May 10: US says break in hostage talks ‘deeply regrettable,’ claims deal still possible

IDF says it hit two rocket launch posts in Rafah used by Hamas to fire at Beersheba

Two Hamas rocket launch positions in southern Gaza’s Rafah, used to attack Beersheba earlier today, were struck by Israeli aircraft a short while ago, the military says.

The IDF says it identified secondary blasts after the strike, indicating additional munitions were located in the area.

Hamas launched a total of 14 rockets at Beersheba today, nine rockets from Rafah and before that another five from central Gaza.

The attack caused damage to a park in the city, and lightly wounded a woman.

Two Hamas rocket launch positions in southern Gaza's Rafah, used to attack Beersheba earlier today, were struck by Israeli aircraft a short while ago, the military says.

The IDF says it identified secondary blasts after the strike, indicating additional munitions were located in… pic.twitter.com/2ftj7CWHZy

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) May 10, 2024

Hamas senior official claims terror group wants truce deal, but Netanyahu wants war to continue

Khalil al-Hayya speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, in Istanbul, Turkey, April 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Hamas wants calm and a hostage deal, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants the war to continue, Hamas senior official Khalil Al-Hayya claims.

“Hamas did not suspend nor withdraw from the negotiations. The occupation turned against the mediators’ proposal,” Al-Hayya says in comments to Al Araby TV published by Hamas.

The Palestinian terror group said earlier today that efforts to agree to a ceasefire and hostage deal were back at square one after Israel effectively rejected its counter-proposal.

Hamas has claimed that it agreed to the mediators’ proposal for a ceasefire on Monday but the US says it merely provided a counter-proposal to the offer crafted by brokers and green-lit by Israel. Israeli officials dismissed the Hamas document as nothing like the proposal Israel had green-lit, calling it a “ruse,” and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it does not meet Israel’s vital requirements.

Firefighters battling large blaze in Kiryat Shmona area targeted by Hezbollah barrage

A fire breaks out as a result of rockets launched from Lebanon, next to the northern city of Kiryat Shmona, on May 10, 2024. (Jalaa MAREY / AFP)

Firefighters are battling a large blaze in the Kiryat Shmona area, sparked by some of the 35 rockets fired by Hezbollah at the city earlier this evening.

The Israel Fire and Rescue Services say 10 firefighting teams are at the scene.

"כל הרכס עולה באש": שריפות רבות באזור קריית שמונה, עשרות בתים ורכבים נפגעו. https://t.co/PcUaRohkcd pic.twitter.com/MyRM0rB0Hj

— Asslan Khalil (@KhalilAsslan) May 10, 2024

US asking Israel for answers on ‘deeply concerning’ report on alleged abuse of Palestinian detainees

File - IDF soldiers stand by a truck packed with bound and blindfolded Palestinian detainees, in Gaza, December 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Moti Milrod, Haaretz, File)

The US says it is “deeply concerned” about a recent CNN report revealing significant allegations of abuse of Palestinian detainees at Israeli detention facilities holding terror suspects detained during the ongoing war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“We have seen these reports on alleged prisoner abuse at this prison. It’s deeply concerning, very troubling,” White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby says in a briefing.

“We are reaching out to our Israeli counterparts to get more information here about these allegations and our expectation is that we’ll get good answers here…Our expectations are of the highest standard when it comes to the treatment of prisoners,” Kirby adds.

White House calls break in hostage talks ‘deeply regrettable,’ asserts deal still possible

A sign calling for the release of Hamas-held hostages, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, May 7, 2024. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby calls the departure of Israeli and Hamas negotiating teams from talks in Cairo without a deal “deeply regrettable.”

“We’ve seen the comments that officials from both sides have made speaking to the impasse that they’re at right now,” Kirby tells reporters in a briefing.

“But we are working hard to try to keep both sides engaged in continuing the discussion — if only virtually — and to continue to work on the actual text itself. We still believe that a deal was possible… The gaps remaining can be surmounted, but it’s going to require leadership, some moral courage and it’s going to require continued ability to compromise and to negotiate in good faith. We’re not giving up on that,” Kirby adds.

“There are no in-person meetings now in place… That doesn’t mean the process has to end… We’re still all in, and we’re still going to keep working on it,” he says.

US: IDF op in Rafah over last day doesn’t amount to major offensive we’ve warned against

Thick, black smoke rises from a fire in a building caused by Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 10, 2024. (AFP)

The US does not believe that the IDF’s operation in Rafah during the last 24 hours amounts to a wide-scale military offensive, which President Joe Biden warned would lead him to halt offensive weapons shipments to Israel.

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that what we’ve seen here in the last 24 hours connotes or indicates a broad, large-scale invasion or major ground operation. It appears to be localized near the crossing largely with the forces that they had put in there at the beginning,” White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby says.

At the beginning of the week, Israel launched an operation to take over the Palestinian side of the Rafah Crossing. On Thursday night the security cabinet voted to approve a measured expansion of the operation.

Israel has ordered some 100,000 Palestinians to evacuate from eastern neighborhoods of Rafah and has carried out repeated airstrikes in the area. It has also shut down the Rafah Crossing, offering no timetable for when the crossing will be opened for the delivery of aid.

“We’re watching this with concern,” Kirby says during a briefing with reporters. “Everyday that crossing is not available and usable for humanitarian assistance, there’s going to be more suffering, and that’s a deep concern to us. We urge the Israelis to open up that crossing to humanitarian assistance immediately. That aid is desperately needed, and we urge them… to be as careful precise and discriminate as they can.”

IDF carries out wave of airstrikes on Hezbollah posts in southern Lebanon after barrage at Kiryat Shmona

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese village of Kfarkila near the border on May 8, 2024. (Rabih DAHER / AFP)

The IDF says it carried out a wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah positions in six different areas in southern Lebanon a short while ago.

Fighter jets hit five buildings used by the terror group and a military post used to launch rockets at northern Israel, in the towns of Odaisseh, Khiam, Rab al-Thalathine, Deir Siriane, Ayta ash-Shab and Mhaibib, the military says.

It publishes footage of the strikes.

לפני זמן קצר צה"ל השלים גל תקיפות של מטרות טרור במרחבים אל עדייסא, אל-חיאם, רב א-תלתין, דיר סירין, עייתא א-שעב ומחיבב שבדרום לבנון>> pic.twitter.com/6Qd8QERpD1

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) May 10, 2024

Hamas-cited UN infographics show 17% drop in total women, children Gaza war deaths within 2 days

Masked members from the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, wave the green flags of the Islamist group during a protest in support of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, after Friday prayer in Nusseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has released an infographic suggesting that the number of Gaza women and children killed in the Israel-Hamas war dropped by 17 percent in the last two days.

The infographic issued on Wednesday places the total broader Gaza war toll at 34,844 with 7,797 (32%) of the casualties being children and 4,959 (20%) of them being women. In the previous infographic released by OCHA two days earlier, the broader death toll was 34,735 with over 9,500 (27%) of them being women and over 14,500 (42%) being children.

That would suggest that the number of women and children killed dropped from 69% to 52% in just two days.

Both infographics include a disclaimer saying the UN hasn’t been able to produce independent, verified casualty figures and instead relies on the Hamas’s health ministry and media office in Gaza.

