldiers who were killed Tuesday in Gaza were hit by an explosive device that went off inside a civilian clinic found in an UNRWA school in Rafah. The forces were operating in the area in response to anti-tank fire coming from the UNRWA school, according to the IDF. The U.S.-built pier meant to provide Gaza with humanitarian aid was so damaged by high seas that it is inoperable and is being sent to the Israeli city of Ashdod for repairs. The rebuilding would take at least a week, according to the U.S. Office for Palestinian Affairs. The amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza has dropped by two-thirds since Israel began its operation in Rafah earlier this month, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. For the first time since the war began, Israel lifted the ban on Gazans purchasing goods from Israeli businesses. According to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza, at least 36,224 Palestinians have been killed and 81,420 wounded since the start of the war. "Management of the Rafah crossing by a Palestinian-Egyptian-international partnership could serve as an initial test case in a long process that would free Israel from civilian control in Gaza and from being swept into a full occupation that would entail direct responsibility for managing all aspects of civilian life there. But so far Israel is the one putting up the insurmountable hurdle of absolutely refusing to bend on the political axiom that says it will not let the 'Terror Authority' set foot in Gaza" – Zvi Bar'el ■ PALESTINIAN STATE: The Slovenian government approved the recognition of an independent Palestinian state, Prime Minister Robert Golob said. The decision must also be approved by Slovenia's parliament in the coming days. China supports the establishment of a Palestinian state that would be a UN member and calls for an international peace conference that would end the war between Israel and Hamas on the basis of a two-state solution, President Xi Jinping said to Arab leaders and diplomats at a forum in Beijing, adding that China would send $70 million to treat the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and will donate an additional $3 million to UNRWA. ■ U.S.-ISRAEL: Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told his American counterpart Lloyd Austin that there is "concrete information" regarding the presence of Israeli hostages in Rafah, CNN reported, citing a Defense Ministry statement. ■ ISRAEL: War cabinet minister Benny Gantz's National Unity party submitted a bill to dissolve Israel's parliament in order to hold an early election. Despite the move, it is likely the bill will not be brought up to a vote in the Knesset as long as there is no guaranteed majority. PM Netanyahu's Likud party responded by saying "breaking up the [current] unity government is a reward for [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar, a capitulation to international pressure and a fatal blow to efforts to release our hostages," to which the National Unity party replied that Netanyahu "time and again, chooses his personal interests over the country's." The IDF announced the names of two soldiers who were killed in a car-ramming attack in the West Bank on Wednesday and a soldier who was killed in northern Gaza: Staff Sergeant Eliya Hilel, 20, Staff Sergeant Diego Shvisha Harsaj, 20, and Staff Sergeant Yedidya Azugi, 20. An IDF official told Haaretz the perpetrator of the car-ramming attack turned himself in to the Palestinian Authority. ■ SYRIA: One girl was killed and ten others wounded in an Israeli strike on a residential area in the city of Baniyas in western Syria, the Syrian news agency reported. ■ WEST BANK: During an IDF operation in the town of Al-Bireh, a fruit and vegetable wholesale market burned down in the town, residents said, adding that the raid included gunfire and grenades thrown near the market. The Palestinian Health Ministry said five people were wounded in the fire, with two in serious condition. The IDF has yet to comment on the incident. The Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah said a man was moderately wounded by IDF gunfire in the city of Jenin. "For at least a decade, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has not tried to hide his goal of bringing about the demise of the PA in the West Bank. In the current chaos he sees an opportunity to act and is trying to push Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to support him in defiance of the rare consensus among senior defense officials" – Amos Harel