Tag: Israel War on Gaza

Why Egypt backed South Africa’s genocide case against Israel in the ICJ | Israel War on Gaza News

As Israel devastates Gaza, Egypt has largely had to watch on with rising concern about the developments on its border.

Its border with the Palestinian enclave has been a route for aid going in and people coming out but Israel has had the ultimate say over access to the border, even if it did not have a physical presence there until last week.

And it was that move – to send Israeli troops to the Rafah border crossing – that experts believe has cemented Egypt’s belief that Israel is not taking its security and political concerns seriously, and is instead “disrespecting” them.

Egypt has now taken its own steps – on May 12, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Egypt had joined South Africa’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) genocide case against Israel.

“The significance of this move is that it is sending a signal that Egypt is not happy with what’s happening in Gaza and how Israel is behaving,” said Nancy Okail, an expert on Egypt and the president and CEO of the Center for International Policy, even as she downplayed the effect of Egypt’s decision on the ICJ’s final verdict, labelling it a “symbolic gesture”.

Egypt has grown increasingly alarmed with Israel’s military operations in Rafah, where about 1.5 million Palestinians from all over Gaza had sought refuge.

The takeover of the Philadelphi Corridor, which separates Egypt from Gaza, is particularly worrying for Cairo; the Egyptian parliament has warned that the Israeli military’s presence there was a violation of the Camp David Accords that brought peace between Egypt and Israel.

“The way Israel has acted in the last week and a half has been incredibly troubling for Egyptian officials,” said Erin A Snyder, a scholar of Egypt and a former professor at Texas A&M University. “They have been effectively showing disrespect for the relations that they have [with Egypt].”

Red lines crossed?

The possibility that Israel’s ultimate goal in Gaza is to force out its Palestinian population has worried Egypt since the beginning of the war in October.

Early on, Israel’s intelligence ministry drafted a paper that proposed the transfer of Gaza’s 2.3 million people to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Although the Israeli government downplayed the report, Israeli politicians, including the far-right duo of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, said they supported the “voluntary” migration of Palestinians from Gaza.

The repeated suggestions have set off alarm bells in Egypt, which views any such transfer of millions of Palestinians into its territory as a red line that cannot be crossed, and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has warned Israel against any such move.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi speaks during a joint press conference with French President following their talks in Cairo, on October 25
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi at a news conference in Cairo, on October 25, 2023 [Christophe Ena/Pool/AFP]

“Egypt has been sounding the alarm on the destabilising prospects of an Israeli military operation in Rafah and on any military action that could result in the alleged resettlement plan that emerged out of Israel last fall,” said Hesham Sallam, a scholar on Egypt and the Middle East at Stanford University.

Israel has seemingly taken measures to assuage Egypt’s concern by instructing Palestinians in Rafah to evacuate to al-Mawasi, a coastal area to the west of Rafah, away from Egypt.

Israel claims that al-Mawasi is a “safe humanitarian zone”, but aid groups say tens of thousands of people are crammed into the area without access to adequate food or water.

Over the last week, 450,000 people have fled Rafah, according to the United Nations, and nearly a million remain.

“The Israelis are intent on wrapping things up in Rafah in a way that looks similar to what they did in Khan Younis, or at least eventually,” said H A Hellyer, an expert on Middle East geopolitics at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Royal United Services Institute.

“That is deeply concerning to Cairo because they don’t want more escalation along the border.”

Dead end talks?

Egypt has hosted ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel, playing a critical role in mediating between the two sides, along with Qatar and the United States.

Boys watch smoke rise as Israel strikes eastern Rafah on May 13, 2024, amid Israel’s continuing war on Gaza [AFP]

However, Egypt seems frustrated with Israel’s refusal to end the war in exchange for the release of Israeli captives held in Gaza, according to Timothy Kaldas, an expert on Egypt and deputy director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy think tank.

“The Israelis didn’t seem to take the ceasefire talks that Egypt was hosting seriously … and it’s not clear to anybody what would get Israel to agree to a ceasefire,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Egypt is probably pretty frustrated that this conflict has no end in sight.”

Two days before Israel stormed into eastern Rafah, Egypt, Qatar and the US lobbied Hamas and Israel to sign a deal. Hamas agreed to a modified version of the ceasefire proposal presented at the talks, but Israel rejected it.

