‘Operation al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 223:  Israeli army withdraws from Zeitoun area after sustaining casualties, intensifies combat in Jabalia and Rafah

Casualties 

• 35,272 + killed* and at least 79,205 wounded in the Gaza Strip.*
• 503+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.**
• Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,139.
• 626 Israeli soldiers have been announced as killed by the Israeli army since October 7, and at least 3,431 have been announced as wounded.***

*Gaza’s Ministry of Health confirmed this figure on its Telegram channel on May 9, 2024. Some rights groups estimate the death toll to be much higher when accounting for those presumed dead.

** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to the PA’s Ministry of Health on May 16, this is the latest figure.

*** These figures are released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” The number of Israeli soldiers wounded according to Israeli media reports exceeds 6,800 as of April 1.

Key Developments 

• Israel kills 184 Palestinians, wounds 412 since Monday, May 13, across Gaza, raising the death toll since October 7 to 35,272 and the number of wounded to 79,205, according to the Gaza health ministry.
• Israel’s war minister Gallant says that Israel will not directly run the Gaza Strip after the war, says war will continue until “dismantling Hamas.”
• Netanyahu says that he refuses to discuss the “day after” before dismantling Hamas.
• Israeli forces withdraw from the Zeitoun neighborhood in northern Gaza after a week-long military operation in the area in which the army reportedly sustained heavy casualties.
• Israeli forces increase their invasion of Jabalia and Rafah amidst fierce fighting with Palestinian resistance.
• The Gaza-based Palestinian health ministry announces it has run out of children’s vaccinations due to Israel’s closure of the Rafah crossing.
• Fires spread in northern Galilee after dozens of rockets from south Lebanon strike the area.
• Israel kills five Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem since Wednesday, May 15.

Israel kills 184 Palestinians since Monday, fighting intensifies in Jabalia and Zeitoun

The Gaza-based Palestinian health ministry announced that the remaining hospitals in the Gaza Strip received 184 Palestinians who were killed in Israeli strikes since Monday, May 13, while 412 others arrived wounded.

Meanwhile, local media sources reported that Israeli forces withdrew from the Zeitoun neighborhood on Wednesday after a week-long raid of the area for the second time since the beginning of the war. Israeli forces reportedly sustained heavy casualties during the fighting in the Zeitoun area. Meanwhile, the Israeli army continued its invasion of Rafah, south of the Strip, and Jabalia, in the north, amidst stiff resistance put up by Palestinian fighters.

On Wednesday, the Israeli army announced that five of its soldiers were killed and 16 were wounded in an ambush by Palestinian fighters in Jabalia. Israeli social media accounts published video footage before the official announcement of military helicopters landing at the Israeli Shaarei Tzedek hospital, presumably evacuating wounded Israeli soldiers. Palestinian resistance groups reported attacking Israeli troops in the north and in Rafah.

The Palestinian Civil Defense announced that during the invasion of Zeitoun, Israeli troops destroyed 200 houses and five shelter centers, from where thousands of people fled to the center of Gaza City and other areas. In the central Gaza Strip, Israeli strikes targeted the area between Wadi Gaza and the Mighraqa village.

In Rafah, Israeli strikes targeted at least three family houses and the displaced tents area west of the city.

Israeli war minister challenges Netanyahu over ‘day after’

Israeli war minister Yoav Gallant said in a press conference on Wednesday that he opposes the establishment of an Israeli military rule in the Gaza Strip after the current war.

Gallant criticized what he called “a growing tendency” within Israel’s war cabinet for supporting Israeli military rule in the Strip, describing it as “dangerous.” Gallant called upon Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to “make a decision in a moment of national testing, even if it means paying a political price.”

Meanwhile, Netanyahu said that he refused to discuss “the day after” so long as Hamas has not been dismantled in Gaza, insisting on continuing the war in pursuit of a military solution.

However, Israeli media reported that Netanyahu will head a cabinet meeting on Thursday to discuss “the day after” and the “danger” of the return of the Palestinian Authority to run Gaza after the war.

Israel kills five Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem in less than 24 hours

Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in a raid on Tulkarem, northwest of the West Bank, early on Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry announced in a statement. The three men were Ayman Mubarak, 26, Husam Daabas, 22, and Muhammad Nasrallah, 27. Crowds of Palestinians in the city marched with their bodies from the Thabet Thabet hospital to the Tulkarem cemetery on Thursday at noon, where they were laid to rest.

ِAlso on Thursday morning, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian teenager in Jerusalem and claimed that he attempted to stab Israelis in Jerusalem’s Old City. The teenager was identified as Nur Shehab, 17, from the Sowana neighborhood in the city. The lawyer of the Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Jerusalem later reported that the Israeli police had arrested Shehab’s parents at their home. Israeli forces withheld Shehab’s body.

On Wednesday afternoon, Israeli forces opened fire at Palestinian protesters at Ramallah’s north entrance, who were commemorating Nakba day, killing a student at Birzeit University.

The slain student was Aysar Safi, 20, a second-year student at Birzeit’s physical education faculty, from the Jalazon refugee camp north of the city. Safi was hit by a live bullet fired by Israeli soldiers while taking part in the Nakba day protests and was transferred to the Ramallah public hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after his arrival.

Hundreds of Palestinian students gathered at Birzeit University and carried Aysar Safi’s body in a funeral procession within the campus, before heading to his home in the Jalazon refugee camp, where he was given a second funeral procession in the alleys of the camp before being taken to his final resting place.

Safi had been active in student and youth groups since he was in high school. His friends recalled his participation in volunteer work activities and told Mondoweiss that he was considered “the youngest brother” by his group of friends.

“Aysar was very kind and caring, but he was also very energetic and active,” a friend of his who asked not to be named told Mondoweiss. He felt strongly about the prisoners in the occupation jails, especially student detainees, and was always present at their release to welcome them. He was very optimistic about a potential prisoner exchange that would see them all released.” 

Aysar Safi’s own father and older brother are both prisoners in Israeli jails. He took care of his father’s aluminum workshop since his father’s arrest and worked in it while studying at the same time.

“Aysar was very responsible, hard-working, and hard-studying, very good at football and progressing in his learning of sports education,” his uncle told journalists at his funeral. “We had high hopes in him.” His mother, still in denial, refused to speak to the media, while surrounded by Aysar’s friends and his two younger siblings.

Since October 7, Israeli forces or settlers have killed 503 Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem.