The Israeli army on Saturday urged residents of Rafah to leave additional areas to the east of southern Gaza City. There is also heavy fighting in the north of the Gaza Strip. All developments here in the news ticker.
2:08 p.m.: Three police officers were injured during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Berlin-Neukölln and Kreuzberg, and another officer was injured after the demonstration. At the rally on Saturday there were a total of 49 restrictions and deprivations of freedom, as a police spokeswoman announced on Sunday. In addition, 39 criminal proceedings were initiated.
In the procession with around 1,500 people at its peak, which started at Oranienplatz, participants repeatedly chanted pro-Palestinian slogans. An anti-Semitic statement was also loudly shouted over a loudspeaker van.
A person threw a filled plastic bottle against the shoulder of an emergency worker, said the police spokeswoman. When the rally ended in the evening, individual demonstrators threw bottles at police officers.
In the evening and at night, officers discovered large groups in the Sonnenallee area shouting pro-Palestinian slogans. Shortly before midnight, a group set off pyrotechnics at the Neukölln town hall and also threw bottles at emergency services.
The injured officers were able to remain on duty, the police said. The investigation is now underway, among other things, on suspicion of violations of the Freedom of Assembly Act, attempted release of prisoners and attacks on law enforcement officers.
9:46 a.m.: Israeli forces continue to engage in fierce fighting with armed Palestinians in the north of the Gaza Strip. The military wing of the terrorist organization Hamas reported on Sunday that its fighters had serious clashes with Israeli soldiers in the area of Jabalia.
Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Saturday evening that warplanes had attacked targets in Jabalia in the north of the Gaza Strip after the civilian population there had been evacuated. The Times of Israel reported on Sunday that the army had estimated the presence of 100,000 to 150,000 Palestinians in the area of Jabalia, which it had called for their evacuation. The Palestinian relief agency UNRWA expressed “extreme concern” about the evacuation calls for Rafah in the south and Jabalia in the north of the coastal strip.
Due to the lack of a political strategy for the period after the war, Israel’s army has to repeatedly fight in places in the Gaza Strip, such as now in Jabalia, which it had actually previously taken and from which it had already withdrawn, complained Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi, according to media reports, during security consultations with the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to media reports, Israeli soldiers are also still deployed in other places in the north of the Gaza Strip.
Sunday, May 12th, 2:07 a.m.: According to a media report, the USA has offered Israel help in tracking down leaders of the Islamist Hamas in exchange for refraining from a major offensive in Rafah in southern Gaza. As the Washington Post newspaper reported on Saturday (local time), citing four people familiar with the US offer, the US would help the Israeli military with intelligence support to locate the whereabouts of Hamas leaders and the terrorist organization’s underground tunnels. This is part of the US government’s efforts to avert a full-scale invasion of the refugee-filled city of Rafah in the south of the sealed-off Gaza Strip, it said.
American officials have also offered to provide Israel with thousands of emergency shelters so that the army can set up tent cities for the residents of Rafah who are being evacuated, it said.
9:33 a.m.: The Israeli army called on residents of Rafah on Saturday to leave other areas to the east of southern Gaza City. In a message distributed by the military in Arabic via Platform X and in the form of text messages, the armed forces listed the affected zones, including two refugee camps. People in these areas must immediately go to the town of Al-Mawasi on the Mediterranean coast, it said.
The request indicates that the military intends to expand its operations against positions and combat units of the Islamist Hamas in the city on the border with Egypt. The operation, which has been ongoing since the beginning of the week, is controversial. According to the UN, more than a million people who have fled the fighting in other parts of the Palestinian Gaza Strip are crowding into Rafah.
The US, Israel’s most important ally, is strongly warning the country against a large-scale offensive. US President Joe Biden recently even threatened to restrict arms deliveries. According to their own statements, the Israeli leadership wants to destroy the last battalions of the Islamist Hamas believed to be there in Rafah.
Saturday, May 11th, 9 a.m.: The USA has expressed sharp criticism of Israel’s use of US weapons in the Gaza Strip. According to a report on Friday, the United States believes it is likely that Israel may have violated international humanitarian law. Meanwhile, France called for an immediate end to the Israeli military operation in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, while Israel continued its offensive in the Palestinian territory on Saturday night.
The US State Department report said it was “reasonable to assume” that Israel used weapons in a manner inconsistent with international humanitarian law. However, there are no final conclusions, the ministry emphasized. The nature of the conflict in the Gaza Strip makes it difficult to assess individual incidents or make conclusive conclusions.