The Hamas death tolls don’t differentiate between civilians and combatants and include at least 15,000 Hamas gunmen Israel says it has killed in battle. Israel also says it killed some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.

The massive drop in women and children casualties, particularly over such a short period of time, further calls into question the death tolls coming out of Gaza.

UN officials regularly cite the Gaza health ministry’s death toll, asserting that the vast majority of Palestinians killed in Gaza have been women and children. However, there have been allegations that Hamas undercounts male casualties.

South Africa asks World Court for more measures in Israel genocide case

Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa to the Netherlands Vusimuzi Madonsela checks his phone during a hearing at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, January 12, 2024. (Patrick Post/AP)

South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to order additional emergency measures against Israel over its military operations in Rafah in the Gaza Strip, the UN’s top court says.

In the ongoing case brought by South Africa, which accuses Israel of acts of genocide against Palestinians, the World Court in January ordered Israel to refrain from any acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention and to ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts against Palestinians.

Hezbollah claims responsibility after 35 rockets fired from Lebanon at Kiryat Shmona, damaging property

Smoke rises in the northern border city Kiryat Shmona after rockets were fired from southern Lebanon on May 5, 2024 (Jalaa MAREY / AFP)

Some 35 rockets were launched from Lebanon at the northern city of Kiryat Shmona in the past hour, the IDF says.

Around 15 of the projectiles were downed by the Iron Dome, while others struck the city, causing damage to property.

The IDF says it shelled the sources of the fire with artillery.

Hezbollah claims responsibility for the attack.

IDF says latest Beersheba sirens triggered by nine rockets that landed in open areas

A barrage of nine rockets was launched from southern Gaza’s Rafah at the Israeli city of Beersheba in the latest attack carried out by Hamas.

The IDF says all nine rockets struck an open area.

An earlier Hamas attack of five rockets at Beersheba was launched from the central Gaza Strip, according to the military.

One of the rockets directly struck a park in the city, lightly wounding a woman and causing damage.

Hamas health ministry updates Gaza death toll to 34,943

At least 34,943 Palestinians have been killed and 78,572 injured in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza since Oct. 7, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says in a statement.

The figures have not been independently verified and include at least 15,000 Hamas gunmen Israel says it has killed in battle. Israel also says it killed some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.

A total of 271 IDF soldiers have been killed in the army’s Gaza ground operation.

Hamas says reconsidering negotiating strategy after Israel rejects counter-offer, IDF Rafah op

Families of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip and their supporters demand a deal for their loved ones' release, outside the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, May 5, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Hamas says it is holding consultations to reconsider its negotiating strategy in light of Israel’s rejection of its counter-proposal in the hostage talks earlier this week and the expanding IDF operations at the Rafah Border Crossing

The terror group claims in a statement that Israel’s response to the hostage talks brought them back to square one — a similar charge that Israeli officials made in response to Hamas’s response to the hostage proposal crafted by mediators and green-lit by Israel last week.

Hamas fires rockets at Beersheba for second time in two hours

Incoming rocket sirens are sounding in the southern city of Beersheba for the second time within two hours.

The earlier barrage caused damage and wounded one person lightly.

Hamas claims responsibility for this barrage as well.

Abbas pledges to continue seeking full-member UN status after boost from General Assembly

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Ramallah, February 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says that the United Nations General Assembly’s backing of a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member supports Palestinian efforts for another vote on the issue by the UN Security Council.

“Palestine will continue its endeavor to obtain full membership in the UN,” Abbas added in a statement on Friday.

26 Democrats pen letter to Biden aide panning decision to withhold weapons from Israel

President Joe Biden waves as he walks to board Air Force One, Thursday, May 9, 2024, at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. (AP/Alex Brandon)

Twenty-six center-leaning Democrats in the House have penned a letter to US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to object to the Biden administration’s decision to withhold a weapons shipment to Israel over concerns that they’d be used in a major offensive in Rafah where over one million Palestinians are sheltering.

“With democracy under assault around the world, we cannot undermine our ally Israel, especially in her greatest hour of need. America’s commitments must always be ironclad,” the lawmakers write in the letter organized by Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Jared Golden.

“We have a duty to continue to equip Israel with the resources she needs to defend herself and crush the terrorists who also seek to do America harm, free the hostages including the Americans, continue delivering critical humanitarian aid to innocent civilians in Gaza, and to stand by our democratic allies around the world.”

“The president’s unyielding commitment to passing emergency supplemental funding for Israel showed the world our commitment. When we abandon these duties, we leave a vacuum of American leadership for our anti-democratic adversaries to fill,” the lawmakers add, requesting a classified briefing to better understanding the US decision.

Israeli strike kills Lebanese technician fixing phone tower, security sources say

An Israeli strike on a village in south Lebanon killed a Lebanese technician contracted by a telecoms company to fix a phone tower, Lebanon’s telecoms minister says.

The same strike also killed a medic from a civilian rescue force affiliated with the Amal Movement, an ally of the Hezbollah terror group, the minister and security sources said.

Today’s strike on the village of Teir Harfa hit a team of technicians contracted by Lebanese telecoms company Touch as they were attempting to repair the power generator at a telecoms tower, telecoms minister Johnny Corm tells Reuters. They were accompanied by medics and Lebanese army soldiers.

Separate strikes on southern Lebanon on Friday killed a fighter from Hezbollah as well as two Palestinian fighters, security sources tell Reuters. Several Palestinian terror groups have armed elements based in Lebanon and have fired rockets at Israel from there.

Katz denounces UN decision to upgrade Palestinians’ status as ‘prize for Hamas’

Foreign Minister Israel Katz calls a decision by the United Nations General Assembly to upgrade the status of Palestinians in the UN a “prize for Hamas,” in a statement released by his office.

“The absurd decision taken today at the UN General Assembly highlights the structural bias of the UN and the reasons why, under the leadership of UN Secretary-General [Antonio] Guterres, it has turned itself into an irrelevant institution,” Katz says.

UN General Assembly approves resolution boosting Palestinian mission’s standing

Egypt's United Nations Ambassador Osama Abdel Khalek address the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023 at UN headquarters. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

The United Nations General Assembly votes to back a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member by recognizing it as qualified to join and recommending the UN Security Council “reconsider the matter favorably.”

The vote by the 193-member General Assembly was a global survey of support for the Palestinian bid to become a full UN member — a move that would effectively recognize a Palestinian state — after the United States vetoed it in the UN Security Council last month.

The assembly adopted a resolution on Friday with 143 votes in favor and nine against, including the US and Israel, while 25 countries abstained. It does not give the Palestinians full UN membership, but simply recognizes them as qualified to join.

The General Assembly resolution “determines that the State of Palestine…should therefore be admitted to membership” and it “recommends that the Security Council reconsider the matter favorably.”

An application to become a full UN member first needs to be approved by the 15-member Security Council and then the General Assembly. If the measure is again voted on by the council it is likely to face the same fate: a US veto.

The General Assembly resolution adopted on Friday does give the Palestinians some additional rights and privileges from September 2024 — like a seat among the UN members in the assembly hall — but they will not be granted a vote in the body.

The Palestinians are currently a non-member observer state, a de facto recognition of statehood that was granted by the UN General Assembly in 2012.

