Israel-Hamas war: What happened on day 217?

The United Nations General Assembly voted 143-9 to upgrade the Palestinian's status as a non-member observer state, granting it all but voting rights concerning all activities related to its plenum.

Argentina, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Micronesia, Nauru, Papa New Guinea, Palau, and the United States opposed the resolution.

Among those countries that supported the text were many European Union members,  Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.

Australia supported the resolution, while Canada, Great Britain, and Ukraine abstained.

There are already some 142 countries that recognize Palestine as a state and have full diplomatic relations with it. 

The UNGA vote, which is mostly symbolic, is viewed as an international referendum supporting unilateral Palestinian statehood.

Controversy over Palestinian recognition

Screens show the voting result during the United Nations General Assembly vote on a draft resolution that would recognize the Palestinians as qualified to become a full U.N. member, in New York City, US May 10, 2024. (credit: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

Many Western and European countries have believed that full Palestinian statehood recognition and its UN membership should come at the end of a final status agreement that tends to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In light of Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel on October 7 that sparked the Gaza War, several Western countries have reconsidered their position 

Israel immediately attacked the decision, as a prize for terrorism, given that it comes in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7 attack, which sparked the Gaza war.

It also warned that such a step would harm negotiation for the release of the remaining 132 hostages held by Hamas and other terror groups in Gaza.

“The message that the UN is sending to our suffering region: violence pays off,” the Foreign Ministry stated.

“The decision to upgrade the status of Palestinians in the UN is a prize for Hamas terrorists after they committed the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and perpetrated the most heinous sexual crimes the world has seen,” it stated. 

“The decision also provides a tailwind to Hamas amid negotiations for the release of the 132 hostages and humanitarian relief, further complicating the prospects for a deal,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated.

“Israel seeks peace, and peace will only be achieved through direct negotiation between the parties,” the Foreign Ministry said, as it thanked those countries that opposed the resolution, explaining that they stood “on the right side of history and morality.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz posted on X, “The political theater of the United Nations made an artificial, distorted and disconnected decision.”

Sirens sound in Beersheba, Hatzerim, Lakiya.

Israel's foreign minister called a decision by the United Nations General Assembly to upgrade the status of Palestinians in the UN a "prize for Hamas," in a statement released by the minister's office on Friday.

"The absurd decision taken today at the UN General Assembly highlights the structural bias of the UN and the reasons why, under the leadership of UN Secretary-General Guterres, it has turned itself into an irrelevant institution," Israel's foreign minister Israel Katz said.

The United Nations General Assembly on Friday backed a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member by recognizing it as qualified to join and recommending the UN Security Council "reconsider the matter favorably."

The vote by the 193-member General Assembly was a global survey of support for the Palestinian bid to become a full UN member - a move that would effectively recognize a Palestinian state - after the United States vetoed it in the UN Security Council last month.

Sirens sound in Kiryat Shmona, Misgav Am, Kfar Giladi, Tel Hai, and Margaliot.

Sirens sounded in Kiryat Shmona on Friday afternoon.

Sirens sound in Yiftah.

Sirens sound in Beersheba and surrounding towns.

Israel's Security Cabinet approved a "measured expansion" of ​​Israeli forces' operation in Rafah in a Thursday night vote even as it instructed its negotiators to continue efforts to reach a hostage deal, Axios reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources.

In the past day, troops of the 162nd Division and Givati Brigade operated in the Eastern part of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, where they found underground tunnel shafts, the military said on Friday. 

In the area of the Rafah crossing, on the Palestinian side, troops of the 401st Brigade eliminated terrorist squads in close-quarter combat and via aircraft strikes. 

The IDF added that Israel Air Force aircraft were also used to strike several areas in Rafah, from which rockets and mortar shells had been launched onto Israeli territory, including the Kerem Shalom crossing. 

Shortly after the IDF published this statement, sirens sounded in two localities in the Gaza Border Communities. No injuries or damage were reported at this time. 

IDF operates in Zeitoun to destroy terror infrastructure

In parallel, the IDF said troops of the Nahal Brigade and the 2nd Brigade carried out activities in Zeitoun in the center of the Strip.

IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip. May 10, 2024. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Soldiers destroyed terror infrastructure and eliminated terrorists in the area. In addition to the ground activities, the military stated fighter jets had struck terrorists and Hamas terror targets. Of particular note was a booby-trapped building in which many weapons.