[News] Israel-Gaza latest: Netanyahu issues defiant comments after Biden warning - as world awaits Rafah decision and Palestinians flee

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Link : https://news.sky.com/story/israel-hamas-gaza-latest-ceasefire-rafah-sky-news-live-blog-12978800

Benjamin Netanyahu vows Israelis are ready to "fight with their fingernails" after Joe Biden said he would halt weapon supplies if the country launched a full-scale offensive in Rafah. However, Israel's leader has stopped short of explicitly saying one would be ordered.

Israeli singer faces boos at Eurovision rehearsal before large protests in Sweden
Despite calls to exclude Israel from this year's Eurovision Song Contest due to the country's deadly war in Gaza, organisers of the event opted to allow the country's participation.

As a result, Eden Golan has become a focus for protests, with demonstrators saying they stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The 20-year-old Israeli singer was surrounded by security as she travelled between the hotel and the contest venue in the Swedish city of Malmo on Thursday.

Footage on social media showed her being loudly booed while she performed during rehearsals earlier this week, amid shouts of "free Palestine". There was also some applause.

Police estimated more than 10,000 people marched through the southern Swedish city yesterday to chants of "Free Palestine" and "Israel is a terror state."

Banners accused Eurovision of being complicit in genocide and called for a boycott of the competition.

Another protest march is planned for Saturday, hours before Golan competes in the Eurovision final against acts from 25 other countries.

Bookmakers say she is likely to finish in the top half of the final competition, decided by a mix of public votes and national music-industry juries.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Golan for performing despite "contending with an ugly wave of antisemitism."

"So be blessed, and know that when they boo you, we are cheering you on," he said.

 

Gaza aid could grind to a halt within days, UNICEF warns
Dwindling food and fuel stocks could force aid operations to grind to a halt within days in Gaza because vital crossings remain shut, forcing hospitals to close down and leading to more malnutrition, United Nations aid agencies have warned today.

Humanitarian workers have sounded the alarm this week after Israel closed the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings for aid and people as part of its military operation in Rafah, where more than one million people have been sheltering after fleeing bombardment in other parts of Gaza.

"For five days, no fuel and virtually no humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip, and we are scraping the bottom of the barrel," said the UNICEF senior emergency coordinator in the Gaza Strip, Hamish Young.

"This is already a huge issue for the po[CENSORED]tion and for all humanitarian actors, but in a matter of days, if not corrected, the lack of fuel could grind humanitarian operations to a halt."

 

Explained: Who are Israel's main weapons suppliers - and who has halted exports?
Washington has suspended a shipment of heavy, bunker-busting bombs to Israel - weapons Israeli forces have used in their war against Hamas militants.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said attacks from Israel have killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians. Israel responded after Hamas launched its 7 October attack - which Israel said killed at least 1,100 people.

Joe Biden also publicly warned Israel for the first time that the US would withhold arms supplies if Israeli forces carry out a threatened assault on the city of Rafah, given this could endanger the lives of hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians there.

The US has long been by far the largest arms supplier to its closest Middle East ally, followed by Germany - whose strong support for Israel reflects in part atonement for the Nazi Holocaust - and Italy.

Two countries, Canada and the Netherlands, have halted arms shipments to Israel this year over concerns they could be used in ways violating international humanitarian law - causing civilian casualties and destruction of residential areas - in Gaza.

Most of Gaza's dead from Israeli bombardments and ground offensives have been civilians, international rights groups say. Israel claims it does not target civilians, accusing Hamas militants of hiding among them, which the militants deny.

Here are some details of Israel's key weapons suppliers.

United States

The suspended arms delivery to Israel consisted of 1,800 2,000-pound (907-kg) bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs worth tens of millions of dollars, according to US officials.

The decision arose amid concerns about the "end-use of the 2,000-pound bombs and the impact they could have in dense urban settings (like Rafah)...," one US official said.

However, billions of dollars worth of US arms remain in the pipeline for Israel, including tank rounds and munitions that convert dumb bombs into precision weapons, although the approval process has slowed, senator Jim Risch, top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said yesterday.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has stopped short of concluding in a pending, highly critical report to Congress on Israel's conduct in Gaza that it has violated the terms for its use of US weapons, it has been reported (see 8.03 post)

In 2016 the US and Israel signed a third 10-year Memorandum of Understanding covering the 2018-2028 period providing for $38bn (£30bn) in military aid, $33bn (£26bn) in grants to buy military equipment and $5bn (£4bn) for missile defence systems. 

Germany

German defence export approvals for Israel rose nearly tenfold to €326.5m (£281m) in 2023 compared with 2022 as Berlin treated permit requests as a priority after the 7 October attacks that triggered the war.

However, since the start of this year, as international criticism of Israel's war in Gaza mounted, the German government appears to have approved considerably fewer exports of war weapons to Israel. Deliveries worth just €32,449 (£28,000) have so far been allowed, the economics ministry said on 10 April in response to a query in parliament from a left-wing lawmaker.

