May 17, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Our live coverage for the day has ended. Follow the latest Israel-Hamas war news or read through the updates below.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recovered the bodies of three hostages in the Gaza Strip, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a news conference in Tel Aviv Friday. 

The hostages were identified as Shani Louk, Amit Bouskila, and Itshak Gelernter, Hagari said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed grief over the hostages, saying “the heart breaks for the great loss.” Louk’s family said they have closure now that her body has been recovered.

Here are other headlines you should know:

Developments on the ground

Humanitarian aid

Official meetings

Calls from the United Nations

Doctors leaving Gaza

Dr. Mahmoud Sabha was among the American doctors who were evacuated after being trapped in Gaza this week after Israel’s military offensive in Rafah shuttered a critical border crossing where they were planning to exit.  

Sabha, 39, a Dallas-based doctor who specializes in wound care, was on his second humanitarian trip to Gaza that was supposed to end last Monday. 

His wife, Dr. Samaiya Mushtaq, learned his plans to leave were on hold last Friday afternoon in a voicemail. 

“He said we’re not leaving on Monday and I remember listening to it and just responding, ‘No - no, no, no,’” she told CNN in a phone interview. 

She described an intensely emotional week amid the uncertainty: “I didn’t think this would be morally or legally allowed.” 

Three of the American doctors stayed behind on Friday as 17 were able to evacuate. 

Early Friday morning, her husband contacted her to say there was the possibility of an evacuation. He called again when he had reached the border and was in Jerusalem Friday evening eastern time. 

“It’s been emotionally complex because there’s a lot of guilt,” she said of her husband’s decision to leave. 
“The survivors’ guilt is much more pronounced because there’s no mission coming after him,” she said. 

Still, she said, “I think he’d go back. I think the call to help this incredibly vulnerable population is a humanitarian call. He would go back if there were an opportunity to rebuild the hospital systems.” 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they carried out an airstrike on “an operations center” in Jenin, in the West Bank, on Friday and killed “a significant wanted” militant.

The IDF said in a statement that militant Islam Khamaysa was a senior operative in the Jenin Camp, responsible for numerous attacks in the area.

Al Quds Brigade, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, confirmed the killing of Islam Khamaysa in a statement on Friday, saying he was a leader of the Jenin Brigade.

The Jenin Brigade is a faction affiliated with the wider Islamic Jihad group.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said eight people were also injured in the airstrike and evacuated to two separate hospitals in the West Bank.

An undated photo of Shani Louk.

The family of Israeli hostage Shani Louk, whose body Israel announced on Friday was recovered from Gaza, said they have closure now that her body has been recovered.

In a statement given to CNN, the family said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) came to their house on Friday and informed them that they were able to rescue Louk’s body from a tunnel in Gaza and bring her back to Israel.

“Every news like this brings us back to the horrific moment we had to find out that our loving daughter was brutally murdered by Hamas on the 7th of October. However, it is also a relief to get the body back and we are now able to bury her close by. It gives us some kind of closure,” the family said.
“We want to remember Shani as the beautiful and peace-loving person she was, who loved music, dancing and life. She brought us and many other people in the world light and the belief in good. This is how we choose to remember Shani,” the statement read.

Aid organizations will face challenges getting doctors back into Gaza following the departure of 17 of the 20 American doctors who were stuck there after Israel shut the border crossing from Rafah to Egypt.

Sources familiar with the efforts to help the American doctors escape said that backfilling them remains a major concern, largely because the Rafah crossing remains closed after the Israeli military seized it early last week.

Remember: The crossing – when it was operating — was the only entry and exit point for foreign aid workers. Israeli and Egyptian officials have so far failed to reach an agreement on reopening it.

One of the doctors who decided to stay behind is Dr. Adam Hamawy, who helped save Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s life 20 years ago in Iraq, according to a source familiar with the matter. Hamawy traveled to Gaza with the Palestinian American Medical Association and did not feel right leaving without other doctors coming in to take over, the source said. 

Many members of Congress, including Duckworth, are working with the Biden administration to push Israel to do more to get aid and humanitarian workers into Gaza, and to get the protections needed for those workers. Earlier this week, a top USAID official said that Israel was not doing enough to ensure the safety of aid works.

“The deconfliction measures are not where they need to be yet, given the complexity of the environment. So those conversations are ongoing, they need to continue and they need to get to a place where humanitarian aid workers feel safe and secure and able to operate safely. And I don’t think we’re there yet,” said Sonali Korde, assistant to the administrator of USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, noting that Gaza is a “very dangerous place to work.”

CNN’s Jeremy Diamond and Muhammad Darwish contributed to this story.

Hamas’ military wing Al Qassam Brigades said a commander was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon’s West Bekaa area, near the Syrian border, on Friday.

