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19-05-2025
JERUSALEM/ GAZA: Israeli forces continue bombarding Gaza, killing at least 78 Palestinians in pre-dawn attacks, including 36 in the so-called “safe zone” of al-Mawasi.
The intensified attacks come as Israel mobilizes for a new ground assault on Gaza and resumes ceasefire talks with Hamas in Qatar.
Arab leaders in Baghdad call for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza and appeal for global action to get humanitarian aid into the besieged enclave.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 53,272 Palestinians and wounded 120,673, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. The Government Media Office updated the death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.
An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive.
As media have been reporting, family members and supporters of Israeli captives have held a rally in Tel Aviv, urging their government to end the war on Gaza and secure the release of those remaining in Gaza.
Here’s what some of them said.
“We’re coming every Saturday to demand the government to stop the war and bring back our brothers and sisters from captivity in Gaza,” said Noa Alon, 42.
“I came to support the families of the hostages and to protest against the war continuation because I think that it is a disaster for Israel,” said Tami Dvir, 60.
Pictures from the protest showed the protesters holding banners that said, “58 more to go”, “Trump make us whole again”, “government betraying its people”, and “Bibi is a traitor”.
The Israeli newspaper has published an editorial saying that despite the strong alliance between the US and Israel, Netanyahu’s government must recognize that there may be moments “when (Israel) will need to act to protect its core interests, even in the face of American objections”.
Trump “may feel a strong affinity toward Israel”, the publication said but “his overriding priority is clear; he is looking out for what he defines as America’s interests and increasingly, those are transactional in nature. So Israel must do the same.”
The editorial comes as Israel expands its military offensive in Gaza, ramping up bombings that have killed hundreds of people over the past 72 hours, including at least 78 people since midnight today.
An aid worker in Gaza who has witnessed Israel’s increased bombardment of the enclave calls it “shocking”, as Palestinians struggle with a lack of food and medical supplies. Afeef Nessouli with Gila International tells media that Israel is also keeping medical workers from coming in or out.
Basem Naim has told Drop Site, a US news outlet, that the Palestinian group received a direct commitment from Steve Witkoff that the Trump administration would compel Israel to lift the blockade on Gaza two days after the release of US-Israeli citizen Edan Alexander.
Naim, who is a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said that Witkoff also promised that Trump would make a public call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for negotiations aimed at achieving a “permanent ceasefire”.
Naim said the agreement was: “If we release (Alexander), Trump will speak out thanking Hamas for its gesture, obliging Israel on the second day to open the borders and allow aid to come into Gaza, and (Trump would) call for an immediate ceasefire and to go for negotiations to end the war.” (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
