In the News – May 10, 2024

Israel Pursues Its Criminal Slaughter in Rafah and the Resistance Fights Back

Around 80,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah since Israeli forces intensified their attack on the southern Gaza town on May 6.

The world is seeing the slaughter Israel is committing in Gaza which it calls a limited military operation carried out in a humanitarian manner.

On the evening of May 6, the Israeli military reported that it was conducting targeted strikes on Hamas facilities in the eastern part of Rafah. The Israeli Air Force struck more than 50 targets in the city, the Times of Israel reported, citing Israel Defense Force (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari. According to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu the military campaign in Rafah pursues two main objectives – the return of Israelis kidnapped during the October 7, 2023 attack and the destruction of the Palestinian Hamas movement and, ultimately to “evacuate Gaza.” Netanyahu’s adviser Dmitry Gendelman said the country’s military cabinet had not abandoned plans to advance on the city, no matter that the resistance organizations accepted the mediators’ proposal from Qatar and Egypt for a ceasefire in Gaza.

On May 7, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated that Israel does not intend to stop the operation in Rafah until victory over Hamas is secured, or until the beginning of the return of the hostages. “Yesterday I ordered the Israel Defense Force to enter the Rafah area, seize the border crossing, and proceed further. This operation will continue until we eradicate Hamas in the Rafah area and throughout the Gaza Strip, or until they begin returning hostages,” he said during a visit to troop locations on the southern part of the border of Israel and Gaza.

On May 9, the Central Emergency Committee in Rafah said in a statement that what has been circulating about a limited military operation east of Rafah is nothing but lies refuted by facts and realities on the ground amidst air, land and sea bombardment that affected all areas in the governorate. The committee warned against falling into the trap of misleading Israeli propaganda regarding the ongoing genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, which has opened a new chapter in Rafah Governorate.

The committee confirmed that since the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) announced its invasion of eastern Rafah, nearly 100 people have been killed and hundreds injured, in addition to the destruction of dozens of homes, while indiscriminate artillery shelling has targeted schools, mosques, and residential towers in the centre and west of the governorate, contrary to Israeli claims that military operations are concentrated in the east. According to the statement, the ongoing Israeli bombing operations around the clock caused the displacement of thousands of Palestinian families to the centre and west of the governorate, which is inhabited by approximately one and a half million Palestinians (residents and displaced persons).

Israeli bombing of residential area in Rafah

The committee stressed that Israel’s closure of the Rafah crossing, blocking aid delivery and fuel supplies, heralds a doubling of the humanitarian, environmental and health catastrophe, as the population suffers from a shortage of goods and basic and daily living needs amid the most crowded population in the world. It warned against using the weapon of slow death through starvation against the population, as part of collective punishment policy to force the population to submit and relocate.

The Committee also sounded the alarm against the fact that the only operating hospital, the Kuwait Hospital, would stop operating amid the escalation of Israeli airstrikes, especially after the key Al-Najjar Hospital in the governorate was taken out of service by Israeli threats. It stressed that Israel’s claims about safe zones are invalidated by its ground operations that have been targeting everything, threatening the lives of more than one and a half million people who have no alternative shelter.

The committee stressed the need for decisive measures to be taken internationally to push Israel to halt its genocidal war in Gaza.

Resistance Fights Back

In a just-released video, Al-Qassam Brigades fighters are seen targeting Israeli tank in the axis of advance east of the city of Rafah

Al-Qassam Brigades on May 9 announced that one of the Palestinian resistance units detonated a tunnel rigged with explosives targeting Israeli military personnel. This resulted in the destruction of three Israeli vehicles, and a digger, and casualties among the soldiers, including one killed and one injured, according to Palestinian military media reports. Earlier in the day, the Al-Qassam Brigades reported that its forces targeted several Israeli military units in the southern part of the Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City using mortar shells.

The Mujahideen Brigades reported that its forces targeted the “Gaza envelope” with a barrage of rockets. They further targeted an Israeli military vehicle using an RPG shell and also aimed at Israeli troops stationed in the “Netzarim” axis using 107-type rockets.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades reported its fighters have engaged in fierce clashes with Israeli infantry forces in the Shoka neighborhood, located east of Rafah.

On the morning of May 9, the Al-Qassam Brigades announced that Israeli forces advancing east of Rafah had been targeted with mortar shells. They also announced the firing of rockets which targeted an assembly of Israeli military vehicles near the airport east of Rafah. Similarly, Al-Quds Brigades declared the targeting of Israeli military gatherings with heavy calibre mortar shells east of the Shoka neighborhood.

