Israel-Gaza war: All EU donors have now resumed support for Unrwa, says foreign affairs chief – as it happened

It is coming up to 6pm in Gaza and in Tel Aviv. We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.

Here is a recap of the latest developments:

• All EU donors have now resumed their support to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa), said Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, on Thursday. In a social media post, Borrell described Unrwa as “an indispensable lifeline in Gaza and the region”.

• The Hostages Families Forum in Israel has released graphic footage of female Israeli soldiers captured by Hamas from a military base during the 7 October attacks. The three-minute video showed the women, all IDF personnel, sitting on the ground, some bruised and bloodied, with their hands tied after their capture from the Nahal Oz base in southern Israel.

• Republican US House speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic US representative Pete Aguilar will deliver keynote speeches at the Israeli embassy’s Independence Day reception on Thursday.

• At least 35,800 Palestinians have been killed and 80,011 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday. The Hamas-run health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.

• Leaders of the Iran-led, so-called “axis of resistance”, including Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh, discussed the war in Gaza during a meeting in Tehran on the sidelines of president Ebrahim Raisi’s funeral, reported state media.

• Gaza’s civil defence agency said two pre-dawn Israeli airstrikes on Thursday killed 26 people in Gaza City, amid fierce battles between troops and militants across the Palestinian territory. Civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP that one strike hit a family’s house, killing 16 people, while 10 others died when a mosque was struck in the second strike. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, while AFP was unable to independently verify the details of the two reported strikes.

• Four organisations, including the European Legal Support Center and The Rights Forum, have filed a criminal complaint to public prosecutors in the Netherlands over properties listed by the travel website, Booking.com, on occupied Palestinian territories. The legal challenge, made public on Thursday, points to the listings to accuse the travel website, headquartered in the Netherlands, of profiting from crime and alleges that the proceeds of crime are being brought into the Dutch financial system. Booking.com did not reply to a request for comment.

• The US is concerned about Israel’s growing diplomatic isolation among countries that have traditionally supported it, Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has said.

• Israel will reprimand the ambassadors of Ireland, Norway and Spain on Thursday over their governments’ plan to recognise a Palestinian state next week, an Israeli official said.

• The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will rule on Friday 24 May on South Africa’s request to order a halt to Israel’s Rafah offensive in Gaza, it said on Thursday. “No power on Earth will stop Israel from protecting its citizens and going after Hamas in Gaza,” said an Israeli government spokesperson when asked whether Israel would comply with a possible ICJ ruling against it.

• The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is set to worsen once again as deliveries of aid and fuel to the Palestinian territory slow to a trickle in the wake of Israel’s two-week-old ground offensive in the southern city of Rafah.

• A two-day Israeli raid on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin killed at least 12 Palestinians, health authorities and an Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent reported. The Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah said Israeli forces had killed 12 people including four children, and injured 25 during the fighting which began on Tuesday morning.

• Both Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian militant group Hamas condemned the raid. Israel’s army said on Wednesday troops had “exchanged fire with armed men and killed a number of terrorists, including two terrorists who threw explosives at the forces”.

• Surgeon Usaeed Jabareen, from Jenin’s Khalil Suleiman government hospital, was among those killed on Tuesday said the official Palestinian news agency Wafa and medical charity Doctors Without Borders. An AFP correspondent on Thursday saw five bodies at the hospital morgue, including Jabareen’s.

• Egypt has threatened to withdraw from its role as a mediator in Gaza ceasefire negotiations after a report by CNN that Egyptian intelligence changed the terms of a recent truce proposal, scuttling a deal. Quoting three people familiar with the discussions, CNN reported on Tuesday that Egyptian intelligence changed terms of a ceasefire proposal that Israel agreed to earlier in May.

• Israeli forces killed 35 Palestinians in aerial and ground bombardments across the Gaza Strip on Thursday and battled in close combat with Hamas-led militants in areas of the southern city of Rafah, health officials and Hamas media said. Israeli tanks advanced in Rafah’s southeast, edged towards the city’s western district of Yibna and continued to operate in three eastern suburbs, residents told Reuters.

• US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned of the risk of a “humanitarian crisis” if Israel cuts off a crucial financing channel to Palestinian banks. Ahead of a meeting of G7 finance ministers in Stresa in northern Italy, she told reporters: “I’m particularly concerned by Israel’s threats to take action that would lead to Palestinian banks being cut off from their Israeli correspondent banks.”

