Hello from The National in Abu Dhabi. Here's your morning newsletter with all the top stories from the Mena region.

GAZA/ISRAEL

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US remained opposed to a military operation in Rafah without a proper plan to protect civilians. He also said the US is determined to reach a ceasefire in Gaza “now”. An aid convoy from Jordan has entered Gaza through the Erez crossing on the Israeli border for the first time since the war. Follow the latest developments here.

Jordan said two of its aid convoys bound for Gaza were attacked by “extremist Israeli settlers”. The US military has finished more than 50 per cent of a temporary maritime pier to be set off the coast of Gaza to deliver aid into the enclave, the Pentagon said.

Civil defence units in Gaza are struggling to retrieve more than 10,000 bodies of Palestinians believed to be buried under the rubble of hundreds of homes destroyed by Israeli fire.

The US has been forced to defend its recent Security Council veto of Palestine’s bid for full UN membership in a contentious debate highlighting how Washington's position remains largely at odds with the international consensus.

Campuses across the US were on edge last night after pro-Palestine protests at the University of California, Los Angeles, turned violent and police at Columbia University in New York made hundreds of arrests during a raid on a building that demonstrators had occupied.

Our editorial team writes that we need we need peacemakers, not provocateurs at the Israel-Palestine protests.

YEMEN

Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they are bracing for retaliatory action by the UK and the US after rejecting what America called incentives to stop their Red Sea attacks.

SUDAN

Sudan has complained about a closed-door UN Security Council meeting this week, saying Britain, which is currently leading the negotiations over the war-torn country, altered the agenda and format at the last minute.

Sudan will face famine by “default” without more international attention and support, the US special envoy said as a potential battle over the key city of El Fasher looms.

IRAQ

“This is outrageous and hurts too much”: Iraqis say this week's fuel price surge by up to 30 per cent has added to their economic woes.

The father of a seven-year-old girl crushed to death in a people smuggler's boat crossing the English Channel has revealed he was desperate to make the journey to the UK after being rejected for asylum in Europe 14 times since fleeing Iraq 15 years ago.

A 75,000-year-old Neanderthal skeleton of a woman who died in her mid-forties has been discovered in the foothills of Iraq, according to researchers who pieced the skull back together.

UAE

An official mourning period of seven days has been announced after the passing of Sheikh Tahnoon bin Mohammed, Ruler’s Representative in Al Ain Region. Sheikh Tahnoon was a close adviser to the UAE Founding Father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and was an uncle of the late head of state.

PLUS …

Oman Al-Ubaydli writes that the Gulf's economic rise should prompt its economists to meet the moment.

Read how the Facebook trade in fake relics fuels Middle East looting.

AND …

How Egypt's rich history powers the novels of Naguib Mahfouz.

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