🎥 Israeli news channel Kan 11 published a recording on Monday by Yoav Gallant, Defence Minister of Israel, where he stated his rejection of the establishment of a Palestinian state.

He also added that people should "ignore" the statements made by the US on the matter as “they already understand that a Palestinian Authority won’t exist”

The top-ranking general in the US criticised on Monday Israel’s military strategy in Gaza, warning that the failure of Israeli forces to both secure captured territory and eliminate Hamas from northern Gaza is hampering its ability to achieve its military objectives.

“Not only do you have to actually go in and clear out whatever adversary you are up against, you have to go in, hold the territory and then you’ve got to stabilise it,” said General Charles Brown, who chairs the joint chiefs of staff, as reported by Politico.

The comments by Brown were a rare moment of criticism from the American military, which has aided Israel in its war on Gaza by providing military equipment and assistance through intelligence-sharing

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🔴 RECAP #Israel #Palestine (as of 23:30 GMT, 21 May)

• The head of the WHO urged Israel to lift its blockade on Gaza

• US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken suggested the Biden administration was ready to work on sanctioning ICC officials with Congress

• At least 7 Palestinians were killed during an Israeli raid on Jenin

• Israel seized and later returned the Associated Press’s broadcasting equipment

• The UN halted all food distribution to Gaza's southern city of Rafah

• Israeli strikes on Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza damaged an intensive care unit and administrative facilities trapping medical workers and patients

• Norway became the first country to announce it would arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if the ICC issued an arrest warrant for him

• The US said new routes are being used to move aid from a pier in Gaza to warehouses after desperate Palestinians intercepted deliveries

• The US faulted Egypt for the closure of Rafah border crossing, wading into Cairo’s dispute with Israel

📰 Israeli forces attacked two hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip as it pushed deeper into the Jabalia refugee camp and increased bombardment of crowded Rafah districts.

Artillery shelling hit al-Awda Hospital, north of Jabalia, which has been under Israeli siege since the weekend.

Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia was also shelled, forcing bed-ridden patients and medical staff to evacuate.

On Monday, the medical team at al-Awda said that snipers were “aiming at the building and an artillery rocket hitting the fifth floor, where the administration department is located,” according to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

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🎥 World Health Organization chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated on Tuesday that north Gaza's al-Awda hospital has been “under siege” for the last two days.

WHO representative in the Palestinian territories Dr Rick Peeperkorn adds that staff there are reporting both sniper and artillery attacks

In a press conference the Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store announced on Wednesday morning that his country will recognise an independent Palestinian state on May 28.

“There cannot be peace in the Middle East if there is no recognition,” said Store.

Ireland has also announced that it recognises Palestine as a state.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that his country will recognise the state of Palestine on 28 May too.

In response, Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz ordered a recall of its ambassadors to Ireland and Norway citing the countries’ decision to recognise a Palestinian state on Wednesday.

“I’m sending today a clear message,” said Katz, “Israel won’t overlook those who undercut its sovereignty and endanger its security.”

Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir arrived in occupied East Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque for the first time since the war started in October.

The move is highly provocative and comes as Ireland, Spain and Norway recognise Palestine as a state.

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🎥 "Blinken is a war criminal."

On Tuesday pro-Palestine protesters disrupted US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Senate testimony.

Protesters called Blinken out for supporting Israel's ongoing war in Gaza.
One of the protesters referred to Blinken as the "butcher of Gaza", as police were escorting him out of the building.

📰 For decades, Egypt has prided itself on being a powerful player in the Gaza Strip. Now, with the Rafah crossing in Israeli hands and a US-built pier funnelling aid in by sea, questions are being raised about whether Egypt really has much significance for the Gaza conflict anymore.

🔗 Read the full article: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/egypt-rafah-crossing-gaza-pier-end-historic-leverage

🎥 A patient was evacuated from Kamal Adwan Hospital in Northern Gaza on Tuesday while still in a hospital bed after the Israeli military targeted the hospital and its emergency department with air strikes.

The patient’s family was seen pushing the hospital bed across public roads, not knowing their destination.

Patients and medical staff were forced to evacuate the hospital after it was reportedly bombed four times, damaging an intensive care unit and administrative facilities.

🎥 Pro-Palestine protesters disrupted a speech by Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Tuesday at the Institute for Public Policy Research in London.

The protesters accused Lammy of being “complicit in genocide” over his choice to abstain on a Gaza ceasefire vote last year and called him out for accepting “£70,000 from a pro-Israel lobbyist”. Lammy responded by calling the accusations of accepting lobbying money “shameful and antisemitic” and repeated that he and the Labour party supported have since supported calls for a ceasefire.

🎥 Israel's national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on Wednesday.

In a video taken from the courtyards of the mosque, the far-right minister said the Jerusalem site "belongs only to the state of Israel".

His visit came as Spain, Ireland and Norway announced their recognition of the state of Palestine, which in turn prompted Israel to recall its ambassadors.

🎥 “If they’ll do this to Israel, we’re next.”

US Senator Lindsey Graham called for sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday after the court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced on Monday that he filed an application to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

Graham made the comments as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was testifying at Capitol Hill, and urged Blinken to take action after highlighting that the ICC might pursue arrests of Americans in the future.

New footage obtained by Al Jazeera shows Israeli troops removing corpses from different locations in Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, and loading them into trucks, following the initial Israeli raid on the Strip's biggest medical complex in November.

Al-Shifa and its surroundings have been raided at least four times since the start of the war on 7 October, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

In the video, which was filmed on 16 November, Israeli soldiers are seen placing wrapped dead bodies on stretchers after they had taken them out from the hospital's morgue, a temporary mass grave in the hospital’s courtyard, and a tent where piles of corpses were stored.

🎥 “'The Autobiography of Malcolm X' remains the most powerful narrative for spiritual redemption that we have written in the English language.”

Prof. Rudolph Ware, aka Butchware, speaks about how Malcolm X’s autobiography awakened him spiritually and inspired him to study history.

Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/EoJI_e0JplU?si=VWrMDDLVoN6M6uQ2

🎥 During Wednesday's question time in the House of Commons, Labour politician Zarah Sultana asked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak whether the UK is prepared to uphold international law regarding Israel and to end arms sales.

📰 An AI programme that is being developed in a Saudi collaboration with IBM is due to work with several Arabic dialects, according to the companies.

The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority has announced that its Arabic large language model for text generation will be included in IBM's AI and data platform, watsonx.

Examples of where it can be used include scripting for video games and customer service chatbots for companies.

SDAIA's LLM, known as ALLaM, is notable for its ability to retrieve and generate information in both audio and text formats in multiple Arabic dialects, an ability that developers have struggled with for years.

"This collaboration will serve as a catalyst for further technological advancements," said Esam Alwagait, director of the SDAIA of his organisation's partnership with IBM, one of the world's oldest technology companies.

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