May 30, 2024 Israel-Hamas war | CNN (2024)

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Hamas said they had informed mediators on Thursday that they are “prepared to reach a comprehensive agreement” that includes a full hostage and prisoner exchange dealif Israel stops its war in Gaza.

A statement from the group said while they had shown “flexibility and positivity in dealing with the efforts of the mediators throughout all previous rounds of indirect negotiations,” Israel, Hamas said, had used the months of ongoing talks as a cover to continue its war in Gaza.

“Hamas and the Palestinian factionswill notaccept being part of this policy of continuous negotiations in the face of aggression, killing, siege, starvation, and genocide of our people,”the Hamas statement said.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted that the war must continue until Hamas is completely destroyed.

A satellite image shows a view of the remaining section of thetridentpier on the Gaza shoreline on May 29, 2024.

All pieces of the temporary pier off the coast of Gaza have been relocated to the port of Ashdod for repair, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said Thursday.

“Earlier today, IDF engineers removed the anchored portion of the Trident pier from the beach, so as of this afternoon, all sections of the Trident pier have been relocated to the port of Ashdod for rebuilding and repairing,” she said.

The pier was damaged on Tuesday due to a storm and high seas causing a portion of the pier to separate. Singh said two of the four vessels that were beached over last weekend have also been recovered; the US is currently working with the Israeli Navy to recover the remaining two vessels beached on the coast of Gaza.

“As a reminder, the rebuilding and repairing of the pier will take over a week and following completion, the Trident pier will be re-anchored to the coast of Gaza,” Singh said.

Israeli war cabinet memberBennyGantzseen on March 5, 2024, at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C.

Israel’s National Unity party, led by war cabinet member Benny Gantz, has proposed a bill to dissolve the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and trigger new elections in the fall.

“This is a continuation of the initiative led by the chairman of the State Camp, Minister Benny Gantz, to hold elections with broad consensus by October, one year after the massacre,” Gantz’s press office said in a statement.

Knesset member Pnina Tamano-Shata submitted the bill on Thursday.

“October 7th is a disaster that requires us to regain the people’s trust and establish a broad and stable unity government that can lead us safely through the enormous challenges in security, the economy, and above all, in Israeli society. Submitting the bill now will allow us to advance it further in the current session,” Tamano-Shata said in a statement.

By proposing the bill, the National Unity Party members will now have the opportunityto table it during the Knesset’s summer session in which they will hold a vote to decide whether to dissolve parliament in September and hold fresh elections in October.

Some context: Currently, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads a 64-membergoverning coalitionthat gives him a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.

While Gantz had performed well in polls from earlier this year, recently his favorability has dropped,accordingto CNN global affairs analyst Barak Ravid.

Gantz has repeatedly criticized Netanyahu’s leadership throughout the conflict in Gaza. Earlier this month, Gantz threatened to withdraw from the government if the war cabinet did not lay out a plan by June 8 to free the hostages and eliminate Hamas.

An AI-generated image stating "All Eyes on Rafah" has been shared millions of times on social media.

It’s unclear exactly what the image is. A series of tents? Truck beds against a rust orange background? Multicolored rectangles?

Mountains are visible in the background, and in the foreground are the following words: “All Eyes on Rafah” —a reference to the southernmost Gazan city that became the center of war coverage this week, after an Israeli strike on a refugee camp in the city, on what had been labeled a safe zone, killed dozens ofalready displaced Palestinians.

In the wake of the attack, the aforementioned image has seemingly been everywhere. Likely created using artificial intelligence, the graphic — which is not an actual picture from Rafah or the war in Gaza — has been shared more than 46 million times on Instagram alone.

It’s become so ubiquitous,comedian Tim Dillon noted it’s been shared like“it’s a new show on NBC.”

But the picture’s popularity has raised questions and critiques on the passivity of the act. Eyes being on Rafah has not stopped the violence, wrote scientistAyesha Khan on Instagram. Simply posting an ambiguous graphic is performative, Khan and others have noted.

Still, the post’s momentum has continued.

Read more about the graphic and what it could signal here.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a speech in Tehran, Iran on April 3, 2022.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has praised the pro-Palestinian protests carried out by students on university campuses across the United States, saying they managed to create another branch of the “resistance front” against Israel.

