Live: Gaza invasion

Hamas says the Israeli army’s operation in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank will not discourage the determination of the group and called the move “desperate”, Al Jazeera reports.

The operation is “a continuation of a series of the occupation’s crimes of murder, siege and starvation in Rafah, Jabalia and other areas of the Gaza Strip”, a statement by the group said.

The movement added: “As we mourn the martyrs and extend our condolences to their families, we affirm that the occupation’s continuing crimes against our people in Gaza and the West Bank will not weaken the support of our people, nor will they stop the resistance of our people.”

The group stressed it “continues to confront the occupation and its aggression by all means, despite international complicity and silence”.

The Palestinian health ministry condemned General Surgeon Usaid Jabarin’s “deliberate murder” by the Israeli forces during their raid in Jenin.

Furthermore, the health ministry in a statement appealed to the international community for the protection of medical staff and hospitals.

Jabarin was shot dead on his way to Jenin Government Hospital, where he worked as a specialist, according to Al Jazeera.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog says it should seriously consider normalising relations with Saudi Arabia, calling such a move a “game-changer”, Al Jazeera reports citing Israeli media.

According to media reports, he said at a conference that US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke about a proposal for Israeli normalisation of ties with Saudi Arabia in their meeting two days ago.

“This is a move that could bring about tremendous change, a historic game-changer that constitutes a victory over the empire of evil. I very much hope that this possibility is being seriously considered,” he was quoted as saying by Israeli media.

“Our struggle is not only against Hamas, it is a great strategic and historical, inter-power and global struggle, and we must do everything to fit into the grand vision of normalisation.”

The Israeli raids today took place in Ramallah, Nablus and Tubas in the occupied West Bank, as well as in occupied East Jerusalem, according to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, Al Jazeera reports.

The 15 arrests bring the number of Palestinians arrested by Israeli forces since October 7 to 8,815, according to the organisations’ statement.

Gaza Strip residents criticised the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s decision to seek the arrest of Hamas leaders, saying it falsely equated them with the Israeli leaders “waging war” in the Palestinian enclave since October, Reuters reports.

“The world is unjust, they see with one eye. How come they equate between us and the occupation?” said Um Samed, a mother of six displaced by the war between different neighbourhoods of Gaza City.

“Did Hamas use planes to bomb Tel Aviv? Did they kill 35,000 people and still thousands more are missing? This is insane,” she told Reuters on a messaging app.

Another resident of Gaza City, 25-year-old Mohammad Farouq, said it was “a joke” that the ICC had requested a warrant against Deif alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

Food and medicine for Palestinians in Gaza are piling up in Egypt because the Rafah crossing remains closed and there has been no aid delivered to a UN warehouse from a US-built pier for two days, UN officials warned, Reuters reports.

Senior UN aid official Edem Wosornu said there were insufficient supplies and fuel to provide any meaningful level of support to the people of Gaza as they endure Israel’s military onslaught against Hamas.

“We are running out of words to describe what is happening in Gaza. We have described it as a catastrophe, a nightmare, as hell on earth. It is all of these, and worse,” she said.

She told the UN Security Council that the closure of Rafah crossing from Egypt had stopped the delivery of at least 82,000 metric tonnes of supplies, while access at Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing was limited due to “hostilities, challenging logistical conditions, and complex coordination procedures.”

Israel made a new push in central Gaza bombarded towns in the north of the Strip and said it intended to broaden its military operation in Rafah despite US warnings of the risk of mass casualties in the southern city, Reuters reports.

Gaza medics said at least 23 people had been killed in the latest fighting, and residents said battles were intense in Jabalia in the north of the Palestinian enclave.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has described a request by the International Criminal Court prosecutor for arrest warrants against him and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “disgraceful” bid to interfere in the Gaza conflict.

“The attempt by Prosecutor Karim Khan to deny the Stat of Israel the right to self-defence and to free its hostages must be rejected out of hand,” Gallant said in a post on X.

China said it hoped the International Criminal Court would uphold an “objective” position after a prosecutor requested arrest warrants for leaders from Israel, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Hamas, AFP reports.

Asked on Tuesday about the decision, Beijing said there was “an overwhelming consensus in the international community to immediately stop the onslaught in Gaza and put an end to the humanitarian crisis of the Palestinian people”.

“It is hoped that the ICC will uphold its objective and impartial position and exercise its powers in accordance with the law,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.

“The collective punishment of the Palestinian people should not be continued,” he added.

“China has always stood on the side of justice and international law on the Palestinian issue,” Wang said, adding Beijing supported “endeavours to promote a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the Palestinian issue”.

Palestinian health officials said Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, where the military said it had launched a counterterrorism operation, AFP reports.

The Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah said nine more people had been wounded, including two who were in critical condition.