‘Doesn’t advance peace’: US explains opposition to UN vote to boost status of Palestinian mission

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during the Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, December 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

The US Mission to the UN issues a statement explaining why it will be voting against today’s General Assembly resolution to boost the standing of the Palestinian observer mission to the UN and urge the Security Council to reconsider its decision last month to reject an application to grant the mission full-member status.

“Since the attacks of October 7, President Biden has been clear that sustainable peace in the region can only be achieved through a two-state solution, with Israel’s security guaranteed, where Israelis and Palestinians can one day live side by side with equal measures of freedom and dignity. It remains the US view that unilateral measures at the UN and on the ground will not advance this goal. The General Assembly resolution being debated today is no exception and so the United States will be voting “no” and encourages other Member States to do the same,” the US mission says.

“Efforts to advance this resolution do not change the reality that the Palestinian Authority does not currently meet the criteria for UN membership under the UN Charter.”

“This resolution also does not resolve the concerns about the Palestinian membership application raised previously in the Security Council through the Admissions Committee process. Should the General Assembly adopt this resolution and refer the Palestinian membership application back to the Security Council, we expect a similar outcome to what occurred in April,” the statement continues.

“Additionally, the draft resolution does not alter the status of the Palestinians as a ‘non-member state observer mission.’ Even if the resolution were adopted, the text explicitly outlines that the Palestinian non-member-state observer mission would not gain the right to vote in the General Assembly. It also would not gain the right to put forward candidates in UN organs or to be elected as a member of the Security Council.”

“Perhaps most importantly, adopting this resolution will not bring about a tangible change for Palestinians. It will not end the fighting in Gaza or provide food, medicine and shelter to civilians in Gaza. That is where US efforts are focused: brining about a ceasefire and the release of hostages, all while continuing to surge aid to Palestinians in Gaza who desperately need it.”

Erdan shreds UN charter in protest of General Assembly vote to boost status of Palestinian mission

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan shreds the UN charter at the General Assembly on May 10, 2024. (Screen capture/X)

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan shreds a copy of the UN charter with a small machine he brought with him onto the podium at the General Assembly plenum as he expresses his opposition to a vote in the body to boost the standing of the Palestinian observer mission to the UN and urge the Security Council to reconsider its decision last month to reject an application to grant the mission full-member status.

That vote was vetoed by the US.

Watch: Israeli ambassador to the UN @giladerdan1 used a paper shredder to shred the UN charter on the podium of the UN general assembly ahead of a vote that will give new privileges to the Palestinians at the UN pic.twitter.com/mWQ85c8uwK

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) May 10, 2024

Woman lightly injured by shrapnel from Hamas rocket attack targeting Beersheba

Magen David Adom medics treat a woman lightly wounded by shrapnel from a Gaza rocket attack targeting Beersheba on May 10, 2024. (Magen David Adom)

A 37-year-old woman is lightly wounded by shrapnel following the rocket attack on Beersheba, medics say.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service says it is taking the woman to Soroka Hospital.

Hamas claims responsibility for the rocket barrage.

IDF says five Gaza rockets were fired at Beersheba; damage caused to park

Damage caused to a park in Beersheba during a rocket attack on May 10, 2024. (Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel)

Five rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip at Beersheba, according to the IDF.

One was intercepted by the Iron Dome, while the other four hit open areas, it says.

The last time rockets were fired from Gaza at Beersheba was in December.

Damage is caused to a park in the city, but it is unclear if it is a direct impact or a large fragment that fell and caused the damage.

Police say officers are at the scene.

Damage is seen caused to a park in Beersheba in one of the rocket strikes. https://t.co/AquyqbaDf0 pic.twitter.com/eAorUU4QDn

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) May 10, 2024

IDF announces deaths of 4 soldiers killed by explosive in Gaza City alleyway

(Clockwise from top left) Sgt. Itay Livny, Sgt. Yosef Dassa, Sgt. Daniel Levy and Sgt. Ermiyas Mekuriyaw who were killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip on May 10, 2024 (Israel Defense Forces)

Four Israeli soldiers were killed during fighting against Hamas in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood this morning, the military announces.

The troops are named as:

Sgt. Itay Livny, 19, of the Nahal Brigade’s 931st Battalion, from Ramat Hasharon.

Sgt. Yosef Dassa, 19, of the Nahal Brigade’s 931st Battalion, from Kiryat Bialik.

Sgt. Ermiyas Mekuriyaw, 19, of the Nahal Brigade’s 931st Battalion, from Beersheba.

Sgt. Daniel Levy, 19, of the Nahal Brigade’s 931st Battalion, from Kiryat Motzkin

Another officer and soldier of the 931st Battalion were seriously wounded in the same incident.

According to an initial IDF probe, the four soldiers were killed by an explosive device or devices in an alleyway.

The troops had been raiding a school complex where the military had indications of Hamas activity. Weaponry and at least one tunnel were discovered in the area of the school.

The IDF has returned several times to the Zeitun neighborhood since the war’s outbreak, as Hamas has managed to regroup in areas previously cleared by the army.

Their deaths bring the toll of slain troops in the IDF’s ground offensive in Gaza and amid operations on the border to 271.

Separately, another two soldiers of the 401st Armored Brigade’s 9th Battalion were seriously wounded by RPG fire on a tank in the Rafah area of southern Gaza.

Rocket sirens triggered in Beersheba for first time since April 14 Iran attack

Incoming rocket sirens are sounding in the southern city of Beersheba.

Several blasts are heard. There are no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The last time sirens sounded in the city was amid the Iranian missile attack on April 14.

Gallant blasts Smotrich for holding up purchase of fighter jet squadrons from the US mid-war

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, left, talks with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during a discussion and vote on the state budget at the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem, May 23, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant slams Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for holding up approving the purchase of two fighter jet squadrons for the Israeli Air Force amid the war.

In April, Ynet news reported that Smotrich decided to veto the approval of the procurement of new F-15 and F-35 jets until a Knesset committee tasked with looking at the defense budget is convened.

Smotrich said at the time that he wouldn’t approve “strategic and long-term future force build-up” until after the committee publishes recommendations on the defense budget, claiming that “doing the same thing over and over again without learning from past mistakes will bring us a disaster.”

The two fighter jet squadrons are to be financed by US military aid to Israel, and not state funds.

“The Israeli perception that it is possible to provide increased security with less money, in the face of threats that are only increasing along with additional combat arenas, is a wrong perception that needs to change,” says Gallant to reporters.

Gallant says Israel’s defense budget needs to be doubled, citing the recent Iranian missile and drone attack on the country.

“The exchange of fire with Iran, and the international security situation, will lead to a global arms race, which forces us to accelerate the pace of military force build-up and procurement,” he says.

“If we do not complete the process of purchasing the squadrons from the US within a month, the planes will be delayed for three years, and will increase the price for the State of Israel by an additional billion NIS,” Gallant says, referring to the fact that another customer will take Israel’s place if it does not complete the deal soon.

“The delay in procurement is a blow to Israel’s security, and at a time when we are fighting a multi-front war, the implications are clear,” he adds.

Gallant’s statement was issued to reporters under an embargo.

