It comes after Israeli PM’s comments appeared to contradict a ceasefire plan Joe Biden presented as Israeli-endorsed

• See all our Israel-Gaza war coverage here

At least 36,379 Palestinian people have been killed and 82,407 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

An estimated 95 Palestinians were killed and 350 injured in the past 24 hours alone, the ministry said.

Israel’s conditions for ending the war have not changed: the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, the freeing of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.

Under the proposal, Israel will continue to insist these conditions are met before a permanent ceasefire is put in place. The notion that Israel will agree to a permanent ceasefire before these conditions are fulfilled is a non-starter.

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© Photograph: Abir Sultan/AP

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© Photograph: Abir Sultan/AP

US president outlines deal that would offer permanent ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal for hostage release and rebuilding effort

Joe Biden has urged Hamas to accept a new peace deal he said Israel has put on the table, offering a permanent ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in return for the release of all hostages and the long-term reconstruction of the shattered coastal strip.

“It’s time for this war to end … for the day after to begin,” Biden said, outlining the framework of a three-phase agreement, which he said had been put on the table by the Israeli government.

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© Photograph: APAImages/REX/Shutterstock

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© Photograph: APAImages/REX/Shutterstock

War in Gaza, Donald Trump in New York, voting in South Africa and an eruption in Iceland: the last seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

• Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing

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© Photograph: Marco di Marco/AP

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© Photograph: Marco di Marco/AP

Politicians parroted untrue rumors that Hamas had beheaded Israeli babies. When the children are Palestinian, they shrug

Earlier this week, I sat down to write a piece about a campus safety officer at a public college in New York who told pro-Palestinian protesters that he supported genocide. “Yes I do, I support genocide,” the officer said, after a protester accused him of this at a graduation event at the College of Staten Island, part of the public City University of New York (Cuny) system, last Thursday. “I support killing all you guys, how about that?”

It’s possible that you didn’t hear about this incident: while it was covered by a few outlets, including the Associated Press, it didn’t get a huge amount of press. It certainly wasn’t splashed all over the front page of the New York Post the way it would have been if that guard had made the same comment about Israelis. The New York Times, which has written a lot about safety on college campuses – and published a piece on anti-Israel speeches at Cuny just a couple of days before this incident – didn’t seem to deem it newsworthy. And the White House didn’t chime in with a horrified statement about anti-Palestinian bias on campuses. After all, this wasn’t a big deal, right? It was just a security guard saying he supports genocide. Which, it should be clear now, is essentially the same position as the US government.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

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© Photograph: Hatem Khaled/Reuters

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© Photograph: Hatem Khaled/Reuters

The IDF says that it is in ‘operational’ control of the buffer zone on Egypt’s border, a move which risks complicating relations with Cairo, amid Rafah offensive

• See all our Middle East coverage

Israel is in effective control of Gaza’s entire land border after taking control of a buffer zone along the border with Egypt, Israel’s military has said, a move that risks complicating its relationship with Egypt.

In a televised briefing on Wednesday, chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces had gained “operational” control over the Philadelphi Corridor, using the Israeli military’s code name for the 14km-long corridor along the Gaza Strip’s only border with Egypt.

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© Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock

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© Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock

Joe Biden should back a UN security council resolution to end the fighting in Gaza rather than shielding Israel from criticism

The Israeli strike that killed at least 45 displaced Palestinians, many of them women and children, at a tent camp in Rafah this weekend clearly crossed Joe Biden’s “red line” over the need to protect civilians in the Gaza conflict. France’s Emmanuel Macron did not doubt what should happen next. “These operations must stop,” he posted on X. “There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians. I call for full respect for international law and an immediate ceasefire.”

Those in Israel who believe that they still need to make an appearance of deference towards US sentiments pleaded that the whole episode was a “mishap” rather than a deliberate political insult. Mr Biden is inclined to give Israel’s forces the benefit of the doubt, and give himself wriggle room to say his line hadn’t been crossed. Despite the international outcry over Sunday’s deadly blast, Israel stepped up its military offensive on Tuesday, sending tanks into Rafah and leaving a score more civilians dead when it apparently struck a tented area.

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© Photograph: Diane Krauthamer/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

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© Photograph: Diane Krauthamer/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

The president has weaponized the idea of Jewish safety to justify the atrocity in Gaza. I could no longer stand by

Until last week, President Biden was my boss.

Last week, I resigned from my post at the United States Department of the Interior, becoming the first Jewish politically appointed administration official to publicly resign in protest – and in mourning – of President Biden’s endorsement of genocide in Gaza, where more than 35,000 Palestinians have been murdered. This was an incredibly difficult decision, but one that was necessary – and one that felt even more urgent, as the president of the United States has persistently corrupted the idea of Jewish safety, weaponizing my community as a shield to dodge accountability for his role in this atrocity.

