Israel-Hamas War Day 234: What's happening in Gaza?

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and minister-without-portfolio Benny Gantz expressed outrage at the government's handling of efforts to approve a law regulating the conscription of Haredim on Monday, according to Israeli media.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been trying to promote a version of a conscription law promoted by Gantz in the previous government in 2022. Gantz has opposed the move, saying that the bill was already meant to be just an interim step when it was first proposed, and it is now not sufficient to address the security needs of the State of Israel.

The IDF’s General Staff’s Fact-Finding and Assessment Mechanism will investigate a strike carried out in Rafah which sparked a fire in which at least 45 Palestinians were killed, the IDF said Monday.

The investigation was opened on the order of the Military Advocate General, Maj.-Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi.

The IDF said the strike targeted two senior Hamas terrorists in the Tal as Sultan area, based on prior intelligence information about their presence at the site. The two were identified as Yassin Rabia, the commander of Hamas’s leadership in the West Bank, and Khaled Nagar, a senior official in Hamas’s West Bank wing.

Rabia managed the entirety of Hamas' terrorist activity in  the West Bank, transferred funds to terrorists, and planned terrorist attacks throughout the West Bank. He also carried out several murderous terrorist attacks in 2001 and 2002.

An anti-tank missile fired by Hezbollah hit a home in Metula and a rocket sparked a wildfire near Kiryat Shmona on Monday, according to emergency services.

Earlier in the day, the IDF eliminated a Hezbollah terrorist in a strike in Aynata in southern Lebanon near a site where projectiles were launched from toward Malkia.

Israeli and Egyptian forces exchanged fire near Rafah on Monday, with sources in the IDF saying Egyptian soldiers fired at Israelis soldiers who returned fire, according to Maariv. An Egyptian soldier was killed in the exchange of fire.

After the incident, IDF officials made contact with Egyptian officials to cease the fire.

Hezbollah does not intend to reduce its activities against Israel in the North, according to a report published in the Kuwaiti daily newspaper Al Jarida on Monday.

The organization intends to continue fighting as long as the war in the Gaza Strip continues, and is convinced that the US will increase the pressure on Israel to stop the war as long as the date of the presidential elections is approaching.

It was stated in the newspaper that the Shia terrorist organization was preparing for long months of fighting and preparing surprises for Israel.

Hostile aircraft intrusion sirens sounded in northern Israel on Monday afternoon.

IDF troops operated in eastern Jablya, killing terrorists and locating many weapons, among which were Kalashnikovs, mortar shells, and additional military equipment, the military said on Monday. 

Forces also found and destroyed a laboratory for the production of charges, tunnel shafts, terror infrastructure, and weapons. 

In addition, jets struck a launch area from which rockets were fired at Ashkelon during the war, the IDF noted.

In the center of the Gaza Strip, troops killed terrorists, some of whom had carried out observation operations on IDF soldiers.

In the past day, IDF aircraft and jets destroyed some 75 terror targets in the Strip, the military added. 

IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip. May 27, 2024. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Qatar said on Monday that the latest Israeli attack on Rafah could hinder mediation efforts to reach a hostage deal, a foreign ministry statement said.

The World Court ruling urging Israel to immediately halt its military operation on the southern part of the Gaza Strip is binding and must be respected, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said ahead of an EU ministers' meeting on Monday.

"No Israeli hostage will be freed if more people now have to shelter in tents," Baerbock said, referring to the streams of displaced people following Israel's continued strikes.

"International humanitarian law applies for all, also for Israel's conduct of the war," she added.

The Military Advocate General, Maj.-Gen. Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi said the IDF strike on Rafah on Monday was under investigation, Israeli media reported.

"The details of the incident are still under an investigation, which we are committed to conducting to the fullest extent,"" she said.

"The IDF regrets any harm to non-combatants during the war," she added.

In addition, she said 70 investigations to date have been opened by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division (MPCID) into suspected criminal incidents during the war.