Over 280 Palestinians dead in 'Nuseirat massacre' as Gantz quits Israeli war cabinet
GAZA STRIP
Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz on Sunday announced his resignation amid celebrations for the rescue of four hostages from war-torn Gaza in a raid that Palestinians say killed hundreds.
Gantz's resignation is the latest sign of sharpening domestic dissent over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the eight-month war, and is the first major political blow to him during the conflict.
It came after an Israeli operation on Saturday in central Gaza's crowded Nuseirat refugee camp area as they swooped in to free the four captives.
The Israeli military said the extraction team and captives came under heavy gun and grenade fire, which killed one police officer, while Israel's air force launched strikes that reduced nearby buildings to rubble.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said over 280 people were killed and 698 wounded, in what it labelled the "Nuseirat massacre", figures that could not be independently verified.
Among those were at least 64 children, 57 women and 37 elderly people, the ministry said.
"People were screaming — young and old, women and men," said Nuseirat resident Muhannad Thabet, 35.
"Everyone wanted to flee the place, but the bombing was intense and anyone who moved was at risk of being killed due to the heavy bombardment and gunfire."
Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41, had been abducted from the Nova music festival during Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war.
The army released footage of the freed captives embracing their family members, and the government press office showed Netanyahu visiting them in hospital.
Mounting pressure
Gantz's resignation comes after he had issued an ultimatum to Netanyahu to present a post-war plan for Gaza by June 8.
Netanyahu responded by telling Gantz it was "not the time to abandon the battle".
While Gantz's resignation will not bring the premier's right-wing government down, it reflects growing domestic pressure over Netanyahu's failure to return remaining hostages.
A senior military commander, Brigadier General Avi Rosenfeld, also resigned Sunday over what he called his failure to prevent the Oct. 7 attack.
Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, claimed that other hostages were killed during the rescue operation, and warned that conditions would worsen for the remaining captives.
"The operation will pose a great danger (for) the enemy's prisoners and will have a negative impact on their conditions," spokesman Abu Obaida wrote on Telegram.
Dozens were exchanged in a November truce for Palestinian prisoners. After Saturday's rescue operation, 116 hostages remain in Gaza, although the army says 41 of them are dead.
Subsequent fighting saw four members of one family killed when an air strike hit their house in Gaza City's Al-Daraj area, in the territory's north, according to Al-Ahli hospital medics.
Israeli helicopters were also firing east of the Bureij camp, near Nuseirat, witnesses told AFP.
And heavy artillery shelling hit central and northern areas of Rafah, said officials in the southern city.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell welcomed the hostage release and said reports "of another massacre of civilians are appalling... the bloodbath must end immediately".
US calls on Security Council to vote on backing Gaza ceasefire plan
The United States announced Sunday it has requested a U.N. Security Council vote on its draft resolution backing a plan for an "immediate ceasefire with the release of hostages" between Israel and Hamas.
Diplomatic sources said the vote is planned for Monday, but has not yet been confirmed by South Korea, which holds the Security Council presidency for the month of June.
"Today, the United States called for the Security Council to move towards a vote... supporting the proposal on the table," said Nate Evans, spokesman for the U.S. delegation, without specifying a vote date.
"Council members should not let this opportunity pass by and must speak with one voice in support of this deal," Evans said.
Blinken heads to Middle East
United States President Joe Biden on May 31 launched a new push for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, but without any tangible results so far.
Hamas has insisted on a permanent truce and full Israeli withdrawal from all parts of Gaza — demands that Israel has firmly rejected.
Hamas's Qatar-based chief Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday condemned the "horrific massacre" in Nuseirat and insisted that "any agreement reached must include a permanent cessation of aggression, a complete withdrawal from the strip, an exchange deal and reconstruction".
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit the Middle East from Monday for his eighth regional tour since the Oct. 7 attack, with stops planned in Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Qatar.
Blinken on Saturday again insisted that "the only thing standing in the way of achieving this ceasefire is Hamas. It is time for them to accept the deal."
Israel launched its war on Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel's offensive has killed more than 37,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.
The war has brought widespread devastation to Gaza and displaced most of its 2.4 million inhabitants, many whom are on the brink of starvation.
Aid has arrived only sporadically by truck, airdrops and sea.
The U.S. military said a temporary pier that had suffered storm damage late last month had been rebuilt and used on Saturday to deliver about 492 tonnes of "much needed humanitarian assistance".