Khamenei penned an open letter to the students in the US, commending their efforts to “defend the oppressed women and children of Gaza,” according to Iranian state news outlet, IRNA.

Iran, which views Israel as an enemy state, has strongly opposed the war in Gaza, and has been accused of using its proxies in Yemen and Lebanon to attack Israel. Tensions came to a head in April when Iran’s embassy in Syria was attacked, likely by Israel. The attack prompted Iran on April 13 to carry out a direct attack on Israeli soil using drones and missiles, the first in decades by a foreign nation. Israel responded by attacking Iranian military sites.

Iran’s ‘axis of resistance’ refers to the informal military alliance with Syrian, Iraqi and Yemeni proxy groups, united in their opposition towards Israel and the US.

The border zone between Egypt and Gaza on March 30.

ThePhiladelphi Corridor– also known as the Salah al-Din Axis – is a narrow strip of land running along the Palestinian side of the border between Gaza and Egypt.

Just 14 kilometers (about 8.7 miles) long and 100 meters wide, the strip of land isa central partofa peace treaty signed between Egypt and Israel in 1979, which ended decades of war. Until the treaty, the two countries had been at war since Israel’s founding in 1948. The pact saw Israel return the Sinai Peninsula it captured from Egypt in the 1967 war in exchange for peace, and eventually paved the way for Egypt’s recognition of Israel.

A key buffer zone:The landmark treaty demilitarized the border area between Israel and Egypt, including an area referred to asZone D, where Gaza’s Philadelphi Corridor lies. The Palestinian enclave was occupied by Israel when the treaty was signed.

The pact restricted the number of troops Egypt and Israel can each place near the other’s territory, turning the corridor into animportant buffer zonebetween the former enemies.

Changes to the security presence in the area can, however, take place with mutual agreement. Amendments to security agreements have in recent years allowed Cairo to boost its security presence on the Sinai Peninsula, which borders Israel, as it sought to eliminate jihadist fighters.

Why it matters: According to the treaty, which was drawn up before Israel unilaterally withdrew its troops from Gaza in 2005, Israel is allowed a limited force of four infantry battalions in the area encompassing the Philadelphi Corridor.

The Israeli military on Thursday said it hadestablished “operational control”over the Corridor, a move that Egyptian officials have previously warned against.

The corridor has to be treated “with great caution as it is close to the Egyptian border,” Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid said in February. “Any operations there with such a great number of people present poses dangers.”

Another 53 people had been killed and 357 injured by Israeli military operations in the Gaza strip in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health in Gaza said Thursday.

The death toll in Gaza since October 7 now stands at 36,224 killed, with 81,777 injured, the ministry said.

CNN cannot verify the Ministry’s numbers, and it does not distinguish between casualties among fighters and civilians. It does not include in its figures the several thousand people thought to be missing, or who are still under rubble, in Gaza since October 7.

Palestinians inspect the damages after Israeli forces withdrew from a part ofJabalyarefugee camp, in northern Gaza Strip, on May 30.

Pictures emerging from central and western parts of Jabalya following a withdrawal of Israeli troops show widespread destruction, as authorities in northern Gaza warn residents not to return.

Streets in the area are covered in rubble, most buildings are collapsed or destroyed, and the UNRWA HQ and school, which were being used as shelters by displaced Gazans, is burned.

People who had attempted to enter the area have been seen being hit and wounded by quadcopter drones.

Authorities in northern Gaza urged residents to not return tohomes and shelters following “news of the occupation forces withdrawing from the Jabalya camp” on Thursday morning.

The North Governorate Emergency Committee issued a notice Thursday morning, urging “citizens to be patient and not return” as “there are still some dangerous remnants” from Israeli troops.

The Director of North Gaza Civil Defence Operations, Mahdi Abu Amsha,told CNN he saw “massive destruction” and “found bodies on the roads and under buildings”, describing the scenes as an “act of revenge”.

He added that “bombings continues in these areas”.

Local journalist al Sabbah also said the Israeli military withdrew from central Jabalya camp and west of Jabalya camp but remain in the north and eastern areas.

The IDF told CNN they “cannot provide information regarding the location of our forces”. In a statement on Thursday morning, the IDF said its “troops are continuing to operate against terrorist infrastructure and operatives in the area of Jabaliya in northern Gaza”.

Israeli Defence MinisterYoavGallantattends a joint press conference in Berlin, Germany, on September 28.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant “emphasized the importance of operating” in Rafah, when he spoke with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin overnight.

