Middle East updates: IDF says 3 hostages' bodies recovered

At least one person was killed and eight wounded by an Israeli airstrike in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry and the Israeli military said.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the West Bank said the eight wounded people were in a stable condition and receiving treatment at hospitals.  

The Israeli military said a fighter jet carried out the strike and targeted a building that was "used an operations headquarters of the terrorist infrastructure in Jenin."

The attack killed Islam Khamayseh, the Israel Defense Forces said, describing the man as a "key wanted man" in Jenin.

The Palestinian news agency WAFA and Al Jazeera both also reported Khamayseh's death, with Al Jazeera adding that he was a leader of the Jenin Brigade, a militant group believed to have been established in the Jenin refugee camp.

US President Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, will travel to Saudi Arabia and Israel this weekend for talks on the Gaza conflict, the White House said.

Sullivan will meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Saturday and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

Kirby told reporters that in his talks with the Israelis, Sullivan will stress the need to target Hamas militants in Gaza, but not with an all-out assault on the southern city of Rafah.

The Israeli military said on Friday it found the bodies of three Israeli hostages in Gaza, including German-Israeli Shani Louk, who were missing after the October 7 attack.

A photo of Louk's body in the back of a pickup truck was broadcast around the world.

Chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the three bodies had been identified as Amit Buskila and Itzhak Gelerenter, as well as Louk. He said all three were killed at the Nova music festival near the border on October 7, before their bodies were taken into Gaza.

"We will continue to fight to bring the hostages home," said Hagari.

According to Israel, around 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza, along with the remains of roughly 30 more, of the roughly 250 kidnapped on October 7.

The Israeli army had announced as early as October last year that Louk was believed dead. The situation surrounding the other two hostages, however, had remained uncertain.

Swedish police cordoned off an area in Stockholm on Friday, after a patrol heard suspected gunshots in the vicinity of the Israeli embassy. 

"Due to suspected shots near Israel's embassy in Stockholm, the police are taking security measures [to protect] Israeli and Jewish property and interests across the country," the police department announced on its website. 

When police first reported the overnight incident earlier on Friday, they had not commented on whether there was a suspected link between the incident and the nearby location of the Israeli embassy.

"A police patron at Strandvage in Stockholm heard bangs and suspected there had been a shooting," police said in earlier comments, saying it had taken place in an area in central Stockholm housing several diplomatic buildings, near the Nobel Park.

Police also said that preliminary forensic investigations strengthened their suspicion that a gun had been fired.

Several people were questioned early on Friday in connection with the incident but as of late morning, none of them remained in custody.

In February this year, Swedish police announced a terrorism investigation after finding explosives in the vicinity of Israel's embassy building.

Spain has said it will now refuse permission for ships carrying arms for Israel to stop at its ports, a day after it denied permission for a vessel to dock at one of its ports. 

Transport Minister Oscar Puente said the refusal was consistent with Madrid's decision not to grant licenses for exports to Israel because Spain doesn't "want to contribute to the war."

Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares on Thursday said that Spain had refused permission for the Danish Marianne Danica ship to call at the southeastern port of Cartagena on May 21. The vessel was reportedly carrying 27 metric tons of explosives.

"This is the first time we have done this because it is the first time we have detected a ship carrying a shipment of arms to Israel that wants to call at a Spanish port," he told reporters in Brussels.

"This will be a consistent policy with any ship carrying arms to Israel that wants to call at Spanish ports. The foreign ministry will systematically reject such stopovers for one obvious reason. The Middle East does not need more weapons, it needs more peace," he added.

Spain has been among the most critical voices of Israel's Gaza offensive and is seeking to rally other European countries to accept the idea of recognizing a Palestinian state. 

Madrid has halted arms exports to Israel after it launched a military onslaught against the Palestinian, militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The announcement comes amid a row between Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Socialists and his coalition partners, the hard-left Sumar party, over another ship, the German Borkum. The vessel was due to dock in Cartagena on Friday.

Pro-Palestinian groups say the ship is carrying arms to Israel, with Sumar demanding that it be turned away. The Spanish government says the Borkum is transporting military material to the Czech Republic, not Israel.

The US military says aid deliveries have begun via a temporary pier in Gaza to allow more emergency humanitarian assistance to reach the Palestinian territory.

The pier was anchored successfully on Thursday, with some 500 metric tons of aid expected to enter the Palestinian territory in the coming days.

The aid began arriving on the pier at about 9 a.m. local time (0600 GMT).

US Central Command (CENTCOM) wrote on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that no US troops went ashore as part of the operation. 

"This is an ongoing, multinational effort to deliver additional aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza via a maritime corridor that is entirely humanitarian in nature," it said.

Pentagon statements said that about 90 lorry loads per day are expected to arrive at the temporary harbor. US officials hope that up to 150 lorry loads per day will arrive at a later stage.

The lack of basic supplies flowing into Gaza over seven months into fighting between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas has led to serious shortages inside the enclave.

The US Agency for International Development and the World Food Program said famine has already taken hold in Gaza's north.

The US and aid groups have stressed the pier is no substitute for land deliveries.

 

Relatives of Israeli hostages still held by the Palestinian militant organization Hamas have addressed a specially convened UN Security Council meeting in New York.

Among those at the meeting on Thursday was Gilli Roman, who is also a German citizen. He spoke about his sister-in-law Carmel, who the attackers abducted from Kibbutz Beeri on October 7 last year. 

"We know little about Carmel's situation," said Roman. "We hope she is alive. But we don't know."

The US focused the meeting on "condemning hostage-taking in Israel on Oct. 7 as a psychological tool of terrorism."

Security Council representatives and several other UN member states present, including Germany, said they would keep up their efforts to secure the release of all the hostages.

The October 7 attack by Hamas and supporters resulted in the deaths of around 1,200 people, mostly civilians and the kidnapping of more than 200 others.

Some hostages were released after almost two months in an agreement between Israel and Hamas, but the fate of the remaining hostages is unclear. 

Israel's subsequent offensive after the October 7 attacks has killed at least 35,303 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's Health Ministry.

Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank attacked a truck overnight, wounding the driver, days after protesters ransacked aid trucks heading toward the Gaza Strip.

Troops that arrived to keep apart settlers from the Israeli driver were attacked, the Israeli military said, and three soldiers were slightly hurt.

According to the public broadcaster Kan, the protesters believed the truck was carrying aid supplies to Gaza. It cited the military as saying that the truck was not carrying aid.

rc/ab, rt (AFP, Reuters, dpa, AP)