Israel’s Defense Minister: “We will reach every place in Gaza”. Delta Airlines – flights to Israel again from the beginning of June. More information in the news blog.
The most important things at a glance
Baerbock: Israel urgently needs to do more to help the Gaza Strip
5:28 p.m.: Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) calls on Israel to make greater efforts to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip. “The Israeli government urgently needs to do more about this,” said Baerbock after a meeting with her Norwegian colleague Espen Barth Eide in Berlin: “There is still far too little help coming, we finally have to make progress here.”
What is needed now is an “agreement on an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” says Baerbock: “This is the only way the hostages can be released and more humanitarian aid can enter Gaza.”
Baerbock also advocates adequate financing for the Palestinian Authority. An “effective Palestinian authority” is the “legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.” The functioning of the authority is a prerequisite for a peace that is “really designed to last”. The Foreign Minister thanks Norway for its mediation so that money that was due to the Palestinians would now flow back to the authority.
Netanyahu: Will enter Rafah despite international pressure
5:10 p.m.: According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli army will advance into the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip despite international warnings. According to his office, Netanyahu says to soldiers: “There is international pressure to prevent us from entering Rafah and completing the work.” He has been rejecting this pressure for months and will continue to do so.
“We will advance to Rafah,” Netanyahu said. “We will complete the destruction of the Hamas battalions.” The goal is to restore security and achieve a “total victory for the Israeli people and the State of Israel.”
US Senator Schumer attacks Netanyahu and calls for new elections in Israel
5:00 p.m.: The influential Democratic majority leader in the US Senate, Chuck Schumer, sharply criticizes Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and calls for new elections in the country. He believes “that Prime Minister Netanyahu has lost his way by putting his political survival above the best interests of Israel,” said Schumer, who is himself Jewish and describes himself as a staunch supporter of Israel, in the US Senate in Washington.
Netanyahu has entered into a coalition with right-wing extremists and as a result is “too willing to tolerate the civilian victims in the Gaza Strip.” This means that support for Israel worldwide has fallen to an all-time low. But Israel cannot survive if it becomes a “pariah.”
“I believe that new elections are the only way to enable a healthy and open decision-making process about Israel’s future at a time when so many Israelis have lost trust in the vision and direction of their government,” Schumer continued . “The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits Israel’s needs after October 7th. The world has changed radically since then.” The vision of the current government is stuck in the past. As a democracy, Israel must choose its own leadership. “But the most important thing is that Israelis have a choice.”
Further US sanctions against Israeli settlers
16.30 o’clock: In response to growing tensions in the West Bank, the US government is imposing further sanctions targeting extremist Israeli settlers. The US accuses the three affected settlers of participating in violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, according to the US State Department in Washington. But two outposts of these settlers in the West Bank will also be sanctioned. The reason given is that those affected used this as a basis for attacks on Palestinian civilians.
Israeli general criticizes government: “You must prove yourself worthy of us”
2:01 p.m.: In Israel, an army general has criticized the country’s political leadership and demanded that they prove themselves “worthy” of the soldiers fighting in Palestinian areas. “You must prove yourself worthy of us,” Brigadier General Dan Goldfus, who commands an Israeli division in the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis, told reporters. In doing so, Goldfus violated a long-standing taboo, according to which officers in uniform are not allowed to interfere in political matters – and was therefore summoned by the military leadership.