Gallant said there is “concrete information” of hostages being held in Rafah and claimed 20 “terror tunnels have been identified” in the area, in his conversation with Austin, according to a statement from the Israeli Defense Minister’s Communications Office.

Gallant briefed the Secretary of Defense “on developments in the war against the Hamas terrorist organization and efforts to ensure the return of 125 hostages held in Gaza,” the statement said.

For context: President Joe Biden had earlier warned that the US would stop supplying American weapons to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a major invasion of Rafah. However Biden’s administration is yet to take action on that promise, saying that so far — the strikes that killed at least 45 people, of whom many were children sheltering in tents — have not crossed that red line.

The Israeli strikes on Rafah have caused global outcry, with Germany describing the images of “charred bodies, including children” from Israeli airstrikes as “unbearable,” French President Emmanuel Macron saying he was “outraged” by the strikes and various UN leaders criticizing Israel for the attack.

Authorities in northern Gaza are urging residents to not return to their homes north of Jabalya following “news of the occupation forces withdrawing from the Jabalya camp” on Thursday morning.

The North Governorate Emergency Committee issued a notice Thursday morning, urging “citizens to be patient and not return to the northern areas of the sector at this time” as “There are still some dangerous remnants” from Israeli troops.

The IDF told CNN they “cannot provide information regarding the location of our forces.” In a statement on Thursday morning, the IDF said its “troops are continuing to operate against terrorist infrastructure and operatives in the area of Jabaliya in northern Gaza.”

Civil defense have said the area has been largely inaccessible to their teams the past weeks despite receiving repeated calls for help from citizens inside.

President Joe Biden waits to speak at a dinner for the Detroit chapter of the NAACP on May 19.

After dozens of Palestinian civilians were killed following an Israeli airstrike in Rafah this week,the White House made clear:The incident did not cross the red line President Joe Biden has drawn when it comes to providingcertain American weapons to Israel.

Where, exactly, that line rests remains somewhat elusive since Biden first confirmed to an interviewer in March that such a threshold exists.

Biden’s aides, acutely aware of previous presidents who drew red lines only to back away from any promised action when they were crossed, once dismissed talk about “red lines” as a media obsession.

“The whole issue of the red line, as you all define it, is something that you guys like; it’s almost become a bit of anational security parlor game,” Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters in March, after the president suggested for the first time that an invasion of Rafah would prompt him to rethink some aspects of his policy.

At the very least, however, Biden’s own comments since then suggest there are actions Israel could take that would trigger a new approach from the United States. He has told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as much during telephone calls and conveyed his stance publicly in an interview with CNN.

But he has remained vague about how he will quantify such a decision, leading to frustrations and a degree of confusion about his stance. Many Democrats, along with foreign leaders who the US counts as allies, say Israel’s actions clearly cross a red line – if not Biden’s, then their own and those of international law.

Read more about what that red line might mean for Biden here.

Members of Palestine Red Crescent Society carry the bodies of their two fellow paramedics, who according to medics, were killed when an ambulance on a mission to rescue people was hit in an Israeli strike, during their funeral in Rafah, Gaza, on May 30.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it had retrieved the bodies of two paramedics killed in Rafah following Israeli bombardment.

PRCS has blamed Israel’s forces for “deliberately targeting” an ambulance that the paramedics were in the Tal al-Sultan area, despite it bearing the internationally protected Red Crescent emblem.

Israel’s army said that one of its tanks had fired on a “suspicious vehicle” that approached its troops in Rafah on Wednesday.

The deaths bring the number of PRCS staffers killed while carrying out humanitarian work since October 7 to 19, according to PRCS.

Palestinians wait in line to receive food distributed by charitable organizations amidst Israeli attacks in Deir Al- Balah, Gaza, on May 28.

Aid entering Gaza has dropped by 67% since May 7, the day after Israel began its assault on Rafah, according to a report by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Since Israel began its assault on the city on May 6 and seized control of the Gazan side of the crossing,aid has been blocked, with supplies piling up in Egypt. Israel and Egypt haveblamed each otherfor the blockage.

Rafah had previously been the central artery for aid to flow into Gaza.

OCHA also that aid workers face significant impediments to working in Gaza, and the ability of its nutrition partners to provide services had been hampered “despite a continuous rise in detected malnutrition cases.”

