Gaza war: Blinken doubts Israel to attack Rafah before US-Israel talks

The New Arab's live blog on the war in Gaza has now ended, and will resume tomorrow at 0800 BST. Thank you for following.

The top Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee said on Tuesday he would not approve a massive arms transfer to Israel until he has more information about how Israel would use the weapons.

"I'm waiting for assurances," Representative Gregory Meeks told CNN. "... I want to make sure that I know the types of weapons and what the weapons would be utilized for," he said.

Reuters reported on April 1 that President Joe Biden's administration was weighing whether to go ahead with an $18 billion arms transfer package for Israel that would include dozens of Boeing Co F-15 aircraft.

The news came as Biden faced pressure from foreign partners, human rights groups and some of his fellow Democrats in Congress to impose conditions on arms transfers to rein in Israel's offensive in Gaza.

U.S. law requires Congress to be notified of major foreign military sales agreements, and allows it to block such sales by passing a resolution of disapproval over human rights violations or other concerns, although no such resolution has ever passed and survived a presidential veto.

An informal review process allows the Democratic and Republican leaders of foreign affairs committees to vet such agreements before a formal notification to Congress, which means any of them can hold up an agreement for months or longer by asking for more information. Meeks is one of those four officials.

The US military said on Tuesday that it had destroyed an inbound anti-ship ballistic missile over the Gulf of Aden that was launched by Iranian-backed Houthis and likely targeting the MV Yorktown.

US Central Command said on the social media site X that there were no injuries or damage reported to US, coalition or commercial ships in the incident.

The Israeli army said that 468 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza on Tuesday, the highest in a single day since October 7.

Israel is facing mounting international pressure to allow more aid into Gaza, which is facing a humanitarian catastrophe six months into the war that erupted after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel.

The army said "468 trucks were inspected and transferred to Gaza today".

"This is the highest number of aid trucks that entered Gaza in one day since the start of the war," it said, adding that more than 1,200 lorries loaded with relief materials had entered the territory over the past three days.

"Additionally, 303 packages carrying hundreds and thousands of meals were airdropped over Gaza," it said.

Earlier on Tuesday, a spokesman for the United Nations' humanitarian agency charged that Israel is blocking far more convoys carrying food aid within Gaza, where famine is looming, than convoys carrying other kinds of aid.

"Food convoys that should be going particularly to the north, where 70 percent of people face famine conditions, are... three times more likely to be denied than any other humanitarian convoys with other kinds of material," UN spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva.

In its statement on Tuesday the army said that 47 of the 468 aid trucks that entered Gaza were destined for the northern part of the territory.

Hamas has issued a statement on Telegram addressed to Palestinians on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan.

The group congratulated Palestinians in Gaza for their strength and steadfastness as they mark six months of Israel’s assault on the enclave.

"We affirm that our peopl in the West Bank, Jerusalem, in occupied [historic] Palestine, and in the displacement camps around the world, are standing in solidarity with us and our people in Gaza," the group said.

"We congratulate the Arab and Islamic nations on the arrival of Eid al-Fitr," it added

The Israeli army said early Wednesday it had carried out bombardments on positions of the Lebanese group Hezbollah in Syria in a bid to thwart its "entrenchment" in the country.

An Israeli Defence Force statement said the army had "struck military infrastructure that based on precise intelligence was used by the Hezbollah terrorist organization on the Syrian front."

The military released a video of a strike against a building.

The army said it "holds the Syrian regime accountable for all activities which take place within its territory and will not allow for any attempted actions which could lead to the entrenchment of Hezbollah on the Syrian front."

"In parallel, in the past hours, the IDF struck a number of Hezbollah observation posts and terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon," the statement added.

"Throughout the day, IDF artillery struck to remove threats in the areas of Dhayra and Tayr Harfa in southern Lebanon."

US President Joe Biden said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Gaza policy was a "mistake" and urged Israel to call for a ceasefire, in an interview aired Tuesday.

