Israel pounds Gaza as Nuseirat massacre 'rescue mission' death toll rises to 274

TNA’s live coverage of the latest from the war on Gaza concludes for today. Join us again tomorrow at 0800 GMT for updates from the besieged Palestinian enclave.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Sunday that it had received a report of an incident 89 nautical miles southwest of Yemen's port city of Aden, adding that authorities are investigating. 

UKMTO WARNING INCIDENT 082 - ATTACK UPDATE 001https://t.co/fX3hWupPWO#MaritimeSecurity #MarSec pic.twitter.com/iZ0rlLBG1M

— United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) (@UK_MTO) June 9, 2024

The GCC’s secretary-general, Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi, has condemned the Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp as "a heinous and terrorist crime that targeted innocent, defenceless people with unprecedented brutality."

In a statement, Albudaiwi said the attack "reveals the true face of the Israeli occupation forces and demonstrates their complete disregard for all international conventions and humanitarian values."

Albudaiwi also demanded the international community to intervene into to stop continued attacks against Palestinians.

"He further reiterated the firm positions of the countries of the Cooperation Council regarding the Palestinian cause, and their support for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the borders of June 4, 1967, with its capital in East Jerusalem, in accordance with the Arab Peace Initiative and international legitimacy resolutions," the statement said.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan spoke to ABC’s 'This Week' programme when he did not specify whether the US offered intelligence support to Israel or how the operation could affect chances of Hamas accepting a ceasefire deal. 

"The fact is that the whole world is looking to Hamas to say ‘yes’," he said. "For all those people, for all these months who have been calling for a ceasefire now is the moment."

Sullivan added the US doesn’t know how many Palestinians died during the incursion, as Gaza’s health ministry said 274 Palestinians were killed.

Upon asked by ABC on whether Washington would back similar future Israeli raids, even if the rising death toll of Palestinian civilians, Sullivan said that "the United States will support Israel in taking steps to try to rescue hostages."

He emphasised that Washington has continued to urge Israel to minimise civilian casualties.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan tells @MarthaRaddatz that it is “hard to say right now” how Israel's hostage rescue operation will impact cease-fire negotiations.

“It's hard to say how Hamas will process this particular operation.” https://t.co/lOzZ4Axo95 pic.twitter.com/OFpyG2qySS

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) June 9, 2024

Hamas' armed wing al-Qassam Brigades said in a video posted on its Telegram channel on Sunday that three captives were killed, including a US citizen, in an Israeli military operation on Saturday in which some captives were freed.

Officials in Gaza decried the operation as a massacre in which they said 274 people were killed and 698 wounded in the crowded Nuseirat refugee camp.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that its crews evacuated a 15-year-old boy who was shot and wounded in an attack by Israeli forces in the town of Urif, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

The teenage boy was shot in the shoulder by a live round and that his condition is stable, according to PRCS.

News publication Al Jazeera English said that groups of Israeli settlers were protected by the Israeli army when they stormed the outskirts of the towns, assaulted citizens and additionally burned a Palestinian-owned vehicle.

According to Israeli publication Haaretz, 13 Israeli soldiers have been wounded over the weekend fighting in Gaza. 

The total number of Israeli soldiers wounded in Israel's operations in Gaza stands at 1,908. 

Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz is expected to resign from the government tonight according to reports in Israeli publications Haaretz and Israel Hayom.

The expected announcement comes after Gantz canceled a press conference yesterday where it was believed he would announce his resignation from Netanyahu's coalition government.

Yemen's Houthi group said on Sunday it had fired ballistic missiles at a British destroyer, the HMS Diamond, in the Red Sea.

The Houthis said in a statement the strike was "accurate" but did not say whether it had caused any damage.

The UK's Ministry of Defence said that the claims were false.

The Houthi's said they had also attacked two commercial vessels which they identified as the Norderney and Tavvishi. The statement said the Tavvishi - which was in the Arabian Sea - and the Norderney had both been hit, and that a fire broke out on the Norderney.

(Reuters & The New Arab Staff)

Palestinian Islamic Jihad's armed wing the Al-Quds Brigades announced they bombarded an Israeli military base near the Brazil neighborhood in the southernmost Palestinian city of Rafah with a barrage of 60-caliber mortar shells.

