Middle East Crisis
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34,971 Palestinians killed in Israeli assault on Gaza
The health ministry in Gaza has said that at least 34,971 people have been killed in the Palestinian enclave during Israel’s military bombardment in Gaza, AFP reports.
The tally includes at least 28 deaths in the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 78,641 people have been wounded since fighting broke out on October 7.
Israel orders people in more areas of Gaza's Rafah to evacuate
Israel called on Saturday for Palestinians in more areas of Gaza's southern city of Rafah to evacuate and head to what it calls an expanded humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi, in a further indication that the military is pressing ahead with its plans for a ground attack on Rafah.
In a post on social media site X, a military spokesperson also called on residents and displaced people in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, and 11 other neighbourhoods in the enclave to go immediately to shelters west of Gaza City.
The Palestinian health ministry said at least 37 Palestinians, 24 of them from central Gaza areas, were killed in overnight airstrikes across the enclave, including in Rafah.
Hezbollah claims strike on Israeli military site
Hezbollah says it fired guided rockets and artillery at Israel’s Ramia military site near the border with Lebanon, directly hitting it, reports Lebanon’s National News Agency.
There has been no immediate comment from Israel’s military.
The attack comes after Israel’s military allegedly carried out several air strikes on southern Lebanese towns yesterday.
One of attacks hit a mobile phone transmission site in Lebanon’s Tayr Harfa, killing civilians, including a paramedic and maintenance worker, according to Lebanese military sources.
A separate attack hit a home in the southern village of Yarine, killing one Hezbollah fighter and injuring a civilian, according to the sources.
‘Sophisticated attacks’: Hamas fighters prepared in advance for assault on Rafah
Sophisticated attacks launched by Palestinian fighters against Israeli forces advancing on Rafah demonstrate that Hamas prepared in advance to slow the ground invasion down, war monitors report.
On Friday, Palestinian fighters carried out “three tactically sophisticated attacks” on Israeli forces in Rafah involving the use of “thermobaric bombs, rocket-propelled grenades, and anti-personnel rockets in multi-stage attacks”, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) have reported.
Fighters, including Hamas forces, conducted 18 attacks on Israeli troops in eastern Rafah on Friday, according to the report by the ISW/CTP, two US-based think tanks.
“The sophisticated nature of these attacks required planning, coordination, and organization, further underscoring that the Hamas battalions in Rafah are cohesive fighting units that can mount a deliberate defence against Israeli clearing operations,” the think tanks said.
Dozens arrested after police dismantle encampments at US universities
Police in the US arrested dozens of pro-Palestine protesters on Friday, as they dismantled encampments at university campuses across the country.
Thirty-three people were arrested at the University of Pennsylvania, as police took steps to remove an encampment that has been in place for more than two weeks.
Ten protesters were also arrested at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the university’s president said, after riot police arrived on campus at 4am.
Police also arrested 13 people at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, while two people were arrested at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
South Africa asks ICJ to order Israel to withdraw from Gaza’s Rafah
South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice to order Israeli forces to cease their attack and withdraw from Rafah.
As part of an ongoing case brought by South Africa, which accuses Israel of acts of genocide against Palestinians, the court has been asked to take additional emergency measures over Israel’s assault on Rafah where some 1.4 million people are sheltering after fleeing other parts of the Palestinian territory.
South Africa said in its request that additional measures were necessary because of Israel’s “assault on Rafah and the extreme risk it poses for humanitarian supplies and basic services into Gaza … and to the very survival of Palestinians in Gaza as a group”.
Death toll mounts as Israeli jets, artillery pound Gaza City in north to Rafah in south
The Palestinian state news agency Wafa reports that dozens of people have been killed in attacks on Gaza, including local journalist Bahaa Okasha, who died along with his wife and son in an Israeli attack on their home in the Jabalia refugee camp.
Wafa reports that at least 10 people were killed and many injured, including children, in an Israeli bombardment of a house belonging to the al-Khatib family in central Gaza’s az-Zawayda town.
Israeli warplanes and artillery have also pounded central and eastern areas of southern Rafah city, which is reported to be now encircled by Israel’s military as a long-feared ground operation ramps up.
Casualties were also reported following Israeli attacks on Gaza City in the north, including on the home of the Siam family, located in the old town areas of the city.
Al Jazeera Arabic has also reported three people killed and a number wounded in Gaza City’s Sabra and Zeitoun neighbourhoods.
