- Truce mediators locked in talks to reach Hamas-Israel agreement over key issues
- Israeli army says it killed commander of Hamas naval unit in Gaza city
- Karam Abu Salem border crossing closed again
- Deaths reported from Israeli air attacks in Rafah and across Gaza
- Displaced Palestinians tell of suffering as thousands flee Rafah assault
- Hospitals in southern Gaza only have three days of fuel, says WHO chief
- Gaza death toll reaches 34,844, with 78,404 injured
In a marked shift in tone, President Joe Biden said this week that he would block the delivery of weapons to Israel that could be used in Rafah, the densely populated southern city in Gaza where more than a million Palestinians are sheltering.
The comments, made during an interview late on Wednesday, were the first time that Mr Biden has publicly has said he would leverage US arms to try to influence how Israel wages its seven-month war in Gaza.
“If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically,” he told CNN.
“It’s just wrong. We’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used that have been used.”
Biden's warnings against Israel's Rafah assault provoke Republican backlash
Mr Biden for the first time threatened to withhold US weapons from Israel on Wednesday, after pausing a transfer in response to Israel's offensive against Rafah that is unfolding before the Biden administration is convinced Israel has done enough to protect the more than one million displaced civilians sheltering there.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that Mr Biden shares Israel's goal of defeating Hamas, but “smashing into Rafah, in his view, will not advance that objective of a sustainable, enduring defeat” of the militant group.
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Israeli forces to demolish family home in Shuafat refugee camp
Israeli soldiers stormed the Shuafat refugee camp in occupied East Jerusalem on Thursday morning as the army prepared to demolish a home in the camp, the official Wafa news agency reported.
The wife and four children of Fadi Jamjoum were removed from their home, which is to be demolished later today.
Mr Jamjoum was shot dead in southern Israel in February when he killed two people and wounded four others at a bus stop.
Israel has long had a practice of demolishing the family homes of Palestinians involved in attacks on Israelis.
Israel faces Eurovision test of public opinion over war in Gaza
Israel faces a test of public opinion on Thursday as it competes in the semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest, where its power ballad vocals could be drowned out by protests over the war in Gaza.
While organisers have resisted calls to ban Israel from Eurovision, audiences could send it packing in the vote to qualify for Saturday’s grand final in Sweden.
Best known for sparkly outfits, cheesy Europop lyrics and overall flamboyance, the contest has always had political overtones extending from artists to the voting public.
As well as shunning Israel, viewers could vent anger at allies, such as Germany, or reward Palestine-friendly voices, like Ireland, said Felix Berenskoetter, a political scientist at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies
“The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been there for a long time, but it has never galvanised public opinion like it has this year,” said Dr Berenskoetter.
Israeli missiles hit rural Damascus
Israeli missile strikes caused damage to a building in rural Damascus on Thursday morning, Syrian state media confirmed.
Israel launched a missile attack targeting a building in the Damascus countryside at around 3.20am local time, a military source told Sana news agency.
Air defences intercepted some of the missiles, which were launched from the occupied Golan Heights, they added. "Material losses" were reported at the site.
UN General Assembly to vote on resolution for Palestine membership
The UN General Assembly is set to vote on a draft resolution on Friday that would recognise Palestine as eligible for full membership.
The text says the General Assembly “determines that the state of Palestine is, in its judgment, a peace-loving state within the meaning of Article 4 of the Charter, is able and willing to carry out the obligations of the Charter and should therefore be admitted to membership in the United Nations”.
The draft resolution, put forward by the UAE in its capacity as the Arab Group's chair for May, seeks to grant Palestine the rights and privileges to take part fully and effectively in General Assembly sessions and other UN conferences, “on equal footing with member states”.
A copy of the draft resolution, seen by The National, expresses “deep regret and concern” over the April 18 US veto of a Security Council proposal recommending the admission of the state of Palestine to full membership in the UN.
Opinion: Gazans will remember that Europe did not help them in their hour of need
Janine Di Giovanni writes:
The war in Gaza has polarised the US in a way that few other conflicts have – but in Europe, the polarisation has been equally dramatic.
Before Hamas’s assault on October 7, the main legal ties between Israel and the EU were set by a 1995 Association Agreement. They were generally positive and largely in the economic realm. However, according to analysts Claudia de Martino and Ruth Hanau Santini, writing in Aspenia Online, the recent splits within the bloc over Israel’s war represents “a new political cleavage, one that cuts across at least three groupings of EU countries, marking a widening gap between government stances and public opinion”.
It has led to an increase in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
Overall, the EU has failed to take concrete steps to restrain Israel’s army during its war in Gaza.
Soldier killed in northern Israel
An Israeli soldier was killed in a Hezbollah missile attack on northern Israel on Wednesday, the army has announced.
The soldier was killed in the attack on the kibbutz of Malkia, near Kiryat Shmona.
One other soldier was injured in the incident.
At least six people, including three Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters, were killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Wednesday.
About 400 people, including 70 civilians, have been killed in Lebanon in the seven months of cross-border violence, according to an AFP tally.
Fourteen soldiers and nine civilians have been killed in Israel.
Israeli army storms Ramallah and Al Bireh
Israeli forces stormed the occupied West Bank cities of Ramallah and Al Bireh at dawn on Thursday, the official Wafa news agency reported.
Several military vehicles entered Ramallah's Umm Al Sharat neighbourhood, while soldiers stormed Al Bireh's Jabal Al Taweel area.
Other raids were reported across the West Bank overnight.
Three people were arrested in raids on Hebron, Beit Ummar, and Halhul, including Yasser Zama'ra, who was reportedly released from an Israeli prison two weeks ago.
One person was wounded and two were arrested in a raid of Qabatiya, in Jenin.
Raids were also reported near Nablus.
