Israeli minister warns Trump is ‘dangerous’ because he changes positions overnight

Israel’s Minister of Regional Cooperation David Amsalem has raised concerns about US President Trump’s “unpredictable” approach, including engaging with Hamas and the Houthis without consulting Israel.

“Trump has acted in favour of the State of Israel until now, but it turns out he’s unpredictable – he wakes up on a different side every morning,” Amsalem told Israel’s national broadcaster Kan. “Tomorrow he’ll say one thing, and two days later something else. This is serious; it breaks all the longstanding rules in the relationship between the United States and Israel.”

Amsalem said it was “improper” for the US to leave Israel out of negotiations to release Israeli-American captive Edan Alexander and warned that Israel would not yield to Trump’s pressure if he eventually presses for Israel to soften its stance on Hamas or accept a Palestinian state.

“If Trump pressures Israel to stop the war in Gaza and leave Hamas in place – it won’t happen,” said Amsalem. “If Trump tries to establish a Palestinian state – we’ll tell him it won’t happen. We will continue to act based on Israel’s interests.”


Report: Qatari PM instrumental in convincing Hamas to free captive, says US

A senior US official told news outlet Axios that Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani “delivered here in convincing Hamas to finish” the deal that saw the release of Israeli-American Edan Alexander from captivity in Gaza.

Al Thani, along with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, were able to convince Hamas to free the man as a gesture of goodwill towards US President Trump, the unnamed official told Axios.

The report also says negotiations for Alexander’s release began with a message from Hamas to Palestinian American businessman Bishara Bahbah, an ally of Trump. The unnamed US official also said Israeli PM Netanyahu participated in the negotiations, praising Israel’s military campaign as effective in helping to convince Hamas.

Israel was reportedly not informed that talks were taking place between the US and Hamas until later stages.


Hamas rejects Netanyahu’s claim military pressure helped secure captive’s release

Hamas has rejected the Israeli prime minister’s claim that military pressure helped secure the release of a US-Israeli soldier from Gaza.

“The return of Edan Alexander is the result of serious communications with the US administration and the efforts of mediators, not a consequence of Israeli aggression or the illusion of military pressure,” Hamas said in a statement.

The group added that Netanyahu is “misleading his people”.

Israeli officials have criticised the prime minister for not doing more to free Israeli captives in Gaza. Left-wing opposition Democrats party leader Yair Golan described the agreement between the US and Hamas that secured Alexander’s release as a “dreadful failure” for Netanyahu’s government.

Family says Edan Alexander survived Israeli strikes, calls for captives’ return

The family of American-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander, who was released from Hamas captivity on Monday, has given a statement to reporters at Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Hospital.

“The most terrible sound that Edan feared was the sounds of the war going on above their heads,” the family said in a statement, highlighting “deafening explosions” caused by Israeli bombs dropped on Gaza.

“The whistles of missiles, the sounds of collapsing buildings, and the earth shaking. Any moment could be the last moment,” it said, calling for the immediate return of all 58 captives still held in the besieged enclave.

The family thanked Trump and other US officials but left out Netanyahu and his government.

״העם מבקש את החזרת החטופים. כולם. חזרתו של עידני חייבת להיות רק ההתחלה. כל החטופים חייבים לחזור הביתה בהקדם – החיים לשיקום, והחללים לקבורה ראויה. הזמן אוזל. העולם מסתכל. ההיסטוריה תזכור״

משפחתו של שורד השבי עידן אלכסנדר מסרה כעת הצהרה לתקשורת בבית החולים איכילוב.

יעל, אימו של… pic.twitter.com/8SPLGh8dTQ

— מטה המשפחות להחזרת החטופים והנעדרים (@BringThemHome23) May 13, 2025

Translation: My Edan, my hero, you survived the inferno – and returned from it. But what about the kidnapped who still hear those horrifying sounds? What about the terror they live in every moment? The hell you went through – is the hell they are still in.

