Anger Among Likud Leaders Over Netanyahu's Ministerial Concessionshttps://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3988186/anger-among-likud-leaders-over-netanyahus-ministerial-concessions
Anger Among Likud Leaders Over Netanyahu's Ministerial Concessions
Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu (dpa)
Likud party leaders expressed anger over an expected lineup of a new cabinet led by Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu after realizing that major ministerial portfolios could not be allocated to their party members.
Israeli media said that the party's leadership was infuriated after reports that Shas party leader Aryeh Deri could be named finance minister, and head of the Religious Zionism party Bezalel Smotrich as defense minister, and leader of the Jewish Power party Itamar Ben-Gvir as the internal security minister.
Netanyahu also reportedly plans to appoint the former ambassador to the US, Ron Dermer, as Foreign Minister, which further exacerbated the situation.
Likud leaders knew that their coalition partners must eventually be given influential portfolios. Still, they need to understand why Netanyahu will appoint Dermer as foreign minister, even though he is not a member of the party or the Knesset.
Netanyahu is yet to form his cabinet. However, his associates are testing out several names to see the reaction of the political parties, which angered the Likud.
Several senior party officials said that Dermer's appointment would be an insult to party members.
Likud leaders know that the coalition parties do not demand the foreign affairs ministry and are not interested in it. This has increased their anger considering that Netanyahu proposed the position to Dermer only because he is his close friend.
Dermer has been the Prime Minister's advisor since his return to political life in 2003 when he was named the Minister of Finance. When Netanyahu became prime minister from 2009 until 2013, he chose Dermer as a political advisor and ambassador in Washington.
However, it is still undetermined whether the Likud leaders rejecting Dermer’s appointment will be able to stop it.
Netanyahu wants to name Dermer as a minister because he claims there are other important positions that Likud officials can occupy. He may also prefer to refrain from handing this post to one of his potential opponents within the party.
Netanyahu and his team continue their negotiations with the right-wing parties to reach an agreement to form the new government and present it to the Knesset.
On Sunday, he received an official letter from President Isaac Herzog to form a government that was supposed to be announced this week. Still, it was postponed following disputes over the ministerial positions, the judiciary, the Supreme Court, budgets, and religious schools.
Western Nations Urge Israel to Comply with International Law in Gaza https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5021642-western-nations-urge-israel-comply-international-law-gaza%C2%A0
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Friday, May 17, 2024. (AP)
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Western Nations Urge Israel to Comply with International Law in Gaza
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Friday, May 17, 2024. (AP)
Israel must comply with international law in Gaza and address the devastating humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave, a group of Western nations wrote in a letter to the Israeli government seen by Reuters on Friday.
All countries belonging to the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies, apart from the United States, signed the letter, along with Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
The five-page letter comes as Israeli forces bear down on the southern Gaza city of Rafah as part of its drive to eradicate Hamas, despite warnings this could result in mass casualties in an area where displaced civilians have found shelter.
"In exerting its right to defend itself, Israel must fully comply with international law, including international humanitarian law," the letter said, reiterating "outrage" for the Oct. 7 Hamas raid into Israel which triggered the conflict.
Israel denies blocking humanitarian aid and says it needs to eliminate Hamas for its own protection.
The Western nations said they were opposed to "a full-scale military operation in Rafah" and called on Israel to let humanitarian aid reach the population "through all relevant crossing points, including the one in Rafah".
"According to UN estimates, an intensified military offensive would affect approximately 1.4 million people," the letter said, underscoring the need "for specific, concrete and measurable steps" to significantly boost the flow of aid.
The letter recognizes Israel made progress in addressing a number of issues, including letting more aid trucks into the Gaza Strip, the reopening of the Erez crossing into northern Gaza and the temporary use of Ashdod port in southern Israel.
But it called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to do more, including working towards a "sustainable ceasefire", facilitating further evacuations and resuming "electricity, water and telecommunication services".
