A Palestinian official told the Wafa agency that the Israeli settlers who set fire to farmland and a scrapyard in the West Bank village of Yatma did so “under the protection of Israeli occupation forces”.

Ahmed Sanobar, the head of the Yatma village council, also told Wafa that hundreds of settlers were involved in the attack and that Palestinians confronted the assailants and managed to extinguish the fires.

“Confrontations ensued between the residents and the attacking colonists, supported by Israeli soldiers who fired live ammunition and tear gas canisters at the former,” Wafa reported.

The agency said there were no reported injuries from the attack.

Showing massive hostility and hatred, colonial Israeli settlers stormed the town of Yatma, south of Nablus, attacking and setting fire to Palestinian-owned vehicles. pic.twitter.com/VOD54ADAjj

— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) May 19, 2024

UN unable to monitor entry of aid into Gaza since May 6

The Israeli army has said it killed two Hamas officials who served in the police forces in Gaza in air strikes. In a statement on X, the army said Zaher al-Houli, a senior police officer who works in central Gaza camps, was targeted in a strike on Sunday.

A separate attack killed Rami Khalil Faki, who the Israeli military claims is a member of Hamas’s military wing, and a senior officer in the Nuseirat police in central Gaza. Faki’s deputy and four other Hamas members were killed in the attack that took place on Saturday, it added.

Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, has said its fighters clashed with Israeli troops accompanied by a military vehicle in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

The group said on Telegram the incident took place near the Imad Aql Mosque, claiming that it had killed and wounded Israeli soldiers. Israel has been carrying out an operation around the camp.

Israeli air strikes and artillery shellings have struck across the Gaza Strip, with at least three people killed and several injured after a residential apartment in the Tal as-Sultan neighbourhood near Rafah in the south of the enclave was targeted, according to sources on the ground.

Northern Gaza has also witnessed heavy bombardment, with reports of artillery attacks near the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City. Several people have been killed and wounded after a house was bombed in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood north of Gaza City, sources told Al Jazeera.

Israeli warplanes have carried out an intense bombardment in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, including the al-Qasaaseeb neighbourhood.

The Israeli army has said it killed a fighter in a tunnel shaft in eastern Rafah. The troops directed a drone to hit the location, killing the fighter, according to a statement by the military on X.

The army said it keeps storming Hamas sites in the Rafah area, killing fighters and locating dozens of tunnels.

Deaths and injuries are feared after an Israeli attack targeted a group of residential buildings in the Mashrou neighbourhood in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza.

Footage obtained by Al Jazeera showed the moments after Israeli shelling targeted homes and caused extensive destruction. The scenes showed people being transported from the scene in difficult conditions.

The final toll of the attack is unclear.

At least 35,562 Palestinians have been killed and 79,652 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, the Health Ministry in the besieged and bombarded territory has announced.

The ministry said that 106 people were killed and 176 wounded in the latest 24-hour reporting period.

We are receiving updates on the previously-reported Israeli attack that targeted residential buildings in the Mashrou neighbourhood of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza. The dead and injured have been transferred to the Kamal Adwan Hospital. Sources from inside the hospital said that seven people were killed and dozens injured are being treated at the hospital.

As we previously reported, video footage obtained by Al Jazeera showed the moments after the Israeli shelling targeted homes and caused extensive destruction. The scenes showed people being transported from the scene in difficult conditions.

The Palestinian group Hamas has mourned the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who it said had supported the Palestinian people during the recent war with Israel.

The charred wreckage of the helicopter, which crashed on Sunday carrying Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, was found early on Monday after an overnight search in a mountainous terrain near the border with Azerbaijan.

“These leaders supported the legitimate struggle of our people against the Zionist entity, provided valued support to the Palestinian resistance, and made tireless efforts in solidarity and support in all forums and fields for our people in the steadfast Gaza Strip during the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood,” referring to the current war with Israel.

Hamas, earlier in the morning, expressed its condolences over the death of Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, mourning in a statement an “honourable supporter” of the Palestinian group.

It said it appreciated Raisi’s “support for the Palestinian resistance, and tireless efforts in solidarity” with Palestinians since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reports on the statement from in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza in the video below:

Lebanon’s Hezbollah group has said it mourns the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and other officials in a helicopter crash, praising him as a “protector” of allied groups in the region.

“Hezbollah in Lebanon extends its deepest condolences,” the group said in a statement, adding that they knew Raisi “closely for a long time” and that he was “a strong supporter, and a staunch defender of our causes… and a protector of the resistance movements”.

Several Israeli media outlets are reporting the Israeli Prime Minister has rejected a proposal to resume indirect negotiations with Hamas put forward by Israeli negotiators.

Netanyahu reportedly turned down the plan on Saturday, the same day Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz said he would quit if Netanyahu’s government failed to present a post-war plan for Gaza by June 8.

The update comes almost two weeks after Netanyahu’s office said it would “send a working delegation to the mediators” when it rejected a Qatari-Egyptian mediated ceasefire deal that Hamas had accepted. Soon after, Israel launched its long-threatened ground invasion of Rafah, which according to the United Nations has since displaced about 800,000 people.

Israel’s Gallant says Israel will expand operation in Rafah

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has applied for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in connection with their actions during the seven-month war.