The Israeli military said in a statement that troops had launched a “counterterrorism operation in Jenin and they were fighting with armed men”, without providing further details.

Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported that among those killed was a surgeon, Usaeed Jabareen, from the Jenin government hospital.

A school teacher and a student were also killed, Wafa reported, quoting hospital director Wissam Bakr.

Following the raid, all schools in Jenin and in the adjacent refugee camp had been evacuated, Wafa said.

There is no end to the bloodshed in Gaza as dozens of people have been killed by Israeli air attacks in Jabalia in the north, as well as in Rafah in the south.

In one incident, an Israeli attack on the Jabalia refugee camp ripped victims to pieces, leaving “dismembered heads on the streets”, witnesses and emergency crews have recounted.

Watch the report by Al Jazeera here:

The rights organisations Al-Haq, Al Mezan, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said that ICC prosecutor Karim Khan’s decision to file an application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is “a crucial step” towards ending impunity in Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.

In a statement, the three organisations said the ICC announcement follows after “tireless efforts by Palestinian and international civil society organisations demanding the issuance of arrest warrants” for members of Israel’s war cabinet.

“While we welcome the issuing of charges for crimes against humanity, there is also a public catalogue of genocidal statements of intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, including through the intentional denial of aid,” the organisations said.

“For these reasons, genocide as an additional crime should be included in an amendment to the charges,” they added.

The two reservists — one serving with the Givati Brigade and another with a logistics group — suffered serious injuries in fighting on Monday in the south of the Gaza Strip, the military said, Al Jazeera reports.

Both were evacuated for treatment in Israel.

As of Monday, based on official Israeli figures, 282 soldiers have been killed and 1,745 injured in fighting in Gaza — or along the territory’s border with Israel —since the start of the most recent onslaught on the Palestinian territory.

Israel and Hamas, engaged in heavy fighting in the Gaza Strip, both angrily rejected on Monday moves to arrest their leaders for war crimes made before an international court, AFP reports.

The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor Karim Khan said he had applied for arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas leaders over the conflict.

Israel slammed as a “historical disgrace” the demand targeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, while Hamas said it “strongly condemns” the move.

Israel’s top ally the United States joined the condemnation, while France said it supported the court’s independence and its “fight against impunity”.

Netanyahu said he rejected “with disgust The Hague prosecutor’s comparison between democratic Israel and the mass murderers of Hamas”.

Khan said in a statement that he was seeking warrants against the Israeli leaders for crimes including “wilful killing”, “extermination and/or murder”, and “starvation”.

He said Israel had committed “crimes against humanity” during the onslaught, started by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack, as part “of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population”.

The US Central Command (Centcom) has said more than 569 metric tons of humanitarian assistance has been delivered so far across a temporary floating pier to Gaza, but not all the aid has reached warehouses, Reuters reports.

Aid deliveries began arriving at a US-built pier on Friday as Israel comes under growing global pressure to allow more supplies into the besieged coastal enclave.

The UN said that 10 truckloads of food aid — transported from the pier site by UN contractors — were received on Friday at a World Food Programme warehouse in Deir El Balah in Gaza.

But on Saturday, only five truckloads made it to the warehouse after 11 others were cleaned out by Palestinians during the journey through an area that a UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said has been hard to access with humanitarian aid.

The UN did not receive any aid from the pier on Sunday or Monday.

Scores of graduating students staged a walkout from Yale University’s commencement exercises on Monday, protesting the Israeli offensive in Gaza, Yale’s financial ties to weapons makers and its response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations on the Ivy League campus, Reuters reports.

The walkout began as Yale President Peter Salovey started to announce the traditional college-by-college presentation of candidates for degrees on the grounds of Yale’s Old Campus, filled with thousands of graduates in their caps and gowns.

At least 150 students seated near the front of the audience stood up together, turned their backs to the stage and paraded out of the ceremony through Phelps Gate, retracing their steps during the processional into the yard.

Many of the protesters carried small banners with such slogans as “Books not bombs” and “Divest from war.” Some wore red-colored latex gloves symbolizing bloodied hands.

Other signs read: “Drop the charges” and “Protect free speech” in reference to 45 people arrested in a police crackdown last month on demonstrations in and around the New Haven, Connecticut, campus.

The walkout drew a chorus of cheers from fellow students in the crowd, but the protest was otherwise peaceful, without disruption. No mention of it was made from the stage.

France said it supported the independence of the International Criminal Court, whose prosecutor has requested arrest warrants for leaders from Israel, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Hamas, AFP reports.

“France supports the International Criminal Court, its independence, and the fight against impunity in all situations,” its foreign ministry said in a statement.

The ministry “condemned the anti-Semitic massacres perpetrated by Hamas” during the group’s attack on Israel on October 7, which was “accompanied by acts of torture and sexual violence”.

