Media Report 2025.05.19
Israeli troops in new raids on Gaza
The Age (& Sydney Morning Herald) / AP | Ibrahim Hasboun & Samy Magdy | 19 May 2025
Jerusalem: Israel says it has launched a major military operation in the Gaza Strip to pressure Hamas to release remaining hostages, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a negotiating team to remain in Qatar for indirect talks with the militant group.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Operation Gideon Chariots was being led with “great force”. Netanyahu had vowed to escalate pressure with the aim of destroying the militant group that has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades.
The operation came a day after US President Donald Trump concluded his Middle East trip without a visit to Israel. There had been hope that his visit could increase the chances of a ceasefire deal or the resumption of humanitarian aid to Gaza, which Israel has prevented for more than two months.
An Israeli official said Netanyahu was in constant con tact with the negotiating team in Doha and US envoy Steve Witkoff, and instructed the team to remain there. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorised to discuss the talks with the media.
Hamas, which released an Israeli-American hostage before Trump’s trip, insists on a deal that ends the war and leads to the withdrawal of Israeli forces- something Israel says that it won’t agree to.
Israel’s army said on social media it would not stop until the hostages were returned and the militant group was dismantled. Israel believes as many as 23 hostages in Gaza are still alive, although Israeli authorities have expressed concern for the status of three of them.
At least 75 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Saturday night and into Sunday, Gaza time, hospitals and medics said. Gaza’s Health Ministry said more than 3000 had been killed since the collapse of the January ceasefire in March.
On Saturday afternoon, an Israeli strike killed at least four children in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to al-Awda Hospital, which received the bodies. Seven others were wounded in the strike. A later strike in Jabaliya killed four, the hospital said.
Airstrikes around Deir al Balah in central Gaza killed 14 people, with the bodies arriving at al-Aqsa hospital. One strike on a house killed eight people.
A strike hit outside a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City, killing four, the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service said.
There was no immediate Israeli comment on the strikes. A separate statement said the military had killed dozens of fighters while dismantling an “underground route” in north ern Gaza.
Hundreds of protesters rallied on Saturday night in Tel Aviv, some holding photos of Palestinian children killed in Gaza, with others demanding a deal to end the war and bring all hostages home.
Gaza is in the third month of an Israeli blockade, with no food, water, fuel or other goods entering the territory of more than 2 million people. Food security experts say Gaza will be in famine if the blockade isn’t lifted soon.
Earlier this week, a new humanitarian organisation with US backing to take over aid de livery said it expected to begin operations by the end of the month, after what it described as key agreements with Israeli officials. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation identified several US military veterans, former humanitarian coordinators and security contractors to lead the effort.
But many in the humanitarian community, including the United Nations, said that they would not participate because the system did not align with humanitarian principles and would not be able to meet the needs of Palestinians in Gaza.
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said on Friday that there was already an aid delivery plan with 160,000 pallets of supplies ready to move: “It is ready to be activated – today – if we are simply allowed to do our jobs.”
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel, killing 1200 people and abducting 251 others. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
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We must reject the double standard – all lives matter
The Age | Letters | 19 May 2025
Thanks, David Leser (“Israel’s actions in Gaza indefensible”, 17/5), you are correct – the silencing and intimidation need to stop. We are taught that all lives are equal, yet when Palestinian children are killed, we are silenced. I was told it might make others uncomfortable merely referencing it in academic discussions at university.
We are told that Israeli transgressions belong to another moral ledger, one that must never tip against them, lest we be tarred as antisemitic. Challenge this, and you’ll be harassed on campus, and intimidated while our leaders sit on their hands.
October 7, 2023, was a nightmare we all recognise but so, too, were the 10 years before it, in which thousands of Palestinians were killed.
We must reject the double standard that some lives demand a trumpet call, while others elicit silence. This is the Palestine Exception — and until it is dismantled, our claims to justice will ring hollow.
Al Harkness, Belmont, Geelong
A mutating virus
In criticising an antisemitism doesn’t refer to Israel’s behaviour, as Leser implies. Those who favour the Jerusalem Declaration definition do so because it lets them feel it’s somehow not antisemitic to deny Jewish self-determination while demanding that same right for others. Leser’s accusations of apartheid and genocide are simply wrong. All Israeli citizens have equal rights, and the restrictions in the West Bank are purely for security, necessitated by terrorism. In Gaza, Israel at tacks civilian buildings and facilities only because Hamas illegally militarises them. Israel blocked aid because Hamas steals and uses it to consolidate its power, but deliveries will soon resume. definition for having an “undue emphasis on Israel”, David Leser ignores the truth best expressed by the UK’s late chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, who described antisemitism as a mutating virus. That is, whereas they used to be hated for their religion, and then for their race, to day Jews are most acutely hated for their nation state. Which helps explain why Israel has been accused of genocide in virtually every war of self-defence that it has fought, despite its neighbours being explicit about their genocidal intent on the Jewish state. Regardless of what definition of antisemitism is used, Leser need not be concerned about the muzzling of criticism of Israel any time soon.
Geoff Feren, St Kilda East
Israel is acting on its security concerns
In criticising the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism for supposedly being overprotective of Israel, David Leser neglects to mention it specifically states that criticising Israel as you would any other country is not antisemitic. In saying it’s antisemitic to describe Israel’s existence as a racist endeavour, the definition doesn’t refer to Israel’s behaviour, as Leser implies. Those who favour the Jerusalem Declaration definition do so because it lets them feel it’s somehow not antisemitic to deny Jewish self-determination while demanding that same right for others. Leser’s accusations of apartheid and genocide are simply wrong. All Israeli citizens have equal rights, and the re strictions in the West Bank are purely for security, necessitated by terrorism. In Gaza, Israel at tacks civilian buildings and facilities only because Hamas illegally militarises them. Israel blocked aid because Hamas steals and uses it to consolidate its power, but deliveries will soon resume.