"I think what he's doing is a mistake. I don't agree with his approach," Biden told US Spanish-language network Univision when asked about Netanyahu's handling of the war.

Around 50 activists were arrested  in the US o0n Tuesday amid a protest by the Christians For a Free Palestine in the US Senate Cafeteria. 

"Congress and their staff will not eat today", they chanted, "until Gaza eats".

"I want to loudly proclaim that my Christian faith calls me to challenge Christian Zionism and stand in solidarity with Palestine," reverent Naomi Washington-Leapheart, a national leader with Christians for a Free Palestine, said in a news release.

Now: Big crowd of "Christians for a Free Palestine" protest in the US Senate cafeteria—pushing Congress to back a ceasefire, restore aid to UNRWA, and end military aid to Israel.

"Congress & their staff will not eat today," they chant. "Until Gaza eats."

Dozens being arrested. pic.twitter.com/1k7NQzQORa

— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) April 9, 2024

At least 10 people have been killed, including four children, in an attack on a home in the al-Zawaida area of Nuseirat refugee camp, Al-Jazeera is reporting.

Exclusive footage obtained by the Qatari broadcaster shows the bodies of at least 10 killed in the attack arriving at Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir el-Balah. Among the dead are the bodies of four children.

The home was reportedly home to the Abu Youssef family, reports said.

The response by Hamas to proposals for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal at talks in Cairo has so far been "less than encouraging," the White House said Tuesday.

"We've seen the public statements from Hamas that have been, shall we say, less than encouraging," National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said, adding however that mediator Qatar had not received a final answer yet from the group.

The international community has lost its "moral compass" on war-ravaged Gaza, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said Tuesday.

"For me, of great concern is that we have lost our moral compass on Gaza, as a humanity, as the international community," Mohammed told a news conference.

"We need to do something about that fast - we're late," she added. "There are thousands of children that continue to lose their lives, that live amputated. There are hundreds that we are waiting to come home, hostages."

Mohammed did not detail the specific measures she is calling for, but UN chief Antonio Guterres has urged a humanitarian ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas.

Two Palestinian civilians were injured this afternoon in an assault by Israeli settlers in the town of Kafr ad-Dik, in the occupied West Bank province of Salfit, the Palestinian news agency Wafa said, citing local sources.

The two victims were herding sheep west of the town when the incident occurred.

One of Gaza's main medical facilities, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, is in need of urgent kidney dialysis machines given the increasing number of patients, the territory's media office said.

Some 22 machines used to serve an average of 140 patients – but there are now around 480 patients, many of whom have been displaced, who seek dialysis at the hospital, it said.

Some of the machines are no longer functional, the office said, with hundreds of people now receiving reduced treatment sessions.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Monday that Israel had not yet set a date for its operation in Rafah, Axios reported on Tuesday, citing a source with knowledge of the call.

British foreign minister David Cameron said on Tuesday that Britain's position on arms sales to Israel remained unchanged after the latest assessment of the government's legal advice.

"The latest assessment leave our position on export licences unchanged. This is consistent with the advice that I and other ministers have received," Cameron said at press conference with his U.S. counterpart in Washington.

"And as ever, we will keep the position under review."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday he doubted Israel would attack Rafah before new talks next week in Washington, which has raised concerns over an assault on the packed Gaza city.

Blinken said that Israel has not communicated a date for an operation to the United States and that an Israeli delegation would visit Washington next week to hear US concerns.

"I don't anticipate any actions being taken before those talks; for that matter, I don't see anything imminent," Blinken told a joint news conference with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron.

The United States will again make the case that major military operations in Rafah would be "extremely dangerous for civilians who have been caught in harm's way," Blinken said.

A deadly, mass famine in Gaza would likely accelerate violence and ensure a long-term conflict, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

"It will accelerate violence, and it will have the effect of ensuring that there's a long-term conflict," Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "It doesn't have to happen ... We should continue to do everything we can, and we are doing this, to encourage the Israelis to provide humanitarian assistance."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken: Israel has not shared a date with us for its Rafah operation.

The commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard's navy said on Tuesday Israel's presence in the United Arab Emirates was viewed as a threat by Tehran.

The UAE, situated across the Gulf from Iran, became the most prominent Arab nation to forge diplomatic ties with Israel in 30 years under a U.S.-brokered accord in 2020, though Abu Dhabi also has normal diplomatic and commercial relations with Tehran.

"We know that the Zionists (Israel) were not brought to the UAE for economic purposes but rather for security and military work. This is a threat to us and should not happen," Revolutionary Guards Navy Commander Alireza Tangsiri added.

The commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard's navy said on Tuesday that it could close the Strait of Hormuz if deemed necessary.

"We do not get hit without striking back, but we are also not hasty in our retaliation," Tangsiri said, according to Iran's semi-official Student News Agency.

"We can close the Hormuz Strait but are not doing so. However, if the enemy comes to disrupt us, we will review our policy," Tangsiri said.

About a fifth of the volume of the world's total oil consumption passes through the strait on a daily basis. An average of 20.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, condensate and oil products passed through Hormuz in January-September 2023, data from analytics firm Vortexa showed.

The United States does not have evidence that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza as it carries out its war against Hamas, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

"We don't have evidence of that," Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards navy said on Tuesday Israel's presence in the United Arab Emirates was a threat to Tehran and this "should not happen".

"We know that the Zionists were not brought to the UAE for economic purposes but rather for security and military work. This is a threat to us and should not happen," Revolutionary Guards Navy Commander Alireza Tangsiri said, according to Iran's semi-official Student News Agency.

Tangsiri added that the Gulf, as well as the Gulf of Oman outside the Strait of Hormuz through which a major amount of the world's seaborne oil passes, were no places for Israelis.

He did not indicate whether Iran was considering any action in the region over Israel's presence.

"We do not get hit without striking back, but we are also not hasty in our retaliation," Tangsiri said, a few days after a senior adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader warned that Israeli embassies were no longer safe.

Low cost airline Ryanair will resume flights between Israel and Italy, Malta, Hungary, Cyprus and other European destinations on June 2.

The Israel Airports Authority decided to halt activity at Ben-Gurion Airport's Terminal 1 after the war broke out on October 7. As a result, all flights departing from the airport currently use Terminal 3.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will meet several of his European Union counterparts over the next week to try to garner support for the recognition of a Palestinian state, the government said on Tuesday.

Sanchez's agenda includes meetings with the prime ministers of Norway, Ireland, Portugal, Slovenia and Belgium focusing on the EU's position regarding Israel's war on Gaza, government spokesperson Pilar Alegria told reporters.

"We want to stop the humanitarian disaster in Gaza and help kickstart a political peace process leading to the realisation of the two-state solution as early as possible," Alegria said.

Sanchez is set to begin his diplomatic campaign with a trip to Oslo and Dublin on April 12, where he will meet with Norway's Jonas Gahr Stoere and Ireland's new premier Simon Harris.

Israel says aid is moving into Gaza more quickly after international pressure to increase access, but the amount is disputed and the United Nations says it is still much less than the bare minimum to meet humanitarian needs.

Israel said 419 trucks - the highest since the Gaza war began - entered on Monday, though the Red Crescent and United Nations gave much lower figures, with the UN saying many were only half full because of Israeli inspection rules.

Red Crescent officials in Egypt said more than 350 trucks had crossed from there into Gaza on Monday and 258 on Sunday. That was much more than in recent weeks, when the number was usually fewer than 200, they said.

However UNRWA, the main United Nations agency in Gaza, said 223 trucks had entered on Monday, fewer than half the 500 trucks it says are required daily.

In its daily situation report on Tuesday, UNRWA said "there has been no significant change in the volume of humanitarian supplies entering Gaza or improved access to the north".

