Israel-Gaza – live updates: 80,000 flee Rafah as Biden says US won’t supply weapons for major ground assault

More than 80,000 people have left Rafah since Monday as Israeli continues its offensive in southern Gaza, the UN has said.

Most of those uprooted by Israeli military evacuation orders in eastern Rafah have already been displaced from other areas of Gaza, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

The agency said people people were leaving with everything they can carry “in vehicles, trucks, (on) motorbikes and donkey carts”.

Shelling has been reported in Rafah overnight, just hours after US president Joe Biden publicly vowed to withhold weapons from Israel if its forces make a ground offensive into southern Gaza.

“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah ..., I’m not supplying the weapons,” Mr Biden, whose administration has repeatedly asked Israel for its plan to protect civilians in Rafah, said in an interview with CNN.

There was no immediate comment from Israel on Mr Biden’s remarks, but Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed the Rafah operation will go ahead, saying it must hit Rafah to defeat Hamas fighters there.

Key Points

• Biden says US won’t supply weapons for Israel to attack Rafah

• Civilians in Gaza killed from US bombs, acknowledges Biden

• No more concessions to Israel in truce talks, says Hamas

• Unicef concerned for 600,000 displaced Palestinian children

Our live coverage has been paused

Thursday 9 May 2024 15:55 , Alexander Butler

Our live coverage has been paused

All of a sudden, Democrats are talking about Gaza and the Israel arms pause

Thursday 9 May 2024 15:40 , Alexander Butler

Elizabeth Warren says Netanyahu ‘ignores the United States at his peril’

Slovenia to recognise Palestinian state by mid-June

Thursday 9 May 2024 15:27 , Alexander Butler

The Slovenian government has initiated the procedure for the recognition of a Palestinian state as a form of leverage to end the conflict in Gaza, a move it announced in March, Prime Minister Robert Golob said.

“The horrors we see every day in Gaza are inadmissible and must stop,” Golob was quoted as saying on the government X platform. “I call on Israel to put an immediate end to its attacks on Gaza and to use the negotiating table.”

Mr Golob said he would like his country’s recognition to be “an incentive for these negotiations to proceed more quickly” and speed up the dialogue in the United Nations on an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages and the security and existence of Israel through a two-state solution.

The announcement came as Ireland, Spain and a number of other European Union member states are reportedly considering recognising a Palestinian state on 21 May, according to a report by Ireland’s national broadcaster.

How far will Netanyahu go in Rafah to appease his hardline coalition?

Thursday 9 May 2024 15:10 , Alexander Butler

How far will Netanyahu go in Rafah to keep his hardline coalition partners onside?

Who are Yemen’s Houthis and why are they attacking ships in the Red Sea?

Thursday 9 May 2024 15:06 , Alexander Butler

Editorial: If Rafah is attacked, Israel will have nothing to show for its unwinnable war

Thursday 9 May 2024 15:00 , Alexander Butler

If Rafah is attacked, Israel will have nothing to show for its unwinnable war

Iran will build nuclear bomb if Israel threatens existence, supreme leader’s advisor says

Thursday 9 May 2024 14:50 , Alexander Butler

Iran will build the bomb if Israel threatens existence, supreme leader’s advisor says

How many weapons does the UK export to Israel?

Thursday 9 May 2024 14:40 , Alexander Butler

How many weapons does the UK export to Israel?

Israel warns it will not be ‘subdued’ after Washington threatens to withdraw weapon supplies

Thursday 9 May 2024 14:31 , Alexander Butler

Israel has vowed it will not be “subdued” in the face of “friends and enemies” after the United States warned it would withdraw weapons supplies to the country.

Defence minister Yoav Gallant said Israel would do whatever necessary to achieve its war aims in Gaza despite growing international pressure to halt an invasion of Rafah.