Since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, Israel's Gaza offensive has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, local health officials say. Hamas-led gunmen killed some 1,200 people and abducted 253 in their attack to Israel, according to Israeli tallies.
US Military Says First Aid Delivered to Gaza via Temporary Pierhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5021627-us-military-says-first-aid-delivered-gaza-temporary-pier
This handout picture courtesy of the US Central Command (CENTCOM) taken on May 16, 2024 shows US Army Soldiers assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary), US Navy Sailors assigned to Amphibious Construction Battalion 1, and Israel Defense Forces emplace the Trident Pier on the Gaza coast. (CENTCOM / AFP)
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US Military Says First Aid Delivered to Gaza via Temporary Pier
This handout picture courtesy of the US Central Command (CENTCOM) taken on May 16, 2024 shows US Army Soldiers assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary), US Navy Sailors assigned to Amphibious Construction Battalion 1, and Israel Defense Forces emplace the Trident Pier on the Gaza coast. (CENTCOM / AFP)
The US military said aid deliveries began Friday via a temporary pier in Gaza aimed at ramping up emergency humanitarian assistance to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
"Today at approximately 9 a.m. (Gaza time), trucks carrying humanitarian assistance began moving ashore via a temporary pier in Gaza," the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement, adding that no US troops went ashore.
"This is an ongoing, multinational effort to deliver additional aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza via a maritime corridor that is entirely humanitarian in nature," it said.
The pier was successfully anchored on Thursday, with around 500 tons of aid expected to enter the Palestinian territory in the coming days.
Photos released on Thursday by CENTCOM showed humanitarian aid being lifted onto a barge in the nearby Israeli port of Ashdod.
The Palestinian territory is facing famine after an Israeli siege brought dire shortages of food as well as safe water, medicines and fuel for its 2.4 million people.
The arrival of occasional aid convoys has slowed to a trickle since Israeli forces took control last week of the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing.
The UN has said that opening up land crossing points and allowing more trucks convoys into Gaza is the only way to stem the spiraling humanitarian crisis.
The Gaza war broke out after Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel's devastating military retaliation has killed at least 35,272 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
Israeli Cabinet Rifts Over Gaza Break Out into the Open https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5021587-israeli-cabinet-rifts-over-gaza-break-out-open%C2%A0
Israeli tanks patrol near the security fence with Jabalia in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, in the background, southern Israel, 16 May 2024. (EPA)
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Israeli Cabinet Rifts Over Gaza Break Out into the Open
Israeli tanks patrol near the security fence with Jabalia in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, in the background, southern Israel, 16 May 2024. (EPA)
Israeli government splits over the war in Gaza broke open this week, after the defense minister publicly demanded a clear strategy from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as troops returned to battle Hamas fighters in areas thought to have been cleared months ago.
The comments from Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who said he would not agree to setting up a military government in the enclave, reflect growing unease in the security establishment at the lack of direction from Netanyahu over who will be left to run Gaza when the fighting stops.
They also brought out the sharp split between the two centrist former army generals in the cabinet, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, who both backed Gallant's call, and the hard right nationalist religious parties led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Internal Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who condemned the comments.
"That's no way to run a war," the right-wing Israel Today tabloid headlined its Thursday edition over a photo of Netanyahu and Gallant facing in different directions.
Apart from dismantling Hamas and returning some 130 hostages still held by the movement, Netanyahu has not articulated any clear strategic goal for the end of the campaign, which has killed some 35,000 Palestinians and left Israel increasingly isolated internationally.
However, backed by Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, both close to the West Bank settler movement, he has rejected any involvement in running postwar Gaza by the Palestinian Authority, set up under the Oslo interim peace accords three decades ago and generally seen internationally as the most legitimate Palestinian governing body.
Netanyahu, struggling to hold his increasingly fractious coalition together, has so far stuck to his pledge of total victory over Hamas. Afterwards, Gaza could be run by a "non-Hamas civilian administration with an Israeli military responsibility, overall military responsibility", he said in an interview with CNBC television on Wednesday.
