Live Updates: Israel's attack on Rafah aims to 'obstruct' truce talks — Hamas

Thursday, May 9, 2024

13:30 GMT — Israel's attack on Rafah aims to 'obstruct' truce talks — Hamas

A Hamas official has accused Israel of carrying out incursions in Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah to block talks seeking a truce in the seven-month war in the Palestinian territory.

Israel's military invasion in Rafah and its border crossing "aim to obstruct the efforts of the mediators", Ezzat al Rishq said in a statement, adding Hamas had sent a delegation to the talks in Cairo and that it was still committed to accepting a ceasefire proposal presented by mediators.

1237 GMT — Israel raids Al Jazeera office in Nazareth

Israel raided the Nazareth offices of the Qatar-based Al Jazeera satellite news network, days after the government shuttered the network's offices in Israel.

The Ministry of Communications said forces confiscated equipment from the office in northern Israel that had been used to transmit live broadcasts of Al Jazeera on Wednesday.

"Israel won’t let Hamas broadcast from here," Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi wrote on X.

1226 GMT — Türkiye refutes Israeli claims of Ankara easing trade ban

Turkish Trade Minister Omer Bolat has said that Israeli claims of Ankara easing its trade ban with Israel are "absolutely fictional and have nothing to do with reality."

Türkiye's trade ban with Israel will remain in place until a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and humanitarian aid flow to the region is secured, the minister said in a post on X.

1149 GMT — Israel kills two Hezbollah militants in clashes

Two more Hezbollah members were killed in clashes with Israeli forces near the border with Lebanon, the Lebanese group has said.

The group identified the slain fighters as Ali Ahmed Hamza and Ahmed Hassan Maatouq, without providing any details about the circumstances leading to their death.

The new fatalities brought to 292 Hezbollah militants killed in clashes with Israeli forces since Oct. 8, 2023, according to an Anadolu tally based on statements released by the group.

1104 GMT — Three Palestinians killed in Israeli strike in Gaza's Rafah

At least three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike in Rafah city in southern Gaza, a medical source has told Anadolu news agency.

The attack targeted a group of civilians near a mosque in southern Rafah, eyewitnesses said.

Massive destruction was reported in the area. The Israeli army on Tuesday seized control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing on the bor der with Egypt, a vital route for humanitarian aid into the besieged territory.

1020 GMT — Doctors Without Borders voices fear of 'further catastrophe' in Rafah

The secretary general of the humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) has voiced fear of “further catastrophe” in Rafah, in southern Gaza, and warned of the risk of more civilian casualties, a clear reference to Israel's ongoing onslaught that began on Monday.

Christopher Lockyear told Anadolu that Rafah is one of the “very few arteries into Gaza that can provide essential humanitarian assistance to the people who are desperately in need.”

Lockyear noted that bombs are causing direct casualties, but there are also “silent killings that are ongoing on a daily basis for those people who can't receive medical treatment.”

1018 GMT — Some 80,000 have fled Rafah since Israel hiked assaults this week: UN

The United Nations agency supporting Palestinian refugees said that about 80,000 people had fled Rafah in the three days since Israel intensified attacks in the south Gaza city.

"Since Israeli forces military operation intensified on 6 May, around 80,000 people have fled Rafah, seeking refuge elsewhere," UNRWA said on X, formerly Twitter, warning that "the toll on these families is unbearable. Nowhere is safe".

1006 GMT — Barclays AGM disrupted by activists protesting against violence in Gaza

Barclays' annual shareholder gathering was disrupted by activists protesting against violence in Gaza, with the bank's Chairman Nigel Higgins requesting they be ejected from the meeting taking place in Glasgow.

"We are totally prepared to answer questions on this topic but there is no point engaging in megaphone diplomacy," Higgins told protesters who shouted allegations about the bank's links to the financing of defence firms that produce equipment used by the Israeli army.

Barclays said earlier this month it does not invest its own money in companies that supply weapons used by Israel in Gaza.

1000 GMT — Israel says it reopened a key Gaza crossing after a rocket attack but the UN says no aid has entered

The Israeli military said that it has reopened its Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza after days of closure, but the UN said no humanitarian aid has yet entered and there is no one to receive it on the Palestinian side after workers fled during Israel's military incursion in the area.

Aid officials warn that the prolonged closure of the two crossings could cause the collapse of aid operations, worsening the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where the U.N. says a “full-blown famine” is already underway in the north.

