US president Joe Biden for the first time publicly vowed to withhold weapons from Israel if its forces make a ground offensive into Rafah in southern Gaza.
“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah …, I’m not supplying the weapons,” Mr Biden, whose administration has repeatedly asked Israel for its plan to protect civilians in Rafah, said in an interview with CNN.
Mr Biden acknowledged that US bombs provided to Israel have killed Gaza civilians in the seven-month offensive aimed at annihilating Hamas. He said the US would continue providing defensive weapons to Israel, including for its Iron Dome air defence system, to respond to attacks from across the Middle East.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on Mr Biden’s remarks, but Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed the Rafah operation will go ahead, saying it must hit Rafah to defeat Hamas fighters there.
The Israeli Defence Forces continued tank and aerial strikes on southern Gaza after moving in via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Tuesday, cutting off a vital aid route.
Civilians in Gaza killed from US-supplied bombs, acknowledges Biden
Joe Biden acknowledged that “civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of” US-supplied bombs.
Mr Biden’s comments, his starkest to date, increase the pressure on Israel to refrain from a full-scale assault on Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge after fleeing combat farther north in Gaza.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on his remarks, but Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the Rafah operation would go ahead. Israel says it must hit Rafah to defeat thousands of Hamas fighters it says are there.
Israel, meanwhile, continued tank and aerial strikes on southern Gaza after moving in via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Tuesday, cutting off a vital aid route.
Namita Singh9 May 2024 04:15
Biden says US won’t supply weapons for Israel to attack Rafah
President Joe Biden said that he would not supply offensive weapons that Israel could use to launch an all-out assault on Rafah — the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza — over concern for the well-being of the more than one million civilians sheltering there.
Mr Biden, in an interview with CNN, said the US was still committed to Israel’s defence and would supply Iron Dome rocket interceptors and other defensive arms, but that if Israel goes into Rafah, “we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used.”
Namita Singh9 May 2024 04:14
Killing of man in Egypt ‘linked to Gaza’
A Canadian man “of Jewish Israeli descent” has been shot dead in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in a suspected criminal case, a security source said, while a previously unknown militant group said it carried out the attack in reaction to the war in Gaza.
The Egyptian security source said the man had been killed “with the motive of robbery” and made no link between the shooting and the victim’s ethnic background.
But a message on Telegram by a previously unknown group called “Vanguards of Liberation” claimed responsibility for the attack as a reaction to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and its move to seize control of the Rafah crossing on Egypt’s border with the enclave. It named the victim as Ziv Kipper, accusing him of working for Israeli intelligence.
Jane Dalton9 May 2024 02:00
Rafah residents face ‘the fire of hell’
Recap: United Nations officials have warned that vital aid is being “choked off” after Israeli forces and tanks seized control of the main aid crossing in Rafah:
Jane Dalton9 May 2024 00:10
Palestinians ‘awaiting execution’ as pressure grows on Israel to agree ceasefire
Jane Dalton8 May 2024 22:15
Irish students win anti-Israeli fight with university
A student encampment protest at Trinity College Dublin is to end after management agreed to the demands of protesters wanting the university to cut all ties with Israel.
Visitors have been unable to access the historic Book of Kells since action began on Friday evening when the activists set up tents inside the campus of the prestigious institution.
University management met student representatives on Wednesday to discuss the situation.
In a statement, Trinity said it would 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.
This process is expected to be completed by June.
It said it would “endeavour” to divest in other Israeli companies, noting that its supplier list contains just one Israeli company which will remain until March 2025 for contractual reasons.
Jane Dalton8 May 2024 20:14
Suspension of US bombs shipment disappointing, says Israel
Israel’s ambassador to the UN called has called Washington’s decision to delay a shipment of powerful bombs to Israel “very disappointing”.
But Gilad Erdan said he did not believe the US would stop supplying arms to Israel.
Washington said it had held up the shipment to prevent Palestinian civilian casualties.
A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington had carefully reviewed the delivery of weapons that might be used in Rafah and as a result suspended a shipment of 1,800 2,000lb (907kg) bombs and 1,700 500lb bombs.
This would be the first such delay since the Biden administration offered its “ironclad” support to Israel after Hamas’ October attack.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the decision was taken in the context of Israel’s plan to invade Rafah, which Washington opposes without civilian safeguards.
Jane Dalton8 May 2024 18:56
Police clearing Pro-Palestinian tent encampment at George Washington University, dozens arrested
Police began to clear a Pro-Palestinian tent encampment at George Washington University early Wednesday, hours after dozens of protesters left the site and marched to President Ellen Granberg’s home.
“Officers gave their third and final warning to demonstrators to move at about 3:30 a.m., saying all who remained in U-Yard and the stretch of H Street in front of the plaza would be arrested,” according to GW Hatchet, the university’s independent student-run newspaper.
Tom Watling8 May 2024 17:00
Main maternity hospital in Rafah stops admitting patients
The main maternity hospital in the Gaza Strip’s crowded southern city of Rafah has stopped admitting patients, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has reported.
The UNFPA told Reuters that the hospital, Emirati Maternity Hospital, had been handling some 85 out of a daily total of 180 births in Gaza prior to an escalation of fighting between Hamas and Israeli troops on Rafah’s outskirts.
Around half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been crowded into Rafah after fleeing other parts of the enclave during seven months of war.
Emirati Hospital has only five delivery beds. But following the mass influx of people into Rafah that began in December due to Israeli airstrikes and fighting further north, the hospital became the main place for women to give birth in Rafah, Dominic Allen, the UN’s top official for the occupied Palestinian territories.
Other hospitals in the city, like Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital, have for months been admitting war wounded and directing women in labour to Emirati.
Tom Watling8 May 2024 16:30
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