Sixteen people from two families were killed on the evening of Sunday, May 5, by Israeli strikes which targeted two houses in Rafah and its surroundings, in the Gaza Strip, according to emergency services. A hospital source confirmed the toll of the two attacks, specifying that they took place in the Yebna refugee camp in Rafah and in the surroundings of Al-Salam.
In the last twenty-four hours, at least fifty-two deaths have been recorded, according to a press release from the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, administered by Hamas. Since the start of the war, 34,735 people have been killed in the enclave.
Hamas announced on Monday that it had accepted the ceasefire proposal presented by the Egyptian and Qatari mediators for the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian movement specifies in a press release that the head of its political branch in exile, Ismaïl Haniyeh, informed the Prime Minister of Qatar as well as the head of the Egyptian intelligence services of its decision. However, the details of the latest proposal made by the mediators are not yet known. Hamas mentions the objective of a permanent ceasefire.
As Israel “examines” the ceasefire proposal accepted by Hamas, the Israeli army on Monday evening reiterated its call for residents of the eastern neighborhoods of Rafah to evacuate the area, as a prelude to a “ground operation.” . According to Agence France-Presse, intense bombardments targeted the city of Rafah on Monday evening.
The United States once again urged Israel not to attack Rafah and said it was “opposed” to Israel’s closure of the local bureau of the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera, announced by Israel on Sunday. “We believe Al-Jazeera should be able to operate in Israel and other countries in the region,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, adding that the United States was “very concerned.” by the Israeli decision.
On Monday, May 6, the Israeli army called on Gazans present in the east of the town of Rafah, against which Israel has been hammering home its intention to carry out a major military offensive for months, to join “extended humanitarian zones.” , she said in a press release. “Calls to temporarily move to the humanitarian zone will be conveyed via posters, SMS messages, phone calls and media broadcasts in Arabic,” she said on X.
The Israeli army assured that its evacuation operation was temporary and concerned “around 100,000 people (…) immediately”. “We have started a limited-scale operation to temporarily evacuate people residing in eastern Rafah,” an army spokesperson said at a press briefing, repeating: “This is a d limited scale. » “This evacuation plan aims to keep civilians away from danger,” added the army spokesperson, “our goal is to fight Hamas, not the people of Gaza.”
US President Joe Biden on Monday reiterated his “clear position” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against a ground offensive in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, the White House said.
The Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah, supported by Iran, announced that it had fired “dozens of rockets” on Monday at an Israeli base located in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan, in retaliation for an Israeli strike on eastern Lebanon.
Hezbollah fighters launched “dozens of Katyusha rockets” targeting “the headquarters of the Golan division (…) at the Nafah base,” the movement said in a statement, specifying that it was “d ‘a response to the enemy’s attack targeting the Bekaa region’.
Earlier, Lebanon’s National News Agency (ANI) announced that three people were injured before dawn in an Israeli strike in the east of the country, where Hezbollah has a strong presence.
Around a hundred students began occupying a university building in Ghent, Belgium, on Monday to denounce Israel’s war in Gaza and demand that their university sever all ties with that country. The demonstrators, supported by certain professors, accuse the university management of being “complicit in a genocide” underway in Gaza, by not ceasing its collaborations with Israeli universities.
In Paris, the police intervened in the afternoon in front of Sciences Po, to dislodge activists, mobilized in support of the inhabitants of Gaza, who had set up tents, when the students of this school were taking their exams. The exams took place normally, management said.
Columbia University in New York, the epicenter of the protest movement against the war in the Gaza Strip, announced Monday that it was canceling its major graduation ceremony due to ongoing protests. She will organize ceremonies on a “smaller scale,” she said.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels announced Monday they had arrested at least 18 people accused of belonging to a “spy network” serving the United States and Israel.
The Houthi-run Saba news agency published photos and videos of men presented as “spies recruited to gather information and monitor sites operated by the Yemeni armed forces (…) for the benefit of American enemies and Israeli”.
According to the agency, they were recruited after the start in November of attacks on ships off the coast of Yemen, which these insurgents say they are carrying out in solidarity with the Palestinians, in the context of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. .