UAE denounces Netanyahu’s ‘invitation’ to participate in Gaza administration
The United Arab Emirates has denounced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent remarks about “inviting” the UAE “to participate in civil administration of Gaza”.
In a statement published on the UAE’s Foreign Ministry social media account, the country’s foreign minister said Netanyahu “does not have any legal capacity to take this step”, and the UAE would not be “drawn into any plan aimed at providing cover for the Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip”, which is “under Israeli occupation”.
“The UAE affirms that when a Palestinian government is formed that meets the hopes and aspirations of the brotherly Palestinian people and enjoys integrity, competence and independence, the state [UAE] will be fully prepared to provide all forms of support to that government,” UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed said the statement.
State Department report on Israeli arms ‘self-contradictory’: Expert
A State Department report provided to Congress on Friday assessing whether Israel’s use of US-provided weapons in Gaza has violated international law is “self-contradictory”, according to Brian Finucane, senior adviser to the International Crisis Group.
“It says that it is reasonable to assume that US weapons have been used to commit violations of international humanitarian law, and yet it does not say that Israel has violated international humanitarian law,” he told the Reuters news agency.
“It says that Israel has restricted humanitarian assistance into Gaza, and yet it says that currently, Israel is not restricting US-funded humanitarian assistance in Gaza, which is an absurd thing to say,” he added.
Finucane said that the State Department are “trying to have their cake and eat it too”.
“They’re trying to be seen to be levelling criticism while steering clear of the legal determinations that would bind their hands and potentially lead to restrictions on arms transfers,” he said.
Fuel shortage in Gaza – Power from hospital generators threatened
The Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah could be completely shut down due to fuel shortages in the next 24 hours, staff at the medical complex in central Gaza warn.
The closure of crossings into Gaza since Israel started its assault on Rafah this week means fuel has not been delivered for days and life-saving medical care will not be available to Palestinians who need it.
Clashes and arrests as Israeli military storms Jenin
Israeli forces have arrested two men from a neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, the Wafa news agency reports.
Armed clashes have also been reported between Palestinian resistance groups and the Israeli military in the area.
Israeli raids have been reported elsewhere in the occupied West Bank in the following locations:
The town of Jalion, east of Jenin
The village of Qusin, west of Nablus
The Israeli military has set up a checkpoint at the entrance to the Jalazone refugee camp, north of Ramallah
Report on US weapons use in Gaza ‘deliberately falls short’ on legal sanctions: Analyst
William Lawrence, a professor at the American University in Washington, DC, said the US State Department’s report on whether Israel had violated international humanitarian law in its use of US weapons in Gaza was released late on Friday as Washington knew “it was not going to be received well”.
“When you actually read the report, I would say it is quite damning,” Lawrence told Al Jazeera.
“What they do is make factual findings, of course with some anodyne language … But they make factual findings that Israel is violating international law. And then they don’t make the legal finding,” Lawrence said.
“Because, I think, politically the US government – which is already withholding 3,500 heavy bombs … they want it to be a political decision to withhold weapons, not a legal requirement to withhold weapons,” he said.
“I think that was a political decision of the White House and the State Department to deliberately fall short of requiring themselves to halt arms shipments, so they can use that as a carrot and stick politically with the Israelis,” he added.
“It is dissatisfying … but it’s unprecedented, the US criticising Israel in this way for violating international law.”
UNGA votes in favour of expanding Palestine’s rights
With overwhelming support at the United Nations General Assembly, Palestine has been granted expanded rights and privileges in its status at the UN.
A vote was held on the resolution, with 143 nations casting their ballots in favour, with nine against and 25 abstentions. Although upgraded, the new status does not allow Palestine to vote with the same rights as full member states.
Following the vote, Israel’s ambassador to the UN shredded a copy of the UN Charter during a speech denouncing the resolution.
The UN’s World Food Programme says the southern crossings to Gaza, where the main flow of aid goes into the enclave, have seen nothing enter for three days.
More than 100,000 people have fled Gaza's Rafah: UN
GENEVA (AFP) - More than 100,000 people have fled Rafah in recent days, the United Nations said on Friday (May 10), with the southern Gaza city under threat of a full-scale Israeli ground invasion.
Israel's military on Monday called for Gazans to leave eastern Rafah, which triggered widespread international alarm.
