Gaza: Israel says it recovered bodies of 2 hostages

Israel's military said that it had launched strikes on underground Hezbollah drone production sites located in the Dahieh neighborhood in southern Beirut.

Israel Defense Forces said they had "identified that the Hezbollah aerial unit is operating to produce thousands of UAV's, with the direction and funding of Iranian terrorists." The unmanned aerial vehicle production was in violation of Israel's truce agreement with the Lebanese government, the IDF said. 

German news agency DPA reported that warplanes could be heard all over the capital and the sound of heavy blasts echoed throughout the targeted areas.

Lebanon's leaders meanwhile, accused Israel of violating the ceasefire by launching the strikes ahead of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha.

President Joseph Aoun voiced "firm condemnation of the Israeli aggression" and "flagrant violation of an international accord... on the eve of a sacred religious festival," in a statement.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam also condemned the strikes which came despite a November 27 ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private outfit backed by Israel and the US and tasked with coordinating food distribution in Gaza, announced on Thursday that it would be reopening two sites closed down on Wednesday after chaos resulted in deadly shootings near some GHF sites.

In an announcement, GHF said the sites were undergoing repair and maintenance work and would open later than usual on Thursday.

GHF began operating in Gaza last week, filling the role of international organizations that were largely forced out of the enclave amid an 11-week Israeli blockade of aid deliveries. 

The UN and international aid organizations have refused to work with GHF, saying it is not neutral and that with it, food distribution to Palestinians is being militarized and Gazans are being forcibly displaced.  

The UN and its partner groups had ben helping supply the enclave's 2.3 million residents with critical food and medicine until they were largely pushed out. The UN warned this week that the majority of Gaza's population is at risk of famine as a result of the current situation.

GHF shut down operations Wednesday after dozens of Palestinian civilians were shot dead near their sites over the course of three days. Since opening, GHF claims that it has served seven million meals in total.

Observers have criticized the fact that GHF's centralization of limited sites in highly-militarized areas unnecessarily forces people to put their lives at even greater risk than they already are out of a need for food to keep themselves and their families from starving.

Speaking at Berlin's Holocaust Memorial alongside German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Thursday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar railed against growing antisemitism in Germany and around the world.

"It is with a heavy heart that I say the [historical] lessons of the past have apparently been forgotten," said Saar, adding that German authorities register a new antisemitic crime "every hour."

"Antisemitism is raging out of control," said the Israeli diplomat, who noted that Jews in Germany, for instance, "are scared" to wear religious clothing in public. Saar said it "should never again be seen as normal" that, "They fear for their safety. Students avoid campus."

German Foreign Minister Wadephul said he felt "a deep sense of shame that Jews no longer feel safe in Germany" and emphasized the responsibility of Germans to stand up for Jewish life in the country and for the existence of the state of Israel. 

DW spoke with James Elder of UNICEF on the current humanitarian situation in Gaza as the US and Israel introduce a controversial new, private aid distribution system that has been temporarily shut down after the Israeli military carried out three deadly shootings at its distribution points.

The UN has accused the two nations of having made "deliberate choices to deprive people in Gaza of the essentials to survive," after throwing UN and international aid groups out of Gaza and replacing them with centralized distribution centers operated by the privately run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

When speaking of the role played by UN humanitarian aid organizations, UNICEF's Elder said, "we know what works, we just have to be allowed to do it."

Elder said the US and Israel plan of centralizing aid distribution has resulted in the "forceable displacement of a population," criticizing the fact that people were being drawn into military conflict zones due to the limited number of distribution sites and the fact that these are guarded by Israeli military forces and private US security contractors.

Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour has said he will seek a General Assembly vote on a Gaza ceasefire resolution that failed to pass in the Security Council after a US veto late Wednesday.

The US argued the draft drew "false equivalency" between Israel and Hamasand claimed it would reward the group that sparked the current ongoing conflict with an October 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel. 

Acting US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea said the draft resolution would also undermine US-led peace negotiations.

Shea blasted the Security Council what she saw as "engaging in this performative process — at a time when serious questions are being asked about the utility of the UN, its funding, and use of resources — is shameful."

Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon, berated the 14 Security Council members who voted in favor of the resolution, saying: "You chose appeasement and submission. You chose a road that does not lead to peace. Only to more terror."

Pressure has been building on Israel and its largest supporter, the US, over the dire conditions in Gaza.

Over 54,000 people — many of them women and children — have been killed.

Israel has sparked outrage for preventing the delivery of humanitarian assistance in Gaza. Now Israel and the US have thrown their support behind a controversial private contractor tasked with delivering aid after UN-backed programs were forced out of the enclave by the Israeli government.

United Kingdom UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward described Israel's intensifying military campaign and its clampdown on aid as, "unjustifiable, disproportionate and counterproductive."

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul will welcome Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar to Berlin on Thursday. The two diplomats are scheduled to visit Berlin's Holocaust Memorial where they will lay a wreath in remembrance of the six million Jews murdered by Nazi Germany during the World War II.

Thursday's meeting will be the second official visit the two have had — with the first having taken place on May 11 in Israel.

The current situation in Gaza and the West Bank will be on the agenda as well, as Germany voices concern over the plight of Palestinians and Israel's military conduct.

Wadephul, who previously said arms deliveries to Israel would be contingent upon a legal review of Israel's military operations, yesterday promised weapons deliveries despite growing international criticism of Israel's heavy handed military approach to resolving the situation.

Although criticism has also gotten louder within Germany, the government in Berlin has pledged that it remains steadfastly allied with Israel.

Israel on Thursday announced that it had recovered the bodies of two of its citizens taken hostage by the Islamist militant group Hamas — which is labeled a terror organization by Israel, the US and many other nations — on October 7, 2023.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu identified the bodies as those of Judith Weinstein (70) and Gad Haggai (72). The couple was initially pronounced dead in December 2023. The two were kidnapped at Kibbutz Nir Oz while on an early morning walk.

Weinstein was able to call Israeli emergency services before she disappeared, saying that both she and her husband had been shot.

Hamas militants killed some 1,200 people on October 7. Of the 251 individuals taken by the group, 56 remain under their control. Around a third of those hostages are thought to be alive. Many have been released in exchanges between Israel and Hamas, and eight were rescued alive by Israeli forces.

Welcome to our Gaza coverage this Thursday, June 5.

DW will bring you the latest from the region as Israel claims to have recovered the bodies of a couple taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023 and the country's foreign minister travels to Berlin for consultations with German leaders.

Israel also said it would reopen controversial aid centers for Gazans desperately searching for food assistance after they were shut on Wednesday.