He said: “I turn to Israel’s enemies as well as to our best of friends and say - the State of Israel cannot be subdued. We will stand strong, we will achieve our goals - we will hit Hamas, we will hit Hezbollah, and we will achieve security.

“We have no choice, we have no other country. We will do whatever is necessary, and I repeat - whatever is necessary, in order to defend the citizens of Israel, to remove the evil threats against us, and to stand up to those who attempt to destroy us.”

On Wednesday, US president Joe Biden warned Israel it would stop supplying weapons if it went ahead with its planned ground invasion of Rafah, which the UN warned would be a “bloodbath”. Israel claims Hamas’s last four battalions are hiding in the city.

EXCLUSIVE: More than 240 aid workers killed in Gaza, UN reveals

Thursday 9 May 2024 14:30 , Billal Rahman

Over 240 aid workers have died in Gaza since the beginning of the Hamas war, a UN Official has told The Independent.

UN spokesperson Olga Cherevko who is currently in Rafah, has also described the “horrific” conditions people are living in. She said: “We have not had enough aid entering since the beginning of this war.

“It’s horrific, there’s almost a 1.5 million people living here, basically on top of each other.

“The number of humanitarian workers that we’ve lost which is now over 240 people that have been killed, some of them in the line of duty.”

Ms Cherevko’s comments come as Israeli military launched its offensive in Rafah, despite repeated warnings from the US and UK.

UK should have been ‘ahead of US’ in suspending arms sales to Israel, ex-national security adviser says

Thursday 9 May 2024 14:20 , Alexander Butler

UK should have been ‘ahead of US’ in suspending arms sales to Israel

What weapons has the US paused sending to Israel – and what else do they supply?

Thursday 9 May 2024 14:08 , Alexander Butler

What weapons has the US paused sending to Israel – and what else do they supply?

In pictures: Humanitarian aid packages are dropped on the Gaza Strip

Thursday 9 May 2024 13:50 , Holly Evans

80,000 displaced from Rafah as Israeli bombardment intensifies, UN says

Thursday 9 May 2024 13:38 , Tom Barnes

More than 80,000 people have left Rafah since Monday as Israeli continues its offensive in southern Gaza, the UN has said.

Most of those uprooted by Israeli military evacuation orders in eastern Rafah have already been displaced from other areas of Gaza, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

UNRWA said people people were leaving with everything they can carry “in vehicles, trucks, (on) motorbikes and donkey carts”.

More than 47,500 people are estimated to have left shelters in Rafah on Wednesday alone, the agency added.

Rafah's hospitals will run out of fuel in 3 days, WHO says

Thursday 9 May 2024 13:20 , Holly Evans

The World Health Organization says it has only three days of fuel for its medical operations in southern Gaza, with shortages already forcing one of three remaining hospitals in the city of Rafah to shut down.

The Rafah border crossing with Egypt has been closed since Israel‘s military took control of the Palestinian side early Tuesday, blocking the entry of desperately needed humanitarian aid. The U.N. says northern Gaza is already in a state of “full-blown famine.”

The war in Gaza has driven around 80% of the territory’s population of 2.3 million from their homes and caused vast destruction to apartments, hospitals, mosques and schools across several cities. The death toll in Gaza has soared to more than 34,500 people, according to local health officials.

Read the full article here:

The Latest | Rafah's hospitals will run out of fuel in 3 days, WHO says

Israeli airstrike kills four Hezbollah members in Lebanon, says security source

Thursday 9 May 2024 12:50 , Holly Evans

An Israeli air strike on a car in southern Lebanon killed four people on Thursday, according to Lebanon’s civil defence, with security sources saying those killed were members of armed group Hezbollah.

The conflict between Hezbollah and Israel has rumbled on since October in parallel to the Gaza war, with an escalation this week as both sides intensified their bombardment, fuelling concern of a bigger war between the heavily-armed adversaries.

