Gaza / Hopes for a truce are fading – Al Jazeera has been cut

Al Jazeera’s television broadcast in Israel was cut off today, following the government’s decision to “shut down” the Qatari television network in the country and to confiscate his equipmentAFP journalists broadcast in Jerusalem.

Al Jazeera in Arabic and Al Jazeera in English show a message on a black background that says: “According to the government’s decision, the transmission of the Al Jazeera network has been suspended in Israel.”

Israel shuts down Al Jazeera offices. pic.twitter.com/8gLPtzOu4P

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 5, 2024

The network’s web sites remain accessible via the Israeli mobile network. Earlier, Al Jazeera condemned the Israeli government’s decision to close its office in Israel, calling it a “criminal act”.

Israel’s cabinet under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided today to suspend Al Jazeera in Israel while the war in Gaza continues, arguing that the Qatari broadcaster poses a threat to national security.

Hopes for a truce are fading

More than 34,550 Palestinians and more than 1,455 Israelis have been killed, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), since Hamas militants launched an attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, and the Israeli operations in Gaza and the West Bank that followed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stepped up his rejection of Hamas demands to end the war in Gaza in exchange for the release of hostages, saying today that this would kept the Palestinian Islamist organization in power and would constitute a threat to Israel.

Netanyahu said Israel was willing to end the war in Gaza in order to secure the release of the hostages still being held by Hamas, believed to number more than 130.

“But while Israel has shown willingness, Hamas remains entrenched in its extreme positions, the first of which [είναι] the demand to withdraw all our forces from the Gaza Strip, to end the war and leave Hamas in power,” Netanyahu said. “Israel cannot accept this.” “Hamas will have the ability to fulfill its promise to carry out its massacres, rapes and kidnappings again and again,” the Israeli prime minister said.

Hamas’ armed wing claims responsibility for attack at Kerem Shalom border crossing

The Israeli army announced today that it has closed the main humanitarian aid crossing point to the Gaza Strip, Kerem Shalom, which came under rocket fire.

The responsibility for the attack on Kerem Shalomwhich according to local media caused Israeli casualties, was taken over by the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas.

Israel’s military said 10 rockets were fired from Rafah in southern Gaza at the crossing, which it said was now closed to trucks carrying aid to the coastal enclave. However, other crossing points remain open.

Hamas’ armed wing said it fired rockets at an Israeli military base near the crossing, but did not confirm where it fired them. Hamas media reported, citing a source close to the organization, that the crossing point was not the target.

At least one million Palestinians have taken refuge in Rafah, near the border with Egypt.

Israel has vowed to invade the southern Gaza Strip city and drive Hamas forces out of it, but faces growing pressure not to, as the operation could derail vulnerable humanitarian efforts in Gaza and put risk more human lives.

Today’s attack on the border crossing is taking place as hopes for a truce are fading in the talks taking place in Cairo.

In a statement issued today, Hamas leader Ismail Haniya said the Palestinian organization wants to reach a comprehensive ceasefire agreement that would end the Israeli “offensive”, guarantee Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, and ensure a serious exchange of hostages with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons;

In his statement, Haniya also blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for “continuing the offensive and widening the circle of the conflict, and undermining the efforts made through mediators and various sides.”

For his part, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallad today accused Hamas of showing signs that it is not serious about reaching a truce and said that in that case Israel would launch military actions in Rafah and other parts of the Gaza Strip “in very short future”.

Four civilians killed by Israeli airstrike on border village

An Israeli airstrike killed four members of the same family in a house in a border village in southern Lebanon today, the civil protection service and security sources said.

The four were killed in Mays al-Jabal, which has suffered extensive damage in regular firefights between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group since the Gaza war began last October.

In a statement, Hezbollah said it fired “dozens” of Katyusha rockets at the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, a northern city near the border with Lebanon, in retaliation.

Air raids and bombings occur sporadically, but both sides have avoided all-out war.

At least 250 Hezbollah members and 75 civilians have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon since October, security sources there say. In Israel, rocket fire from Lebanon has killed about a dozen soldiers and several civilians, Israeli sources say.