Sharhabil Ali Al-Sayyid, also known as “Abu Amr” was killed “after he was targeted by Israeli occupation aircraft,” Hamas’ military wing Al Qassam Brigades said in a statement.

The Israel Defense Forces ( IDF) confirmed in a statement Friday it killed Al-Sayyid in an airstrike, but described him as “a senior commander of the Jamaa Islamiya” in Lebanon “who cooperated with Hamas against Israel.”

The IDF said Al-Sayyid “promoted numerous terror attacks from Lebanon against Israel in the eastern arena recently, as well as in cooperation with Hamas’ wing in Lebanon.”

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on May 17.

Seventeen of the 20 American doctors who were stuck in Gaza after Israel shut the border crossing from Rafah to Egypt have safely departed the enclave, said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Friday.

“They’re out. There was 20 American doctors, 17 are out now, came out today. And all 17, they wanted to, they wanted to leave — I won’t speak for the other three, but just, I can assure you that any of them that wanted to leave are out now,” Kirby said. 

The Americans who made their way out did so with the support of the US Embassy in Jerusalem, said a State Department spokesperson. “We have been in close contact with the groups that these US doctors are part of, and we have been in contact with the families of these US citizens,” the spokesperson added. 

The three American doctors who opted not to depart Gaza did so understanding that the US Embassy may not be able to facilitate their departure in the same manner, the source familiar said. They added that it “was an extremely unique operation.”

The Embassy team traveled to Kerem Shalom crossing to receive the doctors at the border, the source added, without providing details about how the doctors traveled to the border crossing.

Here’s where the crossing is located:

A UNRWA personnel checks a burnt area at a school housing displaced Palestinians that was hit during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the militant group Hamas, in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on May 17.

A panel of UN experts said Friday that the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was “politically targeted” as it voiced disappointment over some countries not reinstating their funding weeks after an independent review cleared the agency.

“The independent review ordered by the UN Secretary-General, following an increase of allegations since the onset of the military assault on Gaza in October 2023, has shown that the claim that significant numbers of UNRWA employees have ties with ‘terrorist organisations’ remains unsubstantiated,” the experts said in a statement on Friday.

Earlier this year, Israel accused at least 12 UNRWA staffers of being involved in Hamas’ October 7 attacks and has alleged that about 12% of the agency’s 13,000 staffers are members of Hamas or other Palestinian militant groups. Last month, the independent review found that UNRWA’s neutrality must be strengthened and that its facilities were sometimes misused, but noted that Israel did not provide supporting evidence for its allegations.

“UNRWA remains pivotal in providing life-saving humanitarian aid and essential social services, particularly in health and education, to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank,” the review said, adding that the agency is “irreplaceable and indispensable to Palestinians’ human and economic development.”

As of April 30, funding to UNRWA from nine states was still frozen, according to a UN statement.

With previous reporting from CNN’s Tim Lister

The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that military escalation in Rafah could “bring humanitarian operations to a standstill.”

“We know we need additional entry points and every new entry point is a new artery pumping lifeblood into #Gaza,” WFP said in a statement on Friday.  

Since the Israeli military began its offensive in Rafah on May 6, over 630,000 people were forced to flee, UNRWA said on Friday, with many moving to Deir Al-Balah and Khan Younis.

On Thursday, UN emergency relief chief Martin Griffiths described the situation as “deeply tragic” as he warned about food running out in southern Gaza.

“[A]ll the predictions that so many people, including us, but so many others, member states and society have made about the consequences of an operation in Rafah are coming true,” he added.

Meanwhile, trucks carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza have begun moving ashore on Friday morning via a temporary pier built by the US military, according to a statement from US Central Command (CENTCOM). 

Aid is moved on the pier to a facility in Gaza, after which WFP helps deliver the aid to other agencies or distribute it, a UN official told CNN.

This post includes reporting from CNN’s Colin McCullough and Kareem Khadder.

The Israeli military announced Friday that it has recovered the bodies of three hostages from a tunnel in the Gaza Strip.

Here’s some reaction from Israel officials:

Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant: “Appreciation to the IDF and Shin Bet forces who brought the bodies of Yitzhak Gelernter, Shani Louk and the late Amit Buskila from the Hamas captivity in Gaza to a grave in Israel. The return of all our hostages was and will remain a supreme moral duty and a war goal for us. I share the heavy sorrow of the families. May their memory be a blessing.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir: ”The heart hurts and aches. Shani, Yitzhak and Amit-may God avenge your blood.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Israel Katz: ”The heart is torn when hearing the difficult news about the death of Amit Buskila, Shani Luke and the late Yitzchak Gelernter, who were murdered at the Nova party and whose bodies were found in Gaza and returned to Israel. Sending condolences and a big hug to the families and thanks to the security forces for this complex and very important operation. May their memory be blessed.” 

