The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Public Works and Housing says almost half of the structures (101) destroyed or damaged during Israeli raids are located in the Nablus governorate, mainly in the villages of Qusra and Duma.

The rest are in the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem (82) and in the Ramallah area (43).

The ministry said 54,000sq metres (580,000sq ft) of infrastructure has also been destroyed by Israeli forces during raids into Tulkarem and Jenin in April.

Water tank severely damaged in Tal al-Hawa: Gaza City Municipality

The Palestinian Authority (PA) says the Israeli finance ministry is continuing to withhold tax revenues and, as a result, only a part of public sector salaries would be paid this week, keeping up a squeeze on payrolls that has lasted for months.

The PA said it would pay Palestinian public sector employees 50 percent of their March salaries on Tuesday, after Israel withheld a transfer due for the month of April. It said the arrears would be paid once the financial situation allowed.

The Israeli finance ministry confirmed it had been decided not to transfer tax revenues this month but declined to provide details.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) Minister of Economy Mohammad Alamour has called on the Economic and Social Council of the Arab League to activate a monthly fund created for the authority in 2019 “to support the steadfastness of our people in light of the genocidal war Israel has been carrying out since last October”.

Alamour made his comments in Manama on the sidelines of the council’s preparatory meetings ahead of the 33rd Arab Summit to be held in Bahrain. He also called for states and organisations to “come to the rescue of our people and supply humanitarian relief to our people in these exceptional circumstances”, a ministry readout said.

The Arab League first pledged the monthly safety net in April 2019, after Israel cut funding to the PA.

Israel, which controls all borders, collects taxes on imports on behalf of the PA, which it then transfers over. But Israel has been withholding millions of dollars on and off in past years in protest at payments the PA makes to Palestinian detainees.


Donors pledge more than $2bn for Gaza at Kuwait conference

Israel lacks ‘credible plan’ to safeguard Rafah civilians: Blinken

Nah, Biden and Blinken will just move the 'red-line' again or claim there's is no full scale attack. Just words for the elections.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reports that four Palestinians have been killed in the central Gaza town and 10 injured – all of whom are children and one of whom is an infant.

It also released a video showing its medics taking away the body of the baby, who was killed during an Israeli air strike.

The PRCS had earlier reported another deadly strike on the Maghazi refugee camp.


Civil Defence teams come under fire in Rafah

Israeli settlers, who were protected by soldiers, attacked the town of Qusra south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reports citing local sources.

This came hours after settlers attacked the outskirts of the village of Duma, also south of Nablus, setting fire to one house and spraying walls with inflammatory slogans.

Wafa said that south of Bethlehem, a 50-year-old Palestinian woman suffered from fractures in her limbs after an attack by Israeli settlers.

In the town of Azzun east of Qalqilya, a young Palestinian man was reportedly injured after being beaten by Israeli soldiers.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says the US and Europe are not doing enough to pressure Israel to agree a ceasefire in Gaza after Hamas accepted a truce proposal last week.

Speaking to Muslim scholars in Istanbul, Erdogan said Hamas had accepted a proposal from Qatar and Egypt in a “step on the path towards a lasting ceasefire” but Netanyahu’s government did not want the war to end.

“The response of the Netanyahu government was to attack the innocent people in Rafah,” he said. “It has become clear who sides with peace and dialogue and who wants clashes continuing and more bloodshed.

“And did Netanyahu see any serious reaction for his spoiled behaviour? No. Neither Europe nor America showed a reaction that would force Israel into a ceasefire.”

The ministry, in response to a social media post by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz critcising President Erdogan, said the Turkish leader was “unwavering” in his condemnation of Israel’s “inexcusable crimes” against the Palestinian people.

“Turkiye continues to work tirelessly to stop the massacre committed by Israel, taking decisive action to isolate Israel internationally,” it said in a post on X

“Turkiye will continue to shed light on the racist and unjust policies that Israel weaponises against the Palestinian people.”