Days later, Egyptian military officials cancelled a planned meeting with Israeli counterparts due to their disagreement over the Rafah operation, according to the Israeli press. “We don’t know what the meeting was supposed to be about. But certainly this move  –  overlapping with [joining the ICJ case] – is an indication that there is a great deal of frustration with Israel from the Egyptian side,” Sallam said.

Israeli PM Netanyahu in Jerusalem on February 18, 2024 [Ronen Zvulun/Reuters]

Another delegation of Israeli intelligence officials is said to have arrived in Cairo on Wednesday for talks with their Egyptian counterparts over Rafah.

Peace treaty in danger?

Egypt has little leverage left beyond suspending its peace treaty with Israel, a move experts believe is unlikely. That step could jeopardise the $1.6bn in US military assistance Egypt receives annually as part of the peace agreement.

“I generally doubt that there is any serious risk to the Camp David Accords,” said Kaldas. “The Egyptians benefit in a number of ways from maintaining that agreement.”

Snyder said “anything is possible”, noting that everything Israel is doing in Gaza is unprecedented. However, she does not expect Egypt to suspend the treaty either, as it is central to US regional interests.

“I feel that the US is very concerned and is working to ensure that [suspending the treaty] doesn’t happen,” she told Al Jazeera.

Snyder added that Egypt’s decision to join South Africa at the ICJ should also be seen as an attempt to pressure Israel’s strongest ally and largest weapons supplier to take action on regional security.

“This isn’t just about pressuring Israel. It’s also about pressuring the US to use its leverage towards Israel,” she told Al Jazeera.

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Israel kills more than 500 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7 | Israel War on Gaza News

Israelis have now killed at least 502 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since October 7.

The latest killings came on Thursday when three youths – Mohamed Youssef Nasr Allah, 27, Ayman Ahmed Mubarak, 26, and Hossam Emad Deabes, 22 – were killed by Israeli forces raiding Tulkarm.

More than 230 Palestinians were killed during Israeli raids, while at least 20 are reported to have been killed by settlers from illegal settlements and outposts.

October 7 was the date of the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, and the beginning of Israel’s relentless war on Gaza, which has killed more than 35,000 people and injured more than 70,000 more, with some 10,000 missing, presumed dead under the rubble of the destroyed Strip.

The violence has spilled over into the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, already tense after an Israeli campaign of military raids and an increase in settler violence.

According to United Nations figures, 154 Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank in 2022 after Israel began near-daily raids in the territory.

One of those killed was Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by an Israeli sniper in Jenin in May 2022 while covering an Israeli raid there.

A far-right government led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came into power at the end of 2022 and further stepped up the violence.

Before October 7, at least 199 Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank in 2023.

Israeli raids, both before and after October 7, have ostensibly targeted Palestinian armed groups in the West Bank, part of a policy Israel labels “mowing the lawn” – eradicating any threat from Palestinian fighters before they could grow stronger.

Israel has reportedly focused on ensuring that new resistance groups without direct ties to pre-established organisations such as Fatah or Hamas could not become nodes of armed power.

Since October 7, Israel has used the cover of the war on Gaza to step up its attacks in the occupied West Bank and has become more brazen in using air power such as helicopters and drones to kill Palestinians. Israeli forces have killed many unarmed Palestinians.

“Israeli forces have [since October 7] unleashed a brutal wave of violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, carrying out unlawful killings, including by using lethal force without necessity or disproportionately during protests and arrest raids, and denying medical assistance to those injured,” Amnesty International said in February.

The UN told Israel to stop “unlawful killings” in the occupied West Bank in December, with the head of the UN Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territories telling Al Jazeera at the time that a lack of accountability, and even incitement from Israeli officials, had led to an increase in violence by Israeli forces and Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank.

“I think that’s extremely important to underscore: where there is impunity, violations will continue to happen,” Ajith Sunghay said.

The Israeli settler movement seeks to illegally populate the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem – and in some instances, Gaza – with Jewish settlers at the expense of Palestinians.

