Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that Defense Minister Gallant has announced he will expand the law to allow Israeli settlers, who were evicted during a 2005 disengagement plan, to return to settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Haaretz reported that the expanded law includes areas where the settlements of Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim were located.

Settlers are Israeli citizens who live illegally on private Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. The vast majority of the settlements have been built either entirely or partially on private Palestinian land.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says he will no longer transfer tax funds to the Palestinian Authority (PA) after Norway, Spain and Ireland said they will recognise a Palestinian state.

In a post on X, the far-right minister added that he would cancel the set-up in which Norway collects the PA’s tax funds. “Norway was the first to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state today, and it cannot be a partner in anything related to Judea and Samaria,” he said.

Israel collects taxes on behalf of the Palestinians and makes monthly transfers to the PA under the Oslo Accords, but in November, it froze funds meant for Palestinians in Gaza.

In February, Palestinian and Israeli officials agreed that Norway would serve as an intermediary for holding revenues that Israel had withheld.

Smotrich also demanded “punitive measures” from Netanyahu, including establishing a settlement on the occupied West Bank “for every country that unilaterally recognizes a Palestinian state” and promoting the construction of tens of thousands of housing units in settlements, which are illegal under international law.

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, declaring that the holy site belongs “only to the state of Israel”.

Ben-Gvir said the visit was a response to three European countries unilaterally recognizing an independent Palestinian state. “We will not even allow a statement about a Palestinian state,” he said.

For Muslims, the Noble Sanctuary is home to Islam’s third holiest site, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Dome of the Rock, a seventh-century structure believed to be where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.

Jews refer to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as the Temple Mount, and some believe it is where the first and second ancient Jewish temples stood.

Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has hailed the coordinated move by Ireland, Norway and Spain to recognise Palestine as a state as an “important and essential step towards Palestinian statehood”.

“We value this decision and consider it an important and essential step towards a two-state solution that embodies an independent, sovereign Palestinian state along the July 1967 borders,” he told a news conference.

France says recognising Palestine as a state is not “taboo” for the country, but Paris considers that now is not the right moment for it to do so, the AFP news agency reports.

“Our position is clear: The recognition of a Palestinian state is not a taboo for France,” Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne wrote in a statement to AFP. “France does not consider that the conditions have been present to date for this decision to have a real impact in this process.”

Israeli forces are again attacking hospitals in Gaza, including Kamal Adwan in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.

Here’s what you need to know:

• The latest assault on Kamal Adwan Hospital began on Monday, according to the Wafa news agency, with artillery attacks on the building and missiles striking the emergency department.
• The attack forced dozens of medical staff and patients to flee, with videos of the evacuation showing one man cradling a newborn baby wrapped in blue cloth and an elderly man being bumped on a wheeled stretcher along the shattered streets.
• The Palestinian Health Ministry said there were approximately 150 medical staff and dozens of patients at Kamal Adwan when it came under attack, including ICU patients and newborns in incubators. It said the evacuation took place under Israeli fire.
• The WHO said Kamal Adwan is the largest partially functional hospital in northern Gaza and the only one providing haemodialysis. It said the evacuation of health workers and patients would make it nonfunctional, further depleting health services.
• Israeli forces had earlier laid siege to the facility and raided it in December last year, causing extensive damage and arresting many health workers. That attack resulted in the death of at least eight patients.

_{Palestinians evacuate Kamal Adwan Hospital following an Israeli attack in Beit Lahiya, on May 21}

Casualties mount as Israeli jets, artillery, quadcopter drones attack Gaza overnight

Israeli military says it has killed ‘significant’ Hamas operative

Attacks continue across Gaza as Israel presses offensive

Palestinians in central Gaza sift through rubble, mourn after Israeli bombardment

_{Palestinians inspect the damage after the latest Israeli attacks}

_{People gather outside a damaged house in az-Zawayda}

Hospitals in northern Gaza under attack

More than 1,400 Israeli academics sign petition calling for end to Gaza war

Al Jazeera’s Diplomatic Editor James Bays says the move by Ireland, Norway and Spain to recognise the state of Palestine is significant for two reasons: “momentum and timing”.

He said the move could lead to other European countries joining in, pointing to Slovenia and Malta, who both sit on the UN Security Council.

“We know their position very clearly, and that those two look like they are probably going to be among the next countries to recognise Palestine,” he said.

Bays added that the timing of the announcements by Ireland, Norway and Spain is significant due to what is happening at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

“Just look at the week that Prime Minister Netanyahu has had,” he said, referring to ICC prosecutor’s announcement that he was seeking an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and the ICJ hearings on South Africa’s request for a ruling to stop the Rafah offensive.

“I suspect everything that’s going on at the ICC with regard to these state recognitions is a political context for those judges as they make their deliberation. So, there could be further bad news for Israel down the line and certainly this is the day Israel looks more isolated than it has for some time.”

However the move by Norway, Ireland and Spain will have little practical effect on the everyday life of Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory and Gaza, but it holds important political and symbolic weight.

Pedro Sanchez, the Spanish prime minister, seems to be the driving force behind the decision to recognise Palestine. As early as December, he was very publicly criticising the Israeli government and its actions in Gaza, which he at the time called a humanitarian catastrophe.