Israel has used artillery, drones and warplanes against targets in southern Lebanon, including to strike fighters from Hezbollah and other armed groups. Fighters in Lebanon have launched rockets and their own drones into northern Israel.

The Israeli military did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Thursday’s strikes.

David Cameron says UK systems of arms exports to Israel not the same as US

Thursday 9 May 2024 12:19 , Holly Evans

Foreign Secretary David Cameron described Britain’s system and scale of arms exports to Israel as completely different from those in the United States, saying the sales it licences were relatively small and policed by strict procedures.

Cameron was responding to a question on whether Britain would follow the U.S. after it warned that it would withhold weapons from Israel in case of a major invasion of Rafah.

“There’s a very fundamental difference between the US. situation and the UK situation,” Cameron said after a speech.

“The US is a massive state supplier of weapons to Israel ... we do not have a UK Government supply of weapons to Israel, we have a number of licences, and I think our defence exports to Israel are responsible for significantly less than 1% of their total.”

Israeli politicians respond to Biden’s comments on withholding arms

Thursday 9 May 2024 12:00 , Holly Evans

“This is a difficult and very disappointing statement to hear from a president to whom we have been grateful since the beginning of the war,” Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said on public radio.

And Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the government would pursue its goals in Gaza despite the US threat.

“We will achieve complete victory in this war despite President Biden’s push back and arms embargo,” he said in a statement.

“We must continue the war until Hamas is totally eliminated and our hostages are back home. This involves conquering Rafah completely and the sooner the better.”

Latest pictures from the ground

Thursday 9 May 2024 11:36 , Holly Evans

Education Secretary fears university campuses could become ‘unsafe’ like in US

Thursday 9 May 2024 11:22 , Holly Evans

There is a “fear” that university campuses in the UK will become unsafe spaces for students and staff like in the US, the Education Secretary has said.

Student encampments have been set up at more than a dozen universities in the UK against the war in Gaza, including Cambridge and Oxford.

Tensions have continued to ratchet up in standoffs with pro-Palestine protesters at US university campuses- and thousands of demonstrators have been arrested since the protests began in America last month.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak conducted a meeting in the state dining room of No 10 on Thursday morning with vice-chancellors from leading UK universities to discuss antisemitism on campuses and protecting Jewish students.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said vice-chancellors need to show leadership in response to protests against the war in Gaza.

Speaking ahead of the roundtable, Ms Keegan told Sky News: “What we don’t want is our campuses becoming unsafe environments for students or staff and going down the route that you see in other places like the US.”

80,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah since Monday

Thursday 9 May 2024 10:47 , Holly Evans

Since Monday, 80,000 people have fled Rafah, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said in a post on X on Thursday.

“The toll on these families is unbearable. Nowhere is safe,” UNRWA said.

Only three days left of fuel for medical operations in southern Gaza

Thursday 9 May 2024 10:22 , Holly Evans

The World Health Organisation says it has only three days of fuel for its medical operations in southern Gaza, with shortages already forcing one of three remaining hospitals in the city of Rafah to shut down.

The Rafah border crossing with Egypt has been closed since Israel’s military took control of the Palestinian side early on Tuesday, blocking the entry of desperately needed humanitarian aid.

The UN says northern Gaza is already in a state of “full-blown famine”.

Israel said it reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing, the other main entry point for aid, on Wednesday.

However, UN officials say no aid has entered Gaza, and there is no one to receive it on the Palestinian side because of ongoing fighting.

Human Rights Watch say Israel has ‘unlawfully’ used force to kill Palestinians

Thursday 9 May 2024 10:05 , Bel Trew

Israeli forces have “unlawfully used lethal force in fatal shootings of Palestinians”, organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.

Based on documentation of several cases since 2022, this also includes “deliberately executing Palestinians who posed no apparent security threat”,

HRW investigated eight specific killings of Palestinians in the West Bank, including children.

“Israeli forces have no need to fear that their government will hold them accountable”.