Israel has given the USA corresponding assurances, according to the public version of the report submitted to Congress. However, given that Israel relies heavily on U.S.-made defense equipment, it is “reasonable to assume” that since the major attack on Israel by the Islamist Hamas on October 7, the Israeli armed forces have used defense equipment in cases related to Israel are incompatible with the obligations of international humanitarian law.
5.30 p.m.: In a purely symbolic vote on Friday, the UN General Assembly voted with a large majority in favor of admitting the Palestinians to the United Nations. 143 states voted on Friday for a resolution that would admit the Palestinians to the UN and grant them additional rights in addition to their current observer status. Nine states voted against, 25 countries – including Germany – abstained.
The result has no direct impact, as the USA is blocking full membership of the Palestinians in the UN with its veto in the UN Security Council. The last time they did this was in mid-April.
The government of US President Joe Biden advocates a two-state solution to resolve the Middle East conflict, i.e. an independent Palestinian state that coexists peacefully with Israel. But Washington rejects the application for full UN membership, arguing that the UN is not the right place to recognize a Palestinian state – rather, it should emerge from an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
In order for a new state to be admitted to the United Nations, the 15-member Security Council must first agree. The motion must then be approved by the General Assembly, which consists of all 193 UN member states, with a two-thirds majority.
A majority of the 193 UN member states unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state, according to the Palestinian Authority there are 137. Germany does not recognize a Palestinian state, but maintains diplomatic relations with the Palestinian territories.
5:15 p.m.: According to the Israeli armed forces, four soldiers were killed in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday. All four were 19 years old, the army said in a statement. They apparently died when an explosive device exploded in Al-Saitun, a district of the city of Gaza, the Kan broadcaster reported.
The army had recently confirmed fighting with the Islamist Hamas militia in Al-Saitun, which had been going on for the past few days. Hamas terrorists were killed and the infrastructure they used was destroyed, the armed forces said in a statement. The soldiers found Hamas weapons and ammunition in a school building. The information could not initially be independently verified.
With Friday’s incident, 619 soldiers have died on the Israeli side since the start of the Gaza war on October 7th last year. The war was triggered by the unprecedented massacre with more than 1,200 deaths that terrorists from Hamas and other groups carried out in Israel on October 7th.
Friday, May 10th, 3:13 a.m.: In the negotiations for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas blames Israel for moving forward. Israel rejected a proposal put forward by the mediators, which Hamas accepted, the Islamist organization said on Friday. Therefore, “the ball is now completely in Israel’s court.” Hamas also announced that its delegation had left the negotiation site in Cairo for Qatar.
Previously, Al-Kahera News, which is close to the Egyptian authorities, reported on Thursday, citing a “high-ranking source”, that the Hamas and Israeli delegations had left Cairo after two days of talks on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of Israeli hostages. Regardless, the efforts of international mediators should continue.
Negotiations in Cairo have already been going on for several weeks. They are managed indirectly through the intermediaries.
The Islamist Hamas announced on Monday that it had agreed to a proposal from Egypt and Qatar for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. This provides for a three-stage ceasefire with the aim of a permanent ceasefire. Each of the three phases would last 42 days. The agreement also contains plans for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the return of Palestinians displaced by the ongoing war and an exchange of hostages and prisoners.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office then said that this proposal was “far from Israel’s essential demands.” On Tuesday, Netanyahu said he had instructed his delegation to “continue to stubbornly adhere to the conditions necessary for the release of the hostages” and “essential” to Israel’s security.
The war in the Gaza Strip was triggered by the major attack on Israel by Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups on October 7th. According to Israeli information, around 1,170 people were killed and around 250 others were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip.
Since the Hamas attack, Israel has taken massive military action in the Gaza Strip. According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, which cannot be independently verified, more than 34,900 people have been killed so far.
8:34 p.m.: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed that Israel will defend itself alone if necessary in the face of international criticism of the Gaza war. “If we have to stand on our own, then we will stand on our own,” Netanyahu said in a video message released on Thursday. If necessary, Israel will fight “with its claws” and win, the head of government said in his first public statement after a threat from the USA to restrict arms sales to Israel.
US President Joe Biden had previously threatened Israel with further restrictions on the supply of army equipment in the event of a large-scale military offensive in Rafah in the Gaza Strip. If Israel’s military marches into densely populated parts of the city for an offensive, it will have consequences for arms deliveries, he told CNN. He would not provide the weapons for a full-scale invasion.
You can read more about the Iranian attack on Israel on the next page. .
