Brian McDonald
The leaders of three European countries – Norway, Spain and Ireland – announced Wednesday that they formally recognize a Palestinian state on May 28th. The measure aims to pressure Israel to accept a political process to end its war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israel reacted angrily to the decision, calling it a “distorted step” and recalling its ambassadors to the three countries. The Jewish state’s Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, said he had summoned the three countries’ ambassadors to Israel and would be shown a harrowing video of the kidnapping of five women. hostages by Hamas during the October 7 terrorist attack that triggered the ongoing war.
The video, released by the Hostage Families Forum with permission from the abductees’ families, was recorded by Hamas fighters using body cameras as they kidnapped the women, who are believed to still be held captive in Gaza.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and Hamas, which ruled Gaza for nearly two decades before Oct. 7, welcomed the European nations’ announcement, which came amid intensifying fighting in Gaza.
Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu/Getty
Israeli tanks advanced to the outskirts of a crowded neighborhood in the heart of the southern city of Rafah on Wednesday. Israel’s offensive on Rafah, which the US and others had long warned against, has driven out of the city nearly 1 million people who had sought refuge there – many of them already displaced several times during the seven-month war.
But Israel’s fight with Hamas is not limited to southern Gaza. It also intensified again this week in parts of the Palestinian enclave hit by Israeli artillery and ground forces at the start of the war.
At the Kamal Adwan hospital in the northern Jabalia refugee camp, CBS News producer Marwan al-Ghoul said 150 patients and doctors had to run for their lives as the Israel Defense Forces carried out repeated attacks into the night. of Tuesday.
The IDF said in a statement Wednesday that soldiers “dismantled a multitude of terrorist infrastructures and conducted air and artillery strikes against terrorist targets in the area” of Jabalia. Palestinian media said at least six people were killed, and images from the area showed bodies lying in a morgue, including several who appeared to be children.
Karam Hassan/Anadolu/Getty
An Israeli attack on the city of Deir al Balah in central Gaza killed at least 12 people, including young children, al-Ghoul reported. The CBS News team visited the city’s Al Aqsa hospital shortly after the attack and saw a child being removed from the womb of its mother, who was killed in the attack. Doctors were unable to save the baby.
The UN aid agency for the Palestinians, UNRWA, estimated that as of Monday more than 810,000 people had fled Rafah in two weeks. The agency suspended food distribution in Rafah, citing a lack of supplies and insecurity in the area. Most of those who fled Rafah have moved, on IDF orders, to a busy coastal area northwest of the city, al-Mawasi, which Israel says it has established as a humanitarian zone.
“For thousands of Palestinian families there is nowhere left to go: military operations and bombings represent an ongoing threat, buildings have been turned into rubble,” he said. UNRWA said in a social media post on Wednesday, adding: “Nowhere is safe in Gaza.”
A US official said Israeli leaders had addressed many of President Biden’s concerns about launching a large-scale ground operation in Rafah, and that the White House had not yet signaled its support for such an attack on the city.
Imtiaz Tyab
