Israel-Hamas war day 215: What's going on in Gaza?

 US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that bombs the United States has supplied to Israel and has now paused sending in its war against Hamas have been used to kill Palestinian civilians.

Hamas has remained steadfast to its position towards a truce proposal and stuck to its approval of it, a member of Hamas' political bureau, Izzat El-Reshiq, said in a statement on Thursday.

Reshiq's comments came as Cairo hosted new ceasefire talks attended by delegations from Hamas, Israel, the United States and Qatar in an attempt to conclude a deal.

Former Israeli Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi has opened up about the ongoing security challenges and strategic priorities facing Israel, mainly focusing on the Gaza Strip and Iran in a candid revelation at a conference in the United States.

In his first extensive public remarks since leaving office, disclosed while speaking with American Jews and leaked exclusively by N12's Yuna Leibzon, Kochavi discussed the implications of military decisions and strategic focus shaping Israel's recent security policies. He articulated the conflicting nature of military goals involving Gaza, particularly the difficulty in managing hostage situations amid continuous military operations.

The parents of kidnapped, now murdered, IDF Cpl. Noa Marciano revealed on Wednesday that their daughter had been murdered by a doctor from Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital, according to the Jewish Chronicle.

"They chose to murder her instead of taking care of her. It was a doctor who did it, in a hospital. She was injured by air force bombings and was taken to Shifa," said her parents.

The 19-year-old, from Modiin, had been abducted by Hamas terrorists on October 7 from a base in Nachal Oz.

 Israel pledged to keep up its military pressure on Hamas as its negotiators joined hostage talks in Cairo and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with CIA Director William Burns on Wednesday.

“We will continue to keep up the military pressure on Hamas,” Israel government spokesperson Avi Hyman told reporters in Jerusalem.

“We know from the last hostage release that we needed both the military pressure and the diplomatic channel” to successfully reach a deal, he said, referring to the November agreement that saw the release of 105 hostages.

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is expected to upgrade the Palestinian status at the UN, granting it almost all statehood rights within its plenum short of allowing it to vote.

The United Arab Emirates is expected to submit a resolution, a draft text of which was seen by The Jerusalem Post, calling on the United Nations Security Council to grant Palestine full membership status in the UN.

The text, which is likely to have majority support, states that “Palestine is qualified for membership in the United Nations in accordance with article 4 of the Charter and should therefore be admitted to membership in the United Nations.”

The Palestinian Authority, through the UAE, turned to the General Assembly after the United States vetoed its membership application to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) last month. The US is one of five permanent UNSC members with veto power.

The UAE resolution “recommends” that the Security Council “reconsider the matter favorably,” but in essence, its text seeks to circumvent the UNSC's sole power to determine UN membership.

A child waves a Palestinian flag as Muslim scholars take part in a protest in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, organised by supporters of the Islamic Group in Lebanon and Hamas, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Beirut, Lebanon, October 29, 2023. (credit: Amr Alfiky/Reuters)

UNGA resolutions, however, cannot be vetoed, and the PA has automatic majority support in the UNGA, where some 140 of its members already independently recognize Palestine as a state.

UNRWA has been caught stealing and then selling humanitarian aid that came into Gaza that was intended to be given to Palestinian civilians, UN Watch reported on Wednesday, citing reports published by Palestinians in "an UNRWA-related chatroom."

The Watch report also claims that those who report UNRWA's actions with the humanitarian aid "face reprisals."

According to the report, Palestinians claimed that staff working for the UN agency “have their homes full of aid.” Additionally, a UNRWA warehouse chief sold 50 cartons of food for $5,000.