Israeli MP Lieberman says Netanyahu has ‘no intention’ of defeating Hamas

Israeli MP and former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has accused Netanyahu of deliberately prolonging the war in Gaza to cling to power, slamming his failure to bring down Hamas.

“Someone who doesn’t know how to eliminate Hamas after a year and seven months of war won’t do it in 17 years either,” said Lieberman, a former defence minister who heads the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, in comments carried by the Israel Hayom newspaper.

“Netanyahu has no intention of eliminating Hamas; he wants to drag the war out until the elections.”


US’s Witkoff says ‘genuine chance for progress’ in Doha

The US special envoy to the Middle East has told the families of Israeli captives that he believed there was a real possibility of making progress in Qatar’s capital during indirect talks between Israel and Hamas.

Speaking alongside US envoy Adam Boehler, he said if they didn’t believe in that possibility “they wouldn’t be making the trip to Doha,” local media quoted the Hostages and Missing Families Forum as saying.

“Witkoff emphasised that they will accept nothing less than the return of everyone,” the group said.

Israel not contemplating end to Gaza war despite sending team to Qatar

The Israeli prime minister has briefed his government, saying that while he decided to dispatch a team to the Qatari capital today, the mandate for the negotiating team is quite limited in that they’re not negotiating for an end to the war, but a pause in the fighting upwards of 40 days.

The end of the war is not even in the Israeli political landscape at the moment because Netanyahu wants to expand the military operations in Gaza.

However, it is worth mentioning that he dispatched a team after US pressure following a meeting with Washington’s Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee yesterday.

The US envoy Steve Witkoff also said earlier today that the release of [Israeli-American captive] Edan Alexander can be a stepping stone not only for a ceasefire deal, but for an end to the war.

Netanyahu says Israel to go into Gaza to ‘subdue Hamas’ in coming days

Israel’s prime minister has said that “we in the coming days will be entering with all our strength to complete the process… to subdue Hamas,” Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported.

“It could be that Hamas will say ‘Pause, we want to release another 10 hostages,’” Netanyahu said while meeting Israeli wounded soldiers, adding that in that case they would stop and enter afterwards.

“But there will not be a situation where we stop the war,” he added.

Netanyahu also reiterated previous claims that his government had established an agency to oversee a transfer plan for Gaza’s population. “But there is one problem, we need countries to receive them. This is what we are working on right now,” he added.

“If you give them an exit, I am telling you that more than 50 percent will leave, in my opinion many more.”

Netanyahu promises to ‘go to the end’ to finish Hamas

Netanyahu says there’s “no way” Israel will halt its war on Gaza even if a deal is reached to release more captives.

In comments released by his office from a visit to wounded soldiers, Netanyahu said Israeli forces are just days away from a promised escalation of force and would enter Gaza “with great strength to complete the mission. … It means destroying Hamas.”

Any ceasefire reached would be temporary, the prime minister added. If Hamas were to say it would release more captives, “we’ll take them. and then we’ll go in. But there will be no way we will stop the war. We can make a ceasefire for a certain period of time, but we’re going to the end.”

The comments are likely to complicate talks on a new ceasefire that seemed to gain momentum after Hamas released its last living American captive on Monday in a gesture to Trump, who is visiting the region but is not coming to Israel.

The statement points to a potentially widening rift between Netanyahu and Trump, who expressed hope Monday’s release would be a step towards permanently ending the 19-month war.

Universities holding Nakba memorials will see funds cut: Israel minister

Any Israeli university where students hold events to commemorate the Nakba – the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948 – will have their funding cut, Education Minister Yoav Kisch has warned.

In a post on X, he published a letter to far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demanding funds be denied to Israel’s Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University after Nakba commemorations were held there.

“Academia is not a platform for incitement under the guise of freedom of expression,” Kisch wrote, claiming the events at the two universities are “part of a broader and worrying phenomenon”.