Tens of thousands of people from across the US gathered near the White House on Saturday to demand an end to US support for Israel's war in Gaza, highlighting US President Joe Biden's stated position of an invasion of Rafah being a red line.

In response to Israel's recent invasion of Rafah, what many see as Biden not holding firm on his word, the demonstrators made a two-mile-long human "red line" around the White House, wearing red shirts and holding a red banner that they slowly unfurled from the White House gate, down Constitution Avenue and back around to the front entrance.

"They made a full line around the White House. They're sending the message that a red line has been crossed. It's a red line that has been articulated by the Biden administration," Al-Sharif Nassef, co-founder of 99 Coalition, an endorser of the demonstration, told The New Arab. 

"The American people have had enough of billions of our tax dollars going to Israel, when we have teachers who are taking on second jobs, when we have students who are under mountains of debt," he said. 

To read the full report, click here.

Turkey has strongly criticised the Israeli attack on Nuseirat refugee camp that killed over 200 Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, which killed over 200 Palestinians amid an operation to rescue four Israeli captives.

"With this latest barbaric attack, Israel has added a new one to the list of war crimes it has committed in Gaza," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a press statement on Sunday.

"We call on the institutions responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security, the UN Security Council in particular, to exercise their responsibility to put an end to these crimes by Israel, which is on trial before the International Court of Justice for violating its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention."

 Pope Francis called Sunday for humanitarian aid to urgently reach Palestinians in Gaza and for Israel and Hamas to immediately accept proposals for a cease-fire and release of hostages.

During his Sunday noon blessing, Francis also thanked Jordan, which this week will host an international humanitarian aid conference for Palestinians.

“I encourage the international community to act urgently, with all means, to come to the aid of the people of Gaza, worn out by the war,” he said. “Humanitarian aid must be allowed to reach those in need, and no one can impede it.”

He recalled that Saturday marked the 10-year anniversary of a peace prayer he hosted in the Vatican gardens, attended by then-Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

“This meeting showed that shaking hands is possible, and that to make peace, you need courage — much more courage than to make war,” he said.

Francis threw his support behind cease-fire proposals and said he hoped the terms would be quickly accepted by both sides, even though he acknowledged negotiations “are not easy.”

“I hope that the peace proposals on all fronts that have been presented and for the release of hostages will be accepted immediately for the sake of the Palestinians and Israelis,” he said.

Israeli communications minister Shlomo Karhi announced on X that Al Jazeera’s offices will remain shut in Israel for 45 more days, adding taht he is "convinced" the broadcasting ban will extend in in further time as well.

 Karhi also thanked Prime Minister Netanyahu and the government for approving the extension.

"We will not allow the Al Jazeera terrorist channel to broadcast in Israel and endanger our fighters. I have now signed the extension of the orders banning Al Jazeera channel broadcasts in Israel," Karhi said.

According to Al Jazeera English, they have sent a comment to the minister via its lawyer to deny all allegations and claims said by Karhi.

The White House declined to say on Sunday whether President Joe Biden will meet Benjamin Netanyahu when the Israeli prime minister visits Washington next month to address the US Congress.

"I don't have anything to announce today," Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in an interview with CBS's "Face the Nation," adding the two men were in regular communication.

"He's coming to address the Congress. The president talks to him all the time," Sullivan said.

Netanyahu is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress on July 24. Biden has been a staunch supporter of Israel in its war in Gaza, but there have been tensions between the two men over how Israel is conducting the war.

Sullivan said he hoped a ceasefire and hostage deal would be in place that by the time Netanyahu came to Washington. Hamas must simply say "yes" to the proposal on the table, he said.

Gaza's health ministry has announced that 37,084 Palestinians have been killed and wounded 84,494 since Oct. 7.

The ministry says Israeli forces have committed eight "massacres" against families in the Gaza Strip, that has led to the killing of 283 Palestinians and 814 wounded in the past day. 
 

 At least 274 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli air and ground raid that rescued four hostages held by Hamas, Gaza's Health Ministry said Sunday.