During that time, Smotrich’s office got wind of the criticism and issued a statement of its own, saying the finance minister has requested that the cabinet secretary bring a resolution to the upcoming cabinet meeting to establish a committee that would examine Israel’s defense budget.

The statement says the committee will be established per the agreement of the prime minister and national security advisor.

“Israel’s security is not a game. The delay in the establishment of the committee results in a delay in procurement important to the force build-up of the IDF and the rest of the defense establishment,” Smotrich’s office says.

Eurovision organizers say leaked Italy results which caused Israel to peak in odds were ‘incomplete’

Eden Golan (center) and the Israeli delegation in the green room after her performance at the second Eurovision semifinal in Malmo, Sweden, on May 9, 2024. (Courtesy Kan)

The European Broadcasting Union issues a statement saying that apparent leaked Eurovision semifinal results from Italy last night were “published in error” and were “incomplete.”

The EBU, which organizes the song contest, does not elaborate on how the results, which showed that a whopping 39% of votes from Italy went to Israel’s Eden Golan, were “incomplete.” It says that it is investigating the incident, in which RAI, Italy’s public broadcaster, seemed to accidentally publish the country’s voting numbers, but stresses that Italy submitted a “valid vote.” The EBU says it told RAI that the move was “in breach of the rules.”

Results from the contest’s semifinals are not meant to be published until after the final, slated for Saturday night, is completed. The leaked numbers from Italy, however, caused Israel to soar in the betting ranks from the 8th spot to 2nd place ahead of the grand final.

The semifinals are decided solely based on the televote, while the final is decided by a combination of “jury” votes from each country and the televote. According to the odds, Israel is slated to end up first in the televote, but fifth in the jury vote, leading to a second-place finish. Croatia is still considered the heavy favorite.

Security cabinet said to approve measured expansion of Rafah op, risking clash with Biden

IDF soldiers standing atop a battle tank as part of the Givati Brigade operating in eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in a handout picture released on May 10, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces/AFP)

The security cabinet voted last night to approve the expansion of the IDF’s operation in Rafah, Hebrew media reports.

The expansion is deemed as measured in what Israel hopes will not cross the line into what the US deems as a “major operation.”

US President Joe Biden warned earlier this week that he would halt certain offensive weapons shipments to Israel if it entered into the population centers of Rafah due to concerns over the one million-plus civilians sheltering there.

The Axios news site cites two sources who say the expansion will be limited enough so as to not upset the Biden administration, while a third source warns the moves could be interpreted by the US as a step too far.

The security cabinet also voted to instruct Israel’s hostage negotiating team to continue its efforts to try and reach a hostage deal by putting together a new proposal in the hopes of reaching a breakthrough, Axios reports.

Far-right ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich voted against the decision but were outnumbered.

An Israeli official confirms to The Times of Israel that the security cabinet approved the continuation of the IDF’s operation in Rafah but doesn’t elaborate.

In return to Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, IDF says it found weapons in classroom

Weapons found by IDF troops at a school the Gaza City neighborhood of Zeitoun, May 10, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Amid the IDF’s ongoing operation in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, troops of the Nahal Brigade raided a school where the military had indications of Hamas activity.

The IDF says the troops located weaponry, including assault rifles, within the school’s classrooms.

Fierce battles took place in the area this morning.

The IDF reports that in recent days, Nahal troops killed several gunmen, including by calling in airstrikes, as well as captured weapons and intelligence materials in the Zeitoun area.

The IDF has fought several times in the Zeitun neighborhood after Hamas fighters managed to return to areas that the army had cleared.

IDF says it struck two armed Hezbollah operatives in southern Lebanon

Two armed Hezbollah operatives were struck by the Israeli Air Force in southern Lebanon’s Yaroun earlier today, the military says.

The IDF says the pair were spotted by troops of the 869th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit near a building known to be used by the terror group, while carrying weapons. A short while later, the building was struck by fighter jets.

Fighter jets hit additional Hezbollah sites in Kafr Kila and Blida today, the IDF adds.

The IDF also says that drone sirens that sounded earlier in northern Israel were false alarms.

מטוסי קרב תקפו שני מחבלי חיזבאללה נעים בסמוך למבנה צבאי במרחב יארון, בעודם נושאים אמצעי לחימה.

מוקדם יותר היום מטוסי קרב תקפו תשתית טרור של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב כפר כילא ומבנה צבאי של הארגון במרחב בליידא, בו שהו מחבלים ותשתית טרור במרחב טיר חרפא. pic.twitter.com/hAifhebUeY

— Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) May 10, 2024

Ben Gvir points finger at former PM Bennett for approving work permits for Gazans in 2022

File: Palestinian workers enter Israel after crossing from Gaza, on the Israeli side of Erez crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, March 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Amid a flurry of criticism for a short and contentious tweet about US President Joe Biden yesterday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir takes to social media platform X again, this time to lash out at former prime minister Naftali Bennett.

Posting a screenshot of a 2022 tweet in which Bennett announced the approval of thousands of work permits for Palestinians in Gaza to work inside Israel, Ben Gvir writes, “Don’t go out into the sun Naftali, you’ve got a lot of butter on your head,” in an apparent reference to the former prime minister being bald.

Bennett served as prime minister from June 2021 to June 2022.

Ben Gvir was insinuating that Bennett bears part of the responsibility for Israel’s failure to prevent Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which the former prime minister already admitted in the weeks after the surprise onslaught.

In addition, the theory that some Gazan laborers had aided Hamas in its plans for the attack, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped another 252, has been largely debunked.

Ben Gvir’s tweet came hours after CNN released an interview in which Bennett called the national security minister’s tweet yesterday “childish and infantile.”

Report: IDF tanks advance on main road dividing eastern, western sides of Rafah

Illustrative - IDF tanks are positioned in southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on May 9, 2024. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)

Israeli tanks advanced on a main road dividing the eastern and western halves of southern Gaza’s Rafah today, Reuters reports.

The IDF had said that it captured part of the Salah a-Din road when it launched its operation on eastern Rafah late Monday.

It appears that tanks have pushed further along the road, although still within a zone that the IDF ordered to be evacuated.

Residents described almost constant explosions and gunfire east and northeast of the city, with intense fighting between Israeli forces and operatives of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups.

Hamas claimed to have ambushed Israeli tanks near a mosque in the east of the city, a sign the IDF had penetrated several kilometers from the east to the outskirts of the built-up area of the city.

Israel ordered civilians out of the eastern outskirts of Rafah earlier this week. The military has estimated that around 150,000 Palestinians in the east Rafah area have evacuated already.

Around a million more Palestinians, who fled other parts of the enclave during the war, remain in the city itself, and they have not been called to evacuate yet.

Police dismantle anti-Israel encampment at MIT, move to clear Philadelphia and Arizona protests

A line of police in riot gear walk past police dismantling an anti-Israel encampment at MIT, before dawn on May 10, 2024, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

Police have dismantled an anti-Israel tent encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and moved to clear protesters from the University of Pennsylvania’s campus in Philadelphia, just hours after police tear-gassed protesters and took down an encampment at the University of Arizona.