Jamie Hyams, Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council
Time to call out war crimes
Great article by David Leser. When are we going to see our Australian government clearly calling out the war crimes being repeatedly committed by the current Israeli government in Gaza? But more importantly, when will we see Jewish leaders saying enough is enough?
Roger Byrne, Elsternwick
Our silence makes us complicit
US President Donald Trump acknowledges that “people are starving” in Gaza yet openly backs the military campaign causing their starvation (“‘People are starving,’ says Trump as strikes kill 250”, 18/5). This isn’t mere inconsistency, Trump’s words of compassion mask conscious complicity. Starvation in Gaza is neither accidental nor unforeseen — the United Nations has 160,000 pal lets of critical aid waiting, but Israel’s blockade ensures they never arrive.
We are witnessing more than war: this is the systematic era sure of a population’s capacity to live. Trump’s remarks reveal a troubling global truth: today’s leaders openly acknowledge immense suffering, and then actively enable it. The scandal isn’t only Israel’s brutality — it’s our quiet complicity. Australia must ask itself: if we know this is happening, what have we done about it?
Fernanda Trecenti, Fitzroy
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Jews and Palestinians deserve dignity equally
Sydney Morning Herald | Letters | 19 May 2025
David Leser is right: what Israel is doing in Gaza is indefensible (“Israel’s actions in Gaza indefensible”, May 17). The mass killing of civilians, starvation and destruction of homes and hospitals cannot be justified. Language matters. Antisemitism — unlike most racism —is often bound up with tone, implication and intent. Its shape-shifting nature explains why no single definition suffices. As Leser writes, “Judgment and sensitivity are needed.” Holocaust comparisons, in care less, malign or cynical hands, become Twitter gotchas, not moral insights. Far left and far right alike accuse Jews of “controlling the media or government” – and some far-left Jews give this language cover. That’s not solidarity with Palestine; it’s betrayal. But collective punishment, whether of Palestinians or Jews, helps no one. As Leser’s article makes clear, Palestinian civilians are now enduring the worst form of it imaginable. Hamas and the Israeli government each treat human life with contempt. Each radicalises the other. And social media – our great engine of outrage – keeps us loyal to our “team” at all costs. Are we not capable of more than his? Jews and Palestinians are related peoples, both indigenous to the land. Both deserve dignity. What Netanyahu and his co horts are doing is a betrayal of that shared history – and of people like me, whose family was destroyed in the Holocaust. It is Kahanism. It is odious.
Simon Tedeschi, Newtown
It’s always tempting to take the authoritarian path and declare that something should be compulsory reading for this or that bunch of people. That’s particularly the case with David Leser’s article. He presents an enlightened comparison be tween the two most highly publicised definitions of antisemitism, that of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism. Acknowledging that the latter is not perfect, he exposes the per verse implications of the former that allow criticism of Israel to be immediately condemned as antisemitic. Since one can’t dictate the reading diet of politicians, editors or the officials of unrepresentative Jewish organisations, those who share Leser’s dismay at Israel’s in humanity can only voice a plea for his analysis to be read widely and taken with the ut most seriousness. As he concludes, “defending Palestinian life and dignity” is not antisemitic, but “an expression of our human and Jewish ethics”.
Tom Knowles, Parkville (Vic)
Thank you, David Leser. While I have been deeply anguished watching the slaughter in Gaza, I rarely spoke aloud, fearing expressing antisemitic thoughts. I silenced myself. Your analysis of Israel’s decimation of the people of Gaza is similar in style, if not in scale, to the Holocaust. Your analysis of different definitions of antisemitism is liberating. This opinion does not ignore the horrific actions of Hamas.
Victor Branson, Waterloo
David Leser should not despair, what is being inflicted by Israel on the people of Gaza is not something Jews in general have to own responsibility for. It is something being carried out by a country against a captive group within its borders, by a leader whose bloodlust ap pears to only be capable of being satiated by murder on a grand scale.
John Guy, St Ives
Who could argue with David Leser’s analysis? Who would want to? He speaks as a humanitarian with rationality and bravery in the interest of telling the truth about Gaza. The pain he undoubtedly feels in bringing Israel to account should be assuaged by the fact future historians will certainly agree we’ve witnessed a Palestinian Holocaust, consciously perpetrated by the people who, ironically, used their own Holocaust to justify their genocidal actions. Those who disagree with Leser need to put forward a rational argument as to where and why he’s wrong. Simply dis missing him as “antisemitic” is to run away from reality.
Tim Lenehan, Ballalaba
Criticism of Israel’s actions, when they are cruel and inhuman and violate the human rights of Palestinians, is not antisemitic. Standing up for the weak and powerless when the aggressor is the state of Israel is not antisemitism. Criticising the actions of Israel is not, by definition, antisemitic. Our children and grandchildren will ask us how this genocide was allowed to happen. I don’t think they’ll find our fear of being called antisemitic a convincing excuse for silence.