Israeli officials have said that Palestinian clan leaders or other civil society figures may be recruited to fill the void but there has been no evidence that any such leaders, able or willing to replace Hamas, have been identified and no friendly Arab countries have stepped forward to help.
"From Israel the options are either they end the war, and they withdraw, or they establish for all intents and purposes a military government there, and they control the entire territory for who knows how long, because once they leave an area, Hamas will reappear," said Yossi Mekelberg, an associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Program at Chatham House.
GUERRILLA TACTICS
Gallant's refusal to contemplate any form of permanent military government reflects the material and political costs of an operation that could stretch the military and the economy painfully, reviving memories of Israel's years-long occupation of southern Lebanon after the 1982 war.
Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's biggest circulation newspaper, quoted a confidential assessment from the defense establishment on Friday which estimated the cost of maintaining a military government in the Gaza Strip at about 20 billion shekels ($5.43 billion) a year, in addition to the costs of reconstruction. The additional troop requirements would draw forces away from the northern border with Lebanon as well as central Israel and mean a sharp increase in reserve duty requirements, it said.
Taking full control of Gaza would require at least four divisions, or around 50,000 troops, said Michael Milshtein, a former intelligence officer and one of Israel's leading specialists on Hamas.
While thousands of Hamas fighters have been killed in the campaign and Israeli commanders say most of the movement's organized battalions have been broken down, smaller groups have popped up in areas the army left in the early stages of the war.
"They are a very flexible organization and they can adjust very quickly," Milshtein said. "They have adopted new patterns of guerrilla warfare."
The likely cost to Israel of a prolonged insurgency was illustrated on Wednesday, when five Israeli soldiers were killed by an Israeli tank in a so-called "friendly fire" incident, as Israeli troops fought fierce battles in the Jabalia area north of Gaza City.
Israel's military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said the military's job was to "break down those places where Hamas is returning and trying to reassemble itself" but he said any question of an alternative government to Hamas would be a matter to be decided at the political level.
Although most surveys show Israelis still broadly back the war, that support has been slipping, with more and more prioritizing a return of the hostages over destroying Hamas. Such incidents may erode support further if they continue.
A taste of the broader social divisions likely to be unleashed has been seen in the long-running dispute over conscripting ultra-Orthodox Torah students into the military, a move backed by Gantz and his allies as well as by many secular Israelis but fiercely resisted by the religious parties.
Netanyahu has so far managed to avoid a walk-out by either side that could potentially bring his government down.
But Gallant, who has already led a revolt against Netanyahu from within the cabinet over plans to cut the power of judges last year, has clashed repeatedly with Smotrich and Ben-Gvir and his latest challenge to the prime minister may not be his last.
Hamas ‘Regrets’ Abbas’ Speech at Arab Summit, Stresses its Keenness on Palestinian Unityhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5021585-hamas-%E2%80%98regrets%E2%80%99-abbas%E2%80%99-speech-arab-summit-stresses-its-keenness-palestinian
Hamas ‘Regrets’ Abbas’ Speech at Arab Summit, Stresses its Keenness on Palestinian Unity
Hamas fighters in Gaza. (AFP)
The Hamas group expressed its “regret” at the statement by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas about its October 7 operation before the Arab League summit in Manama on Thursday.
He said the armed group “unilaterally” carried out the attack and “gave Israel more excuses to attack Gaza.”
Hamas responded by saying that “Israel does not need excuses to commit its crimes” against the Palestinian people.
Abbas added that Hamas continued to reject efforts to end the division between Palestinians “in service of an Israeli plot the occupation government was working on implementing weeks before October 7.”
The plot, he went on to say, aimed to consolidate the separation of Gaza from the West Bank and Jerusalem to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and weaken the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization.
Hamas dismissed Abbas’ remarks, saying it has “repeatedly expressed its keenness on restoring national unity.”
It added that it has shown the necessary “flexibility in an effort to strengthen the internal Palestinian front and unite the national rank.”