President Isaac Herzog: ”My heart goes out in sympathy to the grieving and tormented families of the hostages Itzhak Gelerenter, Amit Buskila and Shani Louk, whose bodies were rescued from Gaza and will be brought for eternal rest in Israel. My thanks go to the IDF, the Shin Bet and the security forces for their tireless efforts, as we all carry the hope and prayer for the speedy return of all the other hostages. May the memory of those we have lost be blessed.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “This terrible loss is heart-breaking. My wife Sara and I grieve with the families; all of our hearts are with them in their hour of heavy sorrow. We will return all of our hostages, the living and the deceased alike. I commend our brave forces whose determined action has returned the sons and daughters to their own border.”

War Cabinet Member Benny Gantz: ”On this difficult evening, I would like to hug and send my condolences to the families of Shani Louk, Amit Buskila and Yitzhak Gelernter, may their memory be blessed, and salute the IDF soldiers and the security forces who took part in the planning and execution of the rescue operation. We do not forget for one second our supreme obligation to return all the hostages.”

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett: “Shani, Yitzhak and Amit, may their memory be a blessing. Look at their kind eyes. What was their sin? Being Jews living in their own country? They were murdered by monsters poisoned by hatred of Jews. We are surrounded by a poisoned enemy, and only through unity and a firm outward stance, we will overcome this enemy. The people of Israel all share in the mourning with the families.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaves the stage after speaking at a ceremony for Remembrance Day for the Fallen of Israel’s Wars and Victims of Terrorism at Yad LeBanim in Jerusalem on May 12.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed grief after the bodies of three hostages were recovered in Gaza, he said in a post on X on Friday. 

“The heart breaks for the great loss. My wife Sara and I grieve with the families. All our hearts are with them in this hour of grieving,” he said. 

“We will return all our hostages, the dead and the alive alike. I congratulate our brave forces who, with determined action, have returned our sons and daughters home,” he said.

All three were taken hostage on October 7 and were killed while escaping the Nova music festival and their bodies were taken into Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said Friday. 

Itshak Gelernter, left, Shani Louk and Amit Bouskila.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have recovered the bodies of three hostages in the Gaza Strip, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a news conference in Tel Aviv on Friday. 

The hostages were identified as Shani Louk, Amit Bouskila, and Itshak Gelernter, Hagari said.

Nissim Louk, the father of Shani Louk, told Israeli media his daughter’s body was very well preserved because it had been kept in a “deep and very cold tunnel.” 

All three escaped from the Nova festival in southern Israel when “terrorists” arrived on October 7, 2023, Hagari said. After escaping, they went to the kibbutz of Mefalsim and were killed “brutally” there by the terrorists, he added.

“They were celebrating life in the Nova music festival and they were murdered by Hamas,” he said. 

The bodies were transferred to medical professionals for forensic examination. The families were then notified, he said. 

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum expressed deep sorrow over the deaths of the hostages. The group said the recovery of their bodies is a reminder that the remaining hostages must also be returned to Israel.

More context: Around 240 people were taken hostage and moved to Gaza during Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel that also killed more than 1,200 people. A little more than 100 were freed during a release deal in November, but the IDF believes there are still 132 hostages being held in Gaza, 128 of whom were taken on October 7.

The IDF believed that of those 132 hostages, 40 are believed to be dead, including two who were taken in 2014.

This post has been updated with a comment from the father of Shani Louk.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during a press briefing in Washington, DC, on May 13.

US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan will travel to Saudi Arabia and Israel over the weekend, according to a US official, as the ceasefire and hostages negotiations have stalled and Israel continues to threaten to intensify its military operations in Rafah.

He will meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in their respective countries, according to National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.

US officials have said that they have not yet seen Israeli forces begin a major ground incursion into southern Gaza yet, while reiterating Biden’s warning that if Israel were to make such a move, the US would hold back on additional offensive weapons shipments to its ally.

Israeli officials have assured their US counterparts that they have no intention of launching a major military operation into Rafah until more conversations have taken place between the two sides, according to this US official, including the various meetings Sullivan plans to have over the weekend while in Israel.

Sullivan’s trip to Saudi Arabia also comes as the Biden administration continues to push for a deal to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

The post was updated with details about who Sullivan will meet during his trip.

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid into Gaza have begun moving ashore after arriving through the floating pier built by the US military, according to the US Central Command (CENTCOM).

The pier was anchored to a beach in Gaza on Thursday and will be used to funnel aid from various countries into the besieged strip, with most border crossings to the enclave closed and a catastrophic humanitarian disaster unfolding inside.

The maritime corridor is coming at a critical moment – with the Rafah border crossing to Gaza having been closed for more than a week, preventing aid from getting through. That crossing was the only one between Gaza and Egypt – with all other border points in the strip controlled by Israel.