• A United Nations expert called on Israel on Thursday to investigate multiple allegations of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees in the wake of the 7 October attack by Hamas. The UN special rapporteur on torture, Alice Jill Edwards, said in a statement she had received reports of some detainees being deprived of sleep, threatened with physical and sexual violence, insulted and exposed to humiliating acts, including “being photographed and filmed in degrading poses”. There was no immediate reaction from the Israeli government or military.

• The US is worried that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, may be willing to torpedo a potential normalisation deal with Saudi Arabia if it entails ending the war in Gaza and committing to working towards a two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

• Lebanese schoolchildren on a minibus had a narrow escape on Thursday when a drone strike killed a Hezbollah fighter in the car ahead, blowing out the windscreen of their vehicle and injuring three pupils. The source close to Hezbollah told AFP that Israel was behind the strike, which killed a Hezbollah member who was named as Mohammad Ali Nasser Farran.

• Later on Thursday, Hezbollah said it had launched dozens of rockets at a base in northern Israel. It said its katyusha barrage was “in response to the assassination carried out by the enemy in Kafardjal, and the injuring and terrorising of children”.

• A merchant ship off the coast of Yemen reported a missile hitting the water nearby, the UK’s sea trade monitoring agency reported on Thursday, adding that the vessel and all crew were safe and proceeding to the next port of call.

Republican US House speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic US representative Pete Aguilar will deliver keynote speeches at the Israeli embassy’s Independence Day reception on Thursday, reports Reuters.

The gathering comes amid tensions between the Democratic US leader and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu over a US push for Israel to do more to protect Palestinian civilians in the war against Hamas militants in Gaza.

Reuters reports that it will be a chance for Johnson, an outspoken critic of president Joe Biden’s Israel policy, and Aguilar, a Biden ally, to lay out their views more than seven months into the conflict.

Successive US administration have usually sent senior officials to the Independence Day celebrations in Washington.

Vice-president Kamala Harris, who has called in recent weeks for a Gaza ceasefire, delivered last year’s keynote, mostly extolling US support for Israel. Homeland secretary Alejandro Mayorkas spoke the year before.

According to Reuters, an Israeli official said this year the embassy wanted to honor lawmakers with speaking roles in appreciation for congressional approval of new US military aid to Israel.

“Their participation highlights the strong, bipartisan support for Israel in the United States, and the Congress in particular, and speaks to the enduring Israel-US alliance,” the embassy said in a statement.

The reception takes place on the same night as a White House state dinner for Kenyan president William Ruto, which the Israeli official said created a scheduling conflict for senior members of the administration.

Other more junior administration officials are on the embassy’s guest list, according to the Israeli official.

Johnson, speaker of the House of Representatives and the highest-ranking Republican in Congress, and Aguilar, chair of the House Democratic caucus, have both been granted keynote speaking slots on Thursday night, the embassy said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Reuters on the absence of an administration official from the speakers’ list.

23 May 202409.49 EDT

Ashifa Kassam

Ashifa Kassam is the Guardian’s European community affairs correspondent.

Four organisations, including the European Legal Support Center and The Rights Forum, have filed a criminal complaint to public prosecutors in the Netherlands over properties listed by the travel website, Booking.com, on occupied Palestinian territories.

The company has long faced accusations of benefiting from such listings; a 2018 report by Human Rights Watch cited 26 properties listed on Booking.com in the occupied West Bank while in 2019 Amnesty International tallied 45 hotels and rentals in settlements, including in East Jerusalem, on the travel website.

The legal challenge, made public on Thursday, points to these listings to accuse the travel website, headquartered in the Netherlands, of profiting from crime and alleges that the proceeds of crime are being brought into the Dutch financial system.

Booking.com did not reply to a request for comment.

Lydia de Leeuw, from the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO), said the complaint followed years of rights campaigners and activists warning the company about its operations on occupied land.

We have been working on this complaint for years, responding to calls of Palestinians who have seen their property being stolen to end up as profitable vacation homes for settlers on Booking.com.”

It comes more than five years after Airbnb said it would take down about 200 listings in occupied Palestinian territories, following years of accusations that the company was benefiting from rentals in the illegal outposts. After the hosts who were due to be removed joined a class action lawsuit, Airbnb reversed its decision, saying instead that it would donate proceeds from rentals in the West Bank to humanitarian organisations around the world.

At least 35,800 Palestinians have been killed and 80,011 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

The Hamas-run health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.