Hezbollah Introduces New Weapons, Tactics Against Israel as War in Gaza Drags On https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5021582-hezbollah-introduces-new-weapons-tactics-against-israel-war-gaza-drags-%C2%A0
A picture taken from Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel shows smoke billowing over a southern Lebanese village following Israeli bombardment on May 16, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (AFP)
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Hezbollah Introduces New Weapons, Tactics Against Israel as War in Gaza Drags On
A picture taken from Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel shows smoke billowing over a southern Lebanese village following Israeli bombardment on May 16, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (AFP)
The Lebanese group Hezbollah this week struck a military post in northern Israel using a drone that fired two missiles. The attack wounded three soldiers, one of them seriously, according to the Israeli military.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has regularly fired missiles across the border with Israel over the past seven months, but the one on Thursday appears to have been the first successful missile airstrike it has launched from within Israeli airspace.
The group has stepped up its attacks on Israel in recent weeks, particularly since the Israeli incursion into the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. It has struck deeper inside Israel and introduced new and more advanced weaponry.
“This is a method of sending messages on the ground to the Israeli enemy, meaning that this is part of what we have, and if needed we can strike more,” said Lebanese political analyst Faisal Abdul-Sater who closely follows Hezbollah.
While the cross-border exchanges of fire have been ongoing since early October, “complex attacks” by Hezbollah began a few days after Iran’s unprecedented drone and missile barrage attack on Israel in mid-April.
In the past two weeks, Hezbollah has escalated further in response to the Israeli incursion into the city of southern Rafah in the Gaza Strip, a Lebanese official familiar with the group’s operations said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to detail military information to the media.
The Thursday afternoon attack by a drone carrying missiles came just days after Hezbollah launched three anti-tank guided missiles at an Israeli military post that controlled a surveillance balloon flying over the border. They released camera footage afterward to show they had hit their mark. Hours later, the Israeli military confirmed that the spy balloon had been shot down over Lebanon.
The night before, Hezbollah had carried out its deepest attack in Israel to date using explosive drones to strike at a base in Ilaniya near the city of Tiberias about 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the Lebanon border. The Israeli military said the attack did not hurt anyone.
Rockets leave smoke trails behind as they are launched from southern Lebanon toward Israel on May 16, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (AFP)
Abdul-Sater, the analyst, said the Iran-led coalition known as the “Axis of Resistance”, which includes the Palestinian armed group Hamas, has warned that if Israeli troops launch a full-scale invasion of Rafah in an attempt to go after Hamas, other fronts will also escalate.
Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militias claimed Wednesday that they attacked a US destroyer while Iran-backed militants in Iraq have said they fired a series of drones toward Israel in recent weeks after having gone relatively quiet since February.
Hezbollah's use of more advanced weaponry, including drones capable of firing missiles, explosive drones and the small type of guided missile known as Almas, or Diamond, that was used to attack the base controlling the balloon has raised alarms within the Israeli military.
“Hezbollah has been escalating the situation in the north,” said military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani. “They’ve been firing more and more.”
In adapting its attacks, Hezbollah has also managed to reduce the numbers of fighters lost compared with the early weeks of the conflict.
The group has lost more than 250 fighters so far, compared with 15 Israeli troops since fighting broke out along the Lebanon-Israel border a day after the Israel-Hamas war started on Oct. 7.
According to a count by The Associated Press, Hezbollah lost 47 fighters in October and 35 in November, compared with 20 in April and 12 so far this month.
The official familiar with the group’s operations said Hezbollah had reduced the numbers of fighters along the border areas to bring down the numbers of casualties. While Hezbollah continues to fire Russian-made anti-tank Kornet missiles from areas close to the border, it has also shifted to firing drones and other types of rockets with heavy war heads — including Almas as well as Falaq and Burkan rockets — from areas several kilometers (miles) from the border.
Over the weekend, Hezbollah said it had launched a new rocket with a heavy warhead named Jihad Mughniyeh after a senior operative who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on southern Syria in 2015.
