Gaza live: Egypt says it may withdraw from Gaza mediation

Good evening, Middle East Eye readers.

Our live coverage of Israel's assault on Gaza will shortly be closing for the evening.

Here are the day's key developments:

• US National Security advisor Jake Sullivan criticised Israel for withholding tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority (PA)
• At least seven Palestinians were killed by an Israeli army drone strike in Gaza City, according to Palestinian news agency
• Israel has seized control of around 70 percent of Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, the Wall Street Journal reported
• Three Israeli soldiers were killed fighting in northern Gaza on Wednesday
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has slammed Norway, Ireland and Spain for recognising a Palestinian state, saying the move was a "prize for terrorism”
• In the last 24 hours, 62 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip

Slovenia is weighing whether to join other European countries in recognising a Palestinian state, the country’s ambassador to the UN, told Al Jazeera.

Slovenia’s ambassador, Samuel Zbogar, said the country will finalise its internal decision by 13 June but wanted to contribute to the “momentum”.

“We want to create a momentum which was created this morning by three countries. [We] want to continue that momentum and in that way to help stabilise the situation on the ground, as well as creating momentum for a two-state solution, which is now somehow on the shelf,” he said.

The UN World Food Program has distributed the first food to have arrived from a US built pier in Gaza.

The UN said in recent days it handed out a “limited number” of high energy biscuits, marking the first time food from the pier has been distributed to Palestinians by the UN.

The biscuits came in one of the first shipments unloaded from the pier Friday, WFP spokesman Steve Taravella said.

Israel’s army has confirmed a video of a soldier throwing a Quran into a fire in Gaza, according to the Israeli public broadcaster Kan.

The Israeli soldier posted the footage on his Instagram account.

The military said the action was “not consistent” with its values and is investigating.

Israel’s war cabinet plans to back a new proposal to obtain the release of hostages held in Gaza, amid tensions with mediator Egypt and pressure from hostages family members. 

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority said Israel’s war cabinet is weighing a new plan to support.

The report comes after a forum of Israeli hostage family members released a video purporting to show the abduction and interrogation of seven female Israeli soldiers by Palestinian fighters.

Hostage talked have stalled in recent weeks and Egypt threatened to withdraw as mediator amid frustration with reports about its role in the talks.

Israel is considering closing its embassy in Ireland in response to Dublin’s move to recognise a Palestinian state, according to Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

Ireland joined Norway and Spain to recognise a Palestinian state on Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the move.

Israel bombed a mosque in the Al-Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City sheltering forcibly displaced Palestinians, according to Arabic media reports.

The strike on Al Zahra Mosque came as Israel continued to pummel the Gaza Strip. An Israeli strike north of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of Gaza also killed children, according to Arabic media reports. 

Columbia’s President Gustavo Petro has ordered the opening of an embassy in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, according to the South American country’s foreign minister.

"President Petro has given the order that we open the Colombian embassy in Ramallah, the representation of Colombia in Ramallah, that is the next step we are going to take,” foreign minister Luis Gilberto Murillo said on Wednesday.

Petro said earlier this month that Columbia would cut ties with Israel and has asked to join South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice.

The police chief for the University of California at Los Angeles has been removed from his post three weeks after pro-Palestinian protestors were attacked by pro-Israel counterparts.

John Thomas, who was appointed UCLA police chief in January, was criticised for hi handling a mob attack on a pro-Palestinian encampment. Pro-Israel supporters attacked the camp with clubs and poles. Some pro-Palestinian protestors said they were attacked by firecrackers.

Thomas was "reassigned temporarily, pending an examination of our security processes," UCLA Vice Chancellor Mary Osako said in a statement on Wednesday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed a move by Ireland, Spain and Norway to recognise the state of Palestine, as he called for more countries to follow.

“I am very pleased with today's announcements” said Erdogan on Wednesday during a speech in the capital of Ankara.

The potential endgame of Israel’s war on Gaza appears to be "setting the stage for a future intifada", an analyst told Middle East Eye.

A recent report in The Washington Post highlighted that conversations between top US officials about a potential end to Israel's war on Gaza are formulating into a multi-step plan that would see Hamas active in the besieged enclave and continued Israeli raids in Gaza.

"If your goal was to degrade Hamas enough that Hamas could not present a credible threat to Israel for let's say the next 10 years, then fine I suppose it makes sense. If your goal is to have stability and ensure that you don't face another intifada in the future, then it doesn't make sense," Adam Weinstein, deputy director of the Middle East programme at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told Middle East Eye.

Read More: Reported US-Israel plan for Gaza 'day after' leaves enclave in 'permanent instability'

Hamas welcomed an Associated Press report published on Wednesday that shed light on debunked allegations of sexual violence perpetrated by Palestinian fighters on 7 October.

“The report published by the American Associated Press agency, in which it confirmed that the allegations of the Zionist entity that the Palestinian resistance committed sexual violence on 7 October are not true, and that they were deliberately fabricated, is a new slap in the face of the promoters of these baseless allegations,” Hamas said in a statement.

The report explores the testimony of Chaim Otmazgin, a volunteer with ZAKA Israeli search and rescue organization, that was used to document purported allegations of violence by Palestinian fighters on 7 October, but much of that testimony was later debunked.

“Some allege the accounts of sexual assault were purposely concocted. ZAKA officials and others dispute that. Regardless, AP’s examination of ZAKA’s handling of the now debunked stories shows how information can be clouded and distorted in the chaos of the conflict,” the AP said.

Hamas said the AP report and other articles “proved that they [sexual assault allegations] are pure lies and blatant fabrications”.

The group called on US President Joe Biden and members of European countries to “apologise...stop repeating these false accusations against the resistance and the Palestinian people”.

 The Green Party in Canada welcomed the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court’s call for arrest warrants for Israeli officials on charges of war crimes.

“The Green Party of Canada welcomes the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Prosecutor applications for arrest warrants for war crimes and crimes against humanity in relation to the situation in the State of Palestine against three Hamas commanders and two Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” the party said in a statement on Wednesday. 

More details are coming out about Egypt’s growing anger over a CNN report that cited sources saying Cairo had inserted language into a May ceasefire proposal that caught the US and Israel off guard.

“Attempts to cast doubt and offend Egypt’s mediation efforts... will only lead to further complications of the situation in Gaza and the entire region and may push Egypt to completely withdraw from its mediation in the current conflict,” Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt’s State Information Service, said in a statement on X. 

Rashwan added that Egypt was mediating ceasefire talks on the insistence of the US and Israel.

US officials have suggested Egypt is to blame for the failure of the Rafah border crossing to open, a claim Egypt denies.

Cairo is also upset over a CNN article that alleged an Egyptian intelligence official changed the terms of a ceasefire proposal that Israel agreed to in order to appease Hamas.

Egypt says it may withdraw from mediating between Israel and Hamas to end the Gaza war amid efforts to "doubt its role".

The head of Egypt's State Information Service (SIS) Diaa Rashwan told the state-affiliated Al-Qahera News TV on Wednesday that it may "completely withdraw" from the mediation.

The public threat comes as the US steps up criticism of Egypt, with officials appearing to side with Israel over Cairo in a spat over who is responsible for the closure of Rafah’s border crossing.

The US and Israel have relied on Egypt to relay messages to Hamas’s armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades.

Current and former US officials and analysts say Israel and the US also need Egypt to destroy Hamas tunnels in Sinai and hunt for senior Hamas officials.