Lebanese schoolchildren on a minibus had a narrow escape on Thursday when a drone strike killed a Hezbollah fighter in the car ahead, blowing out the windscreen of their vehicle and injuring three pupils, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The injured children were hospitalised with cuts from flying glass after the aerial attack, which state media and a source close to Hezbollah blamed on Israel.

“At first, we didn’t understand what was happening, and there was panic among the children,” said Ahmad Qubaisi, 57, who was driving the bus with 18 children on board.

“Suddenly a strike hit the car in front of us” near the town of Nabatiyeh, about 13 kilometres (eight miles) from the Israeli border, he said.

“The bus’s windshield shattered … I backed up and that’s when the second strike hit the car” in front of him, Qubaisi added.

The source close to Hezbollah told AFP that Israel was behind the strike, which killed a Hezbollah member who was named as Mohammad Ali Nasser Farran.

At the site of Thursday’s strike, an AFP photographer said they saw the charred car and blood stains on the road.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported “an enemy drone attack in the morning on the Kfardjal-Nabatiyeh road”.

The attack “killed a car driver” and “wounded three pupils” who were in a bus heading to school, it said.

A Nabatiyeh school later said that the man killed, Farran, was also a physics teacher at the school and that it mourned his death, reports AFP.

Later on Thursday, Hezbollah said it had launched dozens of rockets at a base in northern Israel.

It said its katyusha barrage was “in response to the assassination carried out by the enemy in Kafardjal, and the injuring and terrorising of children”.

A United Nations expert called on Israel on Thursday to investigate multiple allegations of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees in the wake of the 7 October attack by Hamas.

According to Reuters, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, said in a statement that she had received allegations of people being beaten, kept in cells blindfolded and handcuffed for long periods.

There was no immediate reaction from the Israeli government or military, reported Reuters.

The military has said it acts according to Israeli and international law and those it arrests get access to food, water, medication and proper clothing.

Reuters reports that the UN special rapporteur said she had received reports of some detainees being deprived of sleep, threatened with physical and sexual violence, insulted and exposed to humiliating acts, including “being photographed and filmed in degrading poses”.

“I am particularly concerned that this emerging pattern of violations, coupled with an absence of accountability and transparency, is creating a permissive environment for further abusive and humiliating treatment of Palestinians,” Edwards said.

“The Israeli authorities must investigate all complaints and reports of torture or ill-treatment promptly, impartially, effectively and transparently. Those responsible at all levels, including commanders, must be held accountable, while victims have a right to reparation and compensation,” she said.

Josep Borrell, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy and vice-president of the European Commission, said that all EU donors have now resumed their support to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa).

In a social media post, Borrell described Unrwa as “an indispensable lifeline in Gaza and the region”.

Allegations by Israel of the involvement of Unrwa staff in the 7 October Hamas attack led major donors in January to cut their funding to the agency.

At the end of April, Germany said it would restore cooperation and funding to Unrwa operations in the Gaza Strip after an independent review said Israel had not provided evidence to back up its claims.

Germany’s decision followed those made earlier by several other major donors, including Australia, Canada, Sweden and Japan, to restore ties with Unwra.

Last week, Austria also said it would restore its funding to Unrwa. A total of €3.4m ($3.7m) in funds have been budgeted for 2024, and the first payment is expected to be made in the summer, Austria’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

Excerpts from footage released by a group representing the families of hostages held in Gaza show the capture of five female Israeli soldiers by Hamas from a military base during the 7 October attacks.

A three-minute edit, released on Wednesday, was taken from a two-hour video filmed by Hamas militants’ body cameras. It showed the women, some bruised and bloodied, with their hands tied after their capture from the Nahal Oz base in southern Israel.

1:25

About 250 people were taken hostage when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing at least 1,200 people. As a result of Israel’s retaliatory offensive on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, at least 35,386 people have been killed and 79,366 have been injured, according to the Gaza health ministry.

You can read Lorenzo Tondo’s full piece on this story here:

Tomorrow, the International Court of Justice will announce its decision on South Africa’s request for an order to halt Israeli military actions in the Gaza Strip.

Ahead of that verdict, Israel has said it will not be deterred from pursuing its war on Hamas.

Asked whether Israel would comply with a possible ICJ ruling against it, an Israeli government spokesperson said:

No power on Earth will stop Israel from protecting its citizens and going after Hamas in Gaza.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned of the risk of a “humanitarian crisis” if Israel cuts off a crucial financing channel to Palestinian banks.