Students have been holding similar pro-Palestine events in universities across the world, particularly in the United States. Kisch particularly attacked Tel Aviv University President Ariel Porat, urging him to “look and learn what is happening in the US to universities that commemorate Nakba Day”.

Iran’s IRGC chief threatens Israel with hundreds of missiles

The commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says the force is prepared to launch hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel if the country is attacked.

“You cannot tolerate one missile that has impacted a nonsignificant point,” Hossein Salami said during a speech in Mashhad, Iran, in an apparent reference to the Houthi ballistic missile launched from Yemen that hit a road inside the perimeter of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport last week.

“If we fire 600 missiles over your heads at once, what will you do with the rest of them even if you shoot down 100 missiles?” Salami said.

Netanyahu has promised to retaliate heavily against Iran for the Houthi attack because it accuses Tehran of arming and directing the Yemeni group.

Yemen’s Houthis promise to uphold ‘navigation ban’ on Israel’s Ben Gurion airport

A Houthi military spokesman has confirmed the Yemeni group has launched a ballistic missile at Ben Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv.

Yahya Saree said during a televised announcement that the launch emphasises “the continuation of the ban on navigation” at the airport, referencing the group’s warning to international airlines to stay away.

He didn’t comment on a second missile the Israeli military said the Houthis fired but fell before reaching Israel. The first missile was intercepted but triggered air raid sirens and panic at the airport.

The Houthis reached an agreement with the Trump administration this month to stop their attacks on ships in the Red Sea in exchange for the US halting its daily bombing campaign of Yemen.

But the Houthis have continued to launch missiles at Israel in support of the Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel hits southern Lebanon, unexploded ordnance claims casualties

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) has reported in the past several hours that an Israeli missile was fired towards a vehicle in southern Lebanon’s Chaqra area.

The missile did not explode, and the driver escaped unharmed. The Israeli military has not commented on this incident, but it confirmed earlier that it targeted two alleged Hezbollah operatives in separate southern Lebanon attacks.

NNA also reported that unexploded ordnance left by the Israeli military killed one person and wounded another in a southern Lebanon road linking two small towns.

Israel responds to UN criticism and Gaza ‘genocide’ warning

Earlier, we reported on the top humanitarian official at the United Nations blasting Israel for “deliberately and unashamedly” imposing inhumane conditions on Palestinians, including the risk of famine – one of the strongest condemnations by a high-ranking UN official during the war in Gaza.

Tom Fletcher, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, briefed the UN Security Council, warning it must “act now” to “prevent genocide“.

“I ask you to reflect, for a moment, on what actions we will tell future generations we each took to stop the 21st-century atrocity to which we bear daily witness in Gaza,” said Fletcher.

“It is a question we will hear – sometimes incredulous, sometimes furious, but always there – for the rest of our lives.”

In response to Fletcher’s remarks, the Israeli mission to the UN said, “Israel will not accept a humanitarian mechanism that props up the Hamas terror organisation that butchered our people in their homes and communities.”

What Netanyahu is doing in Gaza is ‘shameful’: France’s Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy in Gaza – where half a million Palestinians face starvation – is reprehensible and Europeans should consider increasing sanctions.

“What he’s doing is shameful,” Macron said during an interview on TF1 television.

Oh harsh words.... that will definitely stop the genocide.

‘Deeply disturbed’ Norway calls on Israel to lift Gaza blockade

Norway’s Minister of International Development Asmund Aukrust made the call after a global hunger monitor reported the entire population of Gaza is facing famine as a result of Israel blocking all food and humanitarian aid from entering.

“Using starvation as a method of warfare is prohibited under international law,” Aukrust said in a post on X, adding that the United Nations and other international aid agencies must be allowed to do their job in line with humanitarian principles.

The report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative also found that about 93 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million is experiencing acute food shortages.

