The war in Gaza is “tragic” but there is not any “genocide”, Israel said on Friday, May 17, before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). “South Africa presents to the Court for the fourth time a picture completely disconnected from the facts and circumstances”said Gilad Noam, representing Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, responding before the highest UN court to Petoria’s allegations that Israel had intensified a campaign “genocidal” with its military operation in Rafah. Follow our live stream.
Humanitarian aid arrives by sea. After days of blocking the arrival of humanitarian aid in the Palestinian territory threatened by famine, the American army announced that a first load had begun to be unloaded on Friday by the temporary American pier anchored on the coast of the Gaza Strip .
Israel intensifies its operations in Rafah. Violent fighting pitted the Israeli army against Hamas on Friday in the north of the Gaza Strip, the day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a “intensification” military operations in Rafah, in the south of the Palestinian enclave, despite international fears for the civilian population.
Arab summit calls for ceasefire. Arab leaders called for a ceasefire on Thursday “immediate” in the Gaza Strip and at the end “forced displacement” of the Palestinians, following a summit in Bahrain. They also said they would like the deployment of peacekeepers in the “occupied Palestinian territories”.