Above photo: Palestinians inspect the rubble of a residential building destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, May 19, 2024. Omar Ashtawy/APA Images.
Half Of Gaza’s Population ‘On The Road,’ Says UNRWA.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians continue to flee Rafah as Israel’s invasion advances further into the city. Meanwhile, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan seeks arrest warrants for Israeli and Palestinian leaders over the Gaza genocide and October 7.
Casualties
- 35,456 + killed* and at least 79,476 wounded in the Gaza Strip.*
- 506+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.**
- Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,139.
- 628 Israeli soldiers have been announced as killed by the Israeli army since October 7, and at least 3,475 have been announced as wounded.***
*Gaza’s Ministry of Health confirmed this figure on its Telegram channel on May 19, 2024. Some rights groups estimate the death toll to be much higher when accounting for those presumed dead.
** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to the PA’s Ministry of Health on May 19, this is the latest figure.
*** These figures are released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” The number of Israeli soldiers wounded, according to Israeli media reports, exceeds 6,800 as of April 1.
Key Developments
- International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan says the ICC is seeking arrest warrants for PM Benjamin Netanyahu and war minister Yoav Gallant, in addition to Hamas head in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, Hamas politburo head Ismail Haniyeh, and Qassam Brigades commander Muhammad Deif, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity on October 7 and during Israel’s war on Gaza, according to a CNN exclusive interview with Khan on Monday, May 20.
- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in addition to six others, die in a helicopter crash on the border with Azerbaijan. The cause of the helicopter crash remains unknown.
- Israel kills 184 Palestinians, wounds 271 since Thursday, May 16, across Gaza, raising death toll since October 7 to 35,456 and number of wounded to 79,476, according to the Gaza health ministry.
- Israel’s Benny Gantz threatens to leave the war cabinet if Netanyahu doesn’t stop the war.
- U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan meets Israel’s war minister Yoav Gallant, says Israel needs to have a “political strategy” after the war.
- UNRWA says half of Gaza’s population is currently forced to flee again after several periods of displacement.
- Israel bans 3,000 aid trucks from entering Gaza.
- Palestinian border authority says dozens of wounded died due to closing of crossings.
- Gaza-based Palestinian health ministry says basic medicines and medical supplies necessary for emergency treatment, surgery, and primary care are completely absent from remaining Gaza hospitals, suffer severe lack in the ministry stock that puts patient lives at risk.
- Israeli army announces 44 soldiers wounded in the Gaza Strip over the weekend.
- Israeli forces Palestinian man at West Bank checkpoint.
- Israeli forces demolish Palestinian residential building near Bethlehem.
ICC Prosecutor Seeks Arrest Warrants For Netanyahu, Gallant, And Hamas Leaders
Chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an interview on Monday, May 20, that the ICC would be seeking arrest warrants for Israeli leaders and Hamas officials on charges of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” on October 7 and during the war on Gaza.
The ICC prosecutor told Amanpour that the application for the arrest warrants, if granted by the ICC’s panel of judges, included Hamas’s leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh, Qassam Brigades commander Muhammad al-Deif, and most notably, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli war minister Yoav Gallant.
The decision comes after ten years of delays and rising anticipation when Palestine first joined the Rome Statute — the international agreement constituent of the ICC — in 2014.
Israel refrained from signing the Rome Statute in 2002 due to fears of being the subject of prosecutions over the illegal status of its settlements in the Palestinian territories. By refraining to sign the Statute, Israel is technically not a member. Palestine’s joining of the agreement in 2014 opened the possibility to investigate Israeli crimes in Palestinian territories. Ever since, Palestinian and international jurists have been building the case for such an investigation, focusing on cases of potential international crimes committed by Israel going back to 2014 (as the court covers crimes committed only during the time of a country’s membership).
