The Times of Israel is liveblogging Tuesday’s events as they unfold.
IDF: UN employee killed earlier today in Rafah was in combat zone; doesn’t say its troops were responsible
The Israeli military responds to the death of a United Nations employee and the injury of another in southern Gaza’s Rafah on Monday, saying that the pair were hit in an active combat zone, but further details are under investigation.
In response to a query, the IDF says that it received reports that two members of the UN Department of Safety and Security were hit while driving in the Rafah area. According to a UN spokesman, the pair were driving to the European Hospital in southern Gaza when one of the staffers was killed.
The IDF says that according to an initial review, the UN vehicle was hit “amid fighting in an area defined as an active combat zone.”
It says that the vehicle’s route was unknown to the military. Normally, the IDF is made aware of aid workers’ movement in Gaza to avoid such incidents.
Still, the IDF does not confirm its forces fired at the vehicle.
“All of the details of the incident are under review,” the military adds.
IDF fighter jet intercepted drone that entered Israeli airspace from the east, army says
A drone heading toward Israel from the eastern direction was intercepted by an Israeli fighter jet, the military says.
According to the IDF, the drone did not enter Israeli airspace, and therefore sirens did not sound.
Amid the ongoing war, Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria have claimed to have launched dozens of drones at Israel, with the IDF reporting downing many of them.
White House pans GOP bill forcing it to release weapons being held from Israel over Rafah
The White House blasts Republican legislation aimed at forcing US President Joe Biden to release a shipment of high-payload bombs for Israel that he withheld earlier this month amid concerns that they would be used by the IDF in a major Rafah offensive that Washington opposes.
“We strongly, strongly oppose attempts to constrain the president’s ability to deploy a US security assistance consistent with US foreign policy and national security objectives,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tells reporters.
The bill would freeze the budgets of the secretary of state, the defense secretary and the National Security Council until the bombs are released to Israel.
While it will likely pass the Republican-controlled House, it is similarly certain to die in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Senior Biden official doubts Israel can achieve ‘total victory’ in Gaza
The Biden administration does not see it likely or possible that Israel will achieve “total victory” in defeating Hamas in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell says.
While US officials have urged Israel to help devise a clear plan for the governance post-war Gaza, Campbell’s comments are the clearest to date from a top US official effectively admitting that Israel’s current military strategy won’t bring the result that it is aiming for.
“In some respects, we are struggling over what the theory of victory is,” Campbell says at a NATO Youth Summit in Miami. “Sometimes when we listen closely to Israeli leaders, they talk about mostly the idea of….a sweeping victory on the battlefield, total victory.”
“I don’t think we believe that that is likely or possible and that this looks a lot like situations that we found ourselves in after 9/11, where, after civilian populations had been moved and lots of violence that…the insurrections continue.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to achieve “total victory” against Hamas.
Likening the situation in Gaza to that of a recurring insurgency that the United States faced in Afghanistan and Iraq after its invasions there following the September 11 attacks, Campbell says a political solution was required.
“I think we view that there has to be more of a political solution…What’s different from the past in that sense, many countries want to move towards a political solution in which the rights of Palestinians are more respected,” he says.
“I don’t think it’s ever been more difficult than right now,” he adds.
Report: Top Biden official denies US conditioning intel about Hamas leaders on Israel forgoing Rafah op
Deputy US National Security Adviser Jon Finer denies a Washington Post report claiming that the Biden administration has told Israel it will provide it with intelligence to help locate Hamas’s Gaza leadership if Jerusalem agrees to scuttle plans for a mass-invasion of Rafah, JTA reports.
“It’s not true,” Finer told a group of Jewish community leaders in a meeting earlier today, according to JTA, which cites several sources from the meeting.
Days before the report, White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the US has been helping Israel target Hamas’s leaders “on an ongoing basis,” making no indication that this assistance was conditioned.
A White House official also denies the Washington Post report, telling The Times of Israel that “Helping Israel target the leaders of Hamas and providing any information we have as to their whereabouts is a top priority for us, and not a quid pro quo. None of this is dependent on operational decisions Israel makes. ”
“The United States is working with Israel day and night to hunt the senior leaders of Hamas, who were the authors of the brutal terrorist assault of October 7,” the official continues. “We are providing unprecedented support – in ways that only the United States can – to help Israel bring them to justice. And we will continue to work relentlessly toward this objective in the period ahead.”
Israeli extremists said to torch aid trucks en route to Gaza hours after looting convoy
Extremist Israelis have torched a pair of trucks carrying humanitarian aid from Jordan to Gaza.
The trucks were sitting at the West Bank’s Tarqumiyah checkpoint after they were blocked and looted by the Israeli extremists earlier in the day.
Police had arrested four people for taking part in the illegal activity before leaving the area, allowing the far-right activists to return and torch the trucks.
Haaretz reports that the police and the IDF traded blame, with the former saying the army was responsible for guarding the trucks after the police dispersed the protesters, while the military said the entire incident fell under the police’s jurisdiction because it took place on the Israeli side of the checkpoint.
A senior security establishment official tells Haaretz that “the police turn a blind eye to the riots of lawbreakers who loot and burn the aid after receiving inside information regarding the movement of the trucks.
The official says there are forces within the police who avoid cracking down on the aid looting by right-wing extremists while others only agree to deal with the issue reluctantly.
“There is a feeling that they are trying to please someone specific in the government,” the official adds, apparently referring to far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, whose office oversees the police and has reportedly encouraged law enforcement not to crack down on the protesters blocking aid from reaching Gaza.
The activists argue that aid should be used as leverage to bring back the hostages, while also claiming that it is being co-opted by Hamas.
המצב ״התלקח מהר״: משאיות הסיוע לחמאס הועלו באש על ידי פעילים חוסמי הסיוע, סמוך למחסום תרקומיא. ואוו pic.twitter.com/pkmoDdl3qB
— daniel amram – דניאל עמרם (@danielamram3) May 13, 2024