It also said it had warned Israel “of the need for strict compliance with international humanitarian law, and in particular of the unacceptable level of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip and inadequate humanitarian access”.

The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor Karim Khan said on Monday he had applied for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes including “willful killing”, “extermination and/or murder”, and “starvation” during the offensive in Gaza.

He said Israel had committed “crimes against humanity”, and accused it “of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population”. Khan also said the leaders of Palestinian group Hamas, including Qatar-based Ismail Haniyeh and Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, “bear criminal responsibility” for actions committed during the October 7 attack.

These included “taking hostages”, “rape and other acts of sexual violence”, and “torture”, he said.

“International law and the laws of armed conflict apply to all,” Khan said. “No foot soldier, no commander, no civilian leader — no one — can act with impunity.”

US President Joe Biden slammed the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling the move “outrageous”, Reuters reports.

“And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.” Biden said in a statement.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken denounced as “shameful” a bid by the International Criminal Court prosecutor to arrest Israeli leaders, rejecting the court’s authority and saying the move put ceasefire efforts at risk, AFP reports.

“We reject the prosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas. It is shameful,” Blinken said in a statement.

Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), says Khan’s decision to seek arrest warrants “reaffirms the crucial role” of the ICC, Al Jazeera reports.

“Victims of serious abuses in Israel and Palestine have faced a wall of impunity for decades. This principled first step by the prosecutor opens the door to those responsible for the atrocities committed in recent months to answer for their actions at a fair trial,” Jarrah said in a statement.

“ICC member countries should stand ready to resolutely protect the ICC’s independence as hostile pressure is likely to increase while the ICC judges consider Khan’s request.”

Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn) has also urged the US to suspend all arms transfers to Israel, “given the ICC’s conclusion that Israeli officials at the highest levels are engaging in war crimes for which the court is seeking their arrest”, Al Jazeera reports.

“US officials involved in approving and sending additional weapons to Israel may find themselves next in line facing ICC arrest warrants,” said Raed Jarrar, Dawn’s advocacy director.

Following Khan’s application for arrest warrants, a panel of pre-trial judges will determine whether the evidence supports their issuing.

Sarah Leah Whitson, Dawn’s executive director, also called for warrants to indict Israeli officials for Israel’s ongoing settlement enterprise, which are also war crimes under the Rome Statute.

“Any effort to ‘balance’ warrants against Israeli officials with an equal number of warrants against Palestinian officials would be an embarrassing concession to political calculations,” she said.

A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has denounced requests from the ICC prosecutor for arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and three Hamas leaders, Al Jazeera reports.

“This action is not helpful in relation to reaching a pause in the fighting, getting hostages out or getting humanitarian aid in,” the spokesperson said.

Gazans have spared little thought for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi killed in a helicopter crash, saying he had failed to ease the suffering in the conflict-ridden Palestinian territory, AFP reports.

Gazans in the central city of Deir al-Balah, an area which has been hit by fighting between Hamas and Israeli troops since the October 7 attacks, told AFP that Raisi’s legacy in the Palestinian territory had been tarnished by inaction over their plight.

“He never supported us, never kept his promises, never called for a ceasefire, and never stood by us. He does not concern us at all,” said Naji Khodeir, a resident of the city, which now hosts large numbers of Gazans fleeing fighting further south.

“He means nothing to us and nothing to Gaza,” said Bilal Khodary, a displaced Gazan.

Gazans said they were more concerned with their dire humanitarian situation.

“I only grieve for my people who die every day, for the thousands of victims and martyrs who are falling, and for the fact that no one cares about us,” said Roba al-Azaiza, a Deir al-Balah resident.

“With all this destruction and devastation we’ve faced, no country has paid attention to us,” said Hossam Abdallah.

“Why should I care about this man when he has only brought us ruin? “

The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s office has requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence minister and three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes, Reuters reports.

Here are some reactions to the decision:

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the decision, “equates the victim with the executioner” and encourages Israel to continue its “war of extermination” in Gaza.

Israeli War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz said, “Drawing parallels between the leaders of a democratic country determined to defend itself from despicable terror to leaders of a blood-thirsty terror organisation (Hamas) is a deep distortion of justice and blatant moral bankruptcy.”

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid called the decision to seek arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant “a disaster”.

Israeli finance minister Bezazel Smotrich called the decision a “show of hypocrisy and Jew-hatred”. “Arrest warrants against them are arrest warrants against us all,” he added.

Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s Executive Committee, said, “The Palestinian people have the right to defend themselves … The ICC is required to issue arrest warrants against Israeli officials who are pursuing crimes of genocide in the Gaza Strip.”

The health ministry in Gaza has said that at least 35,562 people have been killed in the territory during more than seven months of fighting between Israel and Hamas, AFP reports.

The toll includes 106 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 79,652 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since October 7.