With representatives of the movement now sitting at the top levels of the Israeli government, many settlers appear to have used October 7 as a pretence to step up attacks against Palestinians, betting that the Israeli government would look the other way.

Israeli settlers have repeatedly descended on Palestinian towns and villages and attacked residents, forcing them out in some cases.

Last month, after one such round of settler violence, Palestinians living near Ramallah expressed their fear to Al Jazeera.

“We’re terrified … Most people are trying to leave the town or to [go to] other countries if they have other citizenships,” said one resident at the time.

Paramedics assist a wounded man in an ambulance in Tulkarm, April 19, 2024 [Raneen Sawafta/Reuters]

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank fear that they could eventually face the same intensity of attacks and violence as Gaza has faced.

The occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has been under continuous illegal Israeli occupation since June 1967. Its status as an occupied territory has been affirmed by the International Court of Justice and, with the exception of East Jerusalem, the Israeli Supreme Court.

UN rulings dating back to 1979 stipulate that establishing any Israeli settlement on the territory is illegal.

But Israel has constructed more than 140 settlements on Palestinian land, which house hundreds of thousands of Israelis. The settlements restrict entry to Palestinians, including those who own the land they are built on.

A separate network of roads has also been built for Jewish settlers – roadways that Palestinians are almost always unable to use.

Israeli policy in the West Bank has therefore been described as one of “apartheid” by Palestinians and human rights defenders around the world.

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California university will heed student call to boycott Israel institutions | Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions News

Sonoma State University, a public school in northern California, has said that it will not enter partnerships with Israeli universities, heeding a call from pro-Palestine student groups pushing to boycott Israeli companies and institutions amid the war in Gaza.

The decision, announced on Tuesday, comes after a recent wave of campus protests spread across the United States, with encampments and demonstrations cropping up at schools like Columbia University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

As part of their demands, student activists aimed to sever school ties with academic bodies and companies perceived as complicit in Israel’s war and decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territory.

In an email to students on Tuesday, Sonoma State’s president, Mike Lee, said the school had reached an agreement with the protesters, who set up an on-campus encampment three weeks ago.

Sonoma State would do more to disclose its contracts and seek “divestment strategies”, Lee wrote. It would also not pursue partnerships that are “sponsored by, or represent, the Israeli state academic and research institutions”.

In exchange for the concessions, student activists agreed to dismantle the cluster of tents on campus by Wednesday evening.

Many universities have responded to the demands of antiwar activists with police crackdowns on encampments. But those efforts have done little to dim calls for divestment, and campus activists have likened their efforts to historic student protests against the Vietnam War and apartheid South Africa.

Several pro-Palestine university encampments have disbanded after negotiations over divestment demands with administrators.

In late April, for instance, protesters took down their tents at Brown University in Rhode Island, after the Ivy League school’s board of governors agreed to consider divestment in a vote this October.

However, calls for divestment can be controversial in the US, where Israel enjoys strong political backing.

Israel receives $3.8bn in military aid from the US every year, and US lawmakers have, with the encouragement of pro-Israel groups, moved to penalise and even criminalise calls to boycott Israel.

In Texas, for instance, Republican Governor Greg Abbott responded to students’ divestment demands directly, saying earlier this month, “This will NEVER happen.” Under his leadership, the state passed a law that prohibits government entities from contracting with firms that boycott Israel.

Backlash to Sonoma State decision

Jewish groups and a handful of state politicians have likewise condemned Sonoma State’s decision, saying that it represents an attack on Israel and the Jewish community.

Some tied the university’s decision to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS), which seeks to pressure Israel into protecting Palestinian rights through nonviolent means. It also aims to draw attention to companies seen as complicit in rights abuses in the Palestinian territory.

BDS’s critics, however, consider the movement anti-Semitic for its targeting of Israeli companies and groups.

“Yesterday the President of Sonoma State University aligned the campus with BDS, a movement whose goal is the destruction of Israel, home to 7M Jews,” California state Senator Scott Wiener said in a social media post on Wednesday.

In another post, the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area said the decision by Sonoma State was in “clear violation” of California’s 2016 anti-BDS law. It called on the chancellor of the California State University system — of which Sonoma State is a member — to “rectify” the situation.