OCHA also noted that no aid entered Gaza on May 27 and 28 through a US-built pier after a section had been damaged due to bad weather.

Israel previously said it had taken steps to ramp up humanitarian aid to Gaza following US pressure. But UN officials have said progress is slow.

Israel’s military said that one of its soldiers, a 21-year-old named Yedidia Azougi, was killed while fighting in northern Gaza.

Azougi was a sergeant from the 101st Battalion Parachute Brigade, according to the statement issued on Thursday.

His death brings the toll among Israeli soldiers to 292.

Smoke billows after Israeli strikes in Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip on May 28.

At least 66 people, including children, have been killed in safe zones across Gaza over four days, Save the Children said in astatementon Wednesday.

The organization called for “urgent action” to protect civilians from ongoing Israeli strikes.

Save the Children’s Country Director in the occupied Palestinian Territory, Xavier Joubert, said legal obligations created by the ICJ’s ruling were being “categorically ignored.”

He said civilians were suffering “slow, agonizing effects of starvation” in addition to ongoing bombardment.

The group maintains that children in Gaza have been bearing the brunt of the violence.

Humanitarian aid entering Gaza has slowed even further this week after a US-built aid pierbroke apart in heavy season Tuesday.

Two Israeli soldiers were killed in a ramming attack near Nablus in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday night, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

The Israeli military said that one of its tanks fired on a “suspicious vehicle” that approached its troops in Rafah on Wednesday.

The Israel Defense Forces spokesperson was responding to questions about the killing of two Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) medics this week.

Details of the incident are under view, the IDF said.

The PRCS paramedics were killed when their ambulance was hit in Rafah. Gaza’s Health Ministry said they were headed to evacuate the dead and wounded in the vicinity of the Abu Al-Saeed roundabout in Tal al-Sultan.

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of the 10th ministerial meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China May 30

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called for a peace conference on the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, and reiterated Beijing’s support for a two-state solution in resolving the Gaza crisis.

Xi reiterated that China supports the establishment of a Palestinian state and its full membership in the United Nations and that it “supports a more broad-based, authoritative and effective international peace conference.”

China will also provide an additional 500 million yuan ($70 million) to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and to support post-conflict reconstruction, Xi said, bringing its assistance to a total 600 million yuan ($84 million).

It will also donate $3 million to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to support its emergency humanitarian assistance to Gaza, Xi said.

Nearly two dozen delegations from Arab states are in Beijing for the forum, along with leaders from Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia and the UAE, who are meeting separately with Xi this week — a sign of China’s strengthening of relations in the Middle East and efforts to position itself as a peace broker in the current conflict.

Read the full story.

Palestinians evacuate Rafah, Gaza, during an Israeli ground and air offensive in the city on May 28.

Thewar in Gazawill likely continue until at least the end of the year, an Israeli official warned, seemingly dismissing the idea that fighting would end after the military offensive inRafah.

Tanks are moving further into Rafah, video footage shows, signaling a westward push by the Israeli military near the Gazan coastline despite mounting global condemnation.

A video geolocated by CNN shows two Israeli tanks positioned in the Tal Zurob neighborhood in western Rafah, as Israel intensifies its operations in the southern Gaza city.

Here are the latest developments:

Two medics with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) were killed in the Tal al-Sultan area following Israeli bombardment, according to PRCS and Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The paramedics were killed west of Rafah when their ambulance was hit while they were carrying out humanitarian duties, according to PRCS.

The ministry said the paramedics were headed to evacuate the dead and wounded in the vicinity of the Abu Al-Saeed roundabout in Tal al-Sultan

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

An Israeli attack killed at least one girl and wounded 10 civilians on Wednesday in a strike on a residential building in the coastal Syrian city of Baniyas, the country’s state news SANA reported.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

Syria was last struck in April after aseries of Israeli airstrikes targeted areas close to the Syrian city of Aleppo, which led to casualties among both civilians and military personnel, SANA reported.

Israel has previously launched attacks on Aleppo and the Syrian capital Damascus, including before October 7, sayingit feared Iran would turn Syria into “a base for aggression” against the Jewish state.

Israel has intensified its military campaign against Iran-backed groups in Syria and others following the October 7 Hamas attack.

Syria and Israel consider each other enemies and do not share diplomatic relations.