The ministry said around 700 people were wounded in Saturday’s operation.

Breaking: Horrific massacres are being committed by the Israeli army at this moment against the civilian population in the Nuseirat refugee camp. pic.twitter.com/wEqWlxp7B3

— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) June 8, 2024

Palestinian news agency Wafa says an Israeli attack on a home resided by a family in central Gaza’s Bureij camp has killed at least three people. Several others were wounded in the attack, according to the news agency.

More updates to come.

Kuwait has issued a statement to denounce Israel’s attack on the Nuseirat camp, which led to the killing of at least 210 people and injured more than 400.

In a statement, the country's ministry called the attack a "heinous crime", added that it constitutes as a "flagrant violation of international law."

Kuwait demanded the international community and the UN Security Council to "shoulder their responsibilities in stopping that barbaric aggression" against Palestinians.

At least 22 Palestinians, including a woman and child, have been detained by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank over the last day, according to a statement issued by Palestinian Prisoners' Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners Society.

According to the organisations, the arrests took place in Jenin, Hebron, Tulkarm, Ramallah, Qalqilya and Jericho.

Earlier this morning, a Palestinian woman was attacked and wounded, resulting in three young men arrested amid an Israeli military raid located at the north of Jericho, Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

Meanwhile, in Jenin, six Palestinians, including one woman, were arrested during an Israeli raid on the town of Arraba.

Local media reported that Israeli forces ransacked their homes during the operation.

Since October 7, the number of Palestinians detained in the occupied West Bank has now exceeded over 9,125, according to Wafa. 

US President Joe Biden reiterated his call for a ceasefire while welcoming news of the Israel's freed hostages.

"We won't stop working until all the hostages are home and a ceasefire is reached. That's essential to happen," he said.

He was speaking in Paris alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, who said: "We rejoice at the release of the four Israeli hostages."

Israel faces growing diplomatic isolation, with international court cases accusing it of war crimes and several European countries recognising a Palestinian state.

Thousands of people marched through London on Saturday calling for a ceasefire, while demonstrators outside the White House protested against Washington's support for Israel amid Gaza's deadliest-ever war.

Israel's military operation on Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp will not affect the current prisoner-hostage swap deal, said Mohammad Al-Hindi, deputy chief of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, which is an ally of Hamas.

Al-Hindi said that conditions for the deal remain the same, in comments to Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV.

The United States has resumed aid deliveries to Gaza from a temporary pier, the country's military said Saturday, after the structure suffered storm damage and underwent repairs in a nearby port.

"Today at approximately 10:30 am (Gaza time) US Central Command (USCENTCOM) began delivery of humanitarian assistance ashore in Gaza. Today, a total of approximately 492 metric tons (~1.1 million pounds) of much needed humanitarian assistance was delivered to the people of Gaza," CENTCOM said on social media platform X.

"No US military personnel went ashore in Gaza," the military command responsible for the Middle East added.

CENTCOM also said Saturday that the pier -- "including its equipment, personnel, and assets" -- had no role in Israel's operation earlier in the day to rescue four hostages held in Gaza.

"An area south of the facility was used by the Israelis to safely return the hostages to Israel," CENTCOM said.

"Any such claim to the contrary is false. The temporary pier on the coast of Gaza was put in place for one purpose only, to help move additional, urgently needed lifesaving assistance into Gaza."

More than two million pounds of humanitarian aid were delivered via the pier last month, but it was damaged by high seas around a week after deliveries began.

The pier was repaired in the Israeli port of Ashdod before being brought back to the Gaza coast and reestablished on Friday.

Israel has been accused of delaying the entry of aid into Gaza, depriving the territory's 2.4 million people of clean water, food, medicines and fuel.

Humanitarian Aid Flow Resumes in Gaza

Today at approximately 10:30 a.m. (Gaza time) U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) began delivery of humanitarian assistance ashore in Gaza. Today, a total of approximately 492 metric tons (~1.1 million pounds) of much needed humanitarian… pic.twitter.com/NBOzeoAEzL

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) June 8, 2024

 The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Sunday that it had received a report of a vessel that caught fire after it was hit by projectile 70 nautical miles southwest of Yemen's Aden.