However, free speech advocacy groups say that anti-BDS laws suppress criticism of Israel and conflate scrutiny over Israel’s alleged human rights abuses with anti-Semitism.

Protecting students and free speech

The campus protests like the one at Sonoma State have fuelled debate over the distinction between criticism of Israel and anti-Jewish hate.

It also has raised concerns about how to protect free speech rights on campus, while addressing the discomfort some students have expressed towards the protests.

Student protesters have sought to shine a light on the plight facing Palestinian civilians, particularly since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza on October 7.

More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military offensive in the intervening months, with approximately 1.5 million people internally displaced.

The war has also pushed parts of the Palestinian territory into a state of “full-blown famine“. United Nations experts have warned of a “risk of genocide” in the enclave.

But even before the start of the current war, rights groups like Amnesty International have concluded that Israel’s actions in the occupied Palestinian territory constitute the crime of apartheid.

Still, while the vast majority of pro-Palestine campus protests have been peaceful, fears of anti-Semitism at universities have been running high.

Shortly after the war began in October, for instance, a report emerged that a 24-year-old Jewish student had been assaulted with a stick at the Columbia University campus in New York.

Columbia University’s president, Nemat Shafik, was called before a congressional committee last month to answer questions about the alleged instances of anti-Semitism on her campus, though several US representatives questioned the narrow focus of the hearing.

“Anti-Semitism is not the only form of hatred rising in our schools,” Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez, a Democrat, told the committee.

“Islamophobia and hate crimes against LGBTQ students have also recently spiked. They’ve led to deaths by suicide, harassment. But this committee has not held a single hearing on these issues.”

Indeed, advocates say pro-Palestine protesters have also been subject to a spike in harassment since the war began. At UCLA, for instance, counter-protesters attacked an antiwar encampment, and observers later reported that campus police waited to intervene.

The episode led critics to question which students were being protected — and why.



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Rafah, US arms, UNRWA: How Biden defends supporting Israel amid Gaza war | Israel War on Gaza News

Washington, DC – “It’s wrong,” United States President Joe Biden said last week of the ongoing Israeli offensive against the southern Gaza city of Rafah, pledging to stop supplying offensive weapons if the assault proceeds.

One week later, however, Israeli forces have seized the Rafah border crossing and pushed into the city, where more than 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering. Still, US media reported on Tuesday that Biden plans to advance a $1bn arms transfer to Israel, including tank shells.

Advocates say the apparent contradiction — between pressuring Israel to stop its offensive, then offering further weaponry — is part of a broader pattern whereby the US says one thing but does another.

“We’ve got a situation where the rhetoric is not matching the action,” said Hassan El-Tayyab, legislative director for Middle East policy at the advocacy group Friends Committee on National Legislation. “It’s obviously distressing seeing the US complicity in these horrific war crimes.”

Biden’s statements one week prior signalled to some advocates that Washington may finally use its leverage to pressure Israel to end its abuses against Palestinians.

In a CNN interview, the president said he would stop the transfer of artillery shells to Israel in the case of a Rafah invasion, and his administration ultimately withheld one shipment of heavy bombs over the assault.

But advocates say the media reports of the $1bn transfer raises questions about Biden’s commitment to protecting civilians in Rafah — and standing up to Israel, its longtime ally.

Here, Al Jazeera looks at how the Biden administration presents its policies to overcome legal and political questions about its unconditional support for Israel.

Rafah invasion

Claim: The US government says Israel has not launched a major invasion of Rafah.

“We believe that what we’re seeing right now is a targeted operation. That’s what Israel has told us. We have not seen a major operation moving forward,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday.

Fact: The Israeli offensive in Rafah has so far displaced 450,000 Palestinians from the city and further strained the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, raising fears of catastrophic consequences.

While Israeli troops have not entered the dense urban centre of Rafah, Israel’s tanks have been pushing deeper into the city. Last week, the State Department acknowledged that theoretically “a series of limited operations” can constitute “one large one”.

“It’s not credible to say that the Rafah offensive has not started. From everything we’re seeing, the Rafah invasion is happening. And it should have already crossed that red line,” El-Tayyab told Al Jazeera.

Ceasefire

Claim: The Biden administration says it is pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza, often blaming Hamas for rejecting proposals to reach a deal to halt the fighting.