Lily Greenberg Call was a special assistant to the chief of staff at the US Department of the Interior

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© Photograph: Leah Millis/Reuters

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© Photograph: Leah Millis/Reuters

Morale is dropping as talks to free hostages collapse and more believe ‘total victory’ over Hamas is impossible

In what appears to be a burnt-out building in Gaza, with Hebrew graffiti on the walls reading “Kach” and “Kahane”, references to an infamous Jewish supremacist and his outlawed political party, a masked soldier addresses Israel’s defence minister.

“Yoav Gallant, you can’t win the war. Quit. You can’t command us,” the man says in a long clip posted to social media on Saturday, in which he pledges loyalty to the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Another 100,000 reservists would mutiny, he warned, if wavering elements of the government such as Gallant scuppered Netanyahu’s goal of “complete victory” over Hamas.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Holding actors like Putin to account relies on international law. If Israel’s allies flout it, how can they convince others to respect their rules?

Since its inception, the international criminal court (ICC) has charged 50 people, 47 of whom were African. Its investigations have also been overwhelmingly focused on war crimes and crimes against humanity in African nations. What has long been understood but never stated is that the court and its processes, to put it bluntly, target a certain type of political leadership that is easier to go after. “The court is built for Africans and thugs like Putin,” is what one appalled elected senior leader reportedly told the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, when his team made a recent application for arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, its defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders.

Again, blunt, but not revelatory. At least not to the parts of the world that are more familiar with the court and its investigations. The lineup of suspects and defendants has long solidified the impression below the equator that the ICC is a court for Africans, and lately maybe Russians. How can that not be the takeaway when, in the years since the court was founded, the US – often with British support – has calamitously invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, established an extrajudicial prison for terror suspects, and created a CIA torture and detention network? African conflicts are seen as intimate, tribal and intentional in a way that those in other places are not. The underlying suggestion is that civilians in western wars are killed and illegally detained by accident, while other countries do this on purpose.

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© Photograph: Reuters

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© Photograph: Reuters

IDF says strike on tents housing displaced people hit Hamas installation after militants launch first salvo at Israel in months

At least 35 people have been killed after an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza city of Rafah hit tents housing displaced people, Palestinian medics have said, hours after Hamas launched a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv for the first time in months.

Footage from the scene of Sunday’s airstrike in Rafah showed heavy destruction. The Israeli military said its air force struck a Hamas compound and that the strike was carried out with “precise ammunition and on the basis of precise intelligence.”

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© Photograph: Reuters TV/Reuters

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© Photograph: Reuters TV/Reuters

War in Gaza, the Russian offensive in Kharkiv, Rishi Sunak in the rain and Cate Blanchett in Cannes: the last seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing

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© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

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© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Court may order a halt to offensive, in what would be another sign of growing international isolation for Benjamin Netanyahu

The international court of justice is expected to issue a new ruling on Israel’s conduct of its war in Gaza at 3pm (1400 BST) on Friday, as the US expressed concern over Israel’s growing diplomatic isolation among countries that have traditionally supported it.

Amid speculation that the ICJ could order a halt to Israel’s offensive, a second top global court – the international criminal court – identified the three judges who will hear a request for arrest warrants against Hamas leaders, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and its defence minister, Yoav Gallant.

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© Photograph: Mohammed Salem/Reuters

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© Photograph: Mohammed Salem/Reuters

Loach said it was ‘simply unacceptable’ that the cinema is hosting the Seret film festival

Ken Loach and Mike Leigh have resigned as patrons of the Phoenix cinema in London in protest over the venue hosting an Israeli state-sponsored film festival.

The cinema – one of the UK’s oldest – is holding a private screening of Supernova: The Music Festival Massacre, as part of the international Seret film festival on Thursday night.

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© Photograph: David Angel/Alamy

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© Photograph: David Angel/Alamy

Jake Sullivan appears critical of decision by Spain, Ireland and Norway to formally recognise Palestinian state next week

The US is concerned about Israel’s growing diplomatic isolation among countries that have traditionally supported it, Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Wednesday.

Sullivan’s remarks, at a White House briefing, followed the announcement by Ireland, Spain and Norway that they will next week formally recognise a Palestinian state. They also came amid efforts by the Biden administration and Congress to coordinate a response to a decision by the international criminal court (ICC) to seek an arrest warrant for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over Israeli actions in Gaza.

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© Photograph: Leah Millis/Reuters

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© Photograph: Leah Millis/Reuters

Government urges ‘free world’ to oppose warrants against Netanyahu and defence minister for war crimes in Gaza

Israel has urged what it called “nations of the civilised world” to refuse to implement any international criminal court arrest warrants issued against its leaders.

Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the world’s top court, announced on Monday that his office had applied to a pre-trial panel for arrest warrants for three senior Hamas officials, as well as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Hamas attack of 7 October and the ensuing seven-month-old war in Gaza.

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© Photograph: Alberto Pizzoliabir Sultan/AFP/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Alberto Pizzoliabir Sultan/AFP/Getty Images

As the conflict in Gaza continues, reconciliation may seem a distant dream, but on both sides there are those working for peace

On the morning of 7 October, as news emerged of the Hamas attack on Israeli communities near the Gaza border, Naama Barak Wolfman joined thousands of others frantically texting their friends and family. “Checking you’re alright,” she wrote to her colleague, Vivian Silver, a Canadian who spent decades working to foster peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

The text was never read. Silver was one of several peace activists killed that day, though news of her murder took nearly a month to reach Silver’s friends and family. Many believed the Women Wage Peace leader had been taken hostage, even picturing her negotiating with her captors.

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© Photograph: Yahel Gazit/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Yahel Gazit/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images

International criminal court’s chief prosecutor has applied for arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant and Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif

In today’s First Edition newsletter, my colleague Archie Bland has spoken to Mohammad Ali Shabani, editor of Amwaj.media, a news website covering Iran, about what the future holds there after the unexpected death of president Ebrahim Raisi at the weekend:

Ebrahim Raisi was not a beloved figure in Iran – but that doesn’t mean his critics will necessarily be feeling optimistic today. “You will find as many different feelings about his death as there are Iranians,” Mohammad Ali Shabani said. “But within my own networks, there’s maybe a mix of people who don’t perceive him as having been influential, meaning that there won’t be a massive upheaval – but also an underlying nervousness about what’s next.”

Sign up here for our free daily newsletter, First Edition

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© Photograph: Reuters

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© Photograph: Reuters

Brighton’s Great Escape is the latest festival to be held to account by performers after a third quit over its Barclays Bank sponsorship

Every May in Brighton, the UK’s music industry descends on the seaside town for the Great Escape, the “showcase” event that has helped to launch the careers of everyone from Stormzy and AlunaGeorge to Fat White Family and Anna Calvi.

Crowds pile in to dozens of venues, as punters and A&R spotters try to get a glimpse of acts who may have the unique spark needed to become break-out stars, but at this year’s event something was missing: more than a third of the bill.

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© Photograph: Emma Swann/Alamy

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© Photograph: Emma Swann/Alamy

International criminal court prosecutors have requested arrest warrants for the leaders of Israel and Gaza. Julian Borger reports

In a move Israel has long feared, the international criminal court has announced it is seeking arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the defence minister, Yoav Gallantm alongside the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, and other Hamas officials Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh.

The news is a political earthquake, with the men all accused of crimes against humanity. For the Israeli politicians, this includes accusations related to starvation and, for the Hamas leaders, rape and torture. The news of the applications for arrest warrants has been met with outrage from Hamas, the Israeli government and allies of both sides.

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© Photograph: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

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© Photograph: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

US president sides with Israeli PM as he calls Karim Khan’s pursuit of warrants for Netanyahu along with Hamas leaders ‘outrageous’

Joe Biden has attacked as “outrageous” an application by the international criminal court for warrants seeking the arrest of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, along with senior members of Hamas, for actions carried out in Gaza.

The US president sided unambiguously with Israel after the ICC’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced he was pursuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defence minister. Khan is also pursuing the arrests of three leading Hamas figures, Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri – better known as Mohammed Deif – and Ismail Haniyeh over Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October last year.

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© Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

The international criminal court’s chief prosecutor has applied for warrants; what will happen now?

• ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrants for Israeli PM and Hamas officials

The international criminal court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, has announced he will apply to the court for arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, as well the country’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant. At the same time, Khan is seeking warrants for the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, the head of its military wing, Mohammed al-Masri (better known as Mohammed Deif), and the head of its political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh.

The charges he is pursuing against Netanyahu and Gallant concern the conduct of the war in Gaza, include the use of “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare”, “intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population as a war crime”, extermination as a crime against humanity, and murder as a war crime.

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© Photograph: Peter Dejong/AP

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© Photograph: Peter Dejong/AP

Biden will be remembered as a president who could have restrained Israel but instead made the US complicit in this war

With great fanfare, Joe Biden confirmed on 8 May that his administration had suspended one weapons shipment to Israel, delaying the delivery of 3,500 bombs that can cause devastating casualties when dropped on population centers. Biden said he warned Israeli leaders that he would also block artillery shells and other munitions if Israel went ahead with a ground invasion of Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, where 1.4 million Palestinians have taken shelter.