Here are key things to know about the pier and the aid that is starting to enter Gaza:

How much aid is expected? The goal is to get about 500 tons of humanitarian assistance into Gaza through the pier daily, according to Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of CENTCOM. That means about 90 trucks worth of aid a day, and the goal is to build up to 150 trucks a day.

How was the pier built and how will it work? The US began building the floating pier in late April at a cost of $320 million and with the help of some 1,000 US soldiers and sailors. The US said that it is only a temporary measure that is “entirely humanitarian in nature.” Pieces for the pier were loaded aboard ships on the East Coast of the US and then “transported 6,000 miles across the ocean,” according to CENTCOM’s Cooper. The pieces were assembled off the coast of Gaza, with final assembly taking place in the Israeli port of Ashdod.

Why is aid being shipped this way? Most land crossings into Gaza remain either shut or congested due to lengthy inspections by Israel. That has led the US and other countries to start air-dropping aid into Gaza, which human rights organizations have criticized as insufficient. The UN has warned of famine setting in in parts of Gaza, calling on Israel to open more land crossings for aid. 

How much aid is getting into Gaza now? The US State Department has said that “not nearly enough” trucks are getting into Gaza. The UN estimates that 500 trucks are needed per day to alleviate the suffering of Gazans, but on May 11, UN figures showed that only six trucks entered. No data is available after that date.

Keep reading about the pier and aid being delivered.

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, as seen from southern Israel, on May 17.

Israeli strikes have killed at least 31 people and injured 56 in Gaza over the past 24 hours, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the strip on Friday.

The death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7 has now surpassed 35,300, with 79,261 injuries, the ministry added. 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 in Gaza since October 7.

Earlier Friday morning, civil defense officials and local journalists said that Israeli strikes on the enclave had killed at least 10 people and wounded others.

An airstrike on the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza killed at least six people, according to civil defense officials who arrived on the scene and evacuated a number of wounded. The Jabalya district of northern Gaza has seen intense combat operations in recent days. A hospital in northern Gaza received several bodies and many injured people after Israeli strikes on Thursday, according to a CNN stringer present.

Persistent gunfire could be heard throughout the night Thursday into Friday in Jabalya, according to residents in the area.

Salama Maroof, head of the government media office in Gaza, said in a Thursday statement that the Israeli military had invaded Jabalya and cut off the northeastern settlement of Beit Hanoun.

In a separate attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, at least four people were killed when Israeli warplanes struck the Al-Jaouni School, which shelters displaced people. Local journalists witnessed the bodies arriving at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah.

This post has been updated with additional figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The aid shipment delivered to Gaza via a US-built pier included British humanitarian aid.

The shipment, which had the aid provided by the United Kingdom, will be enough to feed 11,000 people for a month, British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said Friday.

“The UK continues to play a key role in this herculean international effort,” Shapps wrote on X. 

The UK is supporting logistics coordination in Cyprus and has deployed a Navy vessel to help US personnel construct and operate the pier, he added.

How it works: The content of the aid shipments to Gaza is inspected in Cyprus. Upon reaching the Gaza shore, the aid is moved on the pier by trucks already on the ships to a facility in Gaza. The World Food Programme will then act as the logistical arm of the United Nations to deliver the aid to other agencies or distribute it, a UN official told CNN.

CNN’s Kareem Khadder and Sarah El Sirgany in Jerusalem contributed reporting to this post.

Lebanese group Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for dozens of rocket launches toward the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Friday.

In a statement, the militant group said it launched 50 Katyusha rockets targeting an Israeli military base in Golan in response to the Israeli attack on Al-Najariya in southern Lebanon earlier in the day, which Lebanon’s official National News Agency had reported killed two boys. 

In later statements, Hezbollah said it also targeted an additional Israeli site in Golan with rockets and another at the Lebanon-Israel border with artillery shells.

Rockets fired from southern Lebanon are intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome air defence system over the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on May 17.

In additional exchanges across Israel’s northern border, as the war in Gaza rages on, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that approximately 75 launches were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory on Friday and “dozens” were intercepted.

Israeli emergency services reported that two men were slightly injured in the Galilee area and were taken to the hospital.

The IDF said that earlier Friday, “IDF soldiers identified a Hezbollah launcher in the area of Yaroun which was ready to fire launches toward Israeli territory.”

“A short while afterward, an IDF fighter jet struck and dismantled the launcher, preventing a large number of launches,” the military added.

Palestinians injured in Israeli airstrikes are brought Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, Gaza, on May 13.

The Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza has received at least 112 bodies and treated 308 injured people since the Israeli operation in the north began nearly a week ago, the hospital’s director, Dr. Husam Abu Saifya, told CNN on Friday. 