‘It’s now we need to act’: UN food official warns of Gaza famine

Antoine Renard, the UN World Food Programme’s (WFP) director for Gaza, says one-quarter of Gaza’s population is at risk of famine.

That’s despite the fact that the food needed to feed the territory’s population is sitting in warehouses in Israel, Egypt and Jordan – most of it not even 40km (25 miles) away.

Renard said that WFP warehouses in Gaza are empty, and the agency has gone from providing meals for 1 million people at the end of April to producing only 250,000 meals daily.

“Soon, we’re going to speak about the fact that people don’t even have access to a meal,” Renard warned. “Is that where we need to go to actually raise the alarm? It’s now that we need to act.”

The warnings come after food security experts said on Monday that Gaza will likely fall into famine if Israel doesn’t lift its blockade and stop its military campaign. Nearly half a million Palestinians are facing possible starvation.

‘Large number’ of casualties being recovered at Gaza’s European Hospital

The Civil Defence agency in Gaza reports its medical teams are recovering many people killed or wounded as a result of the Israeli bombing of the European Hospital.

The rescue organisation said in a short statement that the bodies of some of the victims still cannot be recovered because they are “scattered around the hospital area” from the intensity of the Israeli bombardment.

After reports indicated a second round of Israeli missiles hit the area to deter rescue operations, the agency confirmed the Israeli army “deliberately targeted anyone who tried to reach” the wounded.


_{Palestinians inspect the damage after the European Hospital was attacked in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Tuesday, May 13}

‘Underground terrorist infrastructure’ destroyed at Gaza hospital: Israel

The Israeli military has released aerial footage of the European Hospital after its intense air strikes, purporting to show Hamas tunnels. The joint mission with Shin Bet “destroyed” an alleged command-and-control centre hidden beneath the ground, it said.

At least 16 Palestinians have been killed and 70 others wounded as a result of the attacks, but the numbers could rise because of the severity of the explosions and rescuers being targeted by Israeli forces.

צה"ל ושב"כ השמידו תשתית טרור תת-קרקעית של ארגון הטרור חמאס מתחת לבית החולים האירופאי שבחאן יונס שבדרום רצועת עזה

מתחילת המלחמה, צה"ל ושב"כ פועלים להשמדה ונטרול של תשתיות תת-קרקע של ארגון הטרור חמאס ברצועת עזה.

מוקדם יותר היום, צה"ל ושב"כ תקפו באופן ממוקד מחבלים בארגון הטרור… pic.twitter.com/gdLAJOpWJ4

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) May 13, 2025

Israeli military issues forced evacuation order for Gaza’s Jabalia

After the Palestinian Islamic Jihad launched three rockets at Ashkelon and Sderot, the Israeli army issued a new forced displacement order for Palestinians in the Jabalia area in northern Gaza.

Israel’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee published another colour-coded map of the region, marking already besieged places where the Israeli military will soon carry out more attacks.

He gave a “final warning” that any Palestinians living there could be killed. The army said two of the rockets were intercepted, and a third fell without dealing any damage.

At least four Palestinians killed as Israel bombs Jabalia

Al Jazeera’s correspondent reports that four Palestinians have been killed and several others wounded in an Israeli attack on a house in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip.

The air strikes followed a warning by Israel’s military for Palestinians in the area to flee for their lives.

Israeli army reiterates slain Palestinian journalist a ‘Hamas terrorist’

The Israeli military has again claimed that a journalist it killed in a targeted attack in Gaza was a “key terrorist” working for Hamas.

It said in a statement that Hassan Eslaih, the director of the Alam24 News Agency and a freelancer who contributed to international news organisations, “was operating under the guise of a journalist and owner of a media company”.

The army claimed, without providing any evidence, that Eslaih, who was killed while receiving treatment at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, was “a terrorist in the Khan Younis Brigade” of Hamas.

It released an image taken and posted by Eslaih during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks inside Israel, which showed Palestinians burning an Israeli tank.