In December 2019, then-chief prosecutor of the ICC Fatou Bensouda announced the opening of a formal investigation on potential war crimes in Palestine. Bensouda’s successor and current chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, delayed the investigation on Palestine’s file, moving it down in priority since he took office in 2021.
The legal efforts to build the case against Israeli crimes at the ICC were mainly led by Palestinian legal groups through documentation. In October 2021, Israel designated six Palestinian NGOs as “terrorist” organizations. Later, Israeli forces raided and ransacked the offices of the organizations and left a military order outlawing the organizations and welding their doors shut.
Last November, a month into Israel’s war on Gaza, three Palestinian human rights groups filed a lawsuit against Israel at the ICC for war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza.
In late April, news reports indicated that the ICC was considering issuing arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas leaders. The news came after Israel’s assault on Gaza had killed over 34,000 Palestinians and displaced 90% of the Strip’s population, in addition to causing mass starvation and destroying most of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure.
In early May, Axios reported that Israeli officials told the US that Israel will consider the Palestinian Authority responsible if the ICC issued arrest warrants against Israeli officials and imposed retaliatory sanctions on the PA, which could lead to its collapse. According to the reports, the sanctions would include freezing the transfer of customs money to the PA, its main source of income. Axios also revealed that Netanyahu had asked U.S. president Biden to help stop arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, including himself.
Meanwhile, Karim Khan warned in a statement against Israeli and U.S. politicians’ attempts to intimidate the court through threats.
On Monday, Karim Khan’s office finally announced in a statement that it had requested the issuing of arrest warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister and war minister, alongside Sinwar, Haniyeh, and Deif.
The charges against the Hamas leaders, as specified by Khan’s office statement, included “extermination,” “murder,” rape, and torture as crimes against humanity, among others, and “taking hostages,” “cruel treatment,” “inhumane acts,” and “outrages upon personal dignity” as war crimes.
As for Netanyahu and Gallant, the charges included “starvation of civilians,” “willful killing,” “murder,” and intentional attacks against a civilian population as war crimes, and “extermination,” “persecution,” and “other inhumane acts” as crimes against humanity.
A panel of ICC judges will now consider Khan’s request for issuing arrest warrants.
Israel Kills 184 Palestinians Since Monday, Destroys Hundreds Of Homes In Jabalia
The Gaza-based Palestinian health ministry announced that the remaining hospitals in the Gaza Strip received 184 slain Palestinians in Israeli airstrikes since Monday, May 16, while 271 others arrived wounded.
Meanwhile, local media sources reported that Israeli forces continued its invasion of Jabalia, north of Gaza City, for the second week in a row, forcing thousands more Palestinians to flee their homes. The Palestinian Civil Defense said that Israeli forces have so far destroyed 300 homes in Jabalia.
The Civil Defense added that its teams continue to receive reports of Palestinians being killed in Jabalia, both the town and the refugee camp, but can’t reach them because of the intensity of Israeli strikes.
Israeli strikes on Jabalia have killed an unspecified number of Palestinians over the weekend, including a family of six members on Sunday. The family was that of Zahi Labad, who was killed alongside his wife and four children.
In the centeral Gaza Strip, Palestinian rescue teams pulled 31 dead bodies from under the rubble of a multi-house building belonging to the Hassan family after Israeli forces bombed it in Nuseirat refugee camp.
The Civil Defense said that rescue efforts continue as more dead bodies are expected to be found under the rubble, Meanwhile, Israeli strikes continued to hit different parts of Deir al-Balah and al-Maghazi refugee camp.
In the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli forces continue to advance further into the city of Rafah, as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled to the westernmost parts of the city or to other parts of the Strip.
Local sources reported that Israeli forces advanced towards the Brazil neighborhood, adjacent to the Egyptian border, as well as the al-Salam neighborhood, where they have destroyed an unspecified number of homes.
