In Gaza, Israel has killed at least 56 Palestinians over the past 24 hours as Israel expands its ground invasion. Overnight, Israel struck a tent housing journalists near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. The blast set off a fire that killed two people, including the journalist Helmi al-Faqawi, who was burned alive. Another journalist, Hasan Eslayeh, was seriously wounded in the attack.
Meanwhile, outrage is growing over Israel’s killing of 15 Palestinian medics and emergency workers in Gaza who were discovered in an unmarked mass grave last week. Footage recovered of the attack shows the ambulances in the convoy had their lights on when Israeli troops opened fire. Israel had initially claimed the convoy had suspiciously approached troops with their lights off. On Saturday, the longtime Palestinian politician and doctor Mustafa Barghouti marched in a protest in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
Dr. Mustafa Barghouti: “The Israeli army committed a terrible war crime by attacking first aid providers and medics in the Red Crescent Society while they were in their ambulances, clearly marked, with their sirens on, with their lights on. Nevertheless, they attacked them and killed them one after the other. And after killing them, and maybe some of them were still wounded, they buried them with sand, they and their ambulances. What the Israeli army did in Rafah — and that’s what The New York Times have exposed — was a terrible war crime.”
In other news from Gaza, health officials are warning at least 600,000 children in Gaza are at risk of “permanent paralysis” because Israel is barring the entry of polio vaccines to Gaza as part of its broader blockade. According to the U.N. relief agency UNRWA, Israeli attacks have killed or injured at least 100 children in Gaza every day since Israel broke the ceasefire in mid-March.
This comes as President Trump is hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House today. Netanyahu took a longer-than-usual flight path from Hungary to avoid flying over countries, including Ireland and Iceland, that might enforce an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court if the plane had to make an emergency landing.