Egypt denied Israeli statements about the existence of tunnels along its border with Gaza, calling Israeli media reports untrue, according to state-affiliated Al-Qahera TV on Wednesday.

“These lies propagated by Tel Aviv indicate the size of the crisis facing the Israeli government,” the channel said, quoting an unnamed senior official.

A different senior source told the channel earlier in the day that there is no communication “with the Israeli side about the claims of the existence of tunnels along the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.”

Deployment of Israeli troops in the Philadelphi Corridor — a 14-kilometer (8.7-mile) buffer zone on the Egypt-Gaza border — without prior agreement between both countries would be a breach of the peace treaty, an Egyptian officialtold CNN in February,adding that the government had not approved such a deployment.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it had established “operational control”over the corridor, where it was carrying out an operation at the corridor and that 20 tunnels it had found there were now being “neutralized.”

Earlier Wednesday, an Israeli official said the 20 tunnels crossed into Egypt, some of which are new, and that the information has been passed on to Egypt.

CNN is unable to independently verify the Israeli claims of control.

The Israeli military says it has established “operational control”over the Philadelphi Corridor, a 14-kilometer (8.7-mile) buffer zone on the Egypt-Gaza border.

He said the military was conducting an operation at the corridor and that 20 tunnels it had found there were now being “neutralized.”

The IDF clarified that “operational control” meant it had “full control of the corridor in terms of intelligence gathering and fire range” even though there was a “small area near the sea where we are not physically present.”

Earlier on Wednesday, an Israeli official said the troops had achieved “tactical” control over the corridor, but that did not mean “Israel had boots on the ground” along its entirety.

The official said the 20 tunnels crossed into Egypt, some of which are new, and Egypt has been informed. According to the official, the IDFalso found 82 access points to tunnels along the corridor.

CNN is unable to independently verify the Israeli claims of control.

Israel aims to cut off the corridor from Egypt as it believes smugglers have long turned to the enclave’s underground tunnel network to bring in commercial goods, people and weapons. Hagari said Hamas has used the corridor to smuggle arms and “took advantage” of the space to build infrastructure “tens of meters away from the border with Egypt so that we will not attack them.”

The IDF says it has also found “terrorist infrastructure” a mile long in east Rafah, the entrance to which is 100 meters from the Rafah crossing. Hagari said this route was used to transfer weapons and that the Israeli military found and destroyed weapons there.

Some context: Israel began a ground operation in Rafah against Hamas earlier this month, crossing the Philadelphi Corridor and seizing the Palestinian side of the border with Egypt.

Egypt has strongly opposed the operation at its border. On Monday, an Egyptian security personnelwas killed on the border with Gaza in a shooting that involved Egyptian and Israeli soldiers. Egypt’s state-affiliated Al-Qahera News outlet said “Palestinian resistance” fighters were also involved.

Displaced Palestinians inspect their tents destroyed by Israel’s bombardment west of Rafah, Gaza, on May 28.

“The devastation is only intensifying” in Rafah as Israel expands its ground operations,” Tor Wennesland, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

Wennesland condemned the “appalling incident” in which at least 45 people were killed, and more than 200 others wounded after an Israeli military airstrike on Sunday.

“I remind all parties of their obligations to protect civilians,” he said.

Wennesland called for the reopening of the Rafah crossing and for unimpeded humanitarian access throughout Gaza.

A “breakdown of law and order” resulted in the looting of a base belonging to the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNWRA) in Rafah on Wednesday, Wennesland said, adding that the incident is under investigation.

In this still from a video geolocated by CNN, an Israeli tank is positioned in the Tal Zurob neighborhood in western Rafah, Gaza, on May 29.

Two Israeli tanks are positioned in the Tal Zurob neighborhood of western Rafah, a video geolocated by CNN shows, as Israel intensifies its operations in the southern Gaza city.

The video was recorded Wednesday morning by a group of journalists posted in a partially destroyed house overlooking the border area between Gaza and Egypt.

In the video, two tanks are seen positioned on the road adjacent to the border with Egypt at the edge of western Rafah.

Israeli tanks were spotted in central Rafah for the first time on Tuesday. Wednesday’s video signals a continual westward push by the Israeli military near the Gazan coastline.

When asked about reports of tanks advancing in the city on Tuesday, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said the military is operating in Rafah in a “targeted” and “precise” way.