Israeli tanks are apparently advancing into the center of Rafah. The UN Security Council has called an emergency meeting. All developments here in the news ticker.
12:04 p.m.: According to eyewitness reports, Israeli troops are advancing further and further into the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. Accordingly, troops were also seen in the city center on Tuesday. The Israeli news site ynet, citing sources in Rafah, reported that Israeli tanks were deployed in the Tal al-Sultan district. There have been no ground troops there yet. There was initially no confirmation of these reports from the Israeli army.
5:20 a.m.: After a deadly Israeli airstrike on a refugee camp near the town of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, the UN Security Council has called an emergency meeting for Tuesday. The AFP news agency learned from diplomatic circles that the meeting on the situation in Rafah would be held behind closed doors. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of the incident, which sparked sharp international criticism, as a “tragic mishap.” The Israeli army opened an investigation. Meanwhile, AFP journalists reported new attacks on Rafah.
The emergency meeting of the UN Security Council is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon (local time), according to diplomatic sources. It was applied for by Algeria.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the air strike, which, according to the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas, killed 45 people. “Numerous innocent civilians were killed” who sought protection from the deadly conflict, Guterres said. There is no safe place in the Gaza Strip, he continued. “This horror must stop.”
11:05 p.m.: After Israel’s deadly air strike in Rafah, the US government says it is communicating with the Israeli army and local partners to clarify the circumstances. A US State Department spokesman described the images from the refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip city on Monday as “devastating” and “heartbreaking”. Dozens of innocent Palestinians were killed in the attack, he said.
Israel has the right to take action against Hamas and, according to information, two high-ranking terrorists who were responsible for attacks on Israeli civilians were killed, the ministry spokesman said. “But as we have already made clear, Israel must take all possible precautions to protect the civilian population. We are actively working with the Israeli army and partners on the ground to assess what happened.”
The US rejects a major Israeli ground offensive in Rafah, but recently stated that operations there have not yet reached the extent that the US government had warned about. The spokesman did not answer the question on Monday as to whether the State Department continues to assess the situation in this way after the latest air strike.
10:48 p.m.: UN Secretary-General António Guterres has sharply criticized Israel’s devastating attack on a tent camp with refugee civilians in the Gaza Strip. “I condemn Israel’s actions, which killed numerous innocent civilians who were just seeking protection from this deadly conflict,” Guterres wrote on Platform X on Monday. There is no safe place for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. “This horror must stop,” the UN chief continued.
According to the Palestinian Health Authority, the Israeli military killed at least 45 people and injured dozens more in an airstrike on a camp for displaced people on Sunday evening. Most of the dead were women and minors. The incident sparked international outrage and outrage.
3:49 p.m.: According to the Israeli army, there was an exchange of fire on the border with Egypt. The incident is being investigated and talks are being held with Egypt, the Israeli military said on Monday.
An Egyptian soldier was killed in the exchange of fire. The spokesman for the Egyptian military announced this on Monday. There are apparently no injuries among the Israeli soldiers.
08.07 a.m.: According to Palestinian sources, dozens of people were killed in an Israeli air strike near the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian presidency accused Israel on Monday night of deliberately attacking a camp for displaced persons near Rafah and spoke of a “heinous massacre”. The Israeli army, however, said that the attack bombed a site used by Hamas.
According to Palestinian information, the Israeli attack hit the Barkasat displaced persons camp, northwest of Rafah, run by the UN Palestinian Relief Agency (UNRWA). The Hamas-controlled health ministry in the Gaza Strip said at least 35 people were killed and dozens more injured.
7:11 a.m.: Significantly more Israelis with German ancestors have recently submitted applications to the German authorities for so-called reparation naturalizations. From January to April of this year alone, 6,869 such applications were received, as the editorial network Germany (RND, Monday) reported, citing the Federal Office of Administration. There were 9,129 applications for the entire previous year, and in 2022 the number was 5,670. Against the background of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7th, there are signs of a significant increase this year if the trend of the first four months continues.