Ahead of a meeting of G7 finance ministers in Stresa in northern Italy, she told reporters:

I’m particularly concerned by Israel’s threats to take action that would lead to Palestinian banks being cut off from their Israeli correspondent banks

These banking channels are critical for processing transactions that enable almost $8 billion a year in imports from Israel, including electricity, water, fuel, and food, as well as facilitating almost $2 billion a year in exports on which Palestinian livelihoods depend.

Asked what the United States and G7 might do in response, Yellen said she had written to Israeli President Benyamin Netanyahu months ago about the economic situation in the occupied West Bank.

And as I said, I believe it would create a humanitarian crisis in due course if Palestinian banks are cut off from Israeli correspondence. Certainly, this is a view that we will voice.

It’s just gone 2pm in Gaza and Jerusalem. Here are the day’s main developments so far:

• The Hostages Families Forum in Israel has released graphic footage of female Israeli soldiers captured by Hamas from a military base during the 7 October attacks. The three-minute video showed the women, all IDF personnel, sitting on the ground, some bruised and bloodied, with their hands tied after their capture from the Nahal Oz base in southern Israel.

• The US is concerned about Israel’s growing diplomatic isolation among countries that have traditionally supported it, Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has said.

• Israel will reprimand the ambassadors of Ireland, Norway and Spain on Thursday over their governments’ plan to recognise a Palestinian state next week, an Israeli official said.

• The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is set to worsen once again as deliveries of aid and fuel to the Palestinian territory slow to a trickle in the wake of Israel’s two-week-old ground offensive in the southern city of Rafah.

• A two-day Israeli raid on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin killed at least 12 Palestinians, health authorities and an Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent reported.

Here are some of the latest images on the newswires:

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Dutch prosecutors are looking into a criminal complaint against Booking.com over its listing of rental properties in Israeli settlements, reports Reuters.

According to Reuters, Dutch non-profit organisation SOMO said it had filed the complaint with the Dutch public prosecutor in November, together with three other human rights groups, but had not gone public with it before.

In their complaint the groups accuse Booking.com of “profiting from war crimes by facilitating the rental of vacation homes on land stolen from the indigenous Palestinian population”.

Prosecutors were studying the complaint, but could not give a timeline for a decision on possible further steps, spokesperson Brechje van de Moosdijk said.

Booking.com in a response said it disagreed with the allegations and that there are no laws prohibiting listings in Israeli settlements, while a range of US state laws would prohibit divesting from the region, reports Reuters.

“Legal action has been taken against other companies that have tried to withdraw their activities, and we would expect the same to happen in our case,” a spokesperson for the company said.

SOMO said its research had shown that Booking.com’s platform offered up to 70 listings for properties in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank between 2021 and 2023.

It argued that revenues acquired from renting out those properties are “proceeds of criminal activities”, and that by booking these proceeds in the Netherlands the company is violating Dutch anti-money laundering rules.

Leaders of the Iran-led, so-called “axis of resistance”, including Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh, discussed the war in Gaza during a meeting in Tehran on the sidelines of president Ebrahim Raisi’s funeral, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP) citing state media.

The “axis of resistance” is a network of autonomous militant Islamist groups through which Iran can project power, determine the course of events and deter attack by Israel or the US.

AFP reports that the meeting on Wednesday was attended by Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s Qatar-based political bureau, as well as Hezbollah deputy Naim Qassem and Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam.

According to AFP’s report, Haniyeh had also previously had an audience with Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iranian officials meanwhile included Gen Hossein Salami, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as Gen Esmail Qaani, commander of the al-Quds force, the foreign operations branch of the guards.

They discussed “the latest political, social and military situation in Gaza and the al-Aqsa flood operation and the role of the resistance front,” state broadcaster IRIB reported.

The meeting reportedly stressed “the continuation of jihad and struggle until the complete victory of the Palestinian resistance in Gaza with the participation of all resistance groups and fronts in the region”, IRIB said.

AFP reports that Hezbollah’s Al-Manar channel also reported the meeting, broadcasting photos.

Iran’s Fars news agency said representatives of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Iraqi groups were also present at the meeting.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said two pre-dawn Israeli airstrikes on Thursday killed 26 people in Gaza City, amid fierce battles between troops and militants across the Palestinian territory, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, while AFP was unable to independently verify the details of the two reported strikes.

Civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP that one strike hit a family’s house, killing 16 people, while 10 others died when a mosque was struck in the second strike.

Bassal said the dead included at least 15 children, including 10 who were killed when their family’s house was hit in the al-Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City.

Five children died when their school inside a mosque complex was hit, he said, adding that rescue teams had pulled out several injured from the strikes.