Italy

A foreign ministry source told Reuters yesterday that Italy had halted new export approvals since the start of the Gaza war.

"Everything stopped. And the last orders were delivered in November," the source said.

Under Italian law, arms exports are banned to countries that are waging war and those deemed to be violating international human rights.

 

Britain

Britain is not one of Israel's bigger suppliers. Unlike the US, Britain's government does not give arms directly to Israel but rather licences for companies to sell - often components into US supply chains, such as for F-35 jets.

Last year, the UK granted export licences to sell at least £42m of defence equipment to Israel - mainly munitions, unmanned air vehicles, small arms ammunition and components for aircraft, helicopters, and assault rifles.

Some left-wing opposition parties have called on the government to revoke the export licences in the face of Gaza's soaring death toll, and to publish the legal advice used to reach the assessment that arms exports could continue

A low point': UK government condemned for refusing to halt arms sales to Israel
As we have been reporting here today, the US has warned Israel it will stop supplying heavy arms if the country presses ahead with its plan to launch a full-scale offensive in Rafah.

However, despite that move from Israel's strongest ally, the UK has resisted calls to follow suit in withholding the sale of weaponry, with foreign secretary Lord Cameron saying: "We do not have a UK government supply of weapons to Israel, we have a number of licences, and I think our defence exports to Israel are responsible for significantly less than 1% of their total.

"That is a big difference."

That stance has been the focus of significant criticism, with Green Party MP Caroline Lucas saying on X that the government "turning their backs on the mass suffering of innocent people" in Gaza was "a low point".

Palestinians despair amid destruction after Israeli settler attacks in West Bank
Last month, the Palestinian health ministry reported at least 485 people had been killed and 4,900 others injured in attacks by Israeli army forces and illegal settlers in the occupied West Bank since last October.

More than 340 attacks were reported on healthcare facilities and workers in the occupied territory during the same period, a ministry statement said.

Hamas, which carried out the 7 October attacks, is not in charge in the West Bank and no hostages are being held there.

There are regular clashes and riots in the West Bank aggravated by Israeli settlers both threatening and inflicting violence on Palestinians if they do not give up their land - which has been condemned by even the strongest international supporters of Israel, like the US.

A report from The Associated Press this morning reveals the depth of despair and helplessness felt by Palestinians in the territory in the face of this violence.

It details charred homes and cars dotting the hilltop village of Duma.

The head of the village council said the trail of wreckage along Duma's main road was the aftermath of a three-hour attack in mid-April that left 15 homes damaged by arson and six residents injured by bullets.

It was one of nearly 800 settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, according to the UN.

The burned remains in Duma also highlight the village's limited resources to clean up and rebuild, let alone defend itself from future incursions, which seem inevitable as gun-toting settlers patrol the area roughly 20 miles north of Jerusalem.

"We as the village of Duma... do not have the power to defend ourselves," said Suleiman Dawabsha, chairman of the village council for this community of more than 2,000 people.

The rampage on 13 April echoed a similar event that took place almost a decade ago. In 2015, three Palestinians from Duma were killed, including an 18 month-old baby, after settlers fire-bombed a home there.

Of the nearly 500 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank, according to the health ministry based in Ramallah, the overwhelming majority have been shot dead by soldiers.

Palestinians in the West Bank have killed nine Israelis, including five soldiers, since 7 October, according to UN data.

Israeli human rights groups blame the far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu for fuelling settler violence by promoting an ideology of total Israeli supremacy in the West Bank.

These groups say the Israeli army doesn't do enough to stop the violence, and even facilitates it in some cases by offering the settlers protection.

The Israeli army said it tries to protect everyone living in the West Bank and that complaints about soldiers are investigated.

In Duma, Ibrahim Dawabsha, a truck driver and father of four, said most of his family hid in the kitchen as settlers launched firebombs and set part of their home ablaze.

"My daughter was at her uncle's house, there was no one there," he said.

"What they [might] do to her I don't know."

Spain, Ireland and other EU countries 'to recognise Palestinian state this month'
As reported here a little earlier, the UN General Assembly is due to vote today on a resolution that would grant new "rights and privileges" to Palestine and call on the Security Council to "favourably" reconsider its request to become the 194th member of the United Nations.

And ahead of that vote European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Spain, Ireland and other EU member countries planned to recognise a Palestinian state on 21 May 21.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in March that Spain and Ireland, along with Slovenia and Malta, had agreed to take the first steps towards recognition of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, seeing a two-state solution as essential for lasting peace.

Asked on local Spanish radio station RNE if 21 May was when Spain, Ireland and other EU countries would recognise a Palestinian state, Mr Borrell said yes, mentioning Slovenia as well.

"This is a symbolic act of a political nature," he said.

"More than a state, it recognises the will for that state to exist."

He added that Belgium and other countries would probably follow.

