Palestine updates: Gaza truce reported between warring sides

Damage to essential infrastructure has been reported across the Gaza Strip, the UN has said.

Israeli air raids near health facilities damaged al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah and the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, in addition to two primary healthcare clinics in Khan Younis and northern Gaza.

Separately, shrapnel fell inside four UNRWA schools, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

Palestinians have taken to the streets to celebrate a ceasefire announced by Egypt and confined by the Islamic Jihad movement on Saturday.

Flags were flown and car horns were honked, as emergency lights lit up the streets.

Human Rights Watch’s Palestine/Israel director has welcomed reports of a ceasefire in Gaza, but warned that the status quo in the coastal enclave is unsustainable as long as Israel’s siege and occupation persist.

Great news. But remember there'll be no end to the closure. No end to apartheid. No end to occupation. No end to blocking return of refugees. Maybe even no end to assassinations or releasing body of dead hunger striker. History will repeat so long as there's impunity & apartheid. https://t.co/iKhTwsVFvo

— Omar Shakir (@OmarSShakir) May 13, 2023

Cairo, which brokered the ceasefire, has called on all sides to adhere to the agreement, Egypt’s Al-Qahera News television channel reported.

“In the light of the agreement of the Palestinian and the Israeli side, Egypt announces a ceasefire between the Palestinian and the Israeli side has been reached,” a text of the agreement seen by Reuters read, and added the truce would begin at 10pm local time (19:00 GMT).

“The two sides will abide by the ceasefire which will include an end to targeting civilians, house demolition, an end to targeting individuals immediately when the ceasefire goes into effect,” it said.

Islamic Jihad confirmed a truce had been reached. “We declare our acceptance of the Egyptian announcement and we will abide by it as long as the occupation [Israel] abides by it,” said the group’s spokesman Dawoud Shehab.

There was no immediate confirmation from Israel, which rarely acknowledges such agreements with Palestinian factions.

The ceasefire has been reiterated by Mohammed al-Hindi, the president of the political department of Islamic Jihad and there are hopes that this truce will hold, but Al Jazeera’s Issam Adwan says that “based on previous experiences, nothing is confirmed”.

Reporting from Gaza, Adwan said it is difficult to ascertain whether two conditions will hold: Whether Israel will not target civilian residential buildings and whether it will stop the individual targeting of Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders.

A leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group in Gaza says a ceasefire has been reached with Israel to end five days of heavy fighting. There has been no confirmation from Israel.

Mohammed al-Hindi told the Al Kahera Wal Nas channel that the Egyptian-brokered deal would go into effect at 10pm local time (19:00 GMT).

“Now, this agreement has been reached thanks to continuous Egyptian effort. We appreciate this effort,” he said.

Israel and Palestinian factions have reportedly agreed to an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire that will start at 10pm (19:00 GMT), two Palestinian officials told the Reuters news agency.

There was no immediate confirmation from Israel.

Cairo called on all sides to adhere to the agreement, Egypt’s Al-Qahera News television channel reported.

“Nothing is confirmed. That’s why we are being careful with regards to this ceasefire because we have been disappointed before by those speculations,” said Al Jazeera’s Issam Adwan, reporting from Gaza.

The ICRC in Israel and the Occupied Territories has said that the continuing closure of border crossings into Gaza is aggravating living conditions made dire by 16 years of siege. It urged “steps … to prevent a deterioration of the humanitarian situation”.

For families and communities in #Gaza, the current hostilities come on top of 16 years of restrictions on movement of goods and people. The ongoing closure of border crossings only makes this worse. Urgent steps are needed to prevent a deterioration of the humanitarian situation. pic.twitter.com/lkR74ettNk

— ICRC in Israel & OT (@ICRC_ilot) May 13, 2023

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has called for international support to put a halt to Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip and to reopen the border crossings in order to allow entry of medical and food supplies, fuel, and other essentials.

In a statement, the ministry said the Israeli government’s refusal to allow entry of medical and food supplies into the besieged Gaza Strip a blatant violation of international law, the Geneva Convention, and international humanitarian law.

Israeli officials have told media that Egyptian-led efforts to broker a cease-fire were still under way, but that Israel has ruled out the conditions presented by Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the talks.

Israel has said only that quiet will be answered with quiet, while Islamic Jihad has been demanding a halt to assassinations of its members.

Israel’s military chief, Herzi Halevi, said Israel had made “significant achievements” throughout the fighting and that Islamic Jihad’s continued fire “enables us to continue to make further achievements”.

“We are prepared to continue the targeted strikes and striking in a precise and increasing manner,” he added.

Foreigners and international organisations staff have been allowed to leave or be evacuated from Gaza tonight through the Beit Hanoun/Erez crossing.

This has led to criticism among some Palestinians, who are being denied the same right.

Footage are circulating now for the immediate evacuation of foreigners from #Gaza. We are then reminded that the line between survival and being stuck here is blonde hair, colorful eyes and the impunity of a foreign passport. Those who claim coming to “save us” are saved first.