The IDF gave no responses to HRW’s questions about the eight specific killings.

Shelling reported overnight in Rafah

Thursday 9 May 2024 09:36 , Holly Evans

The BBC has reported that shelling was heard in Rafah overnight, although the Israeli military is yet to comment.

Journalists with the AFP agenyc reported “heavy shelling”, while the Palestinian news agency Wafa said eight people were killed.

It has also been reported that the area around the Rafah crossing has been struck.

Macklemore performs Gaza war protest song Hind’s Hall at New Zealand concert

Thursday 9 May 2024 09:02 , Holly Evans

Grammy-winning American rapper Macklemore performed his new protest track in support of Palestine, called “Hind’s Hall”, for the first time in New Zealand’s Wellington.

The single, a surprise release from the rapper on Tuesday, is inspired by the worldwide student protests against Israel’s war on Gaza and pays tribute to Hind Rajab.

Rajab, 6, was killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza two months ago while she was waiting for rescue trapped in a car with the bodies of her dead relatives.

Read the full article here:

34,904 Palestinians killed in Gaza since 7 October

Thursday 9 May 2024 08:57 , Holly Evans

At least 34,904 Palestinians have been killed and 78,514 injured in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza since Oct. 7, Gaza’s health ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

The announcement comes as a vessel carrying aid to a pier built by the US in the besieged enclave set sail from Cyprus.

The Sagamaore left the port of Larnaca on Thursday morning and will be used to offload aid supplies onto a floating pier.

Israel’s former defence official rejects claim country can manage without US arms

Thursday 9 May 2024 08:19 , Holly Evans

Israel’s former head of defense production and procurement on Thursday rejected the claim the country could manage without American arms.

In an appearance on Israeli public radio, he said they would be forced to source arms elsewhere.

Israel’s UN ambassador condemns US decision to pause weapons transfers

Thursday 9 May 2024 07:48 , Holly Evans

The United States’ decision to pause weapons transfers to Israel will significantly impair the country’s ability to neutralise Hamas, their United Nations ambassador Gilad Erdan has said.

It comes after Joe Biden vowed publicly to withold weapons if Israel’s forces made a major invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza. Their administration has repeatedly asked Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for its plan to protect civilians.

Biden also acknowledged that US bombs provided to Israel have killed Gaza civilians in the seven-month-old offensive aimed at annihilating Hamas.

Iran to change nuclear doctrine if existence threatened, adviser to supreme leader says

Thursday 9 May 2024 07:28 , Holly Evans

Iran will change its nuclear doctrine if Israel threatens its existence, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader said, the latest comment by an Iranian official that raises questions about what Tehran says is its peaceful nuclear program.

Tehran has always said it had no plans to obtain nuclear weapons. Western governments suspect that it wants nuclear technology to build a bomb; its nuclear program has been at the centre of a long-running dispute that has led to sanctions.

In April, in the middle of a tense standoff with Israel, which is widely believed to have nuclear weapons, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander also said Israeli threats could prompt Iran to change its nuclear doctrine.

“We have no decision to build a nuclear bomb but should Iran’s existence be threatened, there will be no choice but to change our military doctrine,” Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was reported as saying.

Biden faces domestic pressure over decision to halt military aid to Israel

Thursday 9 May 2024 06:49 , Namita Singh

Joe Biden is facing pressure from some the left to rein in Israel and condemnation from critics on the right who say he has moderated his support for a key Mideast ally.

“If we stop weapons necessary to destroy the enemies of the state of Israel at a time of great peril, we will pay a price,” said Republican senator Lindsey Graham, his voice rising in anger during an exchange with defence secretary Lloyd Austin.

“This is obscene. It is absurd. Give Israel what they need to fight the war they can’t afford to lose.”Independent senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a Biden ally, said in a statement the pause on big bombs must be a “first step”.