Prue Nelson, Cremorne Point
In criticising the IHRA definition of antisemitism for supposedly being overprotective of Israel, David Leser neglects to mention it specifically states that criticising Israel as you would criticise any other country is not antisemitic. In saying it’s antisemitic to describe Israel’s existence as a racist endeavour, the definition doesn’t refer to Israel’s behaviour, as Leser implies, but to suggesting Jewish self-determination in the Jewish homeland is somehow racist. Those who favour the Jerusalem Declaration do so because it lets them feel it’s somehow not antisemitic to deny Jewish self-determination in their homeland while demanding that same right for others. Leser’s accusations of apartheid, genocide and deliberate starvation are simply wrong. All Israeli citizens have equal rights, and the restrictions in the West Bank are purely for security, necessitated by terrorism. In Gaza, Israel evacuates civilians for their safety, rather than targeting them as a genocidal army would do, and it only attacks civilian buildings and facilities because Hamas illegally militarises them, making them legitimate and important targets. Israel blocked aid, after enough entered Gaza to last for months, because Hamas steals and uses it to consolidate its power, but deliveries will soon resume.
Jamie Hyams, Director of Public Affairs, Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, Melbourne (Vic)
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Hamas chief’s body found
The Australian | Anne Barrowclough | 19 May 2025
Mohammed Sinwar, Hamas’s infamous leader in Gaza, has reportedly been killed by the Israeli Defence Forces, with his body found in a tunnel network along with 10 of his aides.
Israel Defence Minister Israel Katz told MPs while the IDF had not confirmed the assassination, “According to all the indications, Mohammed Sinwar was eliminated,” Ynet TV reports.
Mr Katz made the remarks to the foreign affairs and defence committee soon after Saudi-owned Al Hadath TV reported that Sinwar’s body had been found in a tunnel network hit by massive Israeli airstrikes targeting an underground bunker near the European Hospital in Khan Younis last week.
The commander of Hamas’s Rafah Brigade, Mohammad Shabana – who was first in line to succeed Sinwar – was also killed in the strike, Al Hadath reports.
Abu Obeidah, Hamas’s spokesman – regularly seen on Al Jazeera with his face covered by a red keffiyeh – was also believed to be with Sinwar and Shabana in the tunnel network.
The notoriously brutal Sinwar, who has led Hamas in Gaza since his brother Yahya was killed by Israel in October, had refused to acknowledge the group’s political leadership in Qatar since his brother’s death and was seen as a major block to ceasefire talks.
Shabana, a trusted lieutenant of Sinwar, had been expected to take over the organisation in the event of the latter’s death.
If the deaths of both men are confirmed, it would mean the militant group has been decapitated, leaving only Izz ad-Din al-Haddad, the commander of Hamas’s Gaza City Brigade, to take over as military chief.
It would also mark an important military victory for Israel at a time when the country is under pressure to wrap up its 18-month-long war in the enclave.
After the first airstrikes last Wednesday, which saw the Israeli Air Force drop tonnes of bunker-busting bombs on the suspected Hamas command and control facility, they struck again on Thursday.
Palestinians reported a “belt of fire” at the Khan Younis site, with Israeli media reporting the aim of the renewed attack was to prevent any attempt at rescue, or removal of the rubble.
After the strikes, security officials said anyone in the tunnel not killed immediately by the bombs could not have survived the toxic fumes.
The strikes were compared with those that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in his underground bunker in Beirut last September.
The Israeli Defence Force has refrained from targeting Sinwar over past months because he was known to surround himself with a human shield of Israeli hostages.
According to The Jerusalem Post, the IDF recently destroyed one of the last remaining strategic tunnels connecting Rafah and Khan Yunis, severely limiting the ability of Sinwar and Shabana to move around the Gaza Strip.
The newspaper reported it was possible the destruction of those tunnels forced the Hamas leaders into the tunnel under the European Hospital, making it easier to target them.
On Wednesday, military intelligence was informed Sinwar was in a Hamas command site under the hospital with no hostages nearby, YNet TV reported.
With only a small window to attack, Israeli Air Force jets were in the air within an hour, leaving Jerusalem no time to inform the US of the strike.
Sinwar had been targeted for 20 years by the IDF but had consistently managed to avoid assassination.
Among his most audacious escapes, according to the Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, was using pre-recorded radio transmissions to give the impression he was speaking live from a certain location, leading the IDF to bomb that site while Sinwar was actually elsewhere.
In 2003, he also escaped unscathed after an explosive device planted in the wall of his home blew up.
In 2019, an Israeli operation that reportedly involved poisoning Sinwar and other commanders and abducting them from a beach also failed.
Sinwar, said to be so brutal he would shoot any Palestinian in the street who dared look at him, was jailed by Israel in the 1990s for nine months, going on to spend three years in a Palestinian Authority prison in Ramallah, from which he escaped in 2000.
He went on to found Hamas’s secretive “Shadow Unit,” which is tasked with guarding high-value captives, such as Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, whose 2006 abduction Sinwar oversaw.
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Academic holds online Palestine lessons for kids
The Australian | Rhiannon Down | 19 May 2025
Anti-Israel academic Randa Abdel-Fattah is offering online “introductory lessons” on Palestine aimed at school students and teachers, prompting calls from the Coalition for her to be kept out of the nation’s classrooms.
The Macquarie University academic, who had her $870,000 tax-funded grant cancelled after she bragged about breaching research rules, advertised on social media that she was offering the hour-long free sessions to help students and educators gain a “foundational understanding of Palestine”.
The session would also instruct participants on Palestinian history before the creation of Israel in 1948 and “our ongoing struggle for liberation and justice”.
Opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson urged the Albanese government to prevent Dr Abdel-Fattah from infiltrating classrooms and stop the spread of “ideological indoctrination and to stand firmly against anti-Semitism in all its ugly forms”.
“It is utterly unacceptable that an academic with a record of deeply divisive, extremist rhetoric, including calls for the end of Israel, is seeking to target Australian schools,” she said.
“Randa Abdel-Fattah has no place in our classrooms. Education Minister Jason Clare must take immediate and decisive action to ensure she is not given a platform to spread her inflammatory agenda to schoolchildren.
“Schools should be safe, inclusive environments for all students, not battlegrounds for radical political activism.”
Dr Abdel-Fattah said the class would draw on her work as a lawyer and academic as well as her “lived experience”.
“I am offering a free one-hour Zoom session to any school in Australia, providing an introductory lesson on Palestine,” she said in a weekend post on Instagram.
“I cover its history (including pre-1948), and our ongoing struggle for liberation and justice.
“My class is designed as a primer to help students and educators gain a foundational understanding of Palestine. My class is relevant to humanities subjects or can be run as a general incursion across year levels.”
In the post directed at “teachers, principals and school leaders”, Dr Abdel-Fattah said she had been speaking at schools in Australia and internationally since 2005 and urged potential participants to send her a direct message.
Dr Abdel-Fattah, who is understood to be on leave from the university, came to national attention after she organised a “kids excursion” in support of Palestine in which children were coached to chant “intifada” and call Israel a “terrorist state” in April 2024.
Her Australian Research Council grant to study the “hidden history” of “Arab/Muslim Australian social movements since the 1970s” was frozen in February after Mr Clare asked the body to investigate Dr Abdel-Fattah’s adherence to grant rules.
She had bragged that she was always looking for ways to “bend rules, and refuse and subvert them”.
The ARC confirmed it had engaged an auditing firm to ensure the grant application was “consistent with the purposes for which the funding was provided”.
It was also investigating whether instead of holding an academic conference, as was the condition of her grant, Dr Abdel-Fattah had instead asked for women to send their favourite quotes from “warriors, their feminist women, their scholars”.
Macquarie University agreed in February that Dr Abdel-Fattah had made “anti-Semitic” statements but the term was not well defined in law, meaning it could not easily pursue disciplinary action. A university spokesman said Dr Abdel-Fattah was assumed to be “making this offer in a personal capacity”.
“This is not an offer that has been raised by Dr Abdel-Fattah directly with Macquarie University,” he said. “The proposed activity is not being undertaken on behalf of the university.”
Mr Clare was contacted for comment.
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Israeli plan to ‘zone out’ Gazans
The Australian / The Times | Gabrielle Weiniger | 19 May 2025
The Israeli military proposes putting Gazan civilians into three tightly controlled strips of land separated by four occupied zones if a ceasefire deal with Hamas does not eventuate in days.
A map leaked by diplomats who were briefed on the details, seen by The Sunday Times, shows military zones cordoned off exclusively for troops in the north, centre and south of the shattered territory, with civilian areas in between. Civilians would be forbidden to travel between the sections without permission.
Security screening, including photo identification or bar codes, would be used for goods.
The restrictions would prevent Palestinians from moving freely throughout the strip, and could separate people from their land and homes, according to foreign companies assigned to distribute and manage humanitarian support, which were also briefed.
A spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces declined to confirm or deny details of the proposal.
The Israeli army has announced a military offensive is under way to take control of the entire Strip.
Over the past few days, Israeli jets have bombed sites across the area, killing some 250 people, according to the Gaza health ministry and civil defence officials.
The IDF said on X the operation would continue “until Hamas is no longer a threat and all our hostages are home”.
It has called for mass evacuations, pushing civilians into the southern areas north of Rafah, formerly a city of the displaced near the Egyptian border, parts of which have already been surrounded and cordoned off for military use.
The plan – entitled “Stage Three: the complete takeover of Gaza” – will lead to a new military corridor between southern and central Gaza. The new army zone appears slightly narrower than the existing Netzarim corridor, which is about 4km wide.
Sources indicate that army bulldozers will flatten the entire corridor over coming weeks, building military infrastructure to separate civilian sections north of Rafah and south of the Netzarim.
The map also shows that the northern military zone, above Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, will be expanded to make way for roads and army staging areas. A perimeter of white surrounds the entire strip, representing the widened buffer zone between Israel and Gaza.
The clearing of army zones in the centre of the Strip and the expanded military zone in the north will take at least three weeks and mark the first stage of a long-term strategy to control Gaza, entrenching Israel’s forces inside the Palestinian territory.
The map also shows up to 12 sites within civilian zones that suggest locations where humanitarian aid will be distributed.
These are part of a widely criticised Israeli plan, endorsed by the US, under which private companies would distribute aid.
The operation would be overseen by Israeli forces, similar to the partial privatisation of security checkpoints around the West Bank and Jerusalem, which control the movement of people and goods.
Israel sealed checkpoints previously used to bring in aid to Gaza on March 2 in what the government said was an effort to put pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages. It also accused Hamas of hijacking aid brought in by global charities.
The ground work is already being laid for the plan, with roads and infrastructure being built over what were people’s homes.
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Palestinian residents direct their anger at oppressive rulers
The Australian / Wall Street Journal | 19 May 2025
As the Gaza war nears its 20th month, pressure is building on Hamas from different fronts – not least of which is the growing anger among ordinary Palestinians who have had enough of the hunger, sleeplessness and the ever-present threat of Israeli airstrikes.
