Relations between the White House, Senate and Congress over the issue of arms supplies to Israel are increasingly tense: the United States House of Representatives has approved legislation aimed at preventing President Biden from stopping arms sales to Israel. The law passed with the support of 224 lawmakers, most of them Republicans and 16 Democrats, to 187 against. The bill will most likely not pass the Senate and, even if it passes, it will be vetoed by Biden.
From the UN, we learn that since the beginning of the IDF ground offensive in the eastern part of the city, 600 thousand Palestinians have left Rafah. Per Reuters: United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths said there is almost no food left in southern Gaza, that getting fuel is “almost impossible” and that famine in Gaza is an “imminent danger”.
In Europe, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez clarified: “We will not announce the recognition of the Palestinian state on May 21 as expected, we will do so in a joint declaration with other countries.”
The Houthis, following the fourth phase of their battle against Israel for the people of Gaza, announced on May 17 that they had shot down an American MQ-9 Reaper UAV. It would be the fourth. The American authorities had made it known that the MQ-9 Reaper had crashed due to a malfunction or an electronic warfare attack.
But Ansar Allah posted a video online of an American MQ-9 Reaper UAV crashing in Yemen. The official spokesperson of the Yemeni Armed Forces, Yahia Saree wrote in a statement: “Last night, Thursday, Yemeni air defenses managed to shoot down an American MQ9 aircraft while carrying out hostile actions in the airspace of Ma’rib governorate. This is the fourth plane shot down during the Battle of the Promised Conquest and the Sacred Jihad in support of Gaza.” “The plane was targeted by a locally made surface-to-air missile and scenes of the shoot-down will be released later, God willing. The Armed Forces confirm their full readiness at all levels on land, sea and air, and that all enemy attempts will fail and the Armed Forces, God willing, will remain alert.”
And now a look at the aggravation between Israel and Hamas updated at 4:00 pm on May 17th.
In the late afternoon of May 16, an attacker hit civilians in Haifa. The car that hit several Israeli soldiers near a military base in Haifa has fled the scene.
Since the early hours of the morning, sirens have been turned on in the settlements in northern Israel. According to the IDF IDF: a UAV is intercepted at sea, another UAV explodes in the Gaton area in the Western Galilee. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the drone attack in the Ga’ton area against the housing facilities of the 411 Artillery Brigade.
According to the Israeli journalist, military correspondent, Doron Kadoush: “The alarms in the Nahariya area are the result of attacks by Hezbollah which has assumed responsibility for attacks with some drones and claims that they were aimed at the headquarters of the 411th artillery battalion in Gaaton. There were no casualties and no damage was caused in the accident. Over the past month, Hezbollah has carried out higher-quality attacks, towards more distant targets, with more advanced military weapons. Hezbollah is showing increasing boldness against Israel.”
And again he said: “Firing dozens of rockets at Mount Meron has already become a normalized routine, but in the last week Hezbollah continued to use advanced anti-tank missiles (Almas) […] and for the first time an attack on the “ Sky Dew” system and then this morning also as drones in the Gaaton area. All these areas were not evacuated. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians entered the firing range this week.”
In response, the Israeli army bombed: the village of Al-Najjariya near Sidon and again: attack on the city’s orchards without casualties; the attack in the city center killed a Lebanese and injured three Syrians; Two Syrians died in the attack on the cement factory. Many are still missing. Among the dead was a Hezbollah man: Hussein Khodor Mahdi.
Brigade ambushes against Israeli soldiers continue in the Gaza Strip. On the 16th, one was recorded against an IDF bomb squad near the Al-Tabain mosque, east of the city of Rafah. There is talk of another ambush in the late afternoon of May 17 in the Gaza Strip.
The IDF and ISA also said in a statement that they had recovered the bodies of hostages Yitzhak Gelernter, Shani Louk and Amit Buskila.
“Based on the verified information we have, Yitzhak Gelernter, Shani Louk and Amit Buskila were murdered during the October 7 massacre at the Mefalsim crossing and their bodies were taken to Gaza.” “The bodies of the hostages were recovered during a joint IDF and ISA operation, based on precise ISA intelligence information obtained during interrogations of Hamas men arrested in the Gaza Strip, as well as information from the directorate headquarters IDF Intelligence for Hostages and Missing Persons.”
“Following an identification procedure carried out by medical officials from the Israeli National Forensic Institute and the Ministry of Health, IDF representatives notified their families. The IDF and ISA send their deepest condolences to the families.”
The IDF and ISA continue, even at this time, to deploy all operational and intelligence assets and assume operational risks to accomplish the supreme national task of bringing back all hostages. Another 129 are believed to be in the hands of Hamas.
Antonio Albanese e Graziella Giangiulio
