About 110,000 folks have fled Rafah in southern Gaza and meals and gas provides within the space are critically low, a U.N. official says.
All crossings into southern Gaza stay closed, reducing off provides and stopping medical evacuations and the motion of humanitarian workers, stated Georgios Petropoulos, an official for the U.N.’s Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs working in Rafah.
Some 1.3 million Palestinians — over half Gaza’s inhabitants — had sought refuge in Rafah.
The World Meals Program will run out of meals for distribution in southern Gaza by Saturday until extra assist arrives, Petropoulos stated.
U.N. officers warn that the shortage of gas is undermining medical amenities, water provides and sewage programs throughout Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated Thursday {that a} U.S. risk to withhold some weapons wouldn’t deter Israel from increasing its offensive in Gaza. A restricted Israeli operation earlier this week captured the Gaza aspect of Rafah’s border crossing with Egypt, throwing humanitarian operations into disaster.
The loss of life toll from the warfare in Gaza has soared to greater than 34,500 folks, in line with native well being officers, and brought about huge destruction to residences, hospitals, mosques and faculties throughout a number of cities. The U.N. says northern Gaza is already in a state of “full-blown famine.”
The warfare started Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing round 1,200 folks, principally civilians, and abducting about 250 others. Israel says militants nonetheless maintain round 100 hostages and the stays of greater than 30 others.
Presently:
— A West Financial institution village feels helpless after Israeli settlers assault with hearth and bullets
— UN to vote on decision that might grant Palestine new rights and revive its UN membership bid
— Professional-Palestinian protesters demand endowment transparency. Nevertheless it’s proving to not be easy
— US says Rafah offensive would jeopardize cease-fire talks as Biden threatens to halt extra Israel assist
— The Biden-Netanyahu relationship is strained like by no means earlier than. Can the 2 leaders transfer ahead?
— What are the newest obstacles to bringing assist into Gaza, the place starvation is worsening?
Observe AP’s protection of the warfare at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
This is the newest:
JERUSALEM — Israeli troops are battling Palestinian militants within the southern metropolis of Rafah, the place a rocket assault and an Israeli incursion earlier this week closed essential crossings wanted for humanitarian assist.
There are additionally battles underway within the Zeitoun space on the outskirts of Gaza Metropolis within the northern a part of the territory. Northern Gaza was the primary goal of the bottom offensive and Israel stated late final 12 months that it had principally dismantled Hamas there.
In an announcement launched Friday, the navy stated it had positioned a number of tunnels in japanese Rafah, close to the border with Egypt, and had eradicated militants “throughout close-quarters fight and with an aerial strike.”
Hamas’ navy wing stated it carried out a posh assault through which it struck a home the place Israeli troops had taken up a place, an armored personnel service and troopers working on foot.
There was no speedy remark from the Israeli navy. It was not potential to independently affirm the battlefield accounts from both aspect.
Hamas additionally stated it launched quite a few mortar rounds on the close by Kerem Shalom crossing, near the place Israeli troops are working. The navy stated it intercepted two launches.
The crossing was closed after a rocket assault final weekend that killed 4 Israeli troopers. Israel says it has re-opened its aspect of the crossing, however the U.N. company for Palestinian refugees says the Gaza aspect is inaccessible due to the continuing combating.
Israeli forces captured the Gaza aspect of the close by Rafah crossing with Egypt on Tuesday, forcing it to close down. It’s unclear when it’s going to reopen.
Assist teams say a chronic closure of the crossings will severely hinder humanitarian operations within the territory, the place starvation is already rampant.
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Normal Meeting is predicted to vote Friday on a decision that might grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine and name on the Safety Council to favorably rethink its request to turn into the 194th member of the United Nations.
America vetoed a broadly backed council decision on April 18 that might have paved the best way for full United Nations membership for Palestine, a objective the Palestinians have lengthy sought and Israel has labored to stop. U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wooden made clear Thursday the Biden administration is against the meeting decision.
Beneath the U.N. Constitution, potential members of the United Nations have to be “peace-loving,” and the Safety Council should advocate their admission to the Normal Meeting for ultimate approval. Palestine turned a U.N. non-member observer state in 2012.