Eva J. Koulouriotis, a political analyst specialized in the Middle East and extremist groups wrote on the social media platform X that Hezbollah's recent escalation likely has several goals, including raising the ceiling of the group's demands in any future negotiations for a border deal, as well as raising military pressure on Israel's military in light of the preparations for the battle in Rafah.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed in a speech last week that “we will stand, we will achieve our goals, we will hit Hamas, we will destroy Hezbollah, and we will bring security.”
On Monday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah reiterated in a speech that there will be no end to the fighting along the Lebanon-Israel border until Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip come to an end.
“The main goal of Lebanon’s front is to contribute to the pressure on the enemy to end the war on Gaza,” Nasrallah said.
His comments were a blow to attempts by foreign dignitaries, including US and French officials, who have visited Beirut to try to put an end to the violence that has displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border.
A day after Nasrallah spoke, Canada’s Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly visited Beirut and told Lebanon’s private LBCI TV station that she was pushing for a ceasefire.
“We need the people living in the south of Lebanon to be able to go back to their homes,” she said. “We need to make sure that the Israelis living in the northern part of Israel are able to get back to their homes also.”
Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem warned Israel in a speech over the weekend against opening an all-out war.
“You have tried in the past and you were defeated and if you try again, you will be defeated,” he said, referring to the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah 34-day war that ended in a draw.
UNAMI: We are Witnessing an Iraq on Rise, Some Challenges Remainhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5021563-unami-we-are-witnessing-iraq-rise-some-challenges-remain
UNAMI: We are Witnessing an Iraq on Rise, Some Challenges Remain
Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert - AFP
Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said that the country looks different from the one to which the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) was first deployed some 20 years ago.
“We are, so to speak, witnessing an Iraq on the rise,” she said, noting that corruption, factionalism, impunity, undue interference in State functions and armed actors operating outside State control remain.
Her remarks came amid calls from Security Council members to draw down the United Nations mission in Iraq.
"While the government is tackling these scourges, feelings of marginalization and exclusion are spreading in and among certain components, which risk fanning the flames of intra- and inter-community tension. The recent increase in mass unannounced executions of individuals convicted under anti-terrorism laws is a cause for great concern," she added.
On the legislative front, Plasschaert said that despite the successful holding of local elections in 13 of the 15 federal governorates in December 2023, two provinces — Diyala and Kirkuk — remain at an impasse, with no immediate resolution in sight. "And six months of negotiations to replace Iraq’s parliamentary speaker have failed to produce results."
She highlighted that nearly 10 years after ISIS committed a genocide against the Yazidi people, "Sinjar still lies in ruins," expressing hope that the upcoming tenth anniversary will not be wasted but rather used — by all authorities, actors and stakeholders — “to unite and step up to the plate with the sole aim of serving the people of Sinjar”.
Guterres: War in Gaza is an Open Woundhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5021562-guterres-war-gaza-open-wound
UN Secretary-General António Guterres repeated his longstanding call for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages held in the enclave, and unimpeded access for aid delivery, in remarks to the Summit of the League of Arab States in Bahrain on Thursday.
“The war in Gaza is an open wound that threatens to infect the entire region,” he said.
“In its speed and scale, it is the deadliest conflict in my time as Secretary-General – for civilians, aid workers, journalists, and our own UN colleagues.”
He stressed that nothing can justify the abhorrent 7 October terror attacks by Hamas against Israel, or the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
The Secretary-General warned against an assault on Rafah, which would be “unacceptable” as “it would inflict another surge of pain and misery when we need a surge in life-saving aid.”
He also voiced concern over the tensions in the occupied West Bank, highlighting the spike in illegal Israeli settlements, settler violence and excessive use of force by the Israeli Defense Forces, as well as demolitions and evictions.
The Secretary-General told Arab leaders that the only permanent way to end the cycle of violence and instability between Israelis and Palestinians is through a two-State solution.