Safiya said that of the total number of bodies, 12 were killed overnight Thursday into Friday, when bombardment in the area continued throughout the night. The injuries the hospital received comprised of burns and severed limbs, he added. 

He warned of dwindling fuel and medical supplies, saying the last fuel delivery from the World Health Organization (WHO) “was five days ago.”

“This shipment is enough to operate the hospital for 10 days, while the hospital needs a month supply to operate securely. This would be the ICU, the kidney dialysis and all the electricity-dependent services provided by the hospital,” he added. 

He said he doesn’t know when the WHO would deliver fuel and supplies or whether it would be enough.

For context: The Israeli military renewed ground operations in northern Gaza on Saturday, saying Hamas was trying to “reassemble” in the area. The north has been hit with intense Israeli shelling and gunfire, especially in and around the Jabalya refugee camp. 

Smoke billows during Israeli bombardment over the Lebanese village of Al-Najjariyeh on May 17.

Israeli airstrikes killed two boys in the town of Al-Najariya in southern Lebanon on Friday, according to Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA). 

The two Syrian siblings, Ossama and Hani Al-Khalid, succumbed to their injuries from the air raid, NNA said.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military says the airstrikes targeted Hezbollah infrastructure in Al-Najariya that “posed a threat to Israeli aircraft,” accusing the group of operating in civilian areas and endangering lives.

Around the same time, Hezbollah announced the death of one of its members, 62-year-old Hussein Khidr Mahdi, in the same area on Friday.

It is unclear if he was killed in the same airstrikes.

People walk past a mound of trash and destroyed buildings in Jabalya, Gaza, on May 14.

The Israel Defense Forces says that the brigade leading the offensive in Jabalya in northern Gaza is now “fighting in the city center.”

The IDF posted an operational update Friday saying that its 7th Brigade “eliminated more than 60 terrorists in the past days in Jabalya.”

“The 7th Brigade led the divisional-level offensive in Jabaliya and is now fighting in the city center,” the IDF said.

The IDF said that in less than a week of operations, “the soldiers encountered dozens of terrorists, initiated contact, and eliminated more than 60 terrorists through ground and aerial operations. Even now, the soldiers are exchanging fire with terrorist cells in the area.”

The IDF also asserted that soldiers located a weapons warehouse “with dozens of long-range rockets ready for use, dozens of rocket parts, explosives, and other weapons. The weapons warehouse is located about ten meters (about 33 feet) from a shelter complex from which the population was evacuated and where 20 terrorists were apprehended,” it said.

Members of the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy and the Israeli military put in place the Trident Pier, a temporary pier to deliver humanitarian aid, on the Gaza coast on May 16.

One ship is expected to unload aid on the newly installed floating pier in Gaza on Friday, a UN official told CNN.

On the first day of the operation, there were elements of the process that were still unclear, including the content of the first shipment of aid, the official said describing the race to get the information as the ships were inching closer to Gaza.

The content of the ships is inspected in Cyprus, then the aid is moved on the pier by trucks already on the ships to a facility on shore. This is where the UN would oversee the process of loading the aid on local trucks and send the aid to north and south Gaza, the official explained.

Since the content was already searched in Cyprus, the UN doesn’t expect much delay at Israeli checkpoints except to inspect drivers’ paperwork. The World Food Programme will be the acting as the logistical arm of the UN to deliver the aid to other agencies or distribute it. The aid will go to the northern part of the strip on one day and to the south on the next.

Israeli delegation members sit at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as part of an ongoing case South Africa filed at the ICJ in December last year accusing Israel of violating the Genocide Convention during its offensive against Palestinians in Gaza, in The Hague, Netherlands, on May 17.

At the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday, Israel responded to a public emergency hearing called for by South Africa, accusing Israel of violating the 1946 Genocide Convention by dismissing its claims.

“This case, even by its very name… suggests an inversion of reality… and the obscene exploitation of the most sacred convention… calling something a genocide again and again doesn’t make it genocide. Repeating a lie does not make it true,” Israel’s Deputy Attorney General for International Law Gilad Noam said in his opening remarks.

Noam said the picture South Africa has been painting over the last five months is “completely divorced from the facts and circumstances.” He spoke of the “difficult and tragic armed conflict” Israel is engaged in, asking the court to “respect the predicament” it is in.

He said that Israel was surprised by South Africa’s emergency hearing notification and requested a postponement to ensure adequate representation. However, the court denied this request.

South Africa told the ICJ on Thursday that Rafah is the last refuge for civilians in Gaza. In response, Noam stated that while civilians have been evacuated to Rafah, it is also a “focal point for ongoing terrorist activity.” 

South Africa told the court on Thursday that “if Rafah falls, so too does Gaza,” to which Israel said the opposite is true.