The Israeli army has killed a record 215 journalists in the besieged enclave since the start of the war, which has also killed at least 52,908 Palestinians.

Journalism = Terrorism in Israel's eyes.


This nonsense has been debunked a month after the genocide started:
https://www.ap.org/media-center/ap-in-the-news/2023/media-watchdog-says-it-was-just-raising-questions-with-insinuations-about-photographers-and-hamas/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/watchdog-accepts-news-orgs-werent-tipped-off-about-oct-7-we-just-raised-questions/

The executive director of an Israeli media watchdog organization said Thursday it was simply “raising questions” by publicly wondering whether Palestinian photojournalists who documented the devastating October 7 Hamas assault on southern Israel — and sent some of the first images  — had been tipped off in advance that the attack would happen.

The report by HonestReporting, however, caused potential ramifications at a time of war, including prompting a warning by minister Benny Gantz that if the photojournalists had known about the massacre “and chose to stand as idle bystanders while children were slaughtered,” they “are no different than terrorists and should be treated as such.”

Several of the world’s biggest news organizations — CNN, The New York Times, The Associated Press and Reuters — issued statements Thursday strenuously denying they knew about the attack ahead of time.

Crazier still: 

Columbia students accused of prior knowledge of 7 October in new Hamas lawsuit
https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/columbia-students-accused-of-prior-knowledge-of-7-october-in-new-hamas-lawsuit/

Israeli hasbara is stuck on repeat, journalists are terrorists, hospitals and schools and Hamas command and control centers. But the western media still dutifully repeats IDF lies as facts, no matter how many times proven to be just that, lies.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/13/middleeast/israel-targets-hamas-leader-mohammed-sinwar-hospital-strike-gaza-intl

Main events on May 13th

• At least 16 Palestinians were killed and 70 wounded after Israeli warplanes dropped a large number of bombs on Gaza’s European Hospital.
• The Israeli army killed at least four people and wounded others in an attack on the Jabalia refugee camp after issuing a forced evacuation order in response to three rockets launched from Gaza.
• With his envoy Steve Witkoff meeting captive families in Israel, US President Donald Trump told leaders gathered in Saudi Arabia that he is working on ending the war in Gaza as soon as possible.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu renewed his promise that the war will not stop even if Israel agrees to a deal to bring back some of the captives still held in Gaza.
• The Houthis in Yemen launched a ballistic missile at Israel, with the Israeli army saying it intercepted the projectile while a second fell short.

Criticism surges over Israel’s Gaza blockade amid famine warnings

UN officials and European nations are increasingly demanding that Israel end its two-month total blockade of food aid to Gaza after dire warnings of imminent starvation and famine in the Strip.

When asked whether the US supports aid quickly entering Gaza, a spokesperson for the State Department repeated Israeli rhetoric that Hamas “bears responsibility” for the humanitarian conditions in Gaza.

It’s a claim that aid officials have continuously disputed.

“I will reiterate that we are supportive of creative solutions to get aid in there, but also in a way that the aid is not falling into the hands of Hamas, that it actually reaches the people that need it,” deputy State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott told reporters.

UN aid chief slams Israel for using ‘starvation as a bargaining chip’

We’ve been covering a UN Security Council briefing on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

The head of the UN’s humanitarian agency, OCHA, Fletcher said that aid organisations are “desperate to resume humanitarian aid at scale across Gaza” after no “food, medicine, water or tents” have entered the enclave “for more than 10 weeks”.

“But Israel denies us access, placing the objective of depopulating Gaza before the lives of civilians,” he said.

“It is bad enough that the blockade continues. How do you react when Israeli Ministers boast of it?”

Fletcher also excoriated Israel’s proposal to only allow aid into Gaza if it is delivered through a new Israeli-designed process that bypasses all existing aid organisations, including the UN.

