Israel’s war on Gaza live: Attacks on Rafah intensify despite condemnation

• Israeli forces shelled a tent camp in a designated “safe zone” west of Rafah and killed at least 21 people, including 13 women and girls, in the latest mass killing of Palestinian civilians.
• The UN Security Council convened an emergency meeting over Israel’s ground invasion of Rafah as Spain, Ireland and Norway formally recognised the state of Palestine.
• The UN says it has received about 170 trucks of humanitarian aid over the past three weeks – “a drop in the ocean” from the 500 trucks needed daily.
• Israel’s incursion launched in early May has forced one million people to flee Rafah, most of whom had already been displaced several times by Israel’s bloody war on Gaza.
• At least 36,096 Palestinians have been killed and 81,136 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from Hamas’s attack is at least 1,139 with dozens of people still held captive in Gaza.
• Israel using West Bank-style strategy to divide GazaIsrael’s military is attempting to divide Gaza into small, disconnected pockets, weakening it in much the same way it has the occupied West Bank, says Omar Ashour, professor of security and military studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.It will do this by creating three separate corridors in the enclave, he told Al Jazeera:
  • the Netzarim Corridor, which splits Gaza into north and southa separate east-west divisiona 1km (0.6 mile) buffer zone along the Israeli border
  Israel’s military, Ashour predicts, will then use these zones as bases from which to launch regular raids into Gaza, in a strategy that avoids full-on military occupation but continues to cause high civilian casualties.“I think they [Israel’s military] will be based there for the long term and do these heavy raids, similar to the one you’re seeing in Jabalia right now,” Ashour told Al Jazeera. “They go there, undermine the capabilities of whatever they see as a threat, with a lot of civilian casualties because of the population density, and they will keep repeating that.”Israel is unlikely to forgo this strategy unless the United States withholds extensive weaponry or delivers “serious condemnation”, Ashour said, adding that both scenarios are unlikely.
• Dozens arrested at pro-Palestinian demonstration in LondonThe Metropolitan Police Service – which serves the greater London area – says it has arrested 40 people after protesters refused to disperse following a demonstration in London over Israel’s war on Gaza.The Met, as the force is widely known, said the individuals were arrested late on Tuesday for offences including breaching public order conditions, obstructing roads and assaulting emergency workers.It said two officers sustained minor injuries after being assaulted, while a third, who was struck by a bottle thrown from within the crowd, suffered a “serious facial injury”.The Met said an investigation was under way to identify who threw the bottle.Police had approved plans for the early evening protest – organised by a coalition including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign – outside the gates of Downing Street in central London.But it imposed conditions, including that the rally ended by 8pm (19:00 GMT).Up to 10,000 people attended, and the “vast majority” had left by the required time, according to police, but a group of about 500 remained to continue protesting.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/29/israels-war-on-gaza-live-tent-cities-attacked-as-tanks-roll-into-rafah