Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 229?

The IDF's Military Police have opened an investigation after a video was published online showing a soldier throwing a Quran into a fire in Gaza, according to Army Radio.

לוחם בעזה תיעד את עצמו משליך ספר קוראן אל האש; צה"ל בתגובה: "התנהגות החייל אינה עולה בקנה אחד עם ערכי צה"ל. צה"ל מכבד את כל הדתות ומגנה התנהגות שכזו, בגין האירוע נפתחה חקירת מצ"ח"@Doron_Kadosh pic.twitter.com/mIH9B84hQf

— גלצ (@GLZRadio) May 22, 2024

"The soldier's behavior is not in line with the IDF's values. The IDF respects all religions and condemns such behavior," said the IDF to Army Radio.

The war cabinet instructed the negotiating team to continue efforts to reach a hostage release deal on Wednesday night, the Prime Minister's Office said.

The war cabinet met for four hours on Wednesday night.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin urged Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to reach an agreement with Egypt on reopening the Rafah crossing, as well as to resume the flow of aid from Egypt through Kerem Shalom, during a conversation on Wednesday night.

Austin reiterated the US's "strong objections" to the arrest warrant request issued by the ICC Chief Prosecutor. The secretary of defense also stressed the need to increase humanitarian aid into Gaza and to find an "effective mechanism to deconflict humanitarian and military operations inside Gaza."

Hostile aircraft intrusion sirens sounded in Eilat on Wednesday evening.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said the United States and Saudi Arabia were very close to concluding a set of agreements on nuclear energy, security, and defense cooperation, the bilateral component of a wider normalization deal with Riyadh and Israel.

Speaking at a hearing in the House of Representatives, Blinken said the finalizing of the agreements "could be weeks away" but cautioned that for the wider normalization to be able to proceed, calm in Gaza has to occur, and a pathway for Palestinian statehood needs to be formulated.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected the creation of a Palestinian state, a major reason why Washington's vision of a "grand bargain" for the Middle East remains elusive.

Countries that unilaterally recognize Palestinian statehood are rewarding terror given that 80 percent of the Palestinian people support Hamas’s October 7 attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

“This evil must not be given a country,” Netanyahu said in a short video message. He spoke hours after Ireland, Spain, and Norway announced recognition of Palestinian statehood, a step that became official on May 28.

"The intention of several European countries to recognize a Palestinian state is a reward for terrorism,” Netanyahu said.

“This will be a terrorist state, it will try to repeatedly carry out the massacre of October 7, and we will not agree to that,” he stated.

“A prize for terrorism will not bring peace - and it will not stop us from defeating Hamas either,” Netanyahu said.

Ministers from Arab states will meet with European Union counterparts in Brussels on Monday to try to forge a common path on ending the war in Gaza and build lasting peace, a senior EU official said.

Representatives from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will join a regular meeting of foreign ministers from the 27-member EU, said Sven Koopmans, the EU's special representative for the Middle East peace process.

Koopmans said the gathering was one of a series at which Arab and European countries were seeking common positions on ways to end the fighting between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

"Our assignment is to see how we can build a coalition where we try collectively to contribute (to peace efforts) without putting people in a corner," Koopmans told Reuters.

The Biden administration remains concerned about Israel's possible use of heavy bombs against civilians in the southern Gaza city of Rafah and is in contact with Israel about it, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.

President Joe Biden's administration said this month that it had reviewed the delivery of weapons that Israel might use for a major invasion of Rafah.

Poland said on Wednesday that it backed a two-state solution to the Middle East crisis between Israel and the Palestinians, after Ireland, Spain and Norway announced that they would recognize a Palestinian state.

"We will support the efforts of the High Representative of the European Union and other countries that believe that some long-term, stable solution is needed," Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said.

"And we believe that such a stable, long-term solution would be the existence of two states."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday urged Egypt to do everything it can to make sure humanitarian aid is flowing into Gaza as food and medicine bound for the strip piles up on the Egyptian side.

Blinken told a hearing in the House of Representatives that the Rafah crossing in southern Gaza remained closed after Israel's military seized it on May 7.

Fighting near the crossing has made providing assistance challenging, but aid could still be getting through, Blinken said, an apparent reference to the Kerem Shalom crossing near Rafah that has been open.

"So we need to find a way to make sure that the assistance that would go through Rafah can get through safely, but we do strongly urge our Egyptian partners to do everything that they can on their end of things to make sure that assistance is flowing," Blinken said.