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, video shows police roaming through the MIT encampment. Protest organizers say about 10 students have been detained after police in riot gear arrived around 4 a.m., encircled the camp and gave protesters about 15 minutes to leave.

early morning raid at MIT:

at around 4am, police in riot gear raided the MIT pro-Palestine encampment, per @mit_caa livestream

around 10 students who held the encampment have been arrested, tents being cleared out by officers now https://t.co/xAG4CwCFFy pic.twitter.com/uTc9ENHtWW

— Tori Bedford (@Tori_Bedford) May 10, 2024

A crowd outside the camp began gathering and chanting pro-Palestinian slogans but were dispersed by 6 a.m.

At the University of Arizona, campus police in riot gear fired tear gas late last night at protesters before tearing down an encampment that included wood and plastic barriers on campus. In a statement, the University of Arizona says it made the decision because the encampment violated school policy.

Several area law enforcement agencies stand at the intersection of University Boulevard and Park Avenue after ejecting a small group of anti-Israel demonstrators off the University of Arizona campus, May 10, 2024, Tucson, Arizona. (Kelly Presnell/Arizona Daily Star via AP)

The school also says that police vehicles were spiked, and rocks and water bottles thrown at officers and university staff.

In Philadelphia early this morning, police detain people at an encampment that has been in place at the University of Pennsylvania’s campus for more than two weeks. Officers move in after giving pro-Palestinian protesters a warning to leave campus or face possible arrest.

Tensions have ratcheted up in standoffs with protesters on campuses across the United States and increasingly in Europe. Some colleges cracked down immediately, while others have tolerated the demonstrations. Some have begun to lose patience and call in the police over concerns about disruptions to campus life and safety.

The students are calling for universities to divest from Israel and protesting the war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

Drone alert sirens sounding in northern communities including Kiryat Shmona

Sirens are sounding in northern towns and cities near the border with Lebanon, warning of a hostile aircraft intrusion.

The sirens are sounding in largely evacuated communities including Tel Hai, Kiryat Shmona, Misgav Am, Margaliot, Ma’ayan Baruch, Manara, Metula, Kfar Yuval , Kfar Giladi and Beit Hillel.

???? Large Red Alert [14:20:09] – 10 Alerts:

• Confrontation Line — Margaliot, Ma'ayan Baruch, Tel Hai, Kiryat Shmona, Misgav Am, Manara, Kfar Giladi, Metulla, Beit Hillel, Kfar Yuval#Israel #RocketAlert #RedAlert pic.twitter.com/V1jgdIYXv3

— ILRedAlert (@ILRedAlert) May 10, 2024

Reports: 3 anti-tank missiles fired at Upper Galilee from Lebanon; none hurt

Three anti-tank missiles were fired at Kibbutz Misgav in the Upper Galilee next to the Lebanon border a short while ago, according to Hebrew media reports.

There are no immediate reports of casualties in the incident, though one of the missiles hit a building, causing some damage.

UN agencies warn dwindling food, fuel stocks could force Gaza aid operations to grind to a halt in days

Tents housing internally displaced Palestinians stand on the beach in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on May 10, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

United Nations aid agencies warn that dwindling food and fuel stocks could force aid operations to grind to a halt within days in Gaza as vital crossings remain shut, forcing hospitals to close down and leading to more malnutrition.

Israel’s Kerem Shalom Crossing with Gaza was shuttered for a few days this week after it was shuttered days earlier following a deadly Hamas rocket attack, while the Rafah Border Crossing on the Egypt border has been closed since the IDF captured the Palestinian side of the terminal on Tuesday.

“For five days, no fuel and virtually no humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip, and we are scraping the bottom of the barrel,” says the UNICEF Senior Emergency Coordinator in the Gaza Strip, Hamish Young.

“This is already a huge issue for the population and for all humanitarian actors but in a matter of days, if not corrected, the lack of fuel could grind humanitarian operations to a halt,” he tells a virtual briefing.

More than 100,000 people have fled Rafah in the last five days, he adds.

IDF: 12 soldiers evacuated for treatment after being stung by wasps in southern Gaza

Twelve soldiers were wounded after being stung by wasps in the southern Gaza Strip earlier today.

The incident occurred amid an operation by the Gaza Division’s Southern Brigade in the border area, near the community of Nirim.

A tank had driven over a large wasp nest, leading the insects to sting the troops. One of the soldiers is listed in moderate condition, and the other 11 are lightly hurt, the IDF says.

They were taken to a hospital in Israel for treatment.

Bennett: War against Hamas would be ‘done in three days’ if Israel didn’t care about civilian casualties

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett speaks to Channel 12, February 13, 2023. (Channel 12 screenshot: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett says US President Joe Biden’s decision to delay a weapons shipment to Israel is “deeply misguided,” in an interview with CNN.

“If Hamas is granted immunity because it hides behind civilians… that means that the whole global jihad organizations are all going to adopt human shields as the core way of conducting terror,” he says.

התגובה (החריפה) שלי להודעת הנשיא ביידן—ראיון לא פשוט ברשת CNN.
My response to President Biden’s arms halt decision.
It’s wrong.
ותשובתי לשאלה שלה על הציוצים האינפנטיליים של שרי הממשלה. pic.twitter.com/bTrREyX6y2

— Naftali Bennett נפתלי בנט (@naftalibennett) May 10, 2024

Bennett vehemently denies that Israel is using bombs to intentionally target Palestinian civilians in Gaza. “Absolutely not. Never. We never target civilians.”

“In fact,” he continues, “we have the lowest ratio of collateral damage in the history of urban warfare.”

Israel is “bending over backward in order to prevent unnecessary deaths,” he says. “Otherwise we’d get this whole thing done within three days if we didn’t care about it.”

The US put a transfer of 2,000- and 500-pound bombs on hold this week over concerns that Israel could use them in densely populated Rafah, as it has in other parts of Gaza.

Asked about a contentious tweet posted by far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir yesterday that said “Hamas [loves] Biden,” Bennett responds, “That’s a childish and infantile response and I’m certainly not going to defend every stupid thing that any minister says.”

CNN reports alleged abuse of Palestinian terror suspects in Israeli detention facilities

Illustrative - Hamas terror suspects, caught during the October 7 massacre and subsequent IDF operations in Gaza, seen at a courtyard in a prison in southern Israel, February 14, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

CNN publishes an in-depth report on the conditions in Israeli detention facilities holding terror suspects detained during the ongoing war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Quoting two Israeli whistleblowers and a Palestinian doctor held in a facility in the Negev, the report details alleged abuse of detainees including physical restraints and beatings.

“[The beatings] were not done to gather intelligence. They were done out of revenge,” says one of the whistleblowers quoted by CNN. “It was punishment for what [the Palestinians] did on October 7 and punishment for behavior in the camp.”

Another of the Israeli sources shares photos he took at a detention facility at Sde Teiman, some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the Gaza border, which show around a hundred blindfolded men in grey tracksuits in a floodlit area surrounded by a barbed wire fence.

The Palestinian doctor quoted in the report says that guards at Sde Teiman regularly unleash dogs on sleeping detainees in what he calls “the nightly torture.”

The report also includes a 3D video model of a field hospital in the facility, where the witness accounts say wounded Palestinian detainees are handcuffed to beds wearing diapers and fed through straws.