He said the Israeli-designed proposal “makes aid conditional on political and military aims” and uses “starvation” as “a bargaining chip” while also forcing “further displacement”.

As we’ve been reporting, Fletcher also called on the Security Council to “act now” to “prevent genocide” in Gaza.

For more than 10 weeks, nothing has entered Gaza – no food, medicine, water or tents.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have, again, been forcibly displaced & confined into ever-shrinking spaces."

– @UNReliefChief on humanitarian crisis in Gaza.https://t.co/hqxNMi8bsl

— United Nations (@UN) May 13, 2025

US envoy touts widely criticised aid plan for Gaza

Dorothy Shea, Washington’s ambassador to the UN, used her speech to call on aid groups to support the US-Israeli plan for aid distribution in Gaza, through a newly created foundation.

“The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is an independent entity that has been established to provide a secure mechanism, capable of delivering aid directly to those in need, without Hamas stealing, looting or leveraging this assistance for its own ends,” she said.

“We call upon the United Nations, humanitarian organisations and the international community to work with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in providing assistance to civilians,” she added.

The US-Israeli proposal will skirt the existing system for aid delivery, replacing about 400 UN distribution points across Gaza with just four. The UN and other humanitarian organisations have opposed it, calling it dangerous and saying it will effectively worsen displacement in Gaza.

UK rejects US-Israeli plan for Gaza aid

The United Kingdom’s envoy to the UN, Barbara Woodward, told journalists outside the meeting that Israel must lift its blockade on Gaza, which is now in its 10th week, noting that the world’s leading hunger monitor has warned that the whole of the territory is at risk of famine.

She also rejected the US-Israeli plan for aid distribution in Gaza, which seeks to supplant the already existing system run by the UN, saying, “The UK will not support any aid mechanism that seeks to deliver political or military objectives or puts vulnerable civilians at risk.”

She added, “We call on Israel to urgently engage with the UN to ensure a return to delivery of aid in line with humanitarian principles.”

Israel has blocked aid from entering Gaza for over two months. Gazans are at risk of starvation.

International law requires Israel to allow aid to get to civilians. Gaza is no exception to this rule.

All European members of the Security Council call on Israel to let aid in now. pic.twitter.com/uSS0LHebpC

— UK at the UN 🇬🇧🇺🇳 (@UKUN_NewYork) May 13, 2025

UN Humanitarian Chief to Security Council: History Will Judge Inaction in Gaza

In a powerful and urgent address to the UN Security Council on May 13, 2025, Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, condemned the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. He emphasized that Israel is creating inhumane conditions for civilians through total blockade and forced displacement, warning that 2.1 million Palestinians face famine, with one in five at risk of starvation. Fletcher detailed the collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system, the obstruction of humanitarian aid, and targeted attacks on aid workers, calling the situation a “21st century atrocity.” He urged the Council to uphold international law and allow the UN to resume life-saving operations, emphasizing that current Israeli-controlled aid modalities are unacceptable and harmful.

Fletcher also highlighted the worsening violence in the West Bank and broader threats to international humanitarian norms. Citing past UN failures in places like Rwanda and Srebrenica, he warned that future generations will judge today’s inaction harshly. He called for an immediate end to the blockade, accountability for violations, and urgent action from the Security Council to prevent further atrocities. His message was clear: history will not forgive silence or half-measures in the face of such widespread suffering.

Change on BBC as chilling facts on Gaza not countered with pro-Netanyahu biases

Tuesday saw a refreshing change on all BBC platforms as the publicly-funded UK media outlet allowed objective reporting on Gaza to go without painting it with pro-Netanyahu biases. Rifat Jawaid praises his former BBC colleagues arguing that this is how one must report on the conflict. However, there was one BBC representative, whose use of questionable term for freed US-Israeli IDF soldier disgraced journalism once again.

It is indeed a refreshing change, outright saying "constitutes a war crime" not the always "could be a war crime".