Israeli forces are operating in central parts of Rafah, the army confirmed on Friday, expanding the invasion of southern Gaza after taking control of the entire border with Egypt earlier this week.
The offensive in Rafah, once the main center of humanitarian aid operations for the Gaza Strip, has dramatically cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians facing widespread hunger. Fighting and Israeli evacuation orders forced more than a million Palestinians to flee Rafah, most of whom had already been displaced earlier in the war.
Still, the United States says Israel’s operations have not crossed the “red lines” of a full-fledged invasion of Rafah that the Biden administration has urged them against, citing the risk to civilians.
Israel has vowed to expel Hamas and other Palestinian militants from the entire Gaza Strip, and says Rafah is Hamas’s last stronghold. Israeli troops in central Rafah discovered Hamas rocket launchers and tunnels and dismantled a weapons storage facility, the army said Friday.
Israel faces growing international criticism for its strategy of systematic destruction – at enormous cost in civilian lives – in the nearly eight-month war against Hamas in Gaza.
Israeli bombing and ground offensives in the besieged territory have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Israel launched its war in Gaza after the Hamas attack on October 7, in which militants swept into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people (mostly civilians) and kidnapping about 250. Israel says around 100 hostages remain captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of around 30 others.
At the moment:
— Houthi rebels say joint U.S.-British airstrikes in Yemen have killed at least 16 and wounded 42.
— The Slovenian government supports the recognition of a Palestinian state
— A pro-Palestinian encampment at Wayne State is dismantled as MIT students leave graduation ceremonies.
— A global aid group is calling on warring forces to respect its neutrality, saying 24 of its aid workers have been killed.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Here’s the latest:
BEIRUT – An Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Friday killed one member of the Hezbollah militant group’s paramedic arm and wounded another, the group’s Al-Manar TV reported.
The Friday afternoon attack on the coastal border town of Naqoura came amid a day of violence along the border during which Hezbollah attacked Israeli military posts with explosive drones and rockets with heavy warheads while the Israeli air force attacking areas on the Lebanese side of the border.
Al-Manar identified the dead member of Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Society as Haidar Juhair, adding that his death brings to 10 the number of paramedics from the group who have been killed in the past seven months.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
The border between Lebanon and Israel has witnessed almost daily exchanges since a day after the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the border and since October 8, more than 400 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them combatants, but there are also more than 70 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 15 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed during the same period.
JERUSALEM, Israel – The Israeli military has confirmed that its forces are operating in central parts of Rafah in its expanding offensive on the southern Gaza city.
The military said in a statement Friday that its troops in central Rafah had discovered Hamas tunnels and rocket launchers and dismantled a group’s weapons storage town.
The statement did not specify where in central Rafah the operations were taking place, but previous statements and witness reports have pointed to raids in the Shaboura refugee camp and other sites near the city center.
More than a million Palestinians have fled the city since the attack began, scattering across southern and central Gaza.
TEL AVIV, Israel — In an aggressive meeting Thursday, Israel’s national security adviser told hostage families that the government was not ready to sign an agreement to bring all the hostages home and that there was no plan B. .
Gil Dickmann, whose cousin Carmel is being held hostage, told The Associated Press that during a face-to-face meeting with Tzachi Hanegbi and several hostage families, they were told the government was not prepared to end the war to bring back their loved ones. . back.
“I said, ‘Does that mean we’re doomed, that we’re lost?’ He said yes,” Dickmann said.
The comments came a day after the official said he expects the war to drag on for another seven months, to destroy the military and governance capabilities of Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group.
Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250 more in the Oct. 7 attack. About half of those hostages have since been freed, most in exchanges for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel during a week-long ceasefire in November.
After months of on-again, off-again negotiations, ceasefire talks are stalled.
Dickmann said it was the toughest and most difficult meeting with officials since the war began, because it left them without hope.
At one point during the meeting, Hanegbi lashed out at one of the women who was critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling her that she was “full of hate,” Dickmann said.
Hanegbi told the hostage families that the only way to get the government to sign an agreement was through public pressure, Dickmann said. Opinion polls should show that most Israelis are willing to bring back the hostages at the cost of ending the war, he said.
Israelis are divided into two main camps: those who want the government to call off the war and release the hostages, and others who think the hostages are an unfortunate price to pay for eradicating Hamas.
Hanegbi’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
On Friday, a group supporting the hostages accused the government of making a “conscious and deliberate decision to sacrifice them,” renouncing the Israeli principle that it will never leave anyone behind.
TEL AVIV, Israel – The Israeli military said Friday that it has completed its mission in part of the city of Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip and will continue operations in other parts of the enclave.
The army said during its operations in eastern Jabaliya it killed hundreds of fighters, destroyed dozens of targets and combat complexes and located hundreds of weapons.
It also said it destroyed more than 10 kilometers (6 miles) of underground tunnels and recovered the bodies of seven hostages and returned them to their families in Israel.
Israeli troops returned to Jabaliya and surrounding areas in northern Gaza in early May, months after an earlier operation. The United Nations said around 100,000 Palestinians were displaced in northern Gaza following evacuation orders from Israel.
Northern Gaza was the first target of Israel’s ground offensive launched after Hamas and other militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people.
Israeli troops have relaunched attacks in the north as Hamas repeatedly returns to areas from which Israel is withdrawing.
DEIR AL-BALAH – At least a dozen people were killed, including children, in two airstrikes on Friday in central Gaza, according to hospital officials and Associated Press journalists who counted the bodies.
The attacks hit Nuseirat and Bureij, two children and four women were among the dead and the bodies were taken to Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah.
A funeral was held for the 12 people on Friday.
The Israeli campaign of bombings and offensives in Gaza has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians and injured more than 80,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Its count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Joint British-American airstrikes against Yemen’s Houthi rebels have killed at least 16 people and wounded 42 others, the rebels said Friday — the highest death toll publicly acknowledged in multiple rounds of attacks carried out during rebel attacks. in shipping.
The Houthis have stepped up attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, demanding that Israel end the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.
The Houthis said Friday morning that one of the strikes hit a building housing Hodeida Radio and civilian homes in the Red Sea port city. Its Al Masirah satellite news channel broadcast images of a bloodied man being carried downstairs and others receiving help at the hospital. He said all the dead and almost all the wounded from the attacks came from there.
The Houthis described all of the dead and wounded in Hodeida as civilians, something The Associated Press could not immediately confirm. The rebel force that has controlled Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since 2014 includes fighters who are often not uniformed.
Other attacks took place on the outskirts of Sana’a, near its airport and communications equipment in Taiz, the broadcaster said. Little additional information was posted on those sites, likely indicating that Houthi military sites had been attacked. One person was injured in Sana’a.
The United States and the United Kingdom have launched attacks against the Houthis since January. Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the secretive supreme leader of the Houthis, offered a total death toll from the attacks so far: 40 people dead and another 35 wounded. At the time he did not offer a breakdown between civilian and combatant casualties.
The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on ships, killing three sailors, seizing one ship and sinking another since November, according to the US Maritime Administration. This week they attacked a ship transporting grain to Iran, the rebels’ main benefactor.
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