The Israel Defense Forces denies the allegations in the CNN report, insisting that “Any allegation of misconduct by IDF soldiers is examined and dealt with accordingly.”

Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 252 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched a wide-scale military operation in Gaza, during which thousands of terror suspects have been arrested.

Liberman says dialogue with US should be ‘behind closed doors,’ urges politicians to ‘shut their mouths’

File - Yisrael Beytenu party chairman MK Avigdor Liberman leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on April 1, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Yisrael Beytenu party chairman Avigdor Liberman joins a host of reactions to US President Joe Biden’s decision earlier this week to hold up delivery of high payload munitions to Israel, cautioning fellow politicians to “shut their mouths.”

“There have been disputes with the US in the past, and we have never turned them into a public and publicized fight,” he writes on X, formerly Twitter.

He adds that Israel’s relationship with the US is “much more complex than the supply of ammunition, which can also be produced in Israel within a few months.”

“As such, the dialogue with our strategic ally must be conducted behind closed doors and away from the spotlight,” Liberman says.

The comments came after far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir tweeted yesterday “Hamas [loves] Biden,” drawing a flood of criticism from Israeli lawmakers.

Washington’s decision to delay the shipment of bombs came amid concerns over  Israel’s plans to carry out an offensive in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah that the Biden administration opposes without new civilian safeguards.

Ahead of UN vote, EU’s Borrell says Spain, Ireland plan to recognize Palestinian state on May 21

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell attends a meeting with European and Arab foreign ministers held in Riyadh on April 29, 2024. (Fayez Nureldine / AFP)

MADRID – Spain, Ireland and other European Union member countries plan to recognize a Palestinian state on May 21, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, says ahead of an expected UN vote today on a Palestinian bid to become a full member state of the United Nations.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in March that Spain and Ireland, along with Slovenia and Malta, had agreed to take the first steps towards recognition of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, seeing a two-state solution as essential for lasting peace.

Asked on local Spanish radio station RNE late last night if May 21 was when Spain, Ireland and other EU countries would recognize a Palestinian state, Borrell says yes, mentioning Slovenia as well.

“This is a symbolic act of a political nature. More than a state, it recognizes the will for that state to exist,” he says, adding that Belgium and other countries would probably follow.

Previously, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares had said the decision on recognition had been made, although he did not give a date.

Israel has said plans for Palestinian recognition constitute a “prize for terrorism” that would reduce the chances of a negotiated resolution to the ongoing war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

On Friday afternoon, the United Nations General Assembly is set to back a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member by recognizing it as qualified to join and sending the application back to the UN Security Council to “reconsider the matter favorably.”

Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE said last night that Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and Malta had been waiting for the UN vote and were considering a joint recognition on May 21.

A spokesperson for the Spanish Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. There is no immediate comment on the date from the other countries.

Since 1988, 139 out of 193 UN member states have recognized Palestinian statehood.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

UK maritime body reports on failed hijacking east of Yemen’s Aden

DUBAI – The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) organization says it has received a report of a failed hijacking attempt of a vessel 195 nautical miles east of Yemen’s Aden.

The vessel’s master reports being approached by a small craft carrying five or six armed people with ladders.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have launched drone and missile attacks on shipping in and around the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean to show support for the Palestinians amid the ongoing war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack.

Maritime sources say pirates may be encouraged by a relaxation of security or may be taking advantage of the chaos caused by attacks on shipping by the Houthis.

After firing on the vessel, the people in the small craft were forced to abort their approach when the security team on the vessel returned fire, the UKMTO reports.

The vessel and its crew are reported to be safe, and the vessel is proceeding to its next port of call, it says.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report. 

‘He’s a romantic’: Security cabinet ministers said to pan Ben Gvir’s ‘Hamas <3 Biden' tweet as Netanyahu laughs

File - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convenes a meeting of the security cabinet in Tel Aviv on March 15, 2024 (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

Several members of the security cabinet criticized National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir for tweeting “Hamas [loves] Biden” yesterday during a meeting late last night, according to a Hebrew media report.

Ynet News reports leaked comments from the meeting, which was scheduled determine Israel’s reaction to a decision by US President Joe Biden to withhold munitions that could be used in a major Israeli offensive in Rafah.

According to the report, Ben Gvir defended his post on X, formerly Twitter, as “gentle, relative to what most Israelis think” of the move by Washington.

“We need to talk to the Americans with respect — but make it clear that if there are sanctions on us then there will be less humanitarian aid” transferred to Palestinians in Gaza, he is quoted as saying.

“To speak with respect like your tweet?” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reportedly retorted in the meeting.

The report adds that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu burst out laughing when Science and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel quipped, “He’s a romantic — he even added a heart emoji.”

In response, Ben Gvir reportedly doubled down and said, “Such tweets will multiply. I expect all ministers to join me. There is support for what I said not only by [Republican presidential candidate Donald] Trump, who made very important comments, but also by some Democrats.”

Trump, who is running against Biden for another term in the White House, wrote on his Truth Social platform yesterday: “Crooked Joe is taking the side of these terrorists just like he has sided with the Radical Mobs taking over our college campuses, because his donors are funding them.”

War cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot reportedly responded to Ben Gvir, “You should take a deep breath and give a lot of respect to the President of the United States.”

To which the far-right minister retorts, “We should send a message that even in the US there is a majority against Biden.”

The meeting began at 11 pm last night and finished around 2 am, according to Ynet.

IDF: Iron Dome intercepted 2 rockets launched from Rafah area at Kerem Shalom

Two rockets launched from the Rafah area in the southern Gaza Strip at the Kerem Shalom area were intercepted by the Iron Dome, the military says.

Several sirens sounded in the community in the past hour.

Israel planning separate, smaller operations in Rafah to preserve relations with US — Lebanese report

IDF troops on the Gazan side of the Rafah border crossing on May 7, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Israel is planning on launching separate operations in different areas in Rafah so as not to draw the ire of the United States and the international community, according to an Egyptian military official quoted by Lebanese media.

US President Joe Biden threatened this week to withhold offensive weapons from Israel if it launches a major offensive in Gaza’s southernmost city, where over one million Palestinians are sheltering amid the ongoing war.

Lebanese outlet Al-Akhbar quotes the Egyptian official as saying that the situation in Rafah “is getting worse.”

Israel has said Hamas is seeking to prevent a military operation in Rafah because a full-scale invasion threatens to dismantle the terror group’s last major stronghold in Gaza, where four of its battalions are believed to remain standing.

An operation launched by Israel to take over the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Tuesday this week was apparently approved by the Biden administration.

Rocket sirens sounding near Gaza border for second time in an hour

Rocket alert sirens are sounding at Kerem Shalom, on the southern end of the border with Gaza.

The sirens come less than an hour after missile alerts sounded in nearby Holit and Sufa.

Red Alert [09:48:08] – 1 Alert:

• Gaza Envelope — Kerem Shalom#Israel #RocketAlert #RedAlert pic.twitter.com/dcDz6QVUdp

— ILRedAlert (@ILRedAlert) May 10, 2024

Earlier this week, four IDF soldiers were killed in a Hamas rocket attack on a staging ground near the Kerem Shalom Crossing. The crossing was shuttered until yesterday as a result.