Not like the Safety Council, there are not any vetoes within the 193-member Normal Meeting and the decision is predicted to be authorised by a big majority.
The draft decision “determines” {that a} state of Palestine is certified for membership, dropping the unique language that within the Normal Meeting’s judgment it’s “a peace-loving state.” It due to this fact recommends that the Safety Council rethink its request “favorably.”
At quite a few council and meeting conferences, the humanitarian disaster dealing with the Palestinians in Gaza and the killing of greater than 34,000 folks within the territory, in line with Gaza well being officers, have generated outrage from many nations.
JERUSALEM — The pan-Arab satellite tv for pc channel Al Jazeera stated Friday it not has any workers working within Israel after an order closing the broadcaster’s workplaces and halting its on-the-ground reporting there.
The remark by Al Jazeera to The Related Press comes after Israel’s Communication Ministry stated police raided an workplace of the broadcaster in Nazareth on Thursday after alleging it had been transmitting reside video from there.
“Al Jazeera has no workers working inside Israel. All of our workers have moved to Ramallah to proceed the protection from there, abiding by the regulation,” the channel stated. “Nevertheless, whoever makes such feedback doesn’t perceive modern-day applied sciences which permit customers to make the most of a easy cell phone to submit or share a video on-line.”
Al Jazeera’s headquarters are in Doha, Qatar.
Israel ordered the native workplaces of Al Jazeera to shut Sunday, escalating a long-running feud between the broadcaster and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line authorities as Doha-mediated cease-fire negotiations with Hamas dangle within the stability.
The extraordinary order, which incorporates confiscating broadcast gear, stopping the printed of the channel’s reviews and blocking its web sites, is believed to be the primary time Israel has ever shuttered a overseas information outlet working within the nation.
Because the order, the broadcaster has moved a lot of its English-language service correspondents from Israel to Amman, Jordan. Others nonetheless function from the Gaza Strip and the West Financial institution.
MADRID — Spain’s Reina Sofía Museum has defended the title of a cultural program known as “From the River to the Sea” that denounces the warfare in Gaza, regardless of criticism from the World Jewish Congress that the slogan is utilized by Hamas and “represents a name for the annihilation of the Jewish state.”
The fashionable artwork museum in Madrid, finest identified for its anti-war Picasso masterpiece “Guernica,” on Friday referred to a observe on its web site that claims “From the River to the Sea” refers back to the space between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and is a motto used to demand rights for Palestinians.
“It’s from that decision to respect life — and in no case from the promotion of warfare or violence, nor referring in any option to the disappearance of the State of Israel,” the museum says.
The World Jewish Congress on Thursday issued an announcement saying it’s “reprehensible” that an establishment such because the Reina Sofía would stage such an initiative when Hamas nonetheless holds hostages from Israel and the folks of Gaza face a humanitarian disaster.
JERUSALEM — The U.N. company for Palestinian refugees is closing its Jerusalem compound after Israeli protesters twice set hearth to its perimeter.
Philipe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, stated nobody was injured however that workers needed to put out the fires themselves as a result of firefighters and police had been gradual to reach.
He shared video of Thursday’s protest, through which the group could be heard chanting “Burn the U.N.” in Hebrew.
In a submit on the social media platform X, Lazzarini known as it an “outrageous growth,” saying “as soon as once more, the lives of U.N. workers had been at a critical threat.”
He stated that in gentle of the “appalling incident” he had made the choice to close down the compound.
On Tuesday, protesters broken the gate of the compound, prompting the U.N. to lodge a protest with Israeli authorities.
Israel has accused UNRWA, which is the most important supplier of humanitarian assist to Gaza, of getting hyperlinks to Hamas and different Palestinian militants, with some workers members allegedly participating within the Oct. 7 assault that triggered the warfare in Gaza.
UNRWA denies any hyperlinks to such teams. It instantly fired the workers when it was knowledgeable in regards to the allegations pertaining to Oct. 7 and launched an inside investigation.
An unbiased evaluation final month discovered that UNRWA had submitted full lists of its hundreds of staffers to Israel yearly since 2011, with out Israel expressing concern about any of them.
The evaluation stated the company has “strong” procedures to uphold the U.N. precept of neutrality however cited gaps in implementation.
