Fierce fighting took place on Friday, May 17, between the Israeli army and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where, after days of blocking humanitarian aid, the first unloadings began on the temporary jetty deployed by the United States . White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan will also travel to Saudi Arabia on Saturday and to Israel on Sunday.
The Israeli army announced to Agence France-Presse (AFP) that it was carrying out “perhaps the fiercest” fighting in this area of ??the northern Gaza Strip on Friday in Jabaliya since the start of its ground offensive on the Palestinian territory, October 27, 2023.
However, it had announced, at the beginning of January, that it had “completed the dismantling of the military structure of the Palestinian Islamist movement in the north of the enclave” and was now focusing on “the center and the south”. But intense fighting resumed a little less than a week ago in Jabaliya, the most populated city in the north of the territory after Gaza City.
“Hamas had total control of Jabaliya until our arrival a few days ago,” the Israeli army told AFP, four months after its spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said that in northern Gaza there remained only “terrorists acting sporadically and without command.”
“So far we estimate that we have killed around two hundred terrorists” since the resumption of fighting in Jabaliya, the army said.
The Israeli army claimed to have found the bodies of three Israeli hostages in Gaza, including that of Shani Louk, a 23-year-old German-Israeli woman present at the Nova electronic music festival on October 7, 2023.
Israeli authorities identified the other two bodies found as those of a 28-year-old woman, Amit Buskila, and a 56-year-old man, Itzhak Gelerenter. According to Israeli army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, they were also present at the music festival.
The bodies of the hostages were recovered “during a joint operation between the army and the intelligence agency” based on information obtained “during interrogations of terrorists arrested in the Gaza Strip” and were identified ‘Israeli National Institute of Forensic Medicine.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent his condolences to the families on Telegram. “This terrible loss is heartbreaking”, we “cry with the families”, he assured, promising to bring back “all the hostages, the living and the dead”.
After days of blocking the arrival of humanitarian aid in the besieged Palestinian territory threatened with famine, the American army announced that a first shipment had begun to be unloaded on Friday via the temporary jetty set up by the United States. and docked on the coast of the Gaza Strip. She also announced the arrival of “around 500 tonnes [of aid] in the coming days”.
London announced for its part that a shipment of British aid had been “successfully transported to the coast of Gaza (…) at the same time as aid from the United States and the United Arab Emirates” via the maritime corridor. Cypriot. France, for its part, declared that a Navy vessel from Cyprus, with 60 tons of aid on board, was being unloaded onto the American pontoon.
The land route nevertheless remains “the most viable and effective”, reaffirmed the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA).
The United States announced on Friday that it had evacuated seventeen American doctors who had been stranded in the Gaza Strip since the Israeli army took the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt.
Washington exfiltrated them through the Kerem Shalom crossing, between the besieged Palestinian territory and Israel, said an American official, on condition of anonymity.
A source familiar with the matter said three other American doctors who were part of a volunteer medical mission had chosen to stay, despite uncertainty over future possibilities of leaving Gaza.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan will travel to Saudi Arabia on Saturday and to Israel on Sunday, a White House spokesperson announced Friday. As President Joe Biden strives to normalize relations between these two countries, Jake Sullivan is scheduled to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council.
The conversation in Saudi Arabia with the kingdom’s leader is expected to focus on “bilateral and regional issues, including the war in Gaza,” as well as “ongoing efforts to achieve lasting peace and security in the region.” the spokesperson said.
With Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials, Joe Biden’s envoy must also discuss the conflict between the Jewish state and Hamas, “including the negotiations to obtain the release of all the hostages [detained in Gaza] and to respond to the humanitarian crisis.” The exchange will also focus on the shared desire of the United States and Israel to “sustainably defeat Hamas both through military pressure and through a political project,” explained John Kirby.