Top Iranian foreign policy officials have told an Iranian-Arab dialogue forum in Tehran that the only way to a Middle East without nuclear weapons is to disarm Israel.

“We want a region with no nuclear weapons,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said.

Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, presented Iran’s solution towards that vision and warned of consequences of not realising it.

“This is the solution: Israel is the only country [in the region] to possess nuclear arms, so it must be disarmed. If it is not, a region without nuclear weapons will not be realised and there will be a nuclear race,” said Kharrazi, who said this week that Iran may change its policy of refraining from pursuing a weapon if existentially threatened.

Chairman of Iran’s strategic council on foreign relations, former FM Kamal Kharazi: if nuclear weapons are not removed from Israel, there will be competition to possess nuclear weapons across the region. pic.twitter.com/UJRUDw3QuY

— Ali Hashem علي هاشم (@alihashem_tv) May 12, 2024

American University of Beirut Faculty United, an independent association of faculty members, has released a statement calling for the revocation of Nemat “Minouche” Shafik’s 2018 honorary doctorate over “egregious dereliction of her duties as a scholar and a university servant”.

The association said Shafik took the unilateral decision to “violate the academic freedom of students, staff and faculty by declaring their peaceful protests against Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza a ‘clear and present danger’ and calling in the New York police to violently suppress their protests”.

The embattled president has faced an outcry from many students, faculty and outside observers for summoning New York police to dismantle a tent encampment set up on campus by students protesting against Israel’s war on Gaza.

More than 200 faculty signed the letter addressed to the AUB administration and called her actions “brutal and cowardly”.

“President Shafik has displayed craven absence of moral integrity and blatantly contradicted AUB’s mission, values, and ideals that are the basis for granting an honorary doctorate,” the letter said.

Former US President Donald Trump says he will be more confrontational in dealing with students demonstrating on university campuses against Israel’s war in Gaza and for their schools to divest from Israel.

“When I’m president, we will not allow our colleges to be taken over by violent radicals,” Trump told supporters at a campaign rally in New Jersey. He is running again in November’s presidential election.

“And if you come here from another country, trying to bring jihadism or anti-Americanism or anti-Semitism to our campuses, we will immediately deport you. You will be out of that soon.”

Trinity College Cambridge has opted to withdraw its investments from all arms manufacturers, the UK-based Middle East Eye (MEE) news outlet is reporting.

This development comes after MEE revealed in February that Cambridge’s wealthiest college had more than 61,735 pounds ($78,089) invested in Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms manufacturing entity that produces a significant number of drones for the Israeli military.

According to three sources who spoke to MEE, Trinity’s student union made the decision to divest from arms companies in early March.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), is making another plea to stop the killing of Palestinians as the Israeli military continues its ground offensives in Gaza’s cities and its bombing of civilians from the air.

“No words are left that can do any justice to the people of Gaza,” he wrote in a post on X.

“They are people, like you and I. They used to have dreams, they were part of a vibrant and diverse community. … Now, it’s only broken lives and broken futures.”

UN Special Rapporteur Balakrishnan Rajagopal says what is happening in Gaza – the Israeli army forcing the population to move from one place to another – is a form of ethnic cleansing “with eventually, I suppose, the goal of not allowing them to live in a normal way”.

“This is a matter of great concern because it is a very grave war crime under international law, particularly given Israel’s status as an occupying power,” he told Al Jazeera.

Balakrishnan said the destruction of vast amounts of infrastructure and housing in Gaza by the Israeli army constitutes a “domicide”.

“What we have seen in the case of Gaza is clearly a case of domicide and constitutes an act of genocide as well because the purpose of that destruction, exceeding 70 to 80 percent across Gaza, is to make the place uninhabitable for the people of Gaza,” he added.

“The way I see it, it’s like a form of what in America we call a ‘turkey shoot’. They are just doing target practice on the people of Gaza. To me, there’s nothing that resembles this in any other conflict in the world.”

Diana Buttu, a Palestinian lawyer and former legal adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization, has urged the world to look more closely at the actions of the Israeli army as it carries out its war on Gaza.