“Our leverage is clear,” Mr Sanders said. “Over the years, the United States has provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Israel. We can no longer be complicit in Netanyahu’s horrific war against the Palestinian people.”

Defence secretary Lloyd Austin, meanwhile, told lawmakers that “it’s about having the right kinds of weapons for the task at hand”.

“A small diameter bomb, which is a precision weapon, that’s very useful in a dense, built-up environment,” he said, “but maybe not so much a 2,000-pound bomb that could create a lot of collateral damage”. He said the US wants to see Israel do “more precise” operations.

Has US withheld military aid from Israel before?

Thursday 9 May 2024 06:32 , Namita Singh

This is not the first time that military aid to Israel has been paused. In 1982, president Ronald Reagan imposed a six-year ban on cluster weapons sales to Israel after a Congressional investigation found that Israel had used them in populated areas during its 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

Israel’s use of American cluster bombs was also reviewed under president George W Bush over concerns that they were used during a 2006 war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.

Were the bombs legal for Israel to use in Gaza?

Thursday 9 May 2024 06:27 , Namita Singh

The use of large bombs like 2,000-pound bombs is a matter of heated debate.

International humanitarian law does not explicitly ban aerial bombing in densely populated areas, however, civilians cannot be targets and a specific military aim must be proportionate to possible civilian casualties or damage.

The statute of the International Criminal Court, which is investigating Israel’s war on Gaza lists as a war crime intentionally launching an attack when it is known that civilian death or damage will be “clearly excessive” compared to any direct military advantage.

How has Israel responded to US weapon supply pause?

Thursday 9 May 2024 06:25 , Namita Singh

Israel has denied targeting Palestinian civilians, claiming its sole aim was to annihilate Hamas and that it took all precautions to avoid unnecessary deaths.

After the news broke on Tuesday, a senior Israeli official declined to confirm the report.

“If we have to fight with our fingernails, then we’ll do what we have to do,” the official said.

A military spokesperson said any disagreements with the US were resolved in private.

Scale of damage from 2,000-pound bombs

Thursday 9 May 2024 06:23 , Namita Singh

A 2,000-pound bomb impacts a wide area. “The pressure from the explosion can rupture lungs, burst sinus cavities and tear off limbs hundreds of meters from the blast site,” according to the United Nations.

The International Commission for the Red Cross in a 2022 report stated that the use of wide-area explosives in a densely populated area “is very likely to have indiscriminate effects or violate the principle of proportionality”.

When did US decide to halt weapon supplies to Israel?

Thursday 9 May 2024 06:10 , Namita Singh

The decision to halt weapon supplies to Israel was made last week, US officials told Reuters. Joe Biden was directly involved. Mr Biden confirmed the pause personally in a CNN interview Wednesday.

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” he said when asked about 2,000-pound bombs sent to Israel.

Which weapons shipment to Israel has US blocked?

Thursday 9 May 2024 06:07 , Namita Singh

Washington has paused a shipment of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and another of 1,700 500-pound bombs, according to US officials.

Sources said the shipments, which have been delayed for at least two weeks, include Boeing-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions, which convert dumb bombs into precision-guided ones, as well as Small Diameter Bombs.

The latter is a precision-guided glide bomb that packs 250 pounds of explosives. They were part of an earlier approved shipment to Israel, not the recent $95bn supplemental aid package the US Congress passed in April.

Why the US is stopping some bomb shipments to Israel?

Thursday 9 May 2024 05:36 , Namita Singh

The United States has suspended a shipment of weapons to Israel, including heavy bombs the US ally used in its campaign against Hamas militants in Gaza which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians.

The suspension comes as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues a military assault on the Palestinian city of Rafah, over the objections of US president Joe Biden.

The US is reviewing “near term security assistance,” defense secretary Lloyd Austin told a Senate hearing yesterday “in the context of unfolding events in Rafah”.