Karim Khan, the ICC prosecutor has also sought the arrest of three Hamas leaders: Yahya Sinwar(Palestinian politician who has been leader of Hamas, believed to be in Gaza), Mohammed Deif (Head of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas) and Ismail Haniyeh (Senior political leader of Hamas, the current chairman of Hamas’s political bureau, resides in Qatar).



Of course CNN keeps Oct 7 as the starting point. Conveniently forgetting the ICC has been investigating Netanyahu for war crimes since the 2014 bombing of Gaza.

More on sought arrest warrants from ICC prosecutor

Still double standards on display. The sexual abuse and torture in Israeli prisons has been proven (for decades) yet not listed while rape and torture still haven't been proven on Oct 7 nor the following treatment of the hostages. Or maybe it's all lumped together under "other inhumane acts". Hostage taking is enough of a war crime as well as killing civilians. Yet it feels like Karim Khan had to pad the list for political reasons. (and leave out the role Netanyahu played in his previous rule as president)

The ICC only deals with serious crimes but when you hear what is detailed on both sides, it really is sobering.

On the Israeli side, he is naming the prime minister and the defence minister but says this was a state policy, this was official government policy to use starvation as a method of war.

I think it is interesting that he’s decided to make this public at this stage because the other important decision by Khan in the last couple of years is when he brought an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin and his children’s commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova – that was in March 2023.

At that stage there were arrest warrants. We’re not at this stage; he’s gone public saying there should be arrest warrants and he needs to go to the judges. Last time, he had already gone to the judges and it was made public that the judges have approved the recommendation.

I can’t tell you the reason why but perhaps he’s trying to force an end to the violence by speaking out as early as possibly and try to force efforts for a ceasefire. That seems to be a possibility why he’s decided to act this way.

The decision by the ICC prosecutor to seek arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders “equates the victim with the executioner”, a senior Hamas official told the Reuters news agency.

Sami Abu Zuhri also said the ICC decision gives encouragement to Israel to continue its “war of extermination” in Gaza.

Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has denounced the application for arrest warrants against his country’s prime minister and defence minister by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court as “a crime of historic proportion”.

“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,” Gantz said.

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official Wasel Abu Youssef has called the ICC prosecutor’s move to also request arrest warrants for Hamas leaders was a “confusion between the victim and the executioner”.

“The ICC is required to issue arrest warrants against Israeli officials who continue committing genocide crimes in the Gaza Strip,” he also said


The ICC is under immense political pressure, not seeking arrest warrants against Hamas leaders would undermine seeking arrest warrants against Israeli leaders. But they are right, Sinwar was leading the movement to more peaceful solutions and changed the Hamas charter in 2017 to advocate for a 2-state solution, which Netanyahu firmly rejects. Mohammed Deif though, he's fully behind Oct 7 and deserves to be in jail for the rest of his life.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has likened the announcement by the International Criminal Court prosecutor on seeking arrest warrants for top Israeli officials to Nazi propaganda.

“We haven’t seen such a show of hypocrisy and hatred of Jews like that of the Hague Tribunal since Nazi propaganda,” Smotrich said on X. He also said all Israelis should feel as though there are arrest warrants against them after the announcement by Karim Khan.

Khan earlier said he will apply for arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

Ben G'Vir and Smothrich should have arrest warrants as well.

Arrest-warrant seeking against Netanyahu, Gallant ‘scandalous’: Israeli foreign minister

War crime arrest warrant sought. What next?

Hamas has issued a statement denouncing the ICC prosecutor’s decision to seek arrest warrants against its leaders, accusing Karim Khan of trying to “equate the victim with the executioner”.

The group said it demanded the cancellation of the request, adding that Khan’s application for arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant had come “seven months too late”.

Diana Buttu, a lawyer and former spokesperson for the PLO, says the ICC’s Khan is doing “a lot of bothsidesism”.

“He’s looking and seeing that there is a genocide that Israel is perpetrating – a genocide that Israel has been very open about perpetrating with over 35,000 Palestinians killed, mass starvation, 15,000 children killed, and in order to balance it out, he has to make it seem as though he’s addressing both sides,” Buttu told Al Jazeera.

“But if we want to be honest, we should be looking at what it is that the Israeli government has been doing and the orders that it has issued to its soldiers,” she said. “If this court is to have any credibility, it should be going out after the people who are committing genocide rather than just simply trying to play this game of bothsidesism,” Buttu added.

South Africa has accused Israel at the ICJ of carrying out a genocide in Gaza, an allegation Israel has denied.

Political pressure at work. It's a miracle Khan is actually seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.

Israeli columnist and author Gideon Levy calls the ICC prosecutor’s decision to seek arrest warrants “just” but said he expected Israeli officials to double down.

“Israel will again protect itself with this wall of ‘the whole world is anti-Semite and the whole world is against us,’ and it will unite again the Israelis in an even more nationalistic wave,” he told Al Jazeera. “Everyone will feel so just and such a victim by this evil decision.”

Levy noted, however, that the impact of the possible arrest warrants could not be underestimated. “The fact that an Israeli prime minister will or might become wanted in all kinds of corners of the world and will be prevented from travelling must have an effect,” he said.

“It’s unprecedented. It was never the case – for sure not in a country that is supposed to be a democracy, which considers itself as a democracy,” Levy added.

“You have to see the overall picture. It’s not one case. It’s an overall picture in which the entire world more and more so, more loudly and more clearly, tells Israel, ‘Enough is enough. We have had enough with you.'”

Palestinian official welcomes ICC decision

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.

“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.”