Israel orders fresh Rafah evacuation as it prepares military operation
Israel ordered tens of thousands of Palestinians to evacuate Rafah on Saturday, as it prepares to expand its military operation into the heavily populated centre.
Rafah is considered the last refuge in Gaza, and is sheltering half of the population – an estimated 1.4 million people.
The United Nations has warned a full-scale invasion of the southern city would cause a disastrous level of civilian casualties, while US president Joe Biden has said he will not provide weapons to be used in the city.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has rejected pressure to resist attacking the city, saying that Hamas has based most of its top leaders and remaining forces there.
The Israeli army said rockets were launched Saturday from Rafah in southern Gaza towards the Kerem Shalom crossing, which it has seized.
“Four launches were identified that crossed from the Rafah area,” the military said in a statement.
Egypt, meanwhile, has refused to coordinate with Israel on the entry of aid into Gaza from the Rafah crossing due to Israel’s “unacceptable escalation”, Egypt’s state-affiliated Alqahera News satellite TV reported.
The Israeli army issued its first evacuation order for parts of eastern Rafah on Monday, saying it was in preparation for a widely anticipated ground assault.
The evacuations are forcing people to move to areas largely destroyed in the north or “expanded humanitarian zones”.
“What should we do here? Do we wait until we all die on top of each other? So we’ve decided to leave. It’s better,” Hanan al-Satari, a Rafah resident, told the Associated Press.
However, many people have already fled the humanitarian zones – which have been designated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) – due to “horrific” conditions, according to aid workers.
“We simply have no tents, we have no blankets, no bedding, none of the items that you would expect a population on the move to be able to get from the humanitarian system,” said Georgios Petropoulos, an official with the UN humanitarian agency in Rafah.
The IDF said it was also moving into an area in northern Gaza, where it said Hamas had regrouped.
Avichay Adraee, Israeli army spokesman, told Palestinians in Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and surrounding areas to leave their homes, warning that people were in “a dangerous combat zone” and that Israel would strike with “great force”.
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Australia says Palestinian UN membership bid builds peace momentum
Australian foreign minister Penny Wong said on Saturday the country’s support for a Palestinian bid to become a full United Nations member was part of building momentum to secure peace in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Australia voted on Friday with the overwhelming majority of the UN General Assembly in backing the resolution that would effectively recognise a Palestinian state. It recommended the Security Council “reconsider the matter favorably”.
“Much of our region and many of our partners also voted yes,” Ms Wong told a press conference in Adelaide. “We all know one vote on its own won’t end this conflict - it has spanned our entire lifetimes - but we all have to do what we can to build momentum towards peace.”
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Leaflets ordering evacuation
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UAE hits out at Netanyahu for saying Gulf state could help run Gaza
The United Arab Emirateshas hit out at Benjamin Netanyahu’s after the Israeli leader said the Gulf state could be involved in aiding a future government in Gaza after the war.
The prominent and influential Gulf state, is one of few Arab states with official diplomatic ties to Israel, which it has maintained through Israel’s more than six-month war in Gaza, although relations appear to have become frayed.
Foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan rebukedMr Netanyahu in an early morning post on X, saying Abu Dhabi denounced the Israeli leader’s comments.
“The UAE stresses that the Israeli prime minister does not have any legal capacity to take this step, and the UAE refuses to be drawn into any plan aimed at providing cover for the Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip,” he said in an Arabic post.
Sheikh Abdullah said the UAE would be prepared to support a Palestinian government that met the hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people, which he said included independence.
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Pictures from Rafah
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UN assembly approves resolution granting Palestine new rights
The UN General Assembly voted by a wide margin yesterday to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine and called on the Security Council to reconsider Palestine’s request to become the 194th member of the United Nations.
The world body approved the Arab and Palestinian-sponsored resolution by a vote of 143-9 with 25 abstentions. The United States voted against it, along with Israel, Argentina, Czechia, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Papua New Guinea.
The vote reflected the wide global support for full membership of Palestine in the United Nations, with many countries expressing outrage at the escalating death toll in Gaza and fears of a major Israeli offensive in Rafah, a southern city where about 1.3 million Palestinians have sought refuge.
It also demonstrated growing support for the Palestinians. A General Assembly resolution on Oct 27 calling for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza was approved 120-14 with 45 abstentions. That was just weeks after Israel launched its military offensive in response to Hamas’ Oct 7 attack in southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people.
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Israel may have violated humanitarian law with American weapons, US says
Israel may have used American weapons in ways that violated international law, the US State Department has found.
In a highly-critical report, it concluded it was “reasonable to assess” US arms had been used in Gaza in “instances inconsistent” with international humanitarian law.
However, it stopped short of a specific finding on whether the Jewish state had broken international law which would justify Washington withholding military aid.
A finding that Israel had violated international law would have enabled Joe Biden to restrict arms deliveries, since it would represent a breach of US laws governing arms transfers to foreign militaries.
The conclusions are made in a State Department report which was ordered by Mr Biden in February, a declassified version of which was delivered to Congress and released late on Friday afternoon.
It is unrelated to Mr Biden’s decision to delay a delivery of heavy bombs and other weaponry to Israel amid a public rift between the US president and Benjamin Netanyahu over his planned ground invasion of Rafah.
The Israeli Prime Minister has remained defiant in the face of Mr Biden’s hardening stance, declaring: “If Israel needs to stand alone, it will stand alone.”