“The demographic and historical character of Jerusalem must be preserved."
Saied Blasts Foreign 'Interference' in Tunisian Affairshttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5021561-saied-blasts-foreign-interference-tunisian-affairs
A march to demand the release of imprisoned journalists, activists and opposition figures and to set a date for holding fair presidential elections in Tunisia (Reuters)
Saied Blasts Foreign 'Interference' in Tunisian Affairs
A march to demand the release of imprisoned journalists, activists and opposition figures and to set a date for holding fair presidential elections in Tunisia (Reuters)
Tunisian President Kais Saied on Thursday denounced foreign "interference" following international criticism of a recent arrests of political commentators, lawyers and journalists in the North African country.
Saied, who in 2021 orchestrated a sweeping power grab, ordered the foreign ministry to summon diplomats and "inform them that Tunisia is an independent state".
Speaking during a televised meeting, the president told Mounir Ben Rjiba, state secretary to the foreign ministry, to "summon as soon as possible the ambassadors of a number of countries", without specifying which ones.
Ben Rjiba was asked to "strongly object to them that what they are doing is a blatant interference in our internal affairs".
"Inform them that Tunisia is an independent state that adheres to its sovereignty," Saied added, AFP reported.
"We didn't interfere in their affairs when they arrested protesters... who denounced the war of genocide against the Palestinian people," he added, referring to demonstrations on university campuses in the United States and elsewhere over the Israel-Hamas war.
The European Union on Tuesday expressed concern that Tunisian authorities were cracking down on dissenting voices.
France denounced "arrests, in particular of journalists and members of (non-governmental) associations", while the United States said they were "in contradiction" with "the universal rights explicitly guaranteed by the Tunisian Constitution".
The media union said Wednesday that Decree 54 was "a deliberate attack on the essence of press freedom and a vain attempt to intimidate journalists and media employees and sabotage public debate".
US State Dept: Gaza Humanitarian Situation Still Deterioratinghttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5021261-us-state-dept-gaza-humanitarian-situation-still-deteriorating
People look on from a viewpoint overlooking the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Sderot, Israel, May 16, 2024. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
US State Dept: Gaza Humanitarian Situation Still Deteriorating
People look on from a viewpoint overlooking the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Sderot, Israel, May 16, 2024. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
The United States said on Thursday that the humanitarian situation in Gaza continued to deteriorate and urged Israel to do more to allow sustained access for aid via southern and northern part of the enclave.
Speaking at a daily news briefing, State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said Washington continued to remain concerned that both travel and the flow of fuel into Gaza via Rafah crossing has "come to a complete halt."
The Gaza death toll has risen to 35,272, health officials in the Hamas-run coastal enclave said, and malnutrition is widespread with international aid efforts blocked by the violence and Israel's de-facto shutdowns of its Kerem Shalom crossing and the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
Israel's tanks pushed into the heart of Jabalia in northern Gaza on Thursday, facing anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs, while in the south, its forces pounded Rafah without advancing.
Israel Vows to 'Intensify' Operations in Gaza’s Rafahhttps://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5021251-israel-vows-intensify-operations-gaza%E2%80%99s-rafah
Israel Vows to 'Intensify' Operations in Gaza’s Rafah
Palestinians who fled Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip arrive with their belongings to Khan Yunis on May 15, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Israel vowed Thursday to "intensify" its ground offensive in Rafah, in defiance of global warnings over the fate of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians sheltering in Gaza's far-southern city.
According to AFP, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said "additional forces will enter" the Rafah area and "this activity will intensify".
"Hundreds of targets have already been struck and our forces are maneuvering in the area," Gallant said following a troop visit on Wednesday.
Israel's top ally the United States has joined other major powers in appealing for it to hold back from a full ground offensive against Hamas in Rafah, the last city in Gaza so far spared heavy urban fighting.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has countered that a ground assault on Rafah is vital to the army's mission of destroying Hamas to prevent any repetition of the October 7 attack that triggered the war.
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