— Asmaa AbuMezied (@AAbumezied) May 13, 2023

The only power plant in the Gaza Strip may be shut down soon as fuel supplies are depleting amid a continuing Israeli onslaught on the coastal enclave, according to the Presidential Committee to Coordinate the Entry of Fuel and Goods into Gaza.

Israeli authorities have closed all crossings into Gaza since Tuesday, cutting off access for the fuel trucks that supply the plant. The restrictions are an intensification of a siege that has been in place since 2007.

A shutdown of Gaza’s only power plant would have a grave impact on the daily life of over two million people and vital services in the Strip, the committee said.

The Ministry of Social Development said that 94 families, comprising 535 people, have had their sources of livelihood affected by the Israeli shelling.

Families who have lost their only source of income include owners of stalls, day labourers, and the owners of shops that were destroyed, among others.

Gaza already suffers from a 60 percent poverty rate and a 44 percent unemployment rate.

In a statement, the ministry said it has provided more than $26,000 worth of financial and humanitarian assistance to 268 affected families across the Gaza Strip.

Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary-general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), today called for the reopening of the crossings into the besieged Gaza Strip after five days of closure by Israel.

“We call on the US, the international community and our Arab brothers to pressure occupation authorities [Israel] to immediately stop the aggression against the Palestinian people,” he said.

“We call on international and humanitarian institutions to intervene quickly to open the crossings with the Gaza Strip and transfer the injured for treatment,” he said in a tweet.

Israel closed all the crossings into the Gaza Strip when it started its military assault on the coastal enclave on May 9, causing serious shortages in food and medical supplies, as well as fuel to run power generators.

In the midst of this continuous aggression against our people in the #Gaza Strip and the rest of the country, we call on the #USA, the international community and our #Arab brothers to put pressure on the occupation authorities to immediately stop the aggression against the… https://t.co/6oqk9yJyye

— حسين الشيخ Hussein AlSheikh (@HusseinSheikhpl) May 13, 2023

Shrapnel from a Palestinian rocket that landed in the southern Naqab/Negev desert killed a 35-year-old Palestinian labourer from Gaza and severely wounded another.

Four people were moderately wounded, Israeli medics said.

At least 33 Palestinians have been killed, six of them children and three women, according to Palestinian health officials. More than 147 have been wounded.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the official spokesman for the presidency, has said that Israel and the United States are responsible for the deterioration of security in the occupied territories.

Abu Rudeineh held the Israeli government responsible for serious crimes committed across the Palestinian territories, which, he warned, will have repercussions on the stability of the entire region.

He said that the US administration also bears responsibility for remaining silent about Israeli crimes and for its failure to immediately intervene.

Almost 800 Palestinians have been displaced by the Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip, which began on Tuesday.

According to the Ministry of Social Development in the besieged coastal enclave, 784 people have been internally displaced.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has called on the United Nations to urgently intervene to stop the Israeli assaults on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

In a statement released by the government news agency Wafa, Shtayyeh also called for activating international laws to boycott Israel for its crimes against humanity, and not to allow the perpetrators to go unpunished.

The prime minister said the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces this morning in Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus, and the continuing aggression on the Gaza Strip are an extension to the killing and displacement policies against Palestinians during the Nakba in 1948, whose 75th anniversary is currently being observed.

The latest round of Israeli air raids, which began on Tuesday, destroyed 15 residential blocks, containing more than 50 apartments, the Gaza interior ministry has said. In addition, 940 buildings have been damaged, 49 beyond repair.

Eyad al-Bozom, spokesman for the Hamas-run interior ministry, has rejected the Israeli allegation that they make every feasible measure to mitigate harm to civilians as much as possible, saying they meant to “justify their crimes against innocent civilians”.

“We stress that the residential blocks destroyed by the occupation were inhabited by civilians. Allegations by the occupation that these houses contained military targets are false and incorrect,” al-Bozom said in a statement.

Gaza resident Dina el-Dhani was due to meet her oncologist this week at a hospital in Jerusalem.

But she has been unable to cross into Israel since the border was closed amid heavy fighting between Israel and Palestinian fighters.

“We can say that the crossing is life, because as patients, we only have treatment in Israel. The border crossing either enhances my treatment or enhances my death. So, if I don’t get a permit, it either delays my treatment or speeds up my death,” she said.

Dhani is one of 432 cancer patients who have not been able to receive treatment since Tuesday, when Israel launched an offensive on Gaza.

Her appointment with a doctor at a Jerusalem hospital was meant to determine which radiation treatment she will receive.

Due to the blockade on the coastal enclave which has caused shortages of medical equipment and medicine, Gaza’s hospitals are unable to provide proper care for cancer patients.

So most travel to Israel, Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank, or other countries for treatment.

Palestinian health officials blame the 16-year-old blockade for undermining the development of the health sector.