Hezbollah, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, announced on May 9 that it had carried out kamikaze drone strike targeting an Israeli military command centre in the settlement of Kfar Giladi and several positions near it. The operations room was struck, inflicting several injuries and killing several officers, Hezbollah informed.

Hezbollah issued another statement declaring that its fighters had attacked an Israeli assembly point at the Jal al-Alam site using a Burkan rocket. The Islamic Resistance also announced that its fighters attacked an Israeli military vehicle using armour-piercing missiles, setting fire to it and wounding or killing its crew. Israeli Channel 12 news cited IOF soldiers saying that “there is no actual Israeli response to the launch of drones from Lebanon,” adding that “many times the drones penetrate the airspace without warning.” Hezbollah drones are able to fly below the radar systems of Israel’s Iron Dome air defences.

The Islamic resistance in Iraq announced on May 9 that it carried out three operations against Israeli occupation targets: the Israeli Nevatim base in Beersheba/occupied Bir al-Sabe was targeted by drones; the Asklana Ashkelon port using cruise missiles; and also a vital target in occupied Umm al-Rashrash (Eilat), with drones at dawn.

In another statement, the Iraqi Resistance reported that its fighters targeted the Israeli Yarden base in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and the Israeli Yonatan base in the Occupied Palestinian Territories with drones. It also targeted the Leviathan gas platform and an Israeli military airbase in occupied Umm al-Rashrash with drones. Additionally, the Ashkelon oil terminal and a military facility in the Occupied Palestinian Territories were struck by the Resistance using al-Arqab cruise missiles and drones.

In Yemen, the head of the Yemeni Armed Forces Sayyid Abdulmalik Badreddin al-Houthi announced the commencement of the fourth phase of military operations. This phase is dedicated to supporting the Palestinian people as long as the U.S. and Israeli enemies continue to violate the rights of the people in Gaza, he said. The essence of this phase is to complete the imposition of a naval blockade on all ports occupied by Israeli ships. The targeting will not be limited to ships that unload their cargo in Israel itself, but that any ship associated with companies whose ships are implicated in supplying Israel with supplies will now be targeted immediately, al-Houthi said.

On May 9, the Yemeni Armed Forces carried out three operations targeting two Israeli ships in the Gulf of Aden and another vessel in the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea using several ballistic missiles and drones. The statement also reported that the missile force carried out two qualitative operations in the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea targeting the MCS Vittoria, and registered direct hits.

Worldwide the Demand that Israel Be Held to Account Intensifies

Today, May 10, the United Nations General Assembly votes on a draft resolution that recognizes Palestine as qualified to become a full UN member.

Various countries are also making statements. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry called on Israel to “exercise the highest level of restraint” and avoid further escalation at this “very sensitive time,” as negotiations on a ceasefire and the release of captives continue. The Egyptians noted that Israel’s attack on Rafah would create “an extreme humanitarian danger threatening over a million Palestinians in the area.” Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said: “Another massacre of Palestinians is being prepared. The inability to prevent the slaughter will be an indelible stain on the international community. Too many mass killings have been permitted. Enough.”

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry demanded international intervention to stop the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza amid the operation in Rafah. “The Ministry confirms the Kingdom’s categorical rejection of the continued blatant violations of all international resolutions calling for the cessation of these mass killings and their violation of international law and international humanitarian law without restraint, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis and hindering international peace efforts,” the Ministry said.

The assault on Rafah has also been condemned by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the head of EU diplomacy Josep Borrell, and the governments of Egypt, Turkey and China. Officials in France and the United Kingdom along with Canada previously declared the operation in Rafah unacceptable.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said he was pushing for EU-wide trade sanctions against products made in Israeli settlements. According to the politician, Brussels decided to impose restrictions against Israel several weeks ago, but if only Belgium out of the entire bloc adopts them, “trade routes will simply change,” he said. “That’s why we’ve been discussing with other European countries for some weeks now how to tackle this problem, without making it loud and clear. Europe has an association treaty with Israel, which contains conditions relating to human rights. We have asked [EU foreign policy chief] Josep Borell to investigate this point.”

In related news, 50 Spanish universities announced they would break ties with Israeli institutions. The Confederation of Spanish Universities (CRUE) announced on May 9 that it will cut ties with Israeli universities and research centres “that have not expressed a firm commitment to peace and compliance with international humanitarian law.” The decision came as students across Spain began camping out on university campuses this week, as part of the wider global wave of pro-Palestine student protests. Earlier this week, some 200 students at Madrid’s Complutense University set up an encampment. Similar encampments have also been set up in Barcelona and the Basque Country. Spain’s Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities Diana Morant said earlier in the week that Spanish universities should not only be “a place for academic formation, but also critical thinking.” She praised the students in the encampments saying she was proud of them for mobilizing.

