live blog
The USA has requested a vote in the Security Council on the plan for a ceasefire between Israel and the Islamist Hamas. The United Nations is suspending naval aid for Gaza due to security concerns. The developments in the live blog.
Despite her controversial likes for anti-Semitic posts, the board of trustees of the Technical University of Berlin stands behind university president Geraldine Rauch. The majority of the committee decided to “support Rauch constructively and critically in her announced new beginning,” the board of trustees announced after a meeting. Among other things, Rauch had liked a post on the X platform with a picture in which Turkish demonstrators had painted swastikas on the chest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. After heavy criticism, Rauch apologized.
The official X-Account of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) accuses the news channel Al Jazeera of employing a Hamas terrorist who held three of the freed hostages in his family home in Nuseirat. The post is accompanied by a screenshot of the Al Jazeera website, which lists Abdallah Aljamal as a reporter and photojournalist from Gaza. A single post from 2019 is listed under his name on the website.
Al Jazeera described the allegations as “slander” and “misinformation” designed to damage Al Jazeera’s reputation. According to the company, Abdullah Aljamal never worked for the broadcaster, but he contributed to an opinion article in 2019. The allegations are “completely unfounded”.
Israeli Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has demanded to be included in the body following Benny Gantz’s resignation from the War Cabinet. The War Cabinet is currently the most important decision-making body in Israel. However, Netanyahu is expected to dissolve the War Cabinet and leave only the so-called Security Cabinet. Ben-Gvir and the far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have threatened Netanyahu with the collapse of the coalition if Israel implements the agreement supported by US President Joe Biden for a ceasefire and the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Egypt for talks on a ceasefire in the Gaza war. A meeting with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is planned there, according to informed sources. During his Middle East trip, Blinken plans to visit not only Egypt but also Israel, Jordan and Qatar until Wednesday. According to his ministry, the plan will be discussed by US President Joe Biden to end the fighting in the Gaza Strip. Hamas’ response to the proposal is still pending.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (third from left) meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo.
Former Defense Minister Benny Gantz will leave Israel’s war cabinet. Gantz had announced that he would withdraw from the emergency government if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not meet a number of demands. Among other things, Gantz had called on Netanyahu in May to present a plan for Israel’s actions after an end to the Gaza war by June 8, which has not yet happened.
Gantz is considered to be Netanyahu’s main political rival. The opposition politician, whose party has so far supported Netanyahu’s coalition, called for new elections on Sunday evening. Netanyahu has a coalition majority in parliament even without this support, but is now even more dependent on his right-wing partners.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is beginning his eighth diplomatic mission to the Middle East since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October. It comes at a time when a proposal for a ceasefire between Israel and the militant Islamist Hamas is hanging in the balance, the Israeli military has freed four hostages from the Gaza Strip in a major operation and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu is in serious turmoil. There has still been no reaction from Hamas to the proposal for a ceasefire received ten days ago.
Due to concerns for the safety of its staff, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has suspended humanitarian aid to Gaza via the US floating pier off the coast of the Gaza Strip. WFP Director Cindy McCain announced this, according to media reports.
The pier had only been reopened on Saturday following storm damage; at the end of May it had to be shut down just ten days after it was put into operation.
A WFP employee was reportedly injured on Saturday during the liberation of Israeli hostages and the associated heavy fighting in the area of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip. Two warehouses belonging to the UN organization were attacked with rockets. According to the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a partner of the WFP, the interruption of the sea aid is intended to make it possible to reassess the security situation, reports the newspaper Times of Israel.
The United States has requested a vote in the UN Security Council on the plan for a ceasefire between Israel and the Islamist Hamas and the release of Hamas hostages in the Gaza Strip.
The Security Council should support the “proposal on the table,” said Nate Evans, spokesman for the US mission to the United Nations. According to diplomats, the vote is expected to take place on Monday.
At the end of May, US President Joe Biden presented a three-stage plan that would lead from a temporary ceasefire to an end to the fighting in the Gaza Strip. It includes an “immediate and complete” ceasefire, the release of hostages kidnapped by the radical Islamist Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a withdrawal of the Israeli army from populated areas of the Gaza Strip and the delivery of humanitarian aid.
The commander of the Israeli Gaza division has resigned because of his failure on the day of the Hamas massacre. Prime Minister Netanyahu is accused of not meeting with the victims’ relatives. Read about the developments on Sunday.