Israel says it has started to expand its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, potentially displacing more Palestinians and occupying territory.
The spectre of starvation is growing from two months of Israel blocking humanitarian aid into the enclave after a fragile ceasefire broke down.
A US-backed aid distribution is being planned, which Israel says would prevent Hamas profiting from seizures of food and fuel deliveries to civilians.
Few expected Hamas to be wrestling with the most visible internal challenge to its authority since it seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007: the people it professes to represent.
Hamas has ruled harshly, often jailing and killing its critics or threatening them into silence. Yet a simmering, continuing resistance has added to the pressure on Hamas, especially in northern Gaza, where the town of Beit Lahiya has been the epicentre of anti-Hamas protests since March.
The demonstrations quickly spread to other parts of the Gaza Strip. Chanting “Hamas out”, large crowds, often at great risk, have demanded an end to the war and Hamas to cede control of the enclave. Since then, smaller but boisterous protests have taken place, where fear of Hamas has seemingly evaporated.
On social media, influencers – many of them Palestinians based in Egypt, Turkey, Europe and the US – are urging Gazans to rise against Hamas and amplifying the protests globally.
They are filling a void created by militant threats against journalists in Gaza, forcing many reporters to self-censor coverage of opposition to Hamas, said the Committee to Protect Journalists.
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Anti-Semitism at uni
The Australian | Letters | 19 May 2025
Thank you for your thoughtful editorial on the appalling act of anti-Semitism during a meeting of students at Sydney University (Alarming show of student bigotry”, 17-18/5).
However, I take issue with your description that “anti-Semitism has penetrated our society, including among educated young people”. For these people to hold such views, they cannot be described as educated, unless of course they’re getting their education from social media.
Ruth Franklin, St Ives, NSW
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Oct 7 motive is revealed
Daily Telegraph (Courier-Mail) | 19 May 2025
Secret documents reportedly found by the Israeli military in a tunnel under war-ravaged Gaza have shed more light on why Hamas launched its deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The internal minutes of a meeting on October 2, released yesterday by The Wall Street Journal, reveal Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar said the group needed to carry out an “extraordinary act” to stop peace talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
He warned that a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia would lead other Arab and Muslim countries to follow suit, isolating Hamas and weakening the Palestinian cause, according to the WSJ.
Sinwar said the October 7 attack would be designed to cause a major shift in regional politics and he believed other Iranian-backed groups would support the move.
The attack was carried out just five days later, killing nearly 1200 people in Israel and setting off a brutal war that has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Gaza.
The WSJ reported intelligence officials and Arab sources familiar with Hamas believe the documents are real. They also showed that Hamas had been planning the assault for two years, with support from Iran in the form of weapons, training and money.
While Iran supported Hamas, officials said it did not want a full-scale war with Israel.
Most of Hamas’s top leaders involved in the attack have since been killed by Israeli forces, including Sinwar and his deputy Marwan Issa.
Last night it was reported that Sinwar’s brother, Mohammed Sinwar, was killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza last week, along with 10 of his aides.
Other Hamas documents reportedly found by the Israeli military show that in the months before the October 7 attack, the group focused on stirring conflict in the West Bank and Jerusalem to also destabilise Saudi-Israeli relations.
Relations between Hamas and Saudi Arabia had been tense, since the latter largely cut ties with the group after it violently took over Gaza in 2007. Saudi Arabia has since pushed for Palestinian rights through more traditional diplomatic channels.
A Saudi-Israel peace deal would have been the biggest breakthrough in the Middle East since Israel signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan.
In 2020, Israel normalised ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain but been unable to make a deal with Saudi Arabia.
Last week during a visit to Riyadh, US President Donald Trump said he hoped to restart his first-term effort to normalise relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
But Riyadh has made clear that in exchange for normalisation it wants US security guarantees, assistance with the kingdom’s nuclear program and progress on a pathway to Palestinian statehood.
Mr Trump skipped Israel on his first major foreign tour, which instead took him to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE over four days. Israel was also left out of a recent deal with Hamas to free an American hostage from Gaza.
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Israel, Netanyahu and Trump facing Gaza quandary
Daily Telegraph (& Herald-Sun) | Andrew Bolt | 19 May 2025
Time’s running out for Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who’ve just dug deeper into a war in Gaza they cannot win. Even US President Donald Trump seems to be moving on.
Yet Netanyahu last week ordered intensive bombing of Gaza ahead of a fresh ground offensive and set the IDF a Mission Impossible: to “complete the mission” by freeing hostages and “destroying Hamas”.
Hundreds more Palestinians have since been killed, to add to tens of thousands in 17 months of war that started with Hamas slaughtering 1200 Jews. But is Hamas anywhere near destroyed?
When it released some if its hostages during the ceasefire in February, hundreds of green bandana-wearing Hamas terrorists still emerged from tunnels.
Now the latest poll of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank by the respected Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research suggests that Hamas will have many more recruits to come.
It shows that 57 per cent of Palestinians still support Hamas, even though the war it started has left Gaza in ruins, and 73 per cent think that releasing all remaining hostages won’t end the war. Not that Hamas is likely to do so any time soon.
On the weekend, Hamas suggested that it could free nine remaining hostages in exchange for a 60-day truce, more Palestinian prisoners and the end of Israel’s aid blockade.
But Hamas actually still holds 57 hostages, many of them dead. There’s a long way to go to end this war on Netanyahu’s terms.