Israeli tanks began to station themselves in the vicinity of al-Najjar Hospital, one of the last two functioning medical centers in Rafah. On Saturday, UNRWA’s chief Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X that half of the population in the Gaza Strip was “on the road” yet again, fleeing Israeli attacks. Already half a million Palestinians have fled Rafah, according to UN estimates, many being displaced for the 8th or 9th time since October.
Gantz And Netanyahu In Open Confrontation Over End Of War
Benjamin Netanyahu is “leading Israel to the abyss,” said Israel’s war cabinet minister Benny Gantz on Saturday, threatening to withdraw with his party from the government coalition if Netanyahu doesn’t change his policy towards the war in Gaza.
In a press conference, Gantz gave Netanyahu an ultimatum until June 8 to “define a clear strategy” for the war and its aftermath. According to Gantz, Israel should bring Israeli captives in the Strip back, end the war, and form an Arab-European coalition to run Gaza after the war. Gantz also openly accused Netanyahu of mixing his personal political interests with Israel’s security and higher interests.
Netanyahu responded in a statement that Gantz’s conditions meant to end the war, admit an Israeli defeat, and allow the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The Israeli public political quarrel took place as U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan visited Tel Aviv on Sunday. Sullivan discussed a U.S.-Saudi vision for ending the war with top Israeli officials, which included advancing Israeli-Saudi talks toward normalization. ٍSullivan demanded a “political strategy” from Netanyahu that would include ending the war, according to Reuters.
Israeli internal opposition to continuing the war has grown in Israel, as thousands of protesters led by the families of Israeli captives in Gaza marched in Tel Aviv demanding a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange deal. Earlier, hundreds of soldiers’ families signed a letter to Netanyahu demanding to end the invasion of Rafah.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s strongest allies in his governing coalition, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, continue to pressure for a continuation of the war and the imposition of full Israeli military rule over Gaza, in addition to the settlement of Israelis in the Strip. Both religious Zionist ministers have also threatened Netanyahu that they would withdraw from the coalition if he ends the war.
Israel Kills Man In West Bank, Demolishes Two Residential Buildings
Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man at the “Container” Checkpoint on Sunday, May 19, north of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. The slain man was Rami Taqatqah, 44, who was crossing the checkpoint when Israeli soldiers opened fire at him. Israeli police claimed that Taqatqah had drawn a knife and attempted to stab a soldier.
Taqatqah was father to a boy and a girl, both under the age of six, and lived with his family in his hometown of Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem. Medical sources told the media that Taqatqah had been hit with around 20 bullets, which destroyed his hip and his lungs.
“He was out looking for work, as there is no work currently,” his brother told Palestinian media. “He was poor and worked to sustain his family, but I don’t know why they killed him.”
Meanwhile, Israeli forces demolished a residential building composed of five apartment floors located in Area C in the town of Artas, south of Bethlehem, with the excuse of the lack of a building permit.
In Aqaraba, southeast of Nablus, Israeli forces demolished a car-washing business located in Area C on Monday, May 20, also due to the lack of a building permit.
Israel forbids Palestinians from building any structure in Area C, which represents 60% of the West Bank, except with rare military-issued permits.
According to Israeli media, the Israeli military authorities reject 98% of Palestinian construction permits in Area C after long years of expensive legal procedures. Area C is where Israeli Jewish-only settlements are built and expanded, mostly by the Israeli state itself.
According to the UN, Israel has demolished 456 Palestinian structures in the West Bank since the beginning of 2024, including 72 in May alone, 63% of which were in Area C. The UN numbers indicate that these demolitions have displaced 843 Palestinians in 2024. Last year, Israel demolished 11,77 Palestinian structures in the West Bank, 58% of which were in Area C, displacing 2,296 people, according to UN numbers.
Since October 7, Israeli forces or settlers have killed 506 Palestinians in the West Bank. Israel has also arrested over 8,800 Palestinians and is currently holding over 9,500 prisoners in its jails, including 80 women, 200 children, and over 3,600 detainees without charge or trial under the Administrative Detention Israeli martial law system.