Rocket sirens sound in communities near Gaza border

Rocket sirens were sounding a short while ago in communities near the Gaza border, warning of incoming missile fire.

The sirens could be heard in the towns of Holit and Sufa, some 10 kilometers (six miles) from Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah.

There are no initial reports of damage or injury.

Red Alert [09:03:24] – 2 Alerts:

• Gaza Envelope — Holit, Sufa#Israel #RocketAlert #RedAlert pic.twitter.com/a4FBR3nWCX

— ILRedAlert (@ILRedAlert) May 10, 2024

IDF: Troops kill several gunmen in close-quarters combat in eastern Rafah, locate more tunnel shafts

IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip, in a photo cleared for publication on May 10, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Israeli military says it killed numerous gunmen as it continues to operate in eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, as well as in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood.

In east Rafah, troops of the Givati Brigade located several tunnel shafts, while the 401st Armored Brigade killed several gunmen in close-quarters combat and by calling in airstrikes in the area of the Rafah Crossing with Egypt, the IDF says.

The IDF also says the Air Force and 215th Artillery Regiment carried out several strikes in Rafah over the past day, targeting sites used by Hamas to launch rockets and mortars at troops and at Israel.

Meanwhile, in Zeitoun, where the IDF launched a pinpoint operation last night, the military says fighter jets struck several gunmen and Hamas sites, including a booby-trapped building.

In central Gaza, the IDF says reservists of the Yiftah Brigade spotted a cell of gunmen leaving a known weapons depot and moving toward the forces, before calling in an airstrike against them. The weapons depot and another operative in the area were targeted in separate strikes, the military says.

More than 40 more targets, including tunnels, anti-tank missile launch positions, buildings, observation posts, and other infrastructure were struck by the Air Force in other areas of Gaza, the IDF adds.

Report: Hamas demand that Israel agree to 12-week ceasefire was a major sticking point in latest round of talks

The length of an initial pause in fighting in a potential ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas was a major sticking point in the most recent round of negotiations in Cairo, according to three sources quoted by CNN.

The sources are quoted as saying that Hamas’s latest offer demanded that Israel agree to a 12-week ceasefire instead of the six weeks offered in the previous proposal.

The Hamas proposal submitted to US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators this week designates two back-to-back “periods of calm” of six weeks each.

The sources quoted by CNN say that Israel is particularly concerned with the wording of how the first phase would transition into the second.

According to the CNN report, Israeli officials are opposed to a longer pause as it would effectively end the war — which Jerusalem has refused to accept as the terms for a hostage deal.

The report comes as Hamas said early this morning that its delegation attending negotiations to secure a deal in Cairo had left the city for Qatar, adding the “ball is now completely” in Israel’s hands.

Report: Smotrich holding NIS 170 million in PA tax revenue over UN statehood bid, possible ICC arrest warrants

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich leads a Religious Zionism faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, April 30, 2024. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has reportedly been holding NIS 170 million shekels ($46 million) in tax revenue that Israel collects for the Palestinian Authority for nine days.

Channel 12 quotes sources close to Smotrich as saying that the move comes in protest of PA efforts “fighting against the State of Israel,” an apparent reference to reports that Ramallah has been pushing for the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for top Israeli officials for alleged breaches of international law in Gaza during the ongoing war against Hamas.

“Those who act against our soldiers and commanders in The Hague should not receive any assistance,” the sources are quoted as saying.

Smotrich also warned late last month that he would cut off the transfer of funds to the Palestinian administrative body if it continues with its unilateral efforts for international recognition of a state.

The United Nations General Assembly is set to vote today on a largely symbolic resolution to back a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member by recognizing it as qualified to join the international body.

Channel 12 quotes a Palestinian source as saying that “Israel is once again strengthening Hamas and weakening the Palestinian Authority.”

Israel collects hundreds of millions of shekels in Palestinian tax revenue, which Smotrich held up earlier in the war over concerns that the portion of the funds that Ramallah uses to pay for services and employees in Gaza — roughly NIS 260 million ($73 million) monthly — could wind up in the hands of Hamas. An agreement was eventually reached in February to transfer the payments via Norway to ensure no money is diverted.

Egypt: Hamas, Israel both need to show ‘flexibility’ to close Gaza truce and hostage release deal

Hamas and Israel must show “flexibility” if they are to strike a deal for a temporary ceasefire and hostage release deal in the seven-month war in the Gaza Strip, Egypt’s foreign ministry says in a statement.

The readout of a phone call between Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says both diplomats agreed on “the importance of urging the parties to show flexibility and make all the necessary efforts to achieve a ceasefire agreement and put an end to the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza.”

The Egyptian statement comes after Hamas said early this morning that its negotiators at ceasefire talks this week in Cairo had left for Doha, saying Israel had “rejected the proposal submitted by the mediators and raised objections to it.”

Hamas: ‘Ball is completely’ in Israel’s hands in Gaza truce talks, delegation left Cairo

The Hamas terror group says its delegation attending negotiations to secure a temporary truce and hostage release deal in Cairo has left the city for Qatar, adding the “ball is now completely” in Israel’s hands.

“The negotiating delegation left Cairo heading to Doha. In practice, the occupation (Israel) rejected the proposal submitted by the mediators and raised objections to it on several central issues,” the group says in a message to other Palestinian factions, adding it stood by the proposal.

“Accordingly, the ball is now completely in the hands of the occupation.”

Hamas said earlier this week that it had agreed to a three-phase deal for a ceasefire and hostages-for-prisoners swap, although an Israeli official said soon after that the deal was not acceptable to Israel because the terms it had previously approved had been “softened.”

Officials from the Palestinian terror group claimed that the deal would yield an end to the war, whereas Israel has said repeatedly that it will not accept a hostage deal that involves ending the war and that it fully intends to resume its campaign to destroy Hamas once any deal has been carried out.

UN General Assembly set to vote today on symbolic measure backing Palestinian statehood

File - Palestinian Authority Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour speaks during a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, at the UN headquarters in New York on March 25, 2024. (ANGELA WEISS / AFP)

The United Nations General Assembly is set to back a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member by recognizing it as qualified to join and sending the application back to the UN Security Council to “reconsider the matter favorably.”

While unlikely to change the Palestinians’ status at the world body, today’s vote will effectively act as a global survey of how much support Ramallah has for its bid, which was vetoed by the United States in the UN Security Council last month.

An application for full UN member status needs to be approved by the 15-member Security Council and then the General Assembly.

Diplomats say the draft text is likely to get the support needed to be adopted.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan denounced the draft General Assembly resolution this week, saying it would give the Palestinians the de facto status and rights of a state and goes against the founding UN Charter.

The Palestinians are currently a non-member observer state, a de facto recognition of statehood granted by the UN General Assembly in 2012.

The Palestinian UN mission in New York, run by the PA, said in a letter to UN member states yesterday that adopting the draft resolution would be an investment in preserving the long-sought after two-state solution.

Blinken’s report expected to criticize Israel but confirm it’s using US weapons in line with international law

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to the press in front of a truck with humanitarian aid bound for Gaza, at the Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organization in Amman on April 30, 2024. (Evelyn Hockstein/AFP)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to deliver a report to Congress this week that will criticize Israel but ultimately conclude that the Biden administration has accepted assurances from Jerusalem that the IDF is using American weapons in accordance with international law, Axios reports.