But is time on his side? Two weeks ago Trump abruptly ordered an end to the American bombing of bases in Yemen used by Houthi extremists to fire missiles at Israel and ships using the Suez Canal.
Trump claimed that “they gave us their word they wouldn’t be shooting ships anymore”. Wrong. The Houthis promised only to stop firing at American ships, not Israeli targets.
Trump then signed massive arms deals with Saudi Arabia and even Qatar, which he once correctly noted has funded the extremist Muslim Brotherhood and hosts the headquarters of Hamas.
A grateful Qatar gave Trump a $600 million luxury Boeing jet.
Trump even praised new Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa as “brave” and “attractive”, and promised to lift US sanctions on Syria.
But Israel doesn’t want Syria made stronger and doesn’t trust Sharaa. Sharaa was head of al-Qaeda in Syria and as recently as last year was still wanted by the Americans, with a reward of $10 million.
Trump has said nothing to suggest that his commitment to Israel is in doubt, but there’s a pattern here of Trump losing patience with wars and ending them by calling old enemies of the West his friend.
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Israel steps up its fight
Daily Telegraph (Herald-Sun, Courier-Mail) | 19 May 2025
GAZA CITY: As Israel reportedly killed hundreds in its intensified offensive in Gaza, Hamas has proposed releasing more hostages under a new ceasefire deal.
Amid negotiations in Doha on the weekend with Qatari and US mediators, Israel stepped up its campaign aimed at “the defeat of Hamas”, with rescuers in Gaza reporting at least 32 killed by Israeli strikes.
At least 300 people have been killed since Thursday, rescuers say, including at hospitals and refugee camps in the north and south of the Gaza Strip, the BBC reported.
Hamas proposed releasing nine hostages in exchange for a 60-day truce and Israel releasing Palestinian prisoners, a Palestinian official told the BBC.
In response, Israel demanded proof of life and detailed information about all remaining hostages. Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Before the weekend talks, Israel said it would not withdraw troops from Gaza or commit to an end to the war.
Israel’s military said the operation, named “Gideon’s Chariots’ marked “the expansion of the battle in the Gaza Strip, with the goal of achieving all the war’s objectives, including the release of the abducted and the defeat of Hamas”.
UN chief Antonio Guterres, addressing an Arab League summit in Baghdad, said he was “alarmed” at the escalation and called for “a permanent ceasefire, now”.
The summit’s final statement urged the international community “to exert pressure to end the bloodshed” and let in aid.
Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said the renewed offensive had brought Hamas back to the table.
Both sides have insisted on certain conditions in past talks, with Hamas saying disarmament was a red line and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unwilling to agree to a deal that would leave the group intact.
Netanyahu’s Likud party said he had been in continuous contact with the negotiating team throughout the talks in Doha, as well as with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, and had ordered the negotiators “to remain in Doha for the time being”.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, however, argued against a deal, saying “now is not the time to pull back”, but rather to go in “with full force and finish the job — conquer, seize the territory, crush the enemy, and free our hostages”.
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Nazi symbol seen at Palestine rally
Herald-Sun | Duncan Evans | 19 May 2025
A sign bearing a Nazi swastika was sighted at a “Nakba” rally in Melbourne on Sunday in an apparent affront to state laws banning Nazi symbols from public display.
The sign, which appeared at the rally marking the displacement of Palestinians during the creation of Israel in 1948, shows a red swastika imprinted against the Israeli flag, with the words “Zionism” at the top of the sign and “Nazism” on the bottom.
The man holding up the poster wore a jacket, cap and a keffiyeh scarf, a widely adopted symbol of Palestinian resistance against Israel.
Victoria has outlawed the display of Nazi symbols, which embody German dictator Adolf Hitler’s war machine and the slaughter of six millions Jews in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s. Victoria Police has confirmed it is investigating an “an offensive sign” sighted at the State Library shortly after noon.
“Police will assess the image against state legislation to determine if an offence has been committed,” a spokeswoman said.
About 2000 protesters took to the streets across Melbourne for Sunday’s rally.
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Israel to let food into Gaza as fresh assault continues
Canberra Times / AAP | Nidal Al-Mughrabi & Maayan Lubell | 19 May 2025
Israel will ease its blockade and let limited amounts of food into Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says, after the military announced it had begun “extensive ground operations” in the northern and southern parts of the enclave.
Facing mounting pressure over an aid blockade it imposed in March and the risk of famine, Israel has stepped up its campaign in Gaza, where Palestinian health officials said hundreds have been killed in attacks in the past week, of which 130 occurred overnight.
“At the recommendation of the IDF (Israel Defence Forces), and out of the operational need to enable the expansion of intense fighting to defeat Hamas, Israel will allow a basic amount of food for the population to ensure that a hunger crisis does not develop in the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu’s office said.
Israel made its announcement after sources on both sides said there had been no progress in a new round of indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Qatar.
Netanyahu said the talks included discussions on a truce and hostage deal as well as a proposal to end the war in return for the exile of Hamas militants and the demilitarisation of the enclave – terms Hamas has previously rejected.
The Israeli military suggested in a later statement that it could still scale down operations to help reach a deal in Doha.
Military chief Eyal Zamir told troops in Gaza that the army would provide the country’s leaders with the flexibility they need to reach a hostage deal, according to the statement.
Israel’s military said it had conducted a preliminary wave of strikes on more than 670 Hamas targets in Gaza over the past week to support “Gideon’s Chariots”, its new ground operation aimed at achieving “operational control” in parts of the enclave. It said it killed dozens of Hamas fighters.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said in the week to Sunday alone, at least 464 Palestinians were killed.