“Israel put a forward-leaning proposal on the table for a ceasefire and hostage deal,” US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday. “The world should be calling on Hamas to come back to the table and accept a deal.”

Fact: The US has vetoed three separate ceasefire draft resolutions at the United Nations Security Council and voted against two at the General Assembly.

Hamas has accepted a deal put forward by Qatar and Egypt that would lead to a lasting ceasefire and the release of Israeli captives in Gaza and a number of Palestinian prisoners in Israel. The Israeli government rejected it.

“What we need is a permanent ceasefire now to end this mass killing, and we need to move towards a resolution of the deeper issues of this horrible conflict,” El-Tayyab said.

International humanitarian law violations

Claim: The US says it cannot definitively determine whether Israel is using American weapons to violate international law.

The Biden administration issued a report last week saying that Israel offered “credible and reliable” assurances that US arms are not being deployed to commit abuses.

Fact: Rights groups have documented numerous violations of international humanitarian law by the Israeli military, which extensively uses US weapons. Those reports include evidence of indiscriminate bombing, torture and targeting civilians.

“There’s a version of reality that this administration would like people to believe in. And then there is a version of reality that people have been actually watching for months now in Gaza, with horrific images of the killing of civilians, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, the starvation of an entire population,” Palestinian American analyst Yousef Munayyer told Al Jazeera.

“And these two realities don’t line up at all. And so, I don’t know what audience this theatre is intended for. But I can’t imagine it being persuasive to anybody really.”

Leahy Law

Claim: The Biden administration says it applies the “same standards” to Israel in enforcing the Leahy Law, which prohibits assistance to foreign military units that commit abuses.

Last month, the US State Department said it would not suspend aid to any Israeli battalions despite acknowledging that five units had engaged in gross violations of human rights.

Washington said four of the battalions had taken remedial steps to address the abuses, and the US is engaging with Israel over the fifth unit.

Fact: Experts say the US has a special process in applying the Leahy Law to Israel, giving the country more time and leeway to address allegations of abuse.

“They have made the determination that the unit has been engaged in gross violations and that the host country has failed to remediate,” Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), told Al Jazeera last week.

“And they still have not cut off that unit. That is an admission that the secretary of state is violating US law.”

De-funding UNRWA

Claim: The Biden administration says it cut off funding to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) to “comply with the law”.

The law in question is a government funding bill that Congress passed in March, banning aid to UNRWA.

The UN agency provides vital services to millions of Palestinians across the Middle East and has played a leading role in aid delivery in Gaza.

Fact: Biden supported the funding legislation and signed it into law. Washington had also suspended its assistance to the agency weeks before the bill was approved, following Israeli allegations of links between UNRWA and Hamas.

Last month, an independent review of UNRWA, commissioned by the UN, found that Israel did not provide credible evidence to back its accusations.

“Our political process has chosen to cut US funding to literally the only entity that can address the level of suffering and scale of suffering that’s happening in Gaza right now,” Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute (AAI), told Al Jazeera earlier this year.

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Another Biden administration staffer resigns over US stance on Gaza war | Israel War on Gaza News

Lily Greenberg Call says she cannot ‘in good conscience’ represent the US gov’t, condemns ‘disastrous’ Gaza policy.

Another staffer in United States President Joe Biden’s administration has publicly resigned in protest of the US’s continued support for Israel amid its war on Gaza, The Associated Press news agency reported.

Lily Greenberg Call, a special assistant to the chief of staff in the US Interior Department, wrote in her resignation letter that she could not “in good conscience continue to represent” the administration, AP reported on Wednesday.

Call, who is Jewish, also condemned comments Biden has made since the Gaza war began in October, including one where he warned “there wouldn’t be a Jew in the world who was safe” without the existence of Israel.

“He is making Jews the face of the American war machine. And that is so deeply wrong,” she told the news agency in an interview.

A handful of Biden administration officials and appointees – including a former US Army officer – have publicly stepped down over the US’s Gaza policy since the conflict began on October 7.

The resignations have come amid widespread anger in the country about Biden’s unequivocal support for Israel, despite the mounting death toll in the Gaza Strip and accusations that Israeli forces are committing genocide against Palestinians in the enclave.