Gaza prisoners endure ‘barbaric treatment, systematic torture’ by Israeli forces: Rights group

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has told a US broadcaster that the US was right to “end [WWII]” by dropping two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Now, he said, Israel must be given “the bombs they need to end the war they can’t afford to lose”, during an interview with NBC News that is being widely shared online.

Graham said, “I thought it was okay” when the US dropped the nuclear bombs on Japan.

“To Israel, do whatever you have to do to survive as a Jewish state.”

This comes after President Joe Biden decided to halt a shipment of thousands of some of the largest bombs in the US military arsenal due to urgent humanitarian concerns after Israel launched its ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza.

Sen. Bernie Sanders says 'Israel has broken international law' and 'American law': Full interview



Although the host doesn't understand you can't defeat Hamas militarily (only make them stronger) at least she lets Bernie Sanders speaks.

And as not all democrats nor all republicans are pro genocide, neither are all of Hamas. Then not all Palestinians stand behind Hamas (34% in support of Hamas) and most are not part of Hamas (less than 5%, 70K Public sector, estimated 30K Qassam Brigades).

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/gazans-back-two-state-solution-rcna144183

Support for Hamas as a political party has fallen to 34% among Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, a 12-point drop from December 2023, according to a poll released Wednesday by a leading Palestinian research institute.  

While the war is eroding Palestinians’ view of Hamas as the governing body in Gaza, relative support remains high for the militant group’s role in the war. Seventy percent of Palestinians said they were “satisfied” with Hamas’ war performance, as compared to that of other Palestinian entities, like its political rival Fatah, whose deeply unpopular leader, Mahmoud Abbas, governs the West Bank.

Jacob Lew has downplayed the US’s recent decision to hold back the delivery of high-payload munitions, noting that the Biden administration decided to keep arming Israel last week after conducting a highly controversial assessment into Israeli actions in Gaza.

“We are providing an enormous amount of aid. We have been since before October 7. It’s increased since October 7. And even this week, as everyone is focusing on the decision to just delay – to hold – one set of ammunitions, everything else keeps flowing,” he told Israeli media.

“What the secretary concluded was there would be no interruption in US aid for Israel,” he said, referring to the US review. “That’s of huge consequence. You look at that in the context of one shipment of heavy bombs being delayed. You have to look at it in the broader context.”

The assessment in question found that Israeli forces likely used US-supplied weapons in a manner “inconsistent” with international law, but stopped short of identifying violations that would put an end to the ongoing military aid.

Israel says it opened new crossing into north Gaza

Tamer Qarmout, assistant professor of public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, spoke to Al Jazeera about the nature of recent comments made by various US officials warning against an Israeli offensive on Rafah.

He said they are designed to “diffuse tensions” domestically, but in regards to Israel’s actions in Rafah, they are “meaningless”.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US President Joe Biden, who have both warned against a Rafah offensive, are simply “washing their hands” of an “ongoing massacre that has already started”, Qarmout said.

Instead of condemning or blaming Israel for not having a credible plan, the US administration is “buying more time” and does not have the “political will or even the operational or military will to stop the Israelis”, Qarmout added.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says nearly 360,000 people have now fled Gaza’s Rafah since Israel issued evacuation orders on May 6.

“There’s nowhere to go. There’s no safety without a ceasefire,” the agency said in a post on X.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has shared a video on X showing families and children returning to UNRWA schools in Khan Younis.

The facilities show “extensive damage”, it said on X, with no water available in the city. “A new level of desperation, unfolding under the world’s watch.”

The enclave’s Health Ministry says without fuel for hospital generators, the health system across Gaza could collapse in “a few hours”.

“A few hours separate us from the collapse of the health system in the Gaza Strip as a result of the failure to bring in the fuel necessary to operate electricity generators in hospitals, ambulances, and transport employees,” the ministry said in a post on social media.

People flee as Israeli troops invade Jabalia refugee camp