“Complete families were wiped off the civil registration record by (overnight) Israeli bombardment,” Khalil Al-Deqran, Gaza health ministry spokesperson, told Reuters by phone.
The Israeli campaign has devastated Gaza, pushing nearly all of its two million residents from their homes and killing more than 53,000 people, many of them civilians, according to Gaza health authorities.
Israel has blocked the entry of medical, food and fuel supplies into Gaza since the start of March to try to pressure Hamas into freeing its hostages and has approved plans that could involve seizing the entire Gaza Strip and controlling aid. International experts have warned of looming famine.
Asked about the Qatar talks, a Hamas official told Reuters: “Israel’s position remains unchanged, they want to release the prisoners (hostages) without a commitment to end the war.”
Hamas was still proposing to release all of its Israeli hostages in return for an end to the war, the pull-out of Israeli troops, an end to a blockade on aid for Gaza, and the release of Palestinian prisoners, the Hamas official said.
A senior Israeli official said there had been no progress in the talks so far. Israel’s declared goal in Gaza is the elimination of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas, which attacked Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing about 1200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 251 hostages.
In Israel, Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, said Netanyahu was refusing to end the war in exchange for the hostages because of political reasons.
“The Israeli government still insists on only partial deals. They are deliberately tormenting us. Bring our children back already! All 58 of them,” Zangauker said in a social media post.
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Israeli army begins ‘extensive’ new ground operations in Gaza
Netanyahu signals openness to deal with Hamas and says Israel will allow some aid into Gaza
The Guardian | Jason Burke & Malak A Tantesh | 19 May 2025
The Israeli army has announced the start of a large-scale offensive in Gaza, describing “extensive ground operations” to seize “operational control” of swaths of the devastated Palestinian territory as a second day of indirect ceasefire talks in Qatar ended without any breakthrough.
Israeli military officials said its forces had “eliminated dozens of terrorists, dismantled terrorist infrastructure sites … and [were] currently being deployed in key positions”.
Rescuers and medical sources said as many as 130 people, including many women and children, were killed in a wave of Israeli strikes overnight and through Sunday on neighbourhoods in the north, centre and south of Gaza.
Hours after the military announced it had launched the new ground operation, the prime minister’s office said Israel would allow some food into Gaza.
“Israel will allow a basic amount of food for the population to ensure that a hunger crisis does not develop in the Gaza Strip,” Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
Earlier on Sunday, Netanyahu signalled Israel was open to striking a deal with Hamas that involved “ending the fighting”, though the Israeli prime minister laid out conditions that have been repeatedly refused by the militant Islamist organisation.
“Even at this very moment, the negotiation team in Doha is working to exhaust every possibility for a deal … which would include the release of all the hostages, the exile of Hamas terrorists and the disarmament of the Gaza Strip,” his office said in a statement.
A Hamas official told Reuters that Israel’s position remained unchanged. “They want to release the [hostages] without a commitment to end the war,” the official said.
In Gaza, medical officials said they could not cope with the casualties from the most recent strikes. “Hospitals are overwhelmed with the growing number of casualties, many are children, and … are struggling with shortages of medical supplies,” Khalil al-Deqran, the territory’s health ministry spokesperson, said.
More than 48 people were killed in airstrikes in and around the southern city of Khan Younis, some of which hit houses and tents sheltering displaced people, according to medics at Nasser hospital, who said more than half of the dead were women and children.
Fatima al-Rahal, 34, who has remained near her ruined home in the northern town of Beit Lahiya described a “nightmare”.
”We can’t sleep at night from the intense fear. The sound of the bombing is terrifying … Our situation is worse than I can describe. It is truly catastrophic. We have nothing left but hope that this war will end as soon as possible,” Rahal told the Guardian.
Basel al-Barawi, 46, fled Beit Lahiya with his family on Sunday after 10 relatives were killed.
“Only a six-year-old girl survived, and she is now in the hospital. We started pulling them from under the rubble – their features were disfigured, their bodies covered in dirt, their clothes torn. Their skin had turned grey from the ash and dust. I felt my heart tearing apart as I carried them,” Barawi said.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry. Israel has accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields, which the group denies.
Hamas took about 250 hostages during its October 2023 attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Fifty-eight hostages are held by Hamas, most of whom are thought to be dead.
The indirect talks in Qatar are reportedly focusing on securing a two-month truce, with Hamas freeing about half the 20 or so living hostages it is still holding. In return, Israel would release hundreds of Palestinians from its jails and end the total blockade it has placed on Gaza since early March. The US would offer strong guarantees to ensure talks about a permanent end to the war took place. However, sources on both sides said there had been no progress by late Sunday afternoon.
In March, Israel refused to engage in talks about a second phase of a fragile two-month ceasefire that could have led to an end to the conflict and the release of the remaining hostages. It then cut off all supplies to Gaza and relaunched its air offensive.
Netanyahu has been repeatedly accused of prolonging the war for domestic political reasons – which he denies – and has frequently promised that Israel will continue to fight until Hamas is “crushed”.
In Israel, Einav Zangauker, the mother of a hostage still held by Hamas, said Netanyahu was refusing to end the war because of his political interests. “The Israeli government still insists on only partial deals. They are deliberately tormenting us. Bring our children back already! All 58 of them,” Zangauker said in a post on X.