Following a five-day encampment at the campus of Trinity College Dublin (TCD), the university announced it had agreed with the student demands for divesting from Israeli companies. “An agreement was reached” after “successful talks between the university’s senior management and the protestors,” the university said in a statement posted on its website, meaning that TCD would no longer have ties with Israeli firms. TCD further said that the university “will complete a divestment from investments in Israeli companies that have activities in the occupied Palestinian Territory and appear on the UN blacklist in this regard.”

The Free University of Brussels has announced its withdrawal from a scientific project on artificial intelligence that involved two Israeli institutions, the Palestinian Information Centre informed. In a statement issued on May 8, the university explained that the decision to withdraw from the scientific project was made after an evaluation conducted by the Ethics Committee. It went on to say that, following the recent developments in Gaza, it has decided to conduct a comprehensive review of all research projects involving Israeli partners. The university does not have any bilateral cooperation with Israel, it added, and is determined to continue its partnerships with Palestinian institutions.

Staff and alumni at the University of Cambridge in England signed an open letter to express their “solidarity with Cambridge students as they launch an encampment protesting the university’s ties to Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.” The letter, which had over 1,700 signatories within 48 hours, said the students “join an admirable tradition of emancipatory struggle that includes earlier student protests against South African apartheid and the war in Vietnam.”

Meanwhile, in the U.S., students across the country continue to resist the escalation of brutal police attacks. Police used pepper spray to clear a tent encampment at George Washington University (GWU) and arrested dozens of demonstrators on May 8. Police said they arrested 33 people at the protest, including for assault on a police officer and unlawful entry. They confirmed they used pepper spray outside the encampment against protesters who were trying to break police lines and enter. Moataz Salim, a Palestinian student at GWU with family in Gaza, told a news conference held by encampment organizers, “Less than 10 hours ago, I was pepper sprayed and assaulted by police. And why? Because we decided to pitch some tents, hold community activities and learn from each other. We built something incredible. We built something game-changing.”

Police also moved in on the night of Tuesday May 7 to break up an encampment at the University of Massachusetts. Video from the scene in Amherst showed an hour-long operation as dozens of officers in riot gear systematically tore down tents and took protesters into custody. The operation continued into early May 8. Police said about 130 people were arrested after protesters refused orders to disperse.

At the University of Chicago the tent encampment was cleared by officers in riot gear on May 7 after administrators said the protesters “had crossed a line.” Hundreds of protesters had gathered for at least eight days until administrators warned them to leave or face removal.

New York City police arrested 50 people outside the Fashion Institute of Technology on the evening of May 7 after protesters who had been rallying nearby arrived to support a student encampment. Chancellor Javier Reyes said he ordered the sweep after talks over a wide range of demands failed to yield an agreement to dismantle the encampment and engage in “constructive discussions.”

Since April 18, about 2,800 people have been arrested on 50 U.S. campuses.

Students at Wesleyan University, a liberal arts school in Connecticut, commenced their on-campus demonstration on April 29, which includes a pro-Palestinian tent encampment, as an act of political expression, they said. Reports inform that the camp has grown from about 20 tents a week ago to more than 100. “The protesters’ cause is important – bringing attention to the killing of innocent people,” university President Michael Roth wrote to the campus community. “And we continue to make space for them to do so, as long as that space is not disruptive to campus operations.”

At the Rhode Island School of Design, President Crystal Williams spent more than five hours with protesters discussing their demands after students started occupying a building on May 6. On May 7 the school announced it was relocating classes from the building.

At the University of Vermont, student protesters ended their nine-day encampment on May 8 after the university agreed to cancel the invitation to have Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, as commencement speaker. The school said on May 19 that Thomas-Greenfield would not give the address.

Student encampment, University of Vermont, in Burlington, May 7, 2024

At The New School in New York City, faculty launched their encampment for Palestine on May 9.

In Canada, police were called in to dismantle the student encampment at the University of Calgary on May 9, that had only been set up that morning. In Edmonton, students at the University of Alberta also began an encampment on May 9. Students at the University of Regina are organizing to start an encampment there on May 17.

In the Netherlands, Dutch police dispersed a student protest at the University of Amsterdam in its second consecutive day of protest over Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged Palestinian Gaza Strip. Police forces in full riot gear attacked protesters and knocked down makeshift barricades of desks, bricks and wooden pallets, arresting at least 32 demonstrators. Videos of the incident show police dragging several students away as hundreds shouted: “Shame on you!”