Around 500 trucks with aid and other commercial supplies were entering Gaza daily before the war, when the enclave was also able to produce much of its food through agriculture and fishing, both of which have nearly entirely ceased.

UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma said both humanitarian and commercial supplies were needed for Gaza because the entire population was now dependent on handouts, which was not sustainable.

Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, said Israel typically counted the half-filled trucks going through an initial screening process, rather than repacked, full trucks for delivery inside Gaza.

"Trucks that go in, screened by COGAT, are typically only half full. That is a requirement that they have put in place for screening purposes. When we count the trucks on the other side, when they have been reloaded, they are full," Laerke said.

COGAT is the Israeli military department responsible for aid transfers.

Laerke said a bigger problem remained distribution inside Gaza.

"Food convoys that should be going particularly to the north, where 70% of people face famine conditions, are more likely, actually three times more likely, to be denied than any other humanitarian convoy with other kinds of material," he said.

"When you put up the statistical number of trucks going in and say 'look at all these hundreds of trucks coming in' and you put it against 'look how few trucks have actually moved around with distribution' it's kind of an own goal, isn't it."

(Reuters)

Israel is buying 40,000 tents to shelter almost half a million Gazans ahead of a ground attack on Rafah, a government source said on Tuesday.

Israel has invited tenders for the tents, each housing 12 people, or some 480,000 people in total, according to the proposal published on the website of the defence ministry.

"I confirm that a call for tenders has been made, intended for the Gaza Strip," the government source told AFP, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Israel is blocking far more convoys carrying food aid within Gaza, where famine is looming, than convoys carrying other kinds of aid, the UN said Tuesday.

A spokesman for the United Nations' humanitarian agency pointed to statistics from March showing that it was much more difficult to get clearance for delivering food than other aid in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

"Food convoys that should be going particularly to the north, where 70 percent of people face famine conditions, are ... three times more likely to be denied than any other humanitarian convoys with other kinds of material," Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva.

Israel will complete the elimination of Hamas' brigades, including in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, and nothing will prevent this, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.

"There is no force in the world that will stop us. There are many forces that are trying to do so, but it will not help, since this enemy, after what it did, will never do it again," Netanyahu said.

More than half of the buildings in the city of Khan Younis have either been damaged or completely destroyed from Israel's recent offensive, experts from two US universities say.

Data analysis from the Sentinel-1A satellite collected by Corey Scher from City University of New York, and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University, showed more than 55% of Khan Younis' buildings were partially or fully destroyed.

The researchers said they counted 45,000 buildings, adding that the destruction is visible from space.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says he will present two proposals to the war cabinet Tuesday evening which include US backing for a Rafah invasion and blocking the returns of Palestinians to the northern Gaza Strip.

Australia on Tuesday became the latest country to advocate formal recognition of a Palestinian state, further shattering a long-standing diplomatic taboo in the West.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said that recognising a state of Palestine could restart the moribund Middle East peace process and undermine extremist forces in the Middle East.

"Recognising a Palestinian state - one that can only exist side by side with a secure Israel - doesn't just offer the Palestinian people an opportunity to realise their aspirations", she told an audience in Canberra.

"It also strengthens the forces for peace, and undermines extremism. It undermines Hamas, Iran and Iran's other destructive proxies in the region."

Gaza's health ministry said Tuesday that at least 33,360 people have been killed in the territory by Israel's offensive in more than six months.

The toll includes at least 153 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 75,993 people have been wounded.

Gaza's civil defence said at least 400 bodies have been pulled out of Al-Shifa Hospital and the Khan Younis governorate in Gaza, devastated by Israel's offensive.

Germany denied on Tuesday that it was aiding genocide in Gaza by selling Israel arms in a suit to the top U.N. court by Nicaragua reflecting mounting legal action in support of Palestinians.

Tania von Uslar-Gleichen, legal adviser for the German Foreign Ministry, told the International Court of Justice judges that Nicaragua's case was rushed and based on flimsy evidence.

Arms exports were scrutinