Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Israeli army attacks school in Jabalia

Thank you for joining us for real-time updates on everything related to Israel’s war on Gaza.

Read a story on potential mediated talks on the war on Gaza and the Hamas response here.

To find out how vessels on the floating pier the US military built off Gaza washed away, check this out.

For more news, analysis and opinion on the conflict, click here.

Here’s a quick look at what happened on Saturday:

• The Qassam Brigades released a video claiming Israeli soldiers were killed, wounded and captured in an ambush, while Israel’s military quickly denied any troops were seized in northern Gaza.
• Hamas says it’s not interested in more mediated talks with Israel when its demands for ending the Gaza war are not being met.
• Israel brushed aside an International Court of Justice (ICJ) order for it to halt its Rafah assault, instead intensifying deadly attacks throughout Gaza.
• The European Union’s foreign policy chief said ICJ orders are binding and called on Israel to implement them immediately.
• Two Hezbollah members were reportedly killed in Syria by an Israeli air strike as the armed Lebanese group and Israel also traded fire along their border.
• Israeli forces continued to carry out raids across the occupied West Bank, during which they injured and arrested Palestinians.

The US Central Command says its personnel continue to work with humanitarian groups to deliver aid via the floating pier off Gaza after rough seas carried away several vessels.

US soldiers delivered 1,005 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the beach transfer point with 903 tonnes distributed to the UN warehouse.

The Israeli military continues to keep land crossings closed, while the UN, US and others say land crossings are the only effective way of getting large-scale aid to desperate and starving Palestinians.

U.S. Central Command personnel continue to team up with USAID and the UN to deliver aid to the people of Gaza via a temporary pier affixed to the beach.

Aid delivered by CENTCOM personnel from the sea to the beach transfer point:

• 1005 metric tons (2,214,543 pounds) total as… pic.twitter.com/wxjfife9Ps

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) May 25, 2024

Fighter jets bombed a military structure run by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon’s Aitaroun area after operatives were identified through aerial monitoring to be inside.

It also launched an artillery strike in Kfar Kila, in southern Lebanon, “to remove a threat”.

The Israeli military confirmed several rocket launches from Lebanon towards northern Israel, some damaging buildings in the area but not inflicting any casualties.

Mustafa Barghouti, the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, says he’s not surprised that Israel has ignored the world court’s order to immediately cease its assault on Rafah city.

“Israel for decades has considered itself above international law. But what’s changing now is its impunity is gone. Not only the ICJ but also the ICC are intervening. This is a new situation, but Israel is not listening,” Barghouti told Al Jazeera.

Israel killed at least 46 people, mostly children and women, on Saturday, he noted, adding, “so Netanyahu is proceeding”.

“The main country that can restrain Israel and stop it immediately is the United States of America. I believe now is the time to impose sanctions on Israel. It’s either support international law or support Israel,” said Barghouti.

The US Central Command says the Houthis in Yemen launched two antiship ballistic missiles towards the Red Sea.

“There were no injuries or damage reported by US, coalition, or commercial ships,” it said.

The Houthis didn’t comment on the attack, but their military spokesman said in a speech to thousands on Friday that they targeted three ships, including in a first strike in the Mediterranean Sea.

25 May Red Sea Update

At approximately 3:50 a.m. (Sanaa time) on May 25, Iranian-backed Houthis launched two anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBM) toward the Red Sea. There were no injuries or damage reported by U.S., coalition, or commercial ships.

This continued malign and… pic.twitter.com/KMYd7vL77R

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) May 25, 2024

In the four-minute audio message where the spokesman of the armed wing of Hamas in Gaza announced the ambush of Israeli soldiers, he also commented on intense ongoing fighting across the enclave and the discovery of several Israeli captives’ bodies. Here is some of what he said:

• The Israeli government continues its blind and absurd policy of revenge and destruction and moves from failure to failure – the latest chapter being failed military operations in Jabalia and Rafah.
• Palestinian forces have carried out dozens of attacks against Israeli forces in more than two weeks of Israel’s ground invasions of Rafah and Beit Hanoon.
• Israeli forces are digging up the remains of captives in Gaza for Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal machinations.
• Israel is trying to portray the discovery of the remains of its captives as a military and moral achievement.
  

  

The latest of eight attacks by the armed Lebanese group was against soldiers with unspecified weapons.

Hezbollah also said it hit a building used by Israeli troops in al-Manara, and “spy equipment” in the occupied Kfarchouba hills.

The group released multiple videos of attacks on Israeli positions during the past few days, with one showing an antitank guided missile used to directly hit an armoured troop carrier.

Hezbollah confirmed the deaths of two of its fighters in Israeli strikes as well.

"حزب الله" ينشر مشاهد لما قال إنه "استهداف مقر كتيبة السهل للواء 769 في قاعدة بيت هلل ومقر قيادة الفرقة 91 المُستَحدث في قاعدة أييليت التابعين للجيش الإسرائيلي شمال فلسطين المحتلة"#فيديو #حرب_غزة pic.twitter.com/3LGj9YSKuy

— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) May 25, 2024

Translation: Hezbollah publishes scenes of what it said was “the targeting of the headquarters of the Sahel Battalion of the 769th Brigade at the Beit Hillel base and the headquarters of the newly created 91st Division at the Ayelet base of the Israeli army in northern occupied Palestine”.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society responded to calls about a bloodied man hit by an Israeli drone attack in Deir el-Balah.

Israeli air strikes killed dozens of Palestinians on Saturday with the latest casualty figures announced by the enclave’s health ministry standing at 35,903 people killed and 80,420 wounded since the war on Gaza began.

The Palestine Red Crescent ambulance teams are transporting a seriously injured person who was targeted by an Israeli war drone on Salah Al-Din Street in the city of Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
📷Filmed by: PRCS volunteer: Mohammed Suliman pic.twitter.com/OvwrgdR4eO

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) May 25, 2024

Waves swept away navy vessels supporting the United States-built pier installed to transfer aid to Gaza.

During the transportation of humanitarian aid, the floating dock was disconnected from a small boat tugging it and the vessels broke free from their moorings, CENTCOM said.

Part of the dock later drifted towards Israel’s Ashdod shore, while the third and fourth vessels beached on the coast of Israel near Ashkelon. No injuries have been reported so far and efforts to recover the vessels are under way.

Read the full story here.

The Israeli military released footage from the night raid that recovered the remains of three captives held in Gaza.

It said the “complex” operation was conducted in a tunnel in Jabalia in northern Gaza, the same area where bodies of another four captives were recovered a week earlier.

According to the army, the exact location of the bodies was gleaned from intelligence obtained by the military and security agency Shin Bet over the past few days.

A Palestinian operative, who appeared to have been placed in the area as a lookout, was killed by Israeli soldiers before they raided and captured the site.

Al Jazeera is reporting from outside Israel because it has been banned by the Israeli government

These protests have gotten louder and louder and bigger and bigger week on week.

Thousands of Israeli demonstrators have gathered in Tel Aviv outside the defence ministry. There have also been antigovernment protests across the country in the past few hours, in the north in Haifa and outside the prime minister’s residency as well.

They’re calling for an immediate end to the war and the captives back as part of a deal, but also criticising the prime minister, telling him he needs to resign as soon as possible.

To give you a sense of the anger, one father – whose daughter was killed on October 7 – talking directly to Netanyahu said, “You are responsible for our terrible failure. Take responsibility.”

Israel intensified military operations in Gaza despite the UN’s top court ordering it to immediately halt its assault on Rafah.

It’s not the first time Israel has refused to comply with an order from the World Court. So what’s the point of these measures? And how can they be enforced?

A young Palestinian has been injured by gunfire during an attack by Israeli settlers who were protected by the Israeli military.

The Wafa news agency quotes a local activist as saying the attack targeted homes of residents in the town of Qusra, south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank.

It also reported another settler attack in the village of Dhahr al-Abad, southwest of Jenin in the northern West Bank, during which Israeli settlers cut down 15 olive trees belonging to Palestinians using electric saws.

In the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem, residents said hundreds of settlers gathered in a designated area under protection from the Israeli army to celebrate a Jewish festival.

An estimated 100,000 settlers are reportedly expected to enter the neighbourhood in the next two days, amid concerns of settler attacks on Palestinian homes and residents there.

The armed wing of Hamas says one if its fighters hit an Israeli Merkava tank with a Yassin-105 anti-armour rocket in the vicinity of Salah al-Din Gate, south of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.

It is the sixth attack claimed by the Qassam Brigades today with earlier attacks on Israeli troops and armoured vehicles in northern Gaza.

The group also released a video of an attack in which a tank and a bulldozer were hit at close range in the Jabalia camp in the north – seemingly by the same Palestinian fighter.

مشاهد حصلت عليها الجزيرة للمعارك الدائرة بين كتائب القسام وجيش الاحتلال في #رفح جنوبي قطاع غزة، وتظهر استهداف دبابة ميركافا وجرافة عسكرية إسرائيلية#حرب_غزة #الأخبار pic.twitter.com/HBhD5cI59P

— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) May 25, 2024

Translation: Scenes obtained by Al Jazeera of the battles taking place between the Qassam Brigades and the Israeli army in Rafah in southern Gaza Strip, showing the targeting of a Merkava tank and an Israeli military bulldozer.