It seemed Biden had finally decided to use the most effective leverage he has over Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and his extremist government to force an end to Israel’s devastating war in Gaza. But less than a week later, it became clear that Biden had backtracked and he will continue sending Israel far more weapons than the one shipment he held back. Last Tuesday, the Biden administration notified Congress that it would move ahead with more than $1bn in new arms deals for Israel.

Mohamad Bazzi is director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, and a journalism professor at New York University

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© Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

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© Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

Settler attacks and arrests of Hamas supporters create climate of fear and distrust in ruling Fatah party

Shuffling around his family home in the hills around Ramallah, Khalil was nervous after his release from prison the day before. His mother was also terrified that he would be rearrested.

Khalil, a shy 21-year-old whose name has been changed, was arrested in a pre-dawn raid last October for his allegiance to Hamas. But when Israeli forces smashed through the door of his family home, they didn’t tell him why they were detaining him. He was imprisoned for six months without charge, in conditions he described as “unbelievable”.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

President was travelling in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province when helicopter came down in bad weather

Here is a video of the Israeli war cabinet minister, Benny Gantz, threatening to resign if Benjamin Netanyahu fails to adopt an agreed plan for Gaza:

Here are some of the latest images coming out from the newswires:

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© Photograph: AP

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© Photograph: AP

Even his defence minister knows that there can be no military solution to the war with Hamas

The emotional vow by Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, to “destroy” Hamas after it massacred about 1,200 people on 7 October 2023 was understandable. But in practice it was never a realisable aim. Eight months into the ensuing conflict, more than 35,000 Palestinians are dead, yet Hamas is still fighting in parts of Gaza that Israel’s army thought it controlled, a new humanitarian crisis looms around Rafah, 640,000 people have been displaced again, and the agony of Israeli hostages and their families is daily renewed. Three more bodies were recovered on Friday.

Defeating Hamas remains a vital objective for Israel and most western and Arab governments, as well as ordinary people appalled by its actions. But, from the very first, Netanyahu has failed, or rather refused, to articulate a “day after” strategy for administering (and rebuilding) Gaza once its terrorist rulers are supposedly “destroyed”. Despite the evidence, he refuses to accept that military force alone will not work. Hamas’s defeat, if it is to be permanent, must be political, legal, economic and psychological as much as physical.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Benny Gantz’s threat to withdraw his opposition party from coalition calls into question future of government

The Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has threatened to resign if Benjamin Netanyahu fails to adopt an agreed plan for Gaza, calling into question the future of the Israeli government.

During a press conference on Saturday, Gantz announced that if a plan for postwar governance of the territory is not consolidated and approved by 8 June, his opposition National Unity party will withdraw from the coalition government.

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© Photograph: Tsafrir Abayov/AP

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© Photograph: Tsafrir Abayov/AP

The US military has begun moving aid ashore in Gaza, as the UN says truck convoys by land remain the most efficient way of getting aid in

Israel on Friday attacked South Africa’s case against it in the international court of justice as an “obscene exploitation” of the genocide convention, claiming it aimed not to protect Palestinian civilians but to defend Hamas militants.

Israel’s representatives told the court their country was fighting a war of self-defence it “did not want and did not start”. They said Israel had made “extraordinary” efforts to protect civilians, and had complied with orders from the court to let more aid into Gaza.

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© Photograph: Israel Defense Forces/Reuters

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© Photograph: Israel Defense Forces/Reuters

War in Gaza, the Russian offensive in Kharkiv, protests in Georgia, the Northern lights and the Cannes Film Festival: the last seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Warning: this gallery contains images that some readers may find distressing

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© Photograph: George Ivanchenko/Anadolu/Getty Images

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© Photograph: George Ivanchenko/Anadolu/Getty Images

Bodies of Amit Buskila and Itzhak Gelerenter also recovered from Gaza as Israel says 129 hostages remain in captivity

The bodies of three hostages kidnapped by Hamas, including the German-Israeli Shani Louk, have been retrieved from Gaza by the Israeli military, it announced.

The other two hostages were identified as Amit Buskila, 28, and Itzhak Gelerenter, 56, according to the military spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari, who said the three victims were taken to Gaza after being killed by Hamas at the Nova music festival.

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© Photograph: Hostages Families Forum Headquarters/AP

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© Photograph: Hostages Families Forum Headquarters/AP

Bad actors are always ready to exploit political strife to their own ends. Right now, they’re doing so with the conflict in the Middle East. A holistic defense against influence networks requires collaboration between government, technology companies and security research organizations.

The post Emerald Divide Uses GenAI to Exploit Social, Political Divisions in Israel Using Disinformation appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Jackson Hinkle’s incendiary commentary has generated over two million new followers on X since October — a surge that some researchers say is aided by inauthentic accounts.

© Ysa Pérez for The New York Times