He accused South Africa of “exploiting the court and its authority” with its “baseless claims” and “evidence that does not exist,” saying “not every media report represents facts.”

Remember: As in previous hearings at the ICJ, Israel insisted it is acting in accordance with international law in Gaza.

The Israel Defense Forces said Friday it had expanded its ground operations in Jabalya, a refugee camp in northern Gaza.

In an update Friday, the IDF said that over the past day, “troops have expanded combat zones and intensified operational control in the area of Jabalya.”

“The operation began almost a week ago, with the IDF saying it was “based on intelligence information regarding attempts by Hamas to reassemble its terrorist infrastructure and operatives in the area.”

It said that IAF fighter jets and additional aircraft had struck a weapons storage facility “and eliminated several terrorists who fired mortar shells at IDF troops. No IDF injuries were reported.”

To the south, in Rafah, the IDF said its offensive continued in several locations, and troops “dismantled a launch site containing long-range rocket launchers in eastern Rafah.”

It said fighter jets and additional aircraft had “struck approximately 60 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip over the past day.”

Civil Defense in Gaza said that its teams had retrieved three bodies and a number of wounded people following an airstrike on a house in Al Shati camp in northern Gaza at dawn on Friday.

The Israel Defense Forces says three soldiers were wounded on Thursday night during clashes with right-wing settlers in the occupied West Bank who were trying to stop a truck they believed was heading for Gaza.

The driver of the truck was also wounded. Images from the scene showed the truck ablaze.

The IDF said Friday: “Last night, a report was received regarding an attack by dozens of Israeli citizens on an Israeli driver who was wounded and whose truck was set on fire at the Kohav HaShachar junction.”

“Upon receiving the report, IDF forces arrived at the scene and acted to separate the attackers from the driver and provide the driver with medical treatment.”

“Dozens of Israeli citizens responded with violence against the forces. As a result, two IDF officers and an additional IDF soldier were lightly injured and were treated at the scene,” the IDF added.

“The IDF condemns any violence against its soldiers and security forces and will take action to ensure legal accountability.”

Remember: There have been several incidents in the West Bank in recent days in which activists have blocked and ransacked trucks they believed were destined for Gaza. They want humanitarian aid to be suspended until all the hostages in Gaza are freed.

In this image provided by the U.S. Army, soldiers assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary) and sailors attached to the MV Roy P. Benavidez assemble the Roll-On, Roll-Off Distribution Facility (RRDF), or floating pier, off the shore of Gaza on April 26.

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid into Gaza have begun moving ashore after arriving through the floating pier built by the US military, according to the US Central Command (CENTCOM).

The pier was anchored to a beach in Gaza on Thursday and will be used to funnel aid from various countries into the besieged enclave, with many other border crossings closed and a catastrophic humanitarian disaster unfolding inside.

The US, which began building the $320 million pier in late April, has emphasized it is a temporary measure that is “entirely humanitarian in nature and will involve aid commodities donated by a number of countries and humanitarian organizations.”

No US troops went ashore in Gaza, according to the CENTCOM statement.

Aid first arrives from abroad to Cyprus, before being brought by ship to a floating platform near the Gaza coast, then finally transported to the floating pier and loaded onto trucks to distribute on land.

The goal is to get about 500 tons of humanitarian assistance into Gaza through the pier daily, said Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of the US Naval Forces Central Command, in a news briefing on Thursday. That means about 90 trucks a day, and the goal is to build up to 150 trucks a day.

The new maritime corridor is coming at a critical moment – with the Rafah border closing into Gaza having been closed for more than a week, preventing aid from getting through. The Rafah crossing was the only one between Gaza and Egypt – with all other border points in the strip controlled by Israel.

Read the full story.

Dr. Ahlia Kattan speaks with CNN.

Dr. Ahlia Kattan should already be back home in California with her three young children.

Instead, she’s spending her days and nights at Gaza’s European Hospital on the outskirts of Rafah.

Kattan, an anesthesiologist and specialist in critical care, is one of at least 22 American physicians trapped in Gaza after an Israeli military offensive in Rafah last week shuttered the city’s critical border crossing to Egypt. Rafah had, until then, served as the only entry and exit point for foreign aid workers into and out of Gaza.

“My kids have already been texting me today saying, you said Tuesday that you were going to be home,” Kattan told CNN. “The WHO (World Health Organization) is trying to negotiate a safe exit for us. And it’s not happening.”

The crossing has been closed since the Israeli military seized it early last week. Israeli and Egyptian officials have so far failed to reach an agreement on reopening it, instead trading blame for its continued closure. Meanwhile, dozens of foreign doctors are stuck in Gaza, while others are unable to get in as humanitarian conditions worsen inside the besieged enclave.