1000 GMT — Gaza truce talks resume in Cairo as Israel pounds Rafah

Gaza ceasefire talks resumed in Cairo with participation of all parties to find a "consensus formula" over conflicting points, according to Egyptian Al-Qahera news TV.

The US, Egypt and Qatar are meanwhile ramping up efforts to close the gaps in a possible agreement for at least a temporary ceasefire and the release of some of the scores of Israeli hostages still held by Hamas.

Israel has linked the threatened Rafah offensive to the fate of those negotiations.

CIA chief William Burns, who has been shuttling around the region for talks on the ceasefire deal, met Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door negotiations.

With the seizure of Rafah, Israel now controls all of Gaza’s crossings for the first time since it withdrew troops and settlers from the territory nearly two decades ago, though it has maintained a blockade with Egypt's cooperation for most of that time.

The Rafah crossing has been a vital conduit for humanitarian aid since the start of the war and is the only place where people can enter and exit.

0900 GMT — Israel says Biden threat to stop arms 'very disappointing'

Two top Israeli officials criticised US President Joe Biden for threatening to stop certain arms supplies to Israel if it invades the crowded Gaza city of Rafah.

"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 United Nations, Gilad Erdan, said on public radio in Israel's first reaction to Biden's warning.

Israel has defied international objections by sending in tanks and conducting "targeted raids" in the eastern areas of Rafah.

0830 GMT — 4 killed in Israeli strike on car in southern Lebanon

At least four people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a car in the town of Bafliyeh in southern Lebanon, the country’s civil defence said.

It, however, did not provide any details about the nationality of the victims.

A medical source earlier told Anadolu Agency that two people had been killed in the attack.

There was no Israeli comment on the report.

0754 GMT — Gaza death toll from brutal Israeli war tops 34,900

The Health Ministry in Gaza said that at least 34,904 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory during the Israeli war on the enclave.

The tally includes at least 60 deaths in the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 78,514 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war broke out when the Palestinian resistance group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.

0530 GMT — Women, children killed as Israel pounds Rafah, block aid

Between Monday and Wednesday, 109 Palestinians have been killed and 296 injured, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said some of the deadliest recent attacks by Israeli forces took place in Rafah that has killed women and children in their homes:

- Nine Palestinians, including at least four children and two women, were reportedly killed and others injured when Israeli forces targeted a house in Yebna Refugee Camp in southeastern Rafah.

- Nine Palestinians, including four children and three women, were reportedly killed when a house was hit by Israeli forces on George Street in eastern Rafah.

- Four Palestinians, including two children and two women, were reportedly killed when Israeli forces targeted a house in Al Junainah neighbourhood in eastern Rafah.

- At least five Palestinians, including a woman and a child, were reportedly killed when a house was hit by Israeli forces in Al Barahma neighbourhood in Tal As Sultan area in western Rafah.

- Four Palestinians, including one woman, were reportedly killed when a house was targeted by Israeli forces in Al Junainah neighbourhood in eastern Rafah.

- Four Palestinians were reportedly killed when two apartments were hit by Israeli forces in Tal As Sultan area in western Rafah.

05:00 GMT — US working with Arab states to rebuild Gaza — Biden

US President Joe Biden has told CNN that he was working with Arab states that are prepared to rebuild Gaza and help with the transition to a two-state solution, following Israel's war on besieged Gaza.

Biden's also publicly warned Israel for the first time that the US would stop supplying it weapons if Israeli military make a major invasion of Rafah, a city in southern Gaza.

"I made it clear that 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," Biden said.

0430 GMT — Hamas says Israel not serious about reaching truce deal

Israeli hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is attempting to "create excuses to avoid negotiations" and Israel is not serious about achieving a ceasefire in Gaza, a senior member of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas has said.

"Israel is not serious about reaching an agreement. It is using negotiations as a pretext to occupy Rafah city and the (Rafah) fence crossing," Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas' Political Bureau, said on Telegram.

04:00 GMT — US representatives decry arrest of student protestors at GWU

US Representatives Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib have expressed support for pro-Palestine protestors who were arrested earlier at George Washington University (GWU) in the US capital.

"Students are protesting all across the country because they believe our government ha s failed to recognize the common humanity of all people," Bush said at a news conference alongside the students.

"They're protesting because they oppose our government's silence and complicity in the deaths of at least 35,000 Palestinians," she added.

For our live updates from Wednesday, May 6, click here