“We’ve been very clear...from the very beginning that Israel shouldn’t launch a major attack into Rafah without accounting for and protecting the civilians that are in that battlespace,” Mr Austin said. More than one million Palestinian civilians have sought shelter in Rafah, many previously displaced from other parts of Gaza following Israel’s orders to evacuate from there.

The US decision was taken due to concerns about the “end-use of the 2,000-pound bombs and the impact they could have in dense urban settings as we have seen in other parts of Gaza,” said a US official speaking on condition of anonymity. The US had carefully reviewed the delivery of weapons that might be used in Rafah, the official said.

Meanwhile, a US official told the Washington Post that the weapons shipment could still be delivered at White House’s discretion, adding that a “final” decision on how to proceed has not been made.

In any case, the official added, the Israeli military has enough weapons supplied by the US and other Western nations to conduct the Rafah operation if it chooses to cast aside the White House’s objections.

Unicef concerned for 600,000 displaced Palestinian children

Thursday 9 May 2024 05:08 , Namita Singh

Unicef has urged Israel’s government to agree a ceasefire deal as the UN agency expressed concern for displaced Palestinian children.

“There’s 600,000 children that are seeking shelter in Rafah and that many of them have been displaced multiple times already,” Unicef spokesperson Tess Ingram told The Intercept. “They’re exhausted, traumatised, sick, hungry, and their ability to safely evacuate is limited.”

“The area that they’re being directed to evacuate to is not safe. It’s not safe because there aren’t the services there to meet their basic needs, water, toilets, shelter,” she told the outlet. “But it’s also not safe because we know that that area has been subject to strikes despite being a so-called safe zone. So we’re really concerned about that impact of a ground offensive on one of the most densely populated areas in the world.”

Israel says it reopened a key Gaza crossing, UN says no aid entered

Thursday 9 May 2024 05:02 , Namita Singh

The Israeli military yesterday said it reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza after days of closure but the UN said no humanitarian aid entered and there was no one to receive it on the Palestinian side since workers had fled during the military’s incursion into the area.

The Kerem Shalom crossing between Gaza and Israel was closed over the weekend after a Hamas rocket attack killed four Israeli soldiers nearby. On Tuesday, an Israeli tank brigade seized the nearby Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, forcing its closure.

The two crossings are the main terminals for entry of food, medicine and other supplies essential for the survival of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians.

The Israeli foray did not appear to be the start of the full-scale invasion of the city of Rafah that Israel has repeatedly threatened. But aid officials warned that the prolonged closure of the two crossings could cause the collapse of aid operations, worsening the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where the UN says a “full-blown famine” is already underway in the north.

A looming humanitarian catastrophe amid Israel’s Rafah assault

Thursday 9 May 2024 04:39 , Namita Singh

Hamas said its fighters yesterday were battling Israeli forces in Rafah’s east and Islamic Jihad’s fighters attacked Israeli soldiers and military vehicles with heavy artillery near the city’s long abandoned airport.Israeli tank shells landed in the middle of Rafah wounding at least 25 people, medics said. Residents said an Israeli air strike killed four people and wounded 16 others in western Rafah.

The Israeli military said its troops had discovered Hamas infrastructure in several places in eastern Rafah and were conducting targeted raids in Rafah and airstrikes across the Gaza Strip.

The UN, Gaza residents and humanitarian groups say further Israeli incursion into Rafah will result in a humanitarian catastrophe.

A UN official said no fuel or aid had entered the Gaza Strip due to the military operation, a situation “disastrous for the humanitarian response” in Gaza where more than half the population is suffering catastrophic hunger.

Palestinians have crammed into tented camps and makeshift shelters, suffering from shortages of food, water and medicine.

“The streets of the city echo with the cries of innocent lives lost, families torn apart, and homes reduced to rubble,” Rafah mayor Ahmed Al-Sofi said, appealing to the international community to intervene.