FAJR Scientific, the United States-based nonprofit organization that brought Kattan and 16 other physicians to Gaza, is now calling on the US government to help coordinate the team’s safe exit from Gaza. They had been due to leave on Monday.

At least one member of the team requires evacuation on medical grounds, said Mosab Nasser, the organization’s chief executive, who is also in Gaza. The 17 medics include 12 American citizens, three UK citizens, one Omani and one Egyptian.

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Israeli forces are razing the earth from eastern to central Rafah, according to satellite imagery, ahead of a planned full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said additional forces will participate in the ground operation in Rafah. And the IDF said the operation there remains limited in scope, while it continues operating in two other parts of Gaza.

Here are other headlines you should know:

Developments on the ground

South Africa’s accusations against Israel

Humanitarian aid

A view of damaged houses and burning vehicles after a raid by Jewish settlers on the Mughir town near Ramallah, West Bank on April 12.

Canada announced Thursday that it would sanction perpetrators of extremist settler violence against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank.

“The rise in violence by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank is deeply troubling and poses significant risks to peace and security in the region. While I was in the region recently, I heard directly from families that have been forced to leave their homes and farming lands as a direct result of violence and threats by extremist settlers.” said Canada’s minister of foreign affairs, Mélanie Joly, in a statement released Thursday.

Citing concerns with violence and the “grave breach” of international peace and security, Canada said the actions of these extremists were violent and destabilizing.

Those sanctioned are David Chai Chasdai, Yinon Levi, Zvi Bar Yosef and Moshe Sharvit - individuals that Canada says have engaged directly or indirectly in violence and violent acts against Palestinian civilians and their property.

Chasdai was among those sanctioned in the first round of sanctions announced by the US in February. CNN found that he faced two counts of racially aggravated assault for two different incidents of spraying a person with tear gas, court records show, and he was convicted of assault in January 2017, but acquitted of the attacks being racially motivated. Levi was also sanctioned by the US in February, and by the EU in April. Yosef was among those sanctioned by the UK in February and Sharvit was among those sanctioned by the US in March.

In recent months, the US, UK and EU have all sanctioned individuals and groups involved in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israeli soldiers walk past houses destroyed by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Be'eri, Israel, on October 14, 2023.

The bodies of two Thai nationals killed during the October 7 attacks on Israel are being held by Hamas in Gaza, Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Thursday. 

The two men killed were identified as Sonthaya Oakkharasri and Sudthisak Rinthalak. Six other Thai nationals are still being held by Hamas, the ministry said. 

The pair worked in farms in areas close to Kibbutz Be’eri and “were murdered during the terror attack on the 7th of October, their bodies were taken hostage and are being held currently by Hamas in Gaza,” Hagari said during a briefing. 

The families of the hostages have been notified, Hagari said. 

Thailand expressed its condolences to the families of those killed in October and whose bodies are being held in Gaza. 

“The Royal Thai Government expresses its profound condolences to their families, which have already been contacted by the Royal Thai Embassy in Tel Aviv, while the agencies involved will render all necessary assistance to the families,” Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Thursday.

The Hostage and Missing Families Forum (HMFF) also expressed “deep sorrow” for the deaths in a statement on Thursday.

The forum emphasized that protecting citizens within its borders remains Israel’s paramount duty.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks while meeting with the Joint Chiefs and Combatant Commanders in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 15.

The US House of Representatives voted on Thursday to pass a GOP-led bill to compel the delivery of defensive weapons to Israel as Republicans ramp up pressure on President Joe Biden over his handling of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

It is unlikely to be taken up in the Democratic-led Senate and the White House has said that Biden would veto the bill if Congress passed it.

The bill would prevent the president from withholding, halting, reversing or canceling weapons transfers that have been approved by Congress from the United States to Israel, and requires any that have been withheld to be delivered to Israel within 15 days of the bill’s enactment.

The legislation would cut off funds from several key executive-branch entities, including the State Department, the Defense Department and the National Security Council until any withheld weapons are sent to Israel.

The vote was 224-187. Three Republicans crossed over and voted against the measure, and 16 Democrats voted for it. 

The vote comes as Biden has faced pushback from lawmakers in both parties after he said during an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett last week that he would halt some shipments of American weapons to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah, where more than a million civilians have been sheltering.

Biden said while the US would continue to provide defensive weapons to Israel, including for its Iron Dome air defense system, other shipments would end should a major ground invasion of Rafah begin.

Leaders pose for a family photo as they attend the 33rd Arab League Summit in Manama, Bahrain on May 16.

Arab leaders are collectively calling for the deployment of United Nations peacekeeping forces on occupied Palestinian territories until a two-state solution is reached.

At the Arab League summit in Bahrain on Thursday the leaders issued the “Manama Declaration,” which includes a call to set a timeframe to reach a two-state solution, and for the UN Security Council to issue a resolution to establish a Palestinian state.

