Israel’s leaders commemorated Memorial Day on Monday, a usually somber holiday that this year was almost entirely absorbed by the ongoing war in Gaza.
At 11:00 A.M., sirens announced two minutes of silence, and a formation of four fighter planes then flew over Jerusalem and the surrounding areas. At a ceremony, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed once again to defeat Hamas, a promise he has made repeatedly during Israel’s brutal seven month war with the militant group.
More than 300,000 Palestinians fled Rafah over the weekend as Israeli forces pushed deeper into the southern city, according to U.N. estimates.
Israel also pounded Gaza’s devastated north, where some Hamas militants have regrouped in areas the military said it had cleared months ago.
The death toll from the war in Gaza has soared to more than 35,000 people, most of them women and children, according to local health officials.
The war began Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250 others. Israel says militants still hold around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
Currently:
— Israel moves deeper into Rafah and fights Hamas militants regrouping in northern Gaza.
— Blinken delivers some of the U.S.’s strongest public criticism yet of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza.
— U.K. foreign secretary David Cameron says halting arms sales to Israel would only strengthen Hamas.
— With the shock of Oct. 7 still raw, sadness and anger grip Israel on its Memorial Day.
— Pro-Palestinian protests dwindle on U.S. campuses, as some college graduations are marked by defiant acts.
Here’s the latest:
SADNESS AND ANGER MARK ISRAEL’S MEMORIAL DAY AS NETANYAHU MAKES SPEECH
JERUSALEM — During Israel’s Memorial Day speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one spectator waved a flag with “7.10” in red, the date of Hamas’ deadly attack last October, while another heckled the Israeli leader.
The usually somber event has been compounded by the sadness and simmering public anger over the failures of Oct. 7, when Hamas fighters from Gaza broke into southern Israel and killed 1, 200 people, mostly Israelis, the act that sparked the war.
“We are constantly working to bring everyone back, the living and the fallen alike, to bring everyone back home. We have already returned about half of them, and we will return them all,” Netanyahu said.
Shortly after finishing his speech at Mount Herzl cemetery a man in the crowd was heard shouting “garbage” in Hebrew in the direction of the Israeli leader.
Thousands of Israelis have been rallying every week in the coastal city of Tel Aviv, calling for Netanyahu to step down.
Many believe he should be doing more to secure the release of dozens of hostages captured by Hamas.
Netanyahu has rejected Hamas’ demand for an end to the war, saying it would allow the group to remain in control of Gaza and eventually launch another Oct. 7-style attack.
AID AGENCIES STRUGGLE TO DISTRIBUTE FOOD AS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS ARE ON THE MOVE
CAIRO — U.N. officials say 360,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah in the past week amid Israel’s intensified assault on the southern Gaza city, and aid agencies are rushing to distribute dwindling food supplies to the newly displaced people.
Abeer Etefa, a spokesperson for the U.N.’s World Food Program, said Monday that 38 trucks of flour had arrived through the Western Erez Crossing, the second access point now operating to the largely devastated northern sector of the Gaza Strip. But no food has entered the two main crossings in southern Gaza for the past week.
The Rafah crossing into Egypt has been closed since Israeli troops seized it a week ago, while fighting in Rafah city has made it impossible for aid groups to access the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel.
The main U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said Monday that so far 360,000 people have fled Rafah, where some 1.3 million Palestinians had been crowded for weeks after fleeing Israel’s onslaught elsewhere in the Gaza Strip.
Etefa said WFP is distributing food from its remaining stocks in the areas of Khan Younis and Deir Balah further north to which many of those escaping Rafah have fled but that the situation is becoming “increasingly unsustainable.”
Almost the entire population of Gaza relies on humanitarian groups’ distribution of food and other supplies to survive. Amid Israeli restrictions and obstacles to aid distribution from violence, some 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza face catastrophic levels of hunger, on the brink of starvation, and a “full-blown famine” is taking place in the north, according to the U.N.
ISRAELI SOLDIERS WOUNDED BY MISSILES NEAR LEBANON BORDER
JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said Monday that four of its troops were injured in missile fire from southern Lebanon, as cross-border exchanges of fire with Hezbollah militants continue.
Hezbollah acknowledged the strike, saying its forces struck and destroyed an Israeli tank in the Yitfah area, northern Israel, around a kilometer from the Lebanese border.
The Israeli army said one of the soldiers was moderately injured, and all were taken to hospital. No further information was immediately available.
Hezbollah and Israel have traded fire on a near-daily basis along the border since the start of the war in Gaza seven months ago.
The Shiite force, which controls vast swathes of southern Lebanon, says it is acting in solidarity with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose deadly Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel triggered the war.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 350 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters with Hezbollah and allied groups but also including more than 50 civilians. In Israel, strikes from Lebanon have killed at least 10 civilians and 12 soldiers.
NETANYAHU REITERATES VOW TO FIGHT HAMAS AS ISRAEL HONORS WAR DEAD
JERUSALEM — Israel’s leaders commemorated Memorial Day on Monday, honoring the country’s fallen soldiers and those killed in attacks on a holiday that was almost entirely absorbed by the ongoing war in Gaza.
The usually somber calendar event has been compounded by the sadness and simmering public anger over the failures of Oct. 7, when Hamas fighters from Gaza broke into southern Israel and killed 1,200 people, mostly Israelis, the act that sparked the war. The holiday began Sunday evening and continues until nightfall on Monday.
During the day’s opening ceremony at Mount Herzl cemetery on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed once again to defeat Hamas, a promise he has made repeatedly during Israel’s brutal seven month war with the militant group.
“We are determined to win this struggle, we exacted and will exact a high price from the enemy for their criminal acts, we will realize the goals of victory and at the center of them the return of all our hostages home,” Netanyahu said from the podium.
Israel responded to Hamas’ deadly October assault by bombarding and invading Gaza, killing over 35,000 Palestinians from the enclave according to the Hamas-run health Ministry. More than 600 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the war erupted.
Among the other attendees at Mount Herzl was the Israeli President, Isaac Herzog.
At 11:00 A.M. on Monday, sirens announced two minutes of silence, and a formation of four fighter planes then flew over Jerusalem and the surrounding areas.
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