‘Operation al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 241: Israel contradicts Biden over ceasefire proposal
Israeli protests demanding a prisoner exchange deal continue in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as Blinken discusses the proposal with Gantz and Gallant. Meanwhile, Gaza authorities say that thousands of children face death from starvation.
Casualties
- 36,439 + killed* and at least 82,627 wounded in the Gaza Strip.*
- 521+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.**
- Israel revised its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,140.
- 644 Israeli soldiers have been announced killed since October 7, and at least 3,657 have been announced as wounded.***
*Gaza’s Ministry of Health confirmed this figure on its Telegram channel on June 2, 2024. Some rights groups estimate the death toll to be much higher when accounting for those presumed dead.
** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to the PA’s Ministry of Health on June 2, this is the latest figure.
*** These figures are released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” The number of Israeli soldiers wounded, according to declarations by the head of the Israeli army’s wounded association to Israel’s Channel 12, exceeds 20,000, including at least 8,000 permanently handicapped as of June 1.
Key Developments
- Israel kills 268 Palestinians, wounds 1,207 since Thursday, May 30, across Gaza, raising death toll since October 7 to 36,439 and number of wounded to 82,627, according to the Gaza health ministry.
- Israel and Hamas initially accept Biden’s proposed framework for prisoner exchange deal.
- Blinken discusses proposed deal with Benny Gantz and Yoav Gallant. Netanyahu discusses proposal with Ben-Gvir, while Smotrich studies possibilities of withdrawal from government coalition if Israel officially accepts the deal.
- Israel’s channel 13 quotes likud officials saying that Netanyahu will not let Biden’s deal proposal pass and will obstruct it.
- Israeli prisoners’ families protest inside the Knesset’s building in Jerusalem.
- Wounded soldier throws stun grenade inside entrance of the Israeli war ministry in Tel Aviv as form of protest.
- Israeli army says 46 soldiers wounded in Gaza since Thursday. Four admitted killed since last week.
- One million cases of contagious diseases in the Gaza Strip due to displacement, poor sanitary conditions, and blocking of medical supplies, according to Gaza government media office.
- Israeli forces kill two Palestinians over week, raising West Bank’s death toll to 521 since October 7.
- Israeli settlers set fire to farming land in Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah.
- Israeli forces raid Nablus and escort settlers to religious sites in city.
- Hezbollah strikes Israeli army command base in Galilee, Israel bombs southern Lebanon, kills two.
- Israeli strikes kill 17 in Aleppo.
Israel kills 268 across Gaza since Monday
The Gaza-based Palestinian health ministry announced that the remaining hospitals in the Gaza Strip received 268 slain Palestinians in Israeli airstrikes since Thursday, May 30, while 1207 others arrived wounded.
Meanwhile, local media sources reported that in the past 24 hours, Israeli airstrikes and artillery shells continued to target Gaza City’s Zeitoun and Sabra neighborhoods. At least two children were reported killed on Sunday.
In Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Civil Defense said that its teams recovered 70 dead bodies from the rubble left behind by Israeli forces after withdrawing from Jabalia refugee camp following a three-week ground invasion. The Israeli army invaded Jabalia in mid-May for the second time since the beginning of the war amid heavy fighting with Palestinian resistance groups. In December, Israel had declared control over all northern Gaza, including Jabalia.
In the central Gaza Strip, Israeli warships opened fire on Deir al-Balah’s beach, while airstrikes continued on Mighraqa, al-Zaharaa, and the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps. In Nuseirat, at least Palestinians were reported killed on Sunday after Israeli strikes hit the Abu Nar family’s house. Another unspecified number of Palestinians were reported killed in a strike on the Aqel family’s house in Bureij.
In the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling intensified on the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood in the west of the city amid heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters in the area. Israeli strikes also targeted the center and the north of the city.
In Khan Younis, 10 Palestinians were reported killed on Sunday, including children, in Israeli strikes on two family houses in the Rumeida neighborhood, east of the city. Israeli strikes also hit the surroundings of the Gaza European Hospital on the outskirts of Khan Younis.
Biden’s ceasefire proposal received ‘positively’ by Hamas, initially accepted by Israel
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the latest prisoners’ exchange proposal announced by U.S. President Joe Biden in separate phone calls with Israel’s Benny Gantz and war minister Yoav Gallant, both critics of Netanyahu and members of the war cabinet.
According to the U.S. State Department, Blinken told both Israeli leaders that the deal guarantees Israel’s security in the long term. On Sunday, an aide close to Netanyahu told The Sunday Times that Israel had accepted the deal framework, “although it is not a good deal.”
The proposal includes three phases. The first extends for six weeks of complete ceasefire during which Hamas would release remaining female and child captives in Gaza in exchange for Israel releasing Palestinian detainees. Israeli forces would withdraw from urban areas in the Strip and displaced Palestinians would be allowed to return to all areas, including the north of the strip. During this period, 600 daily aid trucks would enter Gaza.
During the second phase, Israel and Hamas would negotiate a permanent ceasefire while releasing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the remaining Israeli captives. The ceasefire would continue as long as negotiations continue. This phase would include the beginning of the reconstruction operations in the Gaza Strip.
On Monday, Israeli media reported that Netanyahu told his government coalition allies, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, that contrary to Biden’s claims, the proposal doesn’t include a clause on ending the war. Both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich had threatened to withdraw from the coalition if Israel ended the war, causing the collapse of Netanyahu’s government.
Meanwhile, Israelis continued to protest in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem demanding an exchange deal that would see the release of Israeli prisoners in Gaza.
Mondoweiss highlight
Read last week’s extended essay by regular Mondoweiss contributor Abdaljawad Omar on Hamas’s role in the Palestinian liberation struggle and what the stance of the international left and solidarity movement should be.
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