live blog
The Israeli war cabinet has voted to continue negotiations for the release of the hostages from Hamas control. Egypt is threatening to give up its role as mediator. All developments in the live blog.
Yesterday, pro-Palestinian activists occupied the grounds of the Humboldt University in Berlin. The university intends to tolerate the action – until 6 p.m. today. There will be a discussion event in the afternoon. Teaching at the university is suspended today.
Colombia wants to open an embassy in the city of Ramallah in the West Bank. Colombian President Gustavo Petro has given the order to do so, said the country’s Foreign Minister Luis Murillo. The South American country is a bitter critic of Israel and considers its military actions in the Gaza Strip to be genocide.
The announcement by the left-wing Colombian government came shortly after Ireland, Norway and Spain announced their intention to recognize a Palestinian state. “Colombia has already recognized Palestine as a state in recent years,” Murillo stressed. The government is convinced that more and more countries will follow suit.
In a conversation with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin pushed for an agreement between Israel and Egypt to enable the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom and Rafah border crossings.
The Rafah border crossing is currently closed after the Israeli military gained control of the crossing on the Palestinian side. Egypt is demanding that Israel return control to the Palestinians and will only then allow deliveries through the border crossing. According to reports from Politico magazine, Egypt has also stopped deliveries to the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom crossing in order to enforce its demand on Israel.
Israel wants to resume stalled talks on the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip. After several hours of deliberations, the War Cabinet issued corresponding instructions to Israel’s negotiating team, Israeli media reported, citing a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
The latest round of negotiations between Israel and Hamas failed again. Since then there has been a standstill in the talks, with Egypt, Qatar and the USA acting as mediators.
Norway, Spain and Ireland have declared that they want to recognize a Palestinian state. Germany continues to push for a two-state solution achieved through negotiations. Recognition of a Palestinian state could certainly “create facts,” said Daniel Gerlach, editor-in-chief of the Middle East specialist magazine “zenith” in the daily newsRecognition would mean “an upgrade at the United Nations” as well as an “international upgrade”. “Then you would no longer have an existential conflict between a state of Israel and a Palestinian entity, which de facto does not exist. Instead you would have two states that would then enter into negotiations with each other and whose negotiations could also be promoted – regardless of what the government under Netanyahu thinks about it,” said Gerlach.
In Tel Aviv, Israel, thousands of people once again took to the streets to demand the release of the hostages who are still held by the terrorist militia Hamas. There were also protests in Jerusalem in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, as the Times of Israel newspaper reported.
Previously, video footage was released yesterday showing the kidnapping of five Israeli soldiers during Hamas’ attack on Israel last October. Relatives of the affected women had agreed to the publication in the hope that the recordings could increase pressure on the Israeli government to agree to a compromise for the release of the hostages.
According to the Reuters news agency, the Israeli army has continued its attacks on the Gaza Strip. Eight people, including children, are said to have been killed in an air strike on a house in the Al-Nuseirat camp in the center of the coastal strip. The agency relied on information from local rescue workers. Another airstrike on a mosque in Gaza City, which was used as accommodation for displaced families, also resulted in several deaths and injuries.
According to the United Nations, more than 900,000 refugees in the Gaza Strip have no access to essential goods such as water, food or shelter. This applies to around 815,000 Palestinians who had to flee Rafah because of the Israeli military operation, said the UN emergency relief office OCHA. In addition, around 100,000 residents in the north of the Gaza Strip are affected. The need is particularly great in the east of Rafah and in the Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the Palestinian territory.
Egypt has threatened to give up its role as a mediator between Israel and the militant Islamist Hamas. Continued attempts to cast doubt on Egyptian mediation efforts and its role with false claims will only further complicate the situation in the Gaza Strip and across the region, Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt’s state information service, said in a statement posted on social media. This could “lead the Egyptian side to decide to completely withdraw from mediation activities in the conflict.”
Rashwan responded to a report by CNN. It said Egyptian intelligence changed a Gaza ceasefire proposal accepted by Israel without consulting the other mediators. Since Israel and Hamas do not negotiate directly with each other, Egypt, Qatar and the USA act as mediators. The secret service added further demands from Hamas to the proposal. Hamas agreed to this revised version in early May. However, this no longer corresponded to the compromise proposal accepted by Israel.