No more concessions to Israel in truce talks, says Hamas

Thursday 9 May 2024 04:38 , Namita Singh

Palestinian militant group Hamas said yesterday it would make no more concessions to Israel in Gaza truce talks.

Delegations from Hamas, Israel, the US, Egypt and Qatar have been meeting in Cairo since Tuesday. Citing a source familiar with the matter, Egypt’s state-affiliated Al Qahera TV reported early this morning that areas of disagreement were being resolved and there were signs that an agreement will be reached, without giving details.

But Izzat El-Reshiq, a member of Hamas’s political office in Qatar, said in a statement yesterday that the group would not go beyond a ceasefire proposal it accepted on Monday. It would also entail the release of some Israeli hostages in Gaza and Palestinian women and children detained in Israel.

“Israel isn’t serious about reaching an agreement and it is using the negotiation as a cover to invade Rafah and occupy the crossing,” said Reshiq.

Israel on Monday declared that the three-phase truce proposal approved by Hamas was unacceptable because terms had been watered down. It did not respond immediately to the Hamas statement.

The US said on Tuesday that Hamas had revised its ceasefire proposal and the revision could overcome an impasse in negotiations. Just a few hours before Hamas’s latest statement, Washington continued to say the two sides were not far apart.

“We believe there is a pathway to a deal ... The two sides are close enough they should do what they can to get to a deal,” US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters.

‘Very disappointing’ says Israel’s UN ambassador on US weapon halt

Thursday 9 May 2024 04:35 , Namita Singh

US officials yesterday confirmed that Washington paused delivery of a shipment of bombs to Israel because of the risk to civilians in Gaza.

Israel’s UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, called that decision “very disappointing” but said he did not believe the US would stop supplying arms to Israel.

The United States is by far the biggest supplier of weapons to Israel, and it accelerated deliveries after the Hamas attacks on 7 October that triggered Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

However, Joe Biden has been under pressure from his fellow Democrats and growing campus protests to deter Israel from invading Rafah. His support of Israel has become a political liability as the president runs for re-election.

Civilians in Gaza killed from US-supplied bombs, acknowledges Biden

Thursday 9 May 2024 04:15 , Namita Singh

Joe Biden acknowledged that “civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of” US-supplied bombs.

Mr Biden’s comments, his starkest to date, increase the pressure on Israel to refrain from a full-scale assault on Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge after fleeing combat farther north in Gaza.

There was no immediate comment from Israel on his remarks, but Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the Rafah operation would go ahead. Israel says it must hit Rafah to defeat thousands of Hamas fighters it says are there.

Israel, meanwhile, continued tank and aerial strikes on southern Gaza after moving in via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Tuesday, cutting off a vital aid route.

Biden says US won’t supply weapons for Israel to attack Rafah

Thursday 9 May 2024 04:14 , Namita Singh

President Joe Biden said that he would not supply offensive weapons that Israel could use to launch an all-out assault on Rafah — the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza — over concern for the well-being of the more than one million civilians sheltering there.

Mr Biden, in an interview with CNN, said the US was still committed to Israel’s defence and would supply Iron Dome rocket interceptors and other defensive arms, but that if Israel goes into Rafah, “we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used.”

Killing of man in Egypt ‘linked to Gaza'

Thursday 9 May 2024 02:00 , Jane Dalton

A Canadian man “of Jewish Israeli descent” has been shot dead in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in a suspected criminal case, a security source said, while a previously unknown militant group said it carried out the attack in reaction to the war in Gaza.

The Egyptian security source said the man had been killed “with the motive of robbery” and made no link between the shooting and the victim’s ethnic background.

But a message on Telegram by a previously unknown group called “Vanguards of Liberation” claimed responsibility for the attack as a reaction to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and its move to seize control of the Rafah crossing on Egypt’s border with the enclave. It named the victim as Ziv Kipper, accusing him of working for Israeli intelligence.