Previously, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares had said the decision on recognition had been made, although he did not give a date.

The Conservative government has resisted calls for the UK to recognise a Palestinian state, although foreign secretary David Cameron has said this could potentially happen before Israeli-Palestinian talks on a two-state solution concluded.

He said in February that official recognition "can’t come at the start of the process, but it doesn't have to be the very end of the process."

US warns Israel it will hand Hamas a strategic victory if it launches Rafah assault
The United States has warned Israel that it will hand a strategic victory to Hamas if it carries out plans for an all-out assault on Rafah.

The warning came as Joe Biden said he would pause more offensive military assistance to Israel if it pushed ahead with the operation in a city where more than one million civilians are sheltering, after being forced to flee from other parts of Gaza.

"Our view is any kind of major Rafah ground operation would actually strengthen Hamas's hands at the negotiating table, not Israel's," White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.

"We believe that they have put an enormous amount of pressure on Hamas and that there are better ways to go after what is left of Hamas in Rafah than a major ground operation."

He warned more civilian deaths in Rafah from an Israeli offensive would give more ammunition to Hamas's "twisted narrative" about Israel.

Talks in Cairo aimed at securing a six-week ceasefire to allow for the release of some hostages and a surge of food and aid to civilians in Gaza are continuing, Mr Kirby added.

But CIA director Bill Burns and other delegations to the talks left Egypt yesterday without a deal.

It was reported that Hamas formally accepted a ceasefire deal that would see it release all the remaining hostages in exchange for the war ending.

However, Israel said its core demands were not met in the proposal mediated by Egypt and Qatar, and that it would not agree to a full withdrawal of its forces or a permanent ceasefire.

UN to vote on resolution to grant new 'rights and privileges' to Palestine
The UN General Assembly is expected to vote today on a resolution that would grant new "rights and privileges" to Palestine and call on the Security Council to "favourably" reconsider its request to become the 194th member of the United Nations.

The United States vetoed a widely backed council resolution last month that would have paved the way for full UN membership for Palestine, a goal the Palestinians have long sought and Israel has worked to prevent.

US deputy ambassador Robert Wood made clear yesterday that the Biden administration was opposed to the assembly resolution.

Under the UN Charter, prospective members must be "peace-loving," and the Security Council must recommend their admission to the General Assembly for final approval.

Palestine became a UN non-member observer state in 2012.

"We've been very clear from the beginning there is a process for obtaining full membership in the United Nations, and this effort by some of the Arab countries and the Palestinians is to try to go around that," Mr Wood said yesterday.

"We have said from the beginning the best way to ensure Palestinian full membership in the UN is to do that through negotiations with Israel. That remains our position."

But unlike the Security Council, there are no vetoes in the 193-member General Assembly and the resolution is expected to be approved by a large majority, according to three Western diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations were private.

The draft resolution "determines" that a state of Palestine is qualified for membership - dropping the original language that in the General Assembly's judgement it is "a peace-loving state."

It therefore recommends that the Security Council reconsider its request "favourably."

 

'An outrageous development': Israeli extremists set fire to HQ of UN agency for Palestinian refugees
The UN's agency for Palestinian refugees has temporarily closed its East Jerusalem headquarters after "Israeli extremists" set fire to the perimeter following weeks of repeated attacks.

Philippe Lazzarini, the agency's head, said in a post on X: "This evening, Israeli residents set fire twice to the perimeter of the UNRWA Headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem.

"This took place while UNRWA and other UN Agencies’ staff were on the compound. While there were no casualties among our staff, the fire caused extensive damage to the outdoor areas.

"The UNRWA headquarters has on its grounds a petrol and diesel station for the Agency's fleet of cars.

"Our director with the help of other staff had to put out the fire themselves as it took the Israeli fire extinguishers and police a while before they turned up. A crowd accompanied by armed men were witnessed outside the compound chanting 'Burn down the United Nations'."

"While there were no casualties among our staff, the fire caused extensive damage to the outdoor areas," he added, saying that UNRWA staff had put out the fire themselves.

It followed two months of "Israeli extremists staging protests outside the UNRWA compound", he said.

He described Thursday's arson attempts as "an outrageous development".

"Once again, the lives of UN staff were at a serious risk," he said.

Satellite images show speed and scale of Rafah evacuation
Sky News analysis of satellite imagery has shown that hundreds of tents in Rafah have been removed as Palestinians flee the city, including areas far outside the official evacuation zone.

Israel has officially ordered around 100,000 residents of eastern Rafah to flee to al Mawasi.

Analysis indicates suggests that the number fleeing the area may be larger than this.

The evacuation order was first published at 7.51am local time on Monday. Airstrikes followed, with ground operations beginning that evening. By Tuesday morning, Israel had captured the Rafah border crossing.

Images taken on Sunday evening show an estimated 321 tents in camps near the crossing. By Tuesday morning, however, there were just 62 - a decrease of 81%.

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