May 29, 2024 Israel-Hamas war (2024)

The head of Israel's National Security Council said the country expects "another seven months of fighting" in Gaza to achieve the claimed objective of destroying Hamas.

"It was honestly stated in the first days of presenting the plans to the cabinet that the war would be long," Tzachi Hanegbi said in a radio interview on the Israeli station Reshet bet Wednesday.

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Two medics with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) were killed in the Tal al-Sultan area following Israeli bombardment, according to PRCS and the Ministry of Health in Gaza on Wednesday.

The paramedics were killed west of Rafah when their ambulance was hit while they were carrying out humanitarian duties, according to PRCS.

The Gaza health ministry said the paramedics were headed to evacuate the dead and injured in the vicinity of the Abu Al-Saeed roundabout in Tal al-Sultan

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.

At least one girl was killed and 10 civilians injured on Wednesday following a strike on a residential building in the coastal Syrian city of Baniyas, the country's state news SANA reported.

SANA, citing a military source, said Israeli fighter jets launched an “air aggression from the direction of Lebanese territory, targeting a site in the central region and a residential building in the city of Baniyas in the coastal region.”

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) regarding the claims but has yet to hear back.

Syria was last struck in April after aseries of Israeli airstrikes targeted areas close to the Syrian city of Aleppo, which led to casualties among both civilians and military personnel, SANA reported.

Israel has previously launched attacks on Aleppo and the Syrian capital Damascus, including before the October 7, sayingit feared Iran would turn Syria into “a base for aggression” against the Jewish state.

Both Syria and Israel consider each other enemies and do not share diplomatic relations.

Egypt denied Israeli statements about the existence of tunnels along its border with Gaza, calling Israeli media reports untrue, according to state-affiliated Al-Qahera TV on Wednesday.

“These lies propagated by Tel Aviv indicate the size of the crisis facing the Israeli government,” the channel said, quoting an unnamed senior official.

A different senior source told the channel earlier in the day that there is no communication “with the Israeli side about the claims of the existence of tunnels along the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.”

Deployment of Israeli troops in the Philadelphi Corridor — a 14 kilometer (8.7 miles)-long wide strip of land along the border between Gaza and Egypt — without prior agreement between both countries would be a breach of the peace treaty, an Egyptian officialtold CNN in February,adding that the government had not approved such a deployment.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military says they have established “operational control”over the Philadelphi Corridor. Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the military is carrying out an operation and the corridor and neutralizing 20 tunnels. Earlier Wednesday, an Israeli official said the 20 tunnels crossed into Egypt, some of which are new, and that the information has been passed on to Egypt.

CNN is unable to independently verify the Israeli claims of control and has reached out to the Egyptian government for comment.

Mexico is seeking to join a case initiated by South Africa against Israel for alleged violations of the United Nations Genocide Convention during its war in Gaza, according to a statement published by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Tuesday.

Mexico invoked Article 63 of the Statute of the Court, which grants countries other than those interested in the case the right to intervene in the process, the court’s statement read. "If they do so, the interpretation given by the court's ruling will be equally binding on them," it said.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the “most important thing is to achieve peace, that is Mexico's position.”

The Palestinian Authority's Foreign Ministry welcomed Mexico’s request on X, saying it showed "a steadfast commitment to justice and the international rule of law, underscoring the deep-rooted solidarity and historical friendship between our nations."

Colombia and Libya submitted the same request on April 5 and May 10, respectively.

South Africa brought a case against Israel last December, where it accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians during the conflict. Hearings in the case began in January when Israel accused South Africa of presenting a “grossly distorted” accusation of genocide. Israel insists that its war in Gaza is being fought in self-defense, that its target is Hamas and not Palestinian citizens, and that its leaders have shown no genocidal intent.

This is not the first time that Mexico has spoken out about the siege on Gaza. On Monday, its government condemned the bombing in Rafah and called for a ceasefire.

The Israeli military says they have established “operational control”over the Philadelphi Corridor, a 14 kilometer (8.7 miles) strip of land along the border between Gaza and Egypt.

He said the military is carrying out an operation at the Philadelphi Corridor and that 20 tunnels the military has found there are now being "neutralized".

The IDF clarified that "operational control" meant it had "full control of the corridor in terms of intelligence gathering and fire range" even though there was a "small area near the sea where we are not physically present."

Earlier on Wednesday, an Israeli official said the troops had achieved “tactical” control over the corridor, but that did not mean “Israel had boots on the ground” along its entirety. The official said the 20 tunnels crossed into Egypt; some of them are new, and the information has been passed on to Egypt. According to the official, the IDFalso found 82 access points to tunnels along the corridor.

CNN is unable to independently verify the Israeli claims of control and has contacted the Egyptian government for comment.

The IDF says it has also found "terrorist infrastructure" a mile long in east Rafah, the entrance to which is 100 meters from the Rafah crossing. Hagari said this route was used to transfer weapons and that the Israeli military found and destroyed weapons there.

Some context: Israel began a limited ground operation in Rafah against Hamas earlier this month, crossing the Philadelphi Corridor and seizing the Palestinian side of the border with Egypt.

Egypt has strongly opposed the operation at its border. On Monday, an Egyptian security personnelwas killed on the border with Gaza in a shooting that involved Egyptian and Israeli soldiers. Egypt’s state-affiliated Al-Qahera News outlet said “Palestinian resistance” fighters were also involved.

"The devastation is only intensifying" in Rafah as Israel expands its ground operations," Tor Wennesland, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

Wennesland condemned the "appalling incident" in which at least 45 people were killed, and more than 200 others injured when a fire broke out following an airstrike by the Israeli military on Sunday."I remind all parties of their obligations to protect civilians," he said.

Wennesland called for the reopening of the Rafah crossing and for unimpeded humanitarian access throughout Gaza.

A "breakdown of law and order" resulted in the looting of a base belonging to the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees, UWRA, in Rafah on Wednesday, Wennesland said. The incident is under investigation, he added.

"The risk of a regional conflagration is constant and is mounting every day this war continues. This trajectory must change if we are to avoid further catastrophe," Wennesland said, "I urge the parties to return to the negotiating table immediately and in good faith."

French President Emmanuel Macron says he is ready to recognize a Palestinian state – but only following reforms to the Palestinian Authority.

Macron also highlighted to Abbas France’s commitment to building a “common vision” and “security guarantees” for Palestinians and Israelis.

The French leader’s comments come after Ireland, Norway, and Spain each formally recognized a Palestinian state.

Macron also spoke about recognition on Tuesday, saying that “there’s no taboo for France,” and that he was “totally ready to recognize a Palestinian State.”

"I consider that this recognition must come at a useful time, at a time when it is part of a process in which the states of the region and Israel are engaged and which allows, on the basis of a reform of the Palestinian Authority to produce a useful result. I will not make an emotional recognition,” Macron said Tuesday.

Some background: The PA, which is dominated by the Fatah political party, held administrative control over Gaza until 2007, after Hamas won the 2006 legislative elections in the occupied territories and expelled it from the strip. Since then, Hamas has ruled Gaza, and the PA governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

It was set up in the mid-1990s as an interim government pending Palestinian independence after the Palestine Liberation Organization signed the Oslo Accords with Israel. It is headquartered in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah and exercises nominal self-rule in parts of the territory. But the PA isvery unpopularamong Palestinians, who see it as unable to provide security in the face of regular Israeli incursions in the West Bank.

Israel has rejected the prospect of the PA returning to Gaza after the war, and has dismissed the idea of establishing a Palestinian state in the territories. The US, however, favors a reformed PA being in control of both the West Bank and Gaza as part of a future independent state.