Since August 2021, those persecuted by the Nazi regime and their descendants have had a legal right to a German passport. Descendants of Nazi victims who fled abroad to escape the Nazis can acquire German citizenship without any further requirements. This means that relevant decrees from the Ministry of the Interior were placed on a legal basis and made more generous.
In total, almost 14,000 applications for reparation naturalization were submitted in 2023, and almost 11,400 in 2022. After Israel, most applications come from the USA, by a significant margin.
Monday, May 27, 12:20 a.m.: Seven people were killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon. The Israeli military has “eliminated seven Hezbollah terrorists” in a series of airstrikes in southern Lebanon, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised briefing. The Hezbollah militia said five of its fighters were killed, and the Lebanese state news agency NNA said two civilians were also killed in the attacks.
11:28 p.m.: According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, tents belonging to civilian refugees were hit in an Israeli air strike in the city of Rafah. Platform X reported that numerous people were killed and injured in the bombing in the northwest of the city on Sunday. Doctors in the Gaza Strip spoke of at least 28 dead. However, it is unclear how many people are still in collapsed or burning tents.
The Israeli military said via Platform X that there had been an airstrike on a Hamas compound. According to intelligence information, important Hamas terrorists had recently been there. The military said the airstrike was carried out in accordance with international law. Reports that a fire broke out as a result of the airstrike, injuring bystanders, are being investigated.
The Red Crescent said the area hit was one of the designated humanitarian zones for those forced to evacuate because of Israeli hostilities.
1:22 p.m.: For the first time in four months, the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas has fired rockets into the greater Tel Aviv area. Several explosions were heard in downtown Tel Aviv. There were rocket alarms in several cities in the greater coastal metropolis area. The military wing of Hamas claimed responsibility for the attacks.
According to Israeli military information, eight rockets were fired at the Israeli coastal metropolis from the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. The army said several projectiles were intercepted by missile defense. Tel Aviv was last attacked with rockets from the Gaza Strip on January 29th. The Israeli army reported a rocket alarm via “X”.
9:47 a.m.: According to a media report, trucks carrying relief supplies drove into the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom border crossing on Sunday. A total of 200 trucks drove from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, which has been closed since the beginning of May, towards Kerem Shalom, reported the Al-Kahera News channel, which has good connections with the Egyptian secret services.
Al-Kahera News did not report how many trucks in total had already entered the Gaza Strip via Kerem Shalom, but said that “four fuel tankers” had passed through the border crossing. They are on the way to hospitals in the Palestinian territory. The head of the Egyptian Red Crescent in al-Arish, Chaled Sayed, told the AFP news agency that he expected that all 200 trucks could drive to the Gaza Strip on Sunday.
4:17 a.m.: Mass protests against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have broken out again in Israel. As the Times of Israel newspaper reported on Sunday night, anti-government demonstrators gathered in several locations in Israel on Saturday evening to demand Netanyahu’s resignation, early elections and an agreement on the release of hostages held by the Islamist Hamas . Demonstrators were arrested at a central rally in Tel Aviv. The organizers said the number of participants in the rally in Tel Aviv was more than 80,000 people, it said.
Protests also took place in other places, including Jerusalem, Haifa, Caesarea and Rehovot. The demonstrators accused Netanyahu of ignoring warnings before the unprecedented terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7 in the Israeli border region. They also blamed him for the fate of the more than 100 hostages still held by Hamas. If the government does not now reach an agreement on the release of the hostages, “Israel will ultimately be forced to end the war without the return of the hostages,” the newspaper quoted a relative of the abducted as saying.
Sunday, May 26, 1:35 a.m.: According to activists, a Syrian officer with connections to the Lebanese Hezbollah was killed in an attack in Damascus. An explosive device detonated in the man’s car on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The officer was therefore responsible for recruiting Syrian fighters for the Hezbollah militia.
The Observatory is based in the UK and obtains its information from various sources in Syria. Your information can hardly be verified by an independent party.
The Syrian news agency Sana also reported a death in a car bomb explosion in the Syrian capital, citing the police. She did not provide any further information. The explosion occurred in the Masseh district. It is also home to the Iranian consulate, which was destroyed on April 1 in an attack attributed to Israel.
You can read more about the Iranian attack on Israel on the next page.