Rafah residents face ‘the fire of hell’

Thursday 9 May 2024 00:10 , Jane Dalton

Recap: United Nations officials have warned that vital aid is being “choked off” after Israeli forces and tanks seized control of the main aid crossing in Rafah:

Rafah residents face ‘the fire of hell’ as Israeli tanks seize border crossing

Palestinians ‘awaiting execution’ as pressure grows on Israel to agree ceasefire

Wednesday 8 May 2024 22:15 , Jane Dalton

Palestinian civilians fleeing Israel’s assault on east Rafah have said they have been “sentenced to death”. Bel Trew reports, with Nedal Hamdouna in Rafah:

Palestinians in Rafah ‘awaiting execution’ as pressure grows over ceasefire

Opinion: I witnessed hell on earth in Gaza

Wednesday 8 May 2024 21:15 , Jane Dalton

I’ve been on the ground in Rafah – what I saw there horrified me

Irish students win anti-Israeli fight with university

Wednesday 8 May 2024 20:14 , Jane Dalton

A student encampment protest at Trinity College Dublin is to end after management agreed to the demands of protesters wanting the university to cut all ties with Israel.

Visitors have been unable to access the historic Book of Kells since action began on Friday evening when the activists set up tents inside the campus of the prestigious institution.

University management met student representatives on Wednesday to discuss the situation.

In a statement, Trinity said it would complete a divestment from investments in Israeli companies that have activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and appear on the UN blacklist in this regard.

This process is expected to be completed by June.

It said it would “endeavour” to divest in other Israeli companies, noting that its supplier list contains just one Israeli company which will remain until March 2025 for contractual reasons.

Suspension of US bombs shipment disappointing, says Israel

Wednesday 8 May 2024 18:56 , Jane Dalton

Israel’s ambassador to the UN called has called Washington’s decision to delay a shipment of powerful bombs to Israel “very disappointing”.

But Gilad Erdan said he did not believe the US would stop supplying arms to Israel.

Washington said it had held up the shipment to prevent Palestinian civilian casualties.

A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington had carefully reviewed the delivery of weapons that might be used in Rafah and as a result suspended a shipment of 1,800 2,000lb (907kg) bombs and 1,700 500lb bombs.

This would be the first such delay since the Biden administration offered its “ironclad” support to Israel after Hamas’ October attack.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the decision was taken in the context of Israel’s plan to invade Rafah, which Washington opposes without civilian safeguards.

Police clearing Pro-Palestinian tent encampment at George Washington University, dozens arrested

Wednesday 8 May 2024 17:00 , Tom Watling

Police began to clear a Pro-Palestinian tent encampment at George Washington University early Wednesday, hours after dozens of protesters left the site and marched to President Ellen Granberg’s home.

“Officers gave their third and final warning to demonstrators to move at about 3:30 a.m., saying all who remained in U-Yard and the stretch of H Street in front of the plaza would be arrested,” according to GW Hatchet, the university’s independent student-run newspaper.

Police clearing Pro-Palestinian tent encampment at George Washington University, dozens arrested

Main maternity hospital in Rafah stops admitting patients

Wednesday 8 May 2024 16:30 , Tom Watling

The main maternity hospital in the Gaza Strip’s crowded southern city of Rafah has stopped admitting patients, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has reported.

The UNFPA told Reuters that the hospital, Emirati Maternity Hospital, had been handling some 85 out of a daily total of 180 births in Gaza prior to an escalation of fighting between Hamas and Israeli troops on Rafah’s outskirts.

Around half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been crowded into Rafah after fleeing other parts of the enclave during seven months of war.

Emirati Hospital has only five delivery beds. But following the mass influx of people into Rafah that began in December due to Israeli airstrikes and fighting further north, the hospital became the main place for women to give birth in Rafah, Dominic Allen, the UN’s top official for the occupied Palestinian territories.

Other hospitals in the city, like Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital, have for months been admitting war wounded and directing women in labour to Emirati.