In March, he met some of his European counterparts at a Europe-wide meeting and sought out conversations both with the Irish – the Norwegians were removed, because they’re not part of the EU – but also the Slovenians, the Maltese that may well follow this.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store was talking about this as a very significant moment because he thought it would mean, through recognition, there was the possibility of peace in the Middle East.

He said that 31 years after the Oslo Accords were signed, paving the way for what was meant to be a two-state solution, the Palestinians have taken important steps towards that solution and that Palestine, in his words, has a fundamental right to an independent state.

It’s worth noting that Sweden and several other Central and Eastern European nations have previously recognised Palestinian statehood, but this is still a very significant day in Europe.

Katz: Spain, Ireland, Norway ambassadors to watch video of October 7 attack

I suggest they show Katz what Israel has done in the last 76 years, including the ongoing destruction of Gaza. Plus they're not recognizing Hamas, they're recognizing the right for Palestinians to have a state. Had that been done long ago Oct 7 would not have happened. Katz is just reminding them that they should have recognized Palestine along with Israel from the beginning.

Micheal Martin says the country plans to formally recognise the Palestinian state on May 28 based on its 1967 borders. This refers to the borders that existed before the war that year in which Israel occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

“When we recognise a state, we don’t recognise the government of the day; we recognise the state in terms of a permanent population of people in terms of defined borders, and in this case, it’s the 1967 borders,” the Irish foreign minister told RTE radio.

That is “a defined territory involving Gaza, the West Bank and … a capital of both an Israeli state and a Palestinian state in Jerusalem”, Martin said.

The cessation of health services in the North Gaza and Gaza governorates may lead to a “humanitarian catastrophe” threatening 700,000 people, the office warns. “We demand the establishment of field hospitals and the entry of medical delegations immediately and urgently,” it said in a statement on its official Telegram channel.

“The aforementioned governorates can no longer provide any medical services, especially after Kamal Adwan Hospital has gone out of service, and al-Awda Hospital is under Israeli military siege for the fourth consecutive day.”

“This has led to a cessation of all services, including those relating to primary health, maternity health and children’s vaccinations.”

As we have been hearing from eyewitnesses in Rafah, the military is gradually expanding its incursion of Rafah district.

There is a notable advancement for the Israeli military tanks manoeuvring in the central areas of Rafah, including the Shaboura and Brazil neighbourhoods – key central neighbourhoods in Rafah.

Under intense firepower on the ground, more Palestinians have been fleeing from Rafah district, and they’ve been moving to the western part, believing it might be a safe area.

But the Israeli prime minister and defence minister have been stating that they are determined to expand the military operation in Rafah in order to militarily dismantle the remaining battalions of the military wing of Hamas.

A local activist has shared a video on Instagram showing thick smoke rising after Israeli air strikes targeted a residential area in Jabalia in northern Gaza.

Israeli settlers have attacked the village of Asira al-Qibliya, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reports.

Witnesses living there said the settlers attacked the outskirts of the village under the protection of Israeli forces and directed live fire at residents.

The sources said a number of the settlers tried to set fire to houses located on the outskirts of the village and it led to a widespread fire in the area.

Norway’s foreign minister told Al Jazeera that he does not believe that his country’s move to recognise the Palestine state will solve the conflict with Israel.

“There’s actually no action that on its own will solve the crisis of the Middle East,” said Espen Barth Eide. “It’s a puzzle with many pieces. One piece is to establish a Palestinian state, another one is normalisation with the Arab states. A third one is peace guarantees for Israel, demobilisation of the Hamas, strengthening the Palestine Authority.”

“But this is one piece of the puzzle and it’s one piece that we hold and we are ready to play that card or lay that piece now as a contribution to a role to settlement,” he said.

Biden believes a Palestinian state should be achieved through negotiations, not unilateral recognition, the White House says.

“The president is a strong supporter of a two-state solution and has been throughout his career,” a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said. “He believes a Palestinian state should be realised through direct negotiations between the parties, not through unilateral recognition.”

The comments come after the leaders of Norway, Ireland and Spain said their countries will formally recognise Palestine as a state next week.

You've been negotiating for over half a century, it's clear one side is hell bent on preventing a Palestinian state from ever happening. Your negotiations aren't going anywhere as long as you keep backing Netanyahu with your ironclad genocide support.

Egypt, which has engaged in mediation efforts between Israel and Hamas alongside Qatar and the US, has hailed the move by Ireland, Norway and Spain to recognise a Palestinian state as a “welcome step”.

The announcement supports “international efforts to create a political horizon that can lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state”, Egypt’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

Mediator Qatar similarly welcomed the announcement as an “important step in support of a two-state solution”, also expressing hope that other countries would do the same.

Statement: Qatar Welcomes Norway, Ireland, Spain's Recognition of State of Palestine#MOFAQatar pic.twitter.com/GrvAXxwE2p

— Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Qatar (@MofaQatar_EN) May 22, 2024

Qatar: Disregard media reports casting doubt on Gaza mediation efforts