16:14
110 thousand people fled Rafah, food and fuel running low due to border crossing closures
About 110,000 people have left the city of Rafah in recent days, reports UN human rights agency OCHA. The supply of food and fuel has come to a standstill, causing the UN to fear a humanitarian disaster.
Earlier this week, the Israeli army launched a military operation in Rafah, seizing the border crossing with Egypt. According to the UN, the fighting at the nearby Kerem Shalom border crossing is so intense that that crossing cannot be used either.
The fighting has prevented food, fuel, medicine and other relief supplies from being delivered to the south of the Gaza Strip, OCHA official Georgios Petropoulos told Reuters. It is also impossible to evacuate the sick and injured to Egypt. If the situation does not change, the UN World Food Program in the south of the Gaza Strip risks running out of food supplies tomorrow.
Aid agencies, the UN and many Western politicians have called on Israel for weeks to abandon an offensive in Rafah. They fear that a large-scale Israeli offensive will have disastrous consequences for the more than a million Palestinian refugees who have settled in Rafah in recent months. Despite international criticism, the Israeli army continues its attacks on Rafah.
US President Joe Biden has threatened that he would cut off the supply of some US weapons to Israel if Israel invades the city. Nevertheless, the Israeli war cabinet is said to have ordered a ‘measured expansion’ of the operation in Rafah last night, the American news site Axios reports based on anonymous sources. It is not clear what exactly this expansion entails and whether Israel is thereby exceeding the limit set by Biden.
Daan de Vries
10:55
Israeli army: Hamas attacks Kerem Shalom border crossing
Kerem Shalom, the most important border crossing to get humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, would have been attacked again by Hamas. This is reported by the Israeli army. It is said to have shot down two Hamas rockets fired from Rafah.
The attack cannot currently be independently verified and Hamas has not yet responded. The border crossing, at the point between Israel, the Gaza Strip and Egypt, was temporarily closed on Sunday after a rocket attack by Hamas, which killed four Israeli soldiers. Israel captured the Rafah border post on Tuesday. It has since closed.
Dylan van Bekkum
09:40
Egypt believes that Hamas and Israel should show flexibility in negotiations
Hamas and Israel must show flexibility if they want to reach an agreement on a ceasefire and the exchange of hostages and prisoners. The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said this in a statement this morning. Egypt is a mediator in the negotiations, which took place this week in the capital Cairo.
Egyptian Minister Sameh Shoukry has called his American counterpart Antony Blinken. Both agreed, according to the Egyptian statement, on “the importance of urging the parties to show flexibility and make all necessary efforts to reach a ceasefire and put an end to the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza.” The US has not yet responded.
Negotiations failed this week, after which Israel continued its attacks on Rafah in the Gaza Strip. According to the ministry, they have entered a ‘difficult phase’. Egypt fears that a major Israeli invasion of Rafah will endanger the “stability and security” of the region. The city is close to the Egyptian border, so the 1.4 million displaced Palestinians in Rafah could seek refuge in Egypt. UN aid agency UNRWA estimates that 110,000 Palestinians have left Rafah this week.
Dylan van Bekkum
08:27
Netanyahu: Hope to agree with Biden, but Israel will continue to fight even without help
Israel will fight Hamas tooth and nail, even if the country were to stand alone. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this in a video message on Thursday evening. He was responding to statements by American President Joe Biden, who previously said that the United States will no longer supply certain weapons to Israel if it continues the attacks on Rafah.
A ground offensive on the southernmost city of the Gaza Strip has been called by Biden for months a border that Israel should not cross. On Monday, however, Israel issued an evacuation order to thousands of residents of Rafah. Shortly afterwards the army took over the border crossing. There were also air raids on the city.
According to the well-established American news site Axios, Secretary of State Antony Blinken will send a critical report to the US Congress today concluding that Israel has exceeded the conditions for US arms supplies. It is unclear what consequences this would have.
Israel says it is impossible to defeat Hamas – the ultimate goal of the war that began on October 7, after the movement’s terror attack – without capturing Rafah, which the army says is “the last bastion of Hamas.” In an interview with American presenter Dr Phil that emerged online last night, Netanyahu said he hopes he and Biden can put their differences over the war in Gaza behind them.
‘We often agreed with each other, but we also had our disagreements. We were able to bridge them. “I hope that is possible now,” Netanyahu said.
Dylan van Bekkum
04:39
Israel again carries out air strikes in Lebanon
After drone attacks on northern Israel, the Israeli army has again attacked targets of the pro-Iranian militia Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The army announced this on Friday night. Israeli warplanes attacked military buildings of ‘terrorist infrastructure’, the army said.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, daily confrontations have also occurred on the border between Israel and Lebanon. The attacks have caused casualties and extensive damage on both sides. About 150,000 people have been evacuated or left the combat zone. (Belga)
04:08
Defense Minister: maybe no German weapons for Israel either
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Thursday that the German government is considering no longer supplying weapons to Israel. The reason was US President Joe Biden’s statement that the United States will stop arms deliveries to Israel if it continues the siege of the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
“This is currently being discussed,” the minister said in the TV program Heute Journal from the German channel ZDF. But the responsibility for this lies with the Chancellery and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he added.
According to Pistorius, they had discussed this ‘behind closed doors’. When the presenter asked him if he understood the US government, the German defense minister replied: “Yes, I can understand that.” Pistorius further said in the TV program that it was crucial for Israel “to continue to focus on de-escalation.” (AP)
03:14
Israel: No deal reached, operation in Rafah continues
A senior Israeli official said Thursday that the latest round of negotiations in Cairo to end the fighting in Gaza have ended. Israel would continue the military operation in Rafah and other parts of the Gaza Strip as planned, he added.
Israel had reservations about a proposal to release the hostages and had conveyed them to mediators, the Israeli official said.
Hamas blames Israel for the lack of an agreement. The Telegram account of Al-Aqsa TV, a channel run by Hamas, said the group would make no further concessions. A member of Hamas’s political bureau in Qatar said the Hamas delegation has left Cairo.
Israel has said it is open to a ceasefire but rejects demands for a permanent ceasefire. Delegations from Hamas, Israel, the United States, Egypt and Qatar had been meeting in Cairo for negotiations since Tuesday. (AP)
11:55 PM, Yesterday
Welcome to the live blog of Friday, May 10
This was the most important news about the crisis in the Middle East on Thursday, May 9:
• About 80,000 Palestinians have left the city of Rafah in recent days, estimates UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Israel launched a military operation in eastern Rafah earlier this week. Israel also captured the border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip south of Rafah.
• Healthcare in the Gaza Strip is under heavy pressure due to the Israeli action in Rafah. Rafah’s main hospital has been closed and a maternity hospital has stopped accepting new patients since yesterday. The supply of medicines and other relief supplies has also largely come to a standstill because Israel has seized the border crossing at Rafah.
• The first ship carrying relief supplies for the Gaza Strip has left the Cypriot port city of Larnaca. The goods are to be unloaded at the floating pier that was completed yesterday. Weather permitting, the pier will be towed to the Gaza Strip in the coming days. The floating pier, built by the United States, should contribute to the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
Read Thursday’s full live blog here.