Citing three US officials, the news site says that Blinken’s report could be submitted as early as today.

The report reviewing the use of weapons by Israel and six other countries engaged in different armed conflicts, which will be released to the public, was originally due on May 8, but the State Department requested an extension.

It is part of a new policy instituted by US President Joe Biden in February requiring foreign aid recipients to provide written assurances that they are using that aid in compliance with international law and not obstructing the provision of humanitarian aid.

While the order doesn’t place any tangible new conditions on foreign assistance, given that recipients have always been required to use the aid in a manner consistent with the laws of war, the White House has acknowledged that it was the result of pressure from progressive lawmakers who believe Israel might not be abiding by these terms.

The Axios report also quotes two US officials as saying that Biden’s Gaza humanitarian envoy David Satterfield, and US Ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, sent a memo to Blinken in recent weeks confirming that Israel is not violating international law in its war against Hamas in Gaza, sparked by the terror group’s October 7 massacre.

The memo added that the report should say that Israel is not intentionally hampering the delivery of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, where a humanitarian crisis is growing amid the ongoing fighting, noting changes since a call between Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in April, according to the officials quoted by Axios.

Blinken’s report is due after the White House this week confirmed a delay in the transfer of 2,000- and 500-pound bombs over concerns that the IDF could use them in densely populated Rafah, as it has in other parts of Gaza, and Biden threatened that more arms shipments would be frozen if Israel launched a planned offensive in the Strip’s southernmost city.

Netanyahu says college protesters chanting ‘from the river to the sea’ are ‘supporting genocide’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with Dr. Phil in an interview released on May 10, 2024. (YouTube screenshot. Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

In an apparent shot at Biden and others, Netanyahu tells Dr. Phil that some world leaders privately tell him that Hamas needs to be destroyed, but “when they are faced with all this propaganda, all this madness in the campuses… they begin to fray, some of them. But I don’t fray. We’ll do what we have to do to protect ourselves.”

Asked further about the anti-Israel unrest at US universities, Netanyahu says Hamas’s stated aim of destroying Israel “is not resistance.”

“You have a lot of ignorant people, who I’m sorry to say, whose sense of history at best goes back to breakfast, not even that. They don’t have the faintest clue what Hamas is,” the prime minister says, citing Hamas’s treatment of LGBTQ indviduals and women.

He continues: “When they say ‘from the river to the sea,’ that’s wipe out the State of Israel. They’re supporting genocide. Now, this is a sorry state of American education… There’s a deep rot and a bankruptcy there.”

Dr. Phil then asks Netanyahu about surging antisemitism in the United States, which the premier blames on “a fusion of radical Islam and the ultra-anarchist left.”

“The only thing they agree on is that Israel has to be destroyed and America has to be destroyed,” he says.

PM hoping to overcome differences with Biden, says ‘no choice’ but to destroy Hamas

This combination photo shows US President Joe Biden, left, on March 8, 2024, in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, October 28, 2023. (AP Photo)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he hopes he and US President Joe Biden can overcome their disagreements over the war in Gaza, after Biden withheld a shipment of bombs from Israel.

“We often have our agreements but we’ve also had our disagreements. We’ve been able to overcome them. I hope we can overcome them now, but we will do what we have to do to protect our country,” Netanyahu says in an interview on the “Dr. Phil Primetime” show, which was taped before Biden’s threat on Wednesday to withhold weapons supplies if Israel enters Rafah.

Speaking in Jerusalem with the US television personality, the premier argues Israel “has no choice” but to destroy Hamas’s remaining battalions in Rafah.

“If we do not destroy them, if we leave them alone they’ll come back. They’ll emerge from the tunnels, they’ll take over Gaza again, and they’ll do what they promised to do: They’ll do October 7 — this enormous massacre — again, again and again,” Netanyahu says.

Pressing his case for why Israel must enter Rafah, Netanyahu says Israel must destroy Hamas’s remaining battalions there

“Rational-minded people understand that we don’t have a choice,” he contends.

JFNA says withholding US arms for Israel encourages Hamas, endangers the hostages

The Jewish Federations of North America also comes out against US President Joe Biden’s threat to withhold additional armaments for Israel if it launches an offensive in Rafah, calling what he did “wrong.”

“Daylight between the US and Israel on military matters emboldens Hamas and other Iran-backed forces in the region, encourages their delay tactics, and endangers the hostages by weakening Israel’s negotiating hand at a critical juncture,” the umbrella group says in a statement.

It also says Biden’s “comments regarding civilians and humanitarian aid only serve to reinforce the false narratives that anti-Israel and antisemitic extremists are violently spreading in campus protests,” in an apparent reference to the US president responding in the affirmative when asked during a CNN interview “have those bombs been used to kill civilians in Gaza.”

“These outcomes go against the laudable aspirations President Biden enunciated this week, that ‘there is no place on any campus in America, any place in America, for antisemitism or hate speech or threats of violence of any kind, whether against Jews or anyone else,'” the JFNA statement adds.

“Even the strongest of allies sometimes disagree, but their mutual support should never waver.

After Biden threat, ADL says withholding arms from Israel ‘undermines our ally, emboldens terror’

The Anti-Defamation League releases a statement on the US administration’s decision to pause a shipment of bombs to Israel, and US President Joe Biden’s threat to hold up further transfer of weapons if the IDF enters Rafah.

“This move undermines our ally Israel, fails to put pressure on Hamas and emboldens terror while energizing Hezbollah and Iran, who specialize in toxic antisemitism and rabid anti-Zionism,” the ADL says.

The group also says that in order for the war to end, “Hamas must release the 132 hostages and disarm today.”

Netanyahu not planning to extend term of Israeli ambassador to US — report

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is greeted by Israeli Ambassador to the US Mike Herzog (C) and Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan (R) in New York on September 19, 2023 (Avi Ohayon/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not intend to extend the term of Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Herzog when it expires in November this year,  Channel 13 news reports.

Netanyahu could extend Herzog’s three-year term by an additional year but has said privately that he does not intend to, despite the ambassador’s desire to continue, according to the report, pointing to disagreements between the two that began before the war on Hamas.

The report says Netanyahu’s associates want UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan to replace Herzog, but that a decision on the matter would take some time. Erdan briefly served as both ambassador to the US and UN ambassador before he was replaced by the incumbent envoy.

“Herzog was the main hub in the relationship between Israel and the United States and worked vigorously for American support in its many aspects, including during disagreements between the countries,” a source familiar with the details tells The Times of Israel.

“When asked, the ambassador expressed his willingness to extend his tenure beyond the scheduled end date in order to continue to help Israel in the war.”

Herzog, brother of President Isaac Herzog, assumed his post in November 2021.

IDF strikes Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon after rocket and drone attacks

Israeli fighter jets struck buildings and other infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah in the southern Lebanon towns of Kafr Kila, Alma ash-Shab, and Yaroun a short while ago, the military says.

The strikes come following repeated rocket and drone attacks on northern Israel today.

Israeli fighter jets struck buildings and other infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah in the southern Lebanon towns of Kafr Kila, Alma ash-Shab, and Yaroun a short while ago, the military says. pic.twitter.com/LNml559Zmm

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