BREAKING: UNRWA staff stealing and selling humanitarian aid, Gazans report
• UNRWA warehouse chief sold 50 cartons of food for $5,000
• Pampers, canned sweets, tissues stolen and sold at UNRWA school door
• UNRWA staff “have their homes full of aid”https://t.co/7cXGzrSUGj

— UN Watch (@UNWatch) May 8, 2024

Items such as pampers, canned sweets, and tissues were sold at a UNRWA school door. This comes amid statement by UNRWA Commissioner-General Phillipe Lazzarini, who was quoted in the UN Watch report saying “there is more food available… it still does not mean that the food is accessible” as he was calling countries to increase direct cash assistance to Gazans.

Looking closer into UNRWA's exposure

Former UNRWA employee Haitham al-Sayyed ran the chatroom that exposed the agency's theft and selling of aid. The UN Watch reported that he had "created several chat rooms for staff and educators to share posts, many of which feature antisemitism, incitement to hatred and Jihadi terrorism" during the near two decades he worked for the agency

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday renewed his series of threats against Hezbollah in ongoing Israeli efforts to reduce the threat posed to returning residents to their northern border communities.

Speaking to troops near the Lebanon border, he said he is “determined to securely return the northern residents [to their communities] and to rebuild what was destroyed. The mission here is not yet complete – it could be a hot summer,” in a not-so-veiled threat that Israel may launch a larger strike against Hezbollah if the terror group does not agree to terms that would ensure security to the North.

Gallant’s comments came in the middle of several rounds of attacks by both the IDF and Hezbollah. Late Wednesday, the air force attacked a structure from Hezbollah’s Radwan force in Jabal Rezlane.

The IAF also attacked Hezbollah assets, including operatives in some of the structures, at Khiam, Odaisseh, Blida, Maroun al-Ras, and Ayta ash-Shab.

In addition, the air force attacked additional Hezbollah assets, including with operatives in some of the structures, at Khiam, Odaisseh, Blida, Maroun al-Ras and Ayta ash-Shab.

The mostly evacuated town of Kiryat Shmona is pictured, amid the ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, on March 20. (credit: Miro Maman/Reuters)

Earlier in the day, the IAF struck 20 Hezbollah targets, which included ammunition depots and terror infrastructure, in a span of a few minutes in southern Lebanon. Forces utilized fighter jets and artillery in the area around Ramyah village. Secondary explosions were also detected during the attacks, indicating the presence of ammunition depots.

The IDF continued its limited Rafah operation on Wednesday while holding back from a larger operation pending the ongoing hostage negotiations with Hamas.

To date, the IDF has secured the Philadelphi Corridor to start to cut off Hamas’s last major avenue for smuggling weapons into Gaza and the nearby eastern Rafah area

However, multiple defense sources made it clear that the IDF was intentionally holding off on a broader Rafah operation to give some more time to negotiations with Hamas over the Israeli hostages it has been holding since October 7.

Defense sources added that Israel’s patience was not indefinite and that a decision would likely be made either to broaden the invasion of Rafah in the coming days or to give Hamas more time to cut a deal if it seems there is real progress.

Currently, top Israeli officials view Hamas’s latest negotiating position on the hostages issue as still insufficient to arrive at a deal.

Tanks from the 401st Brigade enter eastern Rafah, May 8 2024 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

The IDF on Monday had already started evacuating around 100,000 of over one million Palestinian civilians currently in Rafah on its way toward a limited initial invasion of the last remaining Hamas stronghold.

The United States paused one shipment to Israel of payload munitions due to concerns over Rafah, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told the Senate Appropriations Committee in Washington on Wednesday.

“We’ve been very clear,” Austin said, “that Israel shouldn’t launch a major attack in Rafah without accounting for and protecting the civilians in that battle space.”

“After assessing the situation, we paused one shipment of high-payload munitions,” he said.

“We've also been very clear about the steps that we want to see Israel take” to protect civilians in a major combat situation, he explained. The US doesn’t want such a major IDF combat operation to take place, but if it does proceed, “our focus is on making sure that we protect the civilians.”

IDF tanks enter the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing. May 7, 2024. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Other arms shipments currently unaffected by decision

Austin stressed that no final decision had been made regarding that shipment or other arms transfers to Israel.