More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed since the conflict began, and Israel’s continued assault and siege on the territory has created a dire humanitarian crisis. Hundreds of thousands have been internally displaced.

But despite the dire toll of Israel’s military offensive, and a recent decision to pause one US weapons shipment to Israel, the Biden administration signalled this week that it plans to send another $1bn in military assistance to Israel.

The news drew condemnation from rights advocates, who for months have urged Washington to suspend all weapons transfers to its top Middle East ally.

A recent US Department of State report found that Israeli forces likely used US-supplied weapons in a manner “inconsistent” with international law. However, it stopped short of identifying violations that would put an end to Washington’s ongoing military aid.

On Wednesday, Josh Paul – a former State Department official who resigned in October over the US’s Gaza policy – said the latest Biden administration resignation signalled that “the tide is turning”.

Paul noted in a post on LinkedIn that US university students, Democratic Party voters, as well as Biden’s own staff and political appointees have all made clear they are opposed to his Middle East policy.

The US president, who is seeking re-election in November, faces growing disapproval among key segments of his Democratic base over his Gaza stance.

Young people, progressives, and voters of colour, among others, have said they would not vote for him in the upcoming elections if he does not change tack.

“How many more Palestinian lives will it take before President Biden catches up to the American electorate and ceases American support to the war crimes being committed with our funding, with our arms, by Israel?” Paul wrote.

Call, the staffer who resigned from the Interior Department, also said Israel’s Gaza war and US support for it were “disastrous”.

“I think the president has to know that there are people in his administration who think this is disastrous,” Call told The Associated Press. “Not just for Palestinians, for Israelis, for Jews, for Americans, for his election prospects.”

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Israel escalates attacks as aid agencies warn Gaza on brink of catastrophe | Israel War on Gaza News

Israel has continued its military push in across Gaza, with fierce urban gun battles between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups taking place in the Jabalia camp in the north to the southern city of Rafah, which borders Egypt.

In the northern Jabalia district, now widely destroyed, residents said Israeli tanks had destroyed clusters of homes but were facing heavy resistance from fighters with the Palestinian group Hamas, which governs Gaza and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) armed group on Wednesday.

“They are bombing houses on top of their inhabitants,” said Abu Jehad.

The PIJ claimed it killed some Israeli soldiers in Jabalia, while Israel’s military said it eliminated many fighters in the area.

Israel sent troops back into areas in northern Gaza earlier this week after claiming they had defeated Hamas there months ago.

Israel’s military ordered more evacuations from the al-Manshiya and Sheikh Zayyed neighbourhoods in northern Gaza. The United Nations estimated that some 100,000 people have been forcibly expelled from the north in recent days.

In Gaza City, several people were killed after Israeli forces struck a group of Palestinians at the intersection of Jalaa Street and al-Oyoun Street, the official Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.

At least three bodies arrived at al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, as well as a number of critical cases, Wafa said.

The number of dead from this attack, which targeted a gathering point for internet access, is expected to rise, according to Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud.

“This is not the first time we see this pattern of attacks on civilians gathering in large groups, either at a food distribution or internet connection points, or even at a solar-powered point to charge their phones or computers,” Mahmoud said.

Palestinian health officials said at least 82 Palestinians were killed in the previous 24 hours.

‘Vengeful’ attacks

Hamas decried attacks against civilians across the Strip, saying they are “fascist and vengeful” acts that reflect the Israeli army’s state of “defeat”.

In Rafah, Israeli tanks have been massed around the eastern edges of Rafah and in recent days, have been probing into built-up areas of the city, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have sought shelter from bombardment elsewhere in Gaza.

Residents said Israeli forces had pushed into three neighbourhoods and Palestinian fighters were trying to prevent soldiers and tanks moving towards the centre.

Aid groups including the International Rescue Committee (IRC) warned they are facing significant disruptions in their humanitarian operations as the Israeli army moves into the city to conduct its widely criticised ground offensive.

“I have recently returned from Gaza, where the scale of the crisis defies imagination. Facilities across southern Gaza have been repurposed into makeshift shelters overflowing into the streets,” Kiryn Lanning, IRC team lead for the occupied Palestinian territory, said.