Editorial: Half the people sheltering in Rafah are children, and the world has forgotten them
The National Editorial:
More than half of the Gaza Strip’s population of two million is sheltering in Rafah – a town of 150,000 that has been transformed throughout Israel’s war.
Among the city’s huddled masses are 600,000 children, all of them with an uncertain future and nowhere else to go.
Unicef, the UN’s children’s agency, has described these children as being “at the edge of survival”. The picture the agency’s staff paint is stark. More than a tenth of the children are thought to have a “pre-existing disability, including difficulties seeing, hearing, walking, understanding and learning”.
Of the 195,000 who are under the age of five, 90 per cent are affected by one or more infectious diseases. These can have catastrophic effects on their health. For instance, empyema, a potentially fatal condition caused by pus pooling around the lungs, is extremely rare in children around the world; doctors in Rafah report it is common among those they treat, as a side effect of communicable disease.
Israel destroys dozens of Bedouin homes in Negev desert
Israeli authorities destroyed about 50 homes belonging to Bedouins in the Negev desert on Wednesday, with Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir saying they were "illegal constructions".
Bulldozers flattened the houses in the Wadi Al Khalil village, sparking anger among members of its 500-strong community.
"The children and the women have nowhere else to go," said resident Sleiman Abu Asa.
"We don't deserve this. We've sought a solution for years, hoping for a fair resolution, yet the state has obstructed all our options."
The homes are "illegal constructions", Mr Ben-Gvir said, warning anyone who "violates the law in the Negev" desert of southern Israel.
The destruction, he said, was "an important step" indicating the government's authority would not be challenged.
"The police will fight anyone who seizes land and tries to build another reality on the ground," said Mr Ben-Gvir.
- AFP
Ambrey receives information on drone sightings south-east of Yemen's Aden
British security firm Ambrey said early on Thursday it had received information of drone sightings about 107km south-east of Yemen's Aden.
The Houthi rebels, which control large parts of Yemen and are aligned with Iran, have staged attacks on ships in the waters off the coast of the country for months in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Nearby vessels were advised to exercise caution and report any suspicious activity, Ambrey said in an advisory note.
Hamas says it won't compromise further with Israel to win Gaza ceasefire
Hamas said on Wednesday it was unwilling to make more concessions to Israel in talks for a ceasefire in Gaza, although negotiations were still under way in Cairo.
Izzat El Reshiq, a member of Hamas' political office in Qatar, said on Wednesday that the group would not go beyond a ceasefire proposal it accepted on Monday.
The proposal includes 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,” Mr El Reshiq said.
There was no immediate comment from Israel, which on Monday declared that the three-phase proposal approved by Hamas was unacceptable because terms had been watered down.
Delegations from Hamas, Israel, the US, Egypt and Qatar have been meeting in Cairo since Tuesday.
- AP
US will stop sending bombs to Israel if it launches major invasion of Rafah, Biden says
President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he would stop shipments of US weapons to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.
“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone in Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem,” Mr Biden told CNN.
He also said that US weapons have killed civilians in Gaza.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centres,” he said, referring to the 2,000lb (900kg) bombs of which the US paused shipments last week.
The US is Israel's strongest ally, sending about $3.3 billion in military aid annually.
University of Barcelona passes motion to cut ties with Israel
The University of Barcelona passed a motion on Wednesday to cut ties with Israel after students set up a camp on Monday to protest against the war in Gaza.
The students demanded that "governing bodies break institutional and academic relations with any Israeli university, research institute, company or other Israeli institutions".
They called such action a way to put "pressure on the state of Israel until the genocide ends, the Israeli apartheid system is eradicated and the colonisation of Palestine ends".
They also called on the Spanish and Catalan governments to sever relations with Israel, "starting with the end of the arms trade with a state that in the eyes of the world is committing genocide".
Students pledged not to leave the protest camp until they saw concrete action from the universities and Spanish and Catalan governments.
Rishi Sunak demands university leaders protect Jewish students
The British government has urged university leaders to protect Jewish students, by adopting a zero-tolerance approach to anti-Semitic behaviour.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made the demand on Wednesday amid a rise in pro-Palestine protests at universities around the UK.
The protests have often been sympathetic to the plight of Palestinians and some demand universities abandon links to Israel.
“Universities should be places of rigorous debate but also bastions of tolerance and respect for every member of their community,” Mr Sunak said.
“A vocal minority on our campuses are disrupting the lives and studies of their fellow students and, in some cases, propagating outright harassment and anti-Semitic abuse. That has to stop.”
Dublin campus Israel protest ends after demands met
Students at Ireland's Trinity College Dublin on Wednesday ended a five-day protest against Israel's actions in Gaza after they said their demands were met by the university leadership.
The university said "an agreement was reached" after "successful talks between the university's senior management and the protesters".
Laszlo Molnarfi, president of the institution's student union, said TCD's statement was a "testament to grassroots student-staff power".
TCD said that the university "will 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".
Student activists began the protest on Friday in solidarity with Palestine, echoing similar protests on US campuses.
- AFP
US confirms it paused munitions shipment to Israel over Rafah attack
Palestinian UN envoy calls for international investigation into Al Shifa and Nasser mass graves
Adla Massoud reports from the UN:
Palestine’s envoy to the UN urged the Security Council to immediately call for independent investigations into the mass graves found at Al Shifa and Nasser hospitals in Gaza.
Riyad Mansour stressed the need to “establish the precise circumstances under which hundreds of Palestinians lost their lives and were buried, or reburied”.
“The time for accountability is long past due,” Mr Mansour said in a letter to Council members.
Palestinian authorities reported finding hundreds of bodies in mass graves at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis last month after it was abandoned by Israeli troops.
Bodies were also reported at Al Shifa Hospital after an Israeli special forces operation.