The UN does not have peacekeeping troops in Israel or the Palestinian territories but has more than 10,000 peacekeepers along Israel’s border regions, like the UNIFIL in Lebanon and the UNDOF in Syria.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah were among the conference attendees who delivered speeches mainly focused on the war in Gaza. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres were also in attendance, and both delivered speeches. 

Guterres echoed a vision for the two-state solution, saying:

“The only permanent way to end the cycle of violence and instability is through a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine living side-by-side in peace and security, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states.”

The US has also called for a two-state solution, with President Joe Biden saying in January that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could ultimately be convinced. “There are a number of types of two-state solutions,” Biden said at the time.

As the war in Gaza rages on, the “day after” question is causing rifts inside Israel and among Arab countries. 

In the “Manama Declaration,” the 22-Arab bloc called for the release of hostages and accused Israel of obstructing ceasefire efforts. 

This aerial view shows U.S. Army soldiers assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary), U.S. Navy sailors assigned to Amphibious Construction Battalion 1, and Israel Defense Forces placing the Trident Pier on the coast of Gaza Strip on Thursday.

The US has not seen any indications that Hamas is planning to target the recently completed temporary pier that will get humanitarian aid into Gaza, according to a Defense Department spokesperson. 

“We don’t have any indications that there should be any attacks on this pier, but should there be attacks either towards the maritime humanitarian corridor or around the marshalling area, that is going to directly affect the Palestinian people, the people that need this aid the most,” said Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh at a briefing Thursday.

Singh said the US is working with the Israel Defense Forces, who will help provide security for US forces operating the pier system.

Mortar rounds have landed near the pier site twice in recent weeks. 

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks at a press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on May 16.

The White House warned Israel Thursday that more humanitarian aid needs to be making it into Gaza in order to alleviate the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the enclave amid Israel’s war against Hamas. 

So, this level of aid remains insufficient. And we want to continue to press Israel to increase the level of assistance moving into Gaza,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, noting that the US is concerned about military operations around the Rafah border crossing. 

Jean-Pierre also provided an update on humanitarian aid, saying that since April 5 more than 7,000 trucks have been moved into Gaza and that yesterday nearly 250 trucks moved into Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza and a newly opened crossing in northern Gaza. 

We have seen trucks go in. And I think that’s important to note, and that’s because of the president’s push and relationship with the prime minister and insisting and pushing and saying we need to get more aid into Gaza because we know how dire the humanitarian situation is,” she told reporters. 

She added later: “What I just laid out is not sufficient. We want to get more in. We are continuing to have those conversations with Israel.”

Displaced Palestinians arrive in Deir al Balah, Gaza, after fleeing from Rafah, Gaza, on May 9.

South Africa has accused Israel of using forced evacuation orders in the southern Gaza city of Rafah to “endanger rather than protect civilian life.”

A lawyer for South Africa, Professor Max du Plessis, condemned the forced evacuation of over 600,000 Palestinians from Rafah and the Israeli designation of “humanitarian zones” elsewhere in the Gaza Strip.

The measures “endanger rather than protect civilian life,” Du Plessis told a hearing of the International Criminal Court (ICJ) in The Hague on Thursday. “The so-called ‘humanitarian zones’ are not safe, the zones are policed by the same Israeli forces who attacked Palestinians.”

“Genocidal intent”: Israel’s “full scale bombardment” of Rafah, and the sealing of entry and exit for “life-saving aid to an already devastated population” suggests a “genocidal intent,” the lawyer also argued, saying that the Israeli military’s assault on the city has “deliberately inflicted” conditions to bring about Palestinians’ “physical and biological destruction.”

ICJ hearing: Israel, which has rejected South Africa’s claim that it is violating the 1949 Genocide Convention as “baseless,” will have a chance to respond to the court on Friday.

Israeli forces are razing the earth from eastern to central Rafah, according to satellite imagery, ahead of a planned full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city.

Israeli bulldozing operations have been conducted almost a mile north of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, according to the latest imagery released by Planet Labs on May 15. Entire blocks have been destroyed or sustained significant damage since May 9.

Bulldozed areas are seen in Rafah, Gaza, on May 15.

Empty streets: On Saturday, the Israeli military expanded the Rafah evacuation zone further west, a precursor to its widening assault on the city. 

The recent satellite images indicate emptied streets in Rafah, where, prior to the ground invasion, over one million Palestinians were seeking refuge from Israel’s bombardment in the enclave. Many of the tent cities that held the sprawling refugee population have almost disappeared. 

Forced to evacuate: At least 600,000 Palestinians have been forced to evacuate Rafah since May 6, the UN’s Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated. In the past 48 hours, 150,000 people are believed to have fled.