“This displaced population is now facing acute shortages of basic necessities such as food, water, and adequate sanitation,” Lanning added.

Last week, after the Israeli army seized and shut down the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt – a vital entry point for humanitarian aid – the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, warned that southern Gaza’s hospitals had only days of fuel left to run their operations, and that the entry of fuel into the Strip was essential to prevent more deaths.

Sporadic aid deliveries into Gaza by truck have slowed to a trickle since Israeli forces took control of the Gaza side of the crossing on May 7.

A convoy carrying humanitarian relief goods was ransacked by far-right Israelis on Monday after it had crossed from Jordan through the occupied West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed there is “no humanitarian catastrophe” in Rafah, where about 450,000 people have been driven out of their places of shelter since last week, according to the UN.

As the fighting intensifies, ceasefire talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt have hit an impasse, with Hamas demanding a permanent end to attacks and Netanyahu’s government saying it will not stop until the group is annihilated.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Israel to produce a clear plan for Gaza’s post-war future.

Netanyahu has opposed the creation of an independent Palestinian state, which most foreign powers see as the only long-term solution.

He said that any move to establish an alternative to Hamas as the government of Gaza required that the Palestinian group first be eliminated, and demanded this goal be pursued “without excuses”.

His remarks, in a video statement posted online, followed a public challenge by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who accused the government of having avoided a serious discussion of a proposal for a non-Hamas post-war Palestinian administration.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh has reiterated that the group rejects any post war settlement that does not include Hamas.

“We are here to stay”, Haniyeh said in a statement late on Wednesday, adding that the group is sticking to its demands of a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

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Nakba remembered: What is the right of return? | Gaza

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76 years on from the Nakba, Palestinians continue to demand their right of return after they were expelled from their homes during the creation of the Israeli state in 1948. Al Jazeera’s Nada Qaddourah breaks down the situation and looks at the parallels with Israel’s current war on Gaza.

Published On 15 May 2024

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US plans to send $1bn in new military aid to Israel: Reports | Israel War on Gaza News

Request for tank ammunition, tactical vehicles for Israel despite Biden’s earlier pause on bombs over Rafah assault.

The Biden administration has told Congress that it plans to send a $1bn package of military aid to Israel, according to media reports, despite the United States’s opposition to a full-scale invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza and concerns about rising civilian deaths.

The US Department of State on Tuesday moved the package into the congressional review process, Reuters news agency reported, citing two unnamed US officials.

The package, which is yet to be approved, includes about $700m for tank ammunition, $500m in tactical vehicles and $60m in mortar rounds, congressional aides told The Associated Press news agency.

The approval request for the transfer of lethal weapons comes a week after President Joe Biden paused a single shipment of bombs because of concerns over Israel’s offensive in Rafah, in the southernmost tip of Gaza, from where the United Nations says close to half a million displaced people have fled.

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi said the new package “is being presented as the long-term US commitment to supplying Israel with weaponry”.

“We are being told that it is something that has been under consideration since mid-spring. It could take many months, up to three years to supply all of these weapons to Israel,” he said.

“But again, it is a long-term commitment. That’s how it is being presented. This is not necessarily connected to what is happening right now [in Gaza].”

A recent State Department report found that Israeli forces likely used US-supplied weapons in a manner “inconsistent” with international law. However, it stopped short of identifying violations that would put an end to Washington’s ongoing military aid.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said on Wednesday that the Israeli army has intensified its attacks by land and air in Rafah and Jabalia in the north of the territory.

“Over the past couple of hours, we have recorded more victims in central areas of Gaza City. Ten Palestinians have been killed in the city’s Sabra neighbourhood after a UN-run clinic was targeted by Israeli jets,” he said.

Nearly 450,000 people had been forcibly displaced from Rafah since May 6, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said in a statement on Tuesday. Another 100,000 people have evacuated from the north in the face of fierce new attacks.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, at least 35,173 people have been killed and 79,061 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7.

Rafah invasion

Biden said last week that he had delayed a shipment of 2,000-pound (907kg) bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs to Israel over concerns they might be used for the invasion of Rafah.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Monday that the US would continue to provide the military assistance from a $26bn supplemental funding bill passed last month but it paused the bombs because “we do not believe they should be dropped in densely populated cities”.

The chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Foreign Relations and the House Foreign Affairs committees review major foreign weapons deals.

Biden has urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to invade Rafah without safeguards for civilians, seven months into a war that has devastated Gaza.

His support for Israel in its war against Hamas has emerged as a political liability for the president, particularly among young Democrats, as he runs for re-election this year.

The Israeli military said in a statement on Tuesday that, in the past day, it hit more than 100 targets in the Gaza Strip and continued to carry out military operations in the eastern part of Rafah city and the area near the Rafah port.

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More than half a million Palestinians flee as Israel escalates Gaza attacks | Israel War on Gaza News

Israeli forces have intensified attacks across Gaza, bombarding a refugee camp in the centre of the Strip as tanks pushed deeper into eastern parts of Rafah city in the south.

In the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, Israeli warplanes struck a home on Tuesday, killing at least 14 Palestinians, including children, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

The Israeli military ordered more residents to evacuate in parts of the north, where battles between Israeli soldiers and Hamas fighters have resumed in recent days after Israel sent troops back into the area, months after claiming it had defeated Hamas there.

Israeli tanks, bulldozers and armoured vehicles surrounded evacuation zones and shelters in the Jabalia refugee camp, the north’s largest refugee camp, now largely destroyed.

Fierce gun battles were continuing late on Tuesday in the camp.

In Rafah, which borders Egypt, Palestinian residents on Tuesday said they could see smoke billowing above eastern districts of the city and heard explosions after Israel bombarded a cluster of houses.

Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said it had destroyed an Israeli troop carrier with an Al-Yassin 105 missile in the eastern as-Salam district, killing some crew members and wounding others.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

The UN says more than half a million Palestinians have been displaced in recent days by escalating Israeli military operations in both southern and northern Gaza.

Evacuation orders in the north have displaced at least 100,000 people so far, UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters on Monday.

In Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, where a widely criticised Israeli ground operation is under way, an estimated 450,000 Palestinians have been driven out of the city over the past week, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

More than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians had sought shelter in the southern-most city of Rafah, after they were forced to flee their homes in other parts of Gaza that had come under intense Israeli bombardment since October.

UN chief ‘appalled’ at Rafah operation

UN chief Antonio Guterres is “appalled” by Israel’s escalating military activity in and around Rafah, his spokesman said.

“Civilians must be respected and protected at all times, in Rafah and elsewhere in Gaza. For people in Gaza, nowhere is safe now,” Stephane Dujarric said, adding that Guterres again called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

The forced expulsion of Palestinians has made it increasingly difficult for aid workers to distribute decreasing supplies of aid to families facing catastrophic levels of hunger in makeshift tent camps.

Israeli forces are continuing to bar the entry of humanitarian supplies via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt after its forces seized the Palestinian side on May 7.

Scarce amounts of aid used to enter the Strip via the crossing since October 7.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Egypt must be “persuaded” to reopen the Rafah border crossing to “allow the continued delivery of international humanitarian aid” into Gaza.

His comment prompted an angry response from Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry who said in a statement that Israel’s seizure of the Rafah crossing and its military operations in the area were the main obstacles to aid entering Gaza.

Seven months of Israeli bombardment and ground assaults in Gaza have killed more than 35,000 people, most of them women and children, according to Palestinian health officials.

The Palestinian Authority announced on Tuesday that 80 percent of Gaza’s health centres are currently out of service.

Gaza’s civil defence says with a severe lack of adequate vehicles and equipment, it is becoming increasingly difficult for its teams to carry out their jobs, including pulling “thousands” of bodies from under the rubble.

Without these tools, it estimated that it would take approximately six years to recover the bodies of slain Palestinians that remain under the widespread debris and destruction.

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Israeli’s tearful plea decrying Gaza aid convoy attacks | Israel War on Gaza

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“We condemn it, and we have to stop it.” An Israeli human rights lawyer interrupts her own interview with Al Jazeera for a tearful plea condemning Israel’s war on Gaza. She says she was hurt trying to stop Israelis from attacking aid trucks and destroying supplies destined for Gaza.

Published On 14 May 2024

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