Hamas, which released a US-Israeli hostage last week as a goodwill gesture before Donald Trump travelled to the Middle East for a four-day visit, has always insisted on a deal that definitively ends the war and leads to the withdrawal of Israel’s forces. It has also refused to disarm or to accept the exile of its leaders.
Israel, which claims Hamas systematically loots aid to fund its military and other operations, has put forward a plan to distribute humanitarian assistance from a series of hubs in Gaza run by private contractors and protected by Israeli troops.
The US has backed the plan, which has been described as unworkable, dangerous and potentially unlawful by aid agencies because it could lead to the forced mass transfer of populations. Food security experts have warned that any delay will cost lives, and that cases of acute malnutrition, particularly among young children, are soaring.
The massive new offensive, the recent strikes and the tight blockade imposed on Gaza in March by Israel have prompted a growing wave of international concern and anger. The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, on Friday said the bombing campaign aimed at bringing about a “permanent demographic shift in Gaza” that was in “defiance of international law” and was equivalent to ethnic cleansing.
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Israel begins major ground operations in Gaza after more than 460 Palestinians killed in a week
ABC / AFP | Matthew Doran | 19 May 2025
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-19/israeli-military-begins-major-gaza-ground-offensive/105307490
- The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has started sending more ground forces into northern and southern Gaza as part of a major expansion of its offensive in the strip.
- Palestinian health authorities say more than 460 people have been killed in intense Israeli strikes over the past week.
- Netanyahu says Israel will introduce a “basic amount of food” to the population of Gaza, in what appears to be a lifting of the total aid blockade.
Israel has announced it has begun sending troops into northern and southern Gaza, marking a dramatic escalation in its operations in the war-ravaged strip.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also says his country will introduce a “basic amount of food” to the population of Gaza, in what appears to be a lifting of the total aid blockade.
A fortnight ago, Mr Netanyahu announced his cabinet had approved plans to take control of large swathes of land in Gaza, laying the foundations for indefinite occupation of the territory.
The plans had not been put into action while US President Donald Trump was in the Middle East.
But on Sunday afternoon, local time, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the so-called “Operation Gideon’s Chariots” had started.
Air raid sirens sounded in southern Israel on Sunday afternoon, as the army said two projectiles were launched from Gaza, with one intercepted.
The Israeli military later urged evacuations for several parts of Gaza ahead of an attack, warning it would “launch a powerful strike on any area used for launching rockets”.
In the last week, Israeli air strikes across Gaza intensified, with Palestinian health authorities reporting more than 460 people were killed.
“Over the past week, the Israeli Air Force conducted a preliminary wave of strikes, striking over 670 Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip to disrupt enemy preparations and support ground operations,” the IDF said in a statement.
“Among the targets struck were weapon storage facilities, underground terrorist infrastructure sites, anti-tank missile launchers as well as terrorists.”
Israel will allow a ‘basic amount’ of food aid into Gaza
In a statement, Mr Netanyahu’s office says the decision to introduce a “basic amount of food” to the population of Gaza had been made to ensure famine does not develop in Gaza and that Israel’s expanded military campaign in the territory is not jeopardised.
Israel imposed a total blockade of all humanitarian aid to Gaza in early March, in what it said was an attempt to pressure Hamas into releasing the remaining Israeli hostages the militant group still holds.
Humanitarian agencies have been warning for weeks that Gaza is teetering on the brink of famine, and aid needs to be let into the strip immediately.
Mr Netanyahu’s office has not explained what a “basic amount of food” is, but says any aid deliveries will bypass Hamas.
Meanwhile, health workers in Gaza said Israeli strikes killed at least 103 people on Saturday night and Sunday morning.
The IDF said dozens of terrorists had been killed in the last week, but did not provide evidence as to who they were.
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz told a committee hearing in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, the government believed Hamas’s military commander in Gaza had been killed in one strike.
The attack on a claimed Hamas command centre and tunnel network underneath the European Hospital in Khan Younis, using bunker-busting missiles, killed at least 16 people and injured more than 70 others.
Mr Katz told the committee all indications were that Mohammed Sinwar, the brother of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, had been killed in the strike — although formal confirmation was still outstanding.
Gaza’s health ministry warned of the impact of the campaign on the strip’s hospital network, reporting the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya had been forced to shut down, given the fighting happening in the area around it.
Peace talks continue
The expanded military operation in Gaza came as teams of negotiators began fresh talks on the future of the war in the Qatari capital, Doha.
Delegates from Israel and Hamas had begun discussions on another hostage release and ceasefire proposal, but little to no progress had been made early on in the negotiations.
Various reports suggested Hamas was prepared to release a number of the remaining 58 hostages in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire.
In recent months, Hamas had offered to release all hostages in exchange for an end to the war.
The militant group has repeatedly accused Israel of trying to avoid negotiations on formally ending the war, instead focusing on Hamas laying down its weapons as a precursor to such discussions.
Mr Netanyahu had promised to continue any negotiations with Hamas “under fire”, refusing to halt or restrain Israel’s military activity in Gaza as talks continued.
Last week, Hamas released the sole surviving Israeli American hostage, 21-year-old soldier Edan Alexander, in a gesture of good faith aimed at kickstarting stalled negotiations.
Mr Netanyahu faces widespread criticism among the Israeli public over his management of the war, with accusations he is prolonging the conflict to shore up his political fortunes rather than retrieving hostages.
Thousands joined rallies in Israel over the weekend, demanding he make a deal with Hamas.
Vocal right-wing members of Mr Netanyahu’s coalition government demanded he continue fighting and totally occupy the strip.
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