Twenty-six people, including fifteen children, were killed by Israeli bombardments in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, May 23; strikes that occurred shortly after the agreement given by Israel to the resumption of negotiations for the release of hostages held in the Palestinian territory.
Since the start of the war, Israeli bombings have left at least 35,800 dead and 80,011 injured in the Palestinian enclave, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, administered by Hamas. In the last twenty-four hours, at least 91 deaths have been recorded, according to a press release from the ministry.
Gaza City’s civil defense said two airstrikes before dawn left 26 people dead, including 15 children. Sixteen people were killed in a strike that hit their home and ten others in a bombing of a mosque and a school, according to the same source. Asked by Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Israeli army did not respond on this subject.
In Jabaliya, the Israeli army said it had “targeted several Hamas terrorists during strikes on military infrastructure used to store weapons.” In Rafah, Israeli forces continued to operate in the Brazil and Shaboura neighborhoods, according to the army.
The Israeli war cabinet has authorized the resumption of negotiations for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip. This decision comes after the release of a video showing the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by fighters from the Islamist movement Hamas on October 7, during its unprecedented attack in Israel.
On Wednesday, the families of five soldiers held hostage in Gaza authorized the broadcast of these images. In the sequence, taken from a video filmed by Hamas commandos, according to the families, we can see these young women, some with bloody faces, sitting on the ground in their pajamas, their hands tied behind their backs.
These images will “strengthen my determination to fight with all my strength until the elimination of Hamas, to guarantee that what we saw this evening will never happen again”, reacted the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on his Telegram account.
On Thursday morning, in southern Lebanon, children traveling by bus to school narrowly escaped an Israeli strike targeting a member of Hezbollah. “I was driving the bus and suddenly the strike took place on the car in front of us,” the bus driver, Ahmad Kobeissy, who was taking eighteen children, told AFP. Three children were injured by the shards of glass and hospitalized, according to testimonies and civil defense.
A source close to Lebanese Hezbollah confirmed to AFP that a member of the pro-Iranian armed formation had been killed in an Israeli drone attack. The strike occurred on the road leading to the town of Nabatiyé, relatively far from the border, and generally spared from violence.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she feared “a humanitarian crisis” if Israel followed through on its threat to deprive Palestinian banks of access to its own banking system, thereby blocking vital transactions in the occupied West Bank.
“I am particularly concerned about [these] threats from Israel,” Yellen said at a press conference at the opening of the G7 finance ministers meeting in Stresa, Italy. “These banking channels are essential for completing transactions enabling nearly $8 billion in imports from Israel, including electricity, water, fuel and food, and facilitating nearly $2 billion in ‘exports per year on which Palestinian livelihoods depend,’ she explained.
“I believe that cutting off Palestinian banks from their Israeli counterparts would create a humanitarian crisis,” she insisted. “I think it would also have very negative consequences for Israel,” continued Ms. Yellen, who also expressed concern about Israel’s withholding of taxes that the country collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority and that it is supposed to repay him under the Oslo Accords, signed in 1994. Ms. Yellen said she had written to Mr. Netanyahu on the subject.
The spokesperson for the Israeli Foreign Ministry reacted on Thursday to the recognition of the State of Palestine by Ireland, Spain and Norway. “There will be serious consequences for relations with these countries after their decision,” said Oren Marmorstein in a statement published at the end of his meeting with the ambassadors of these three European countries, summoned to be “reprimanded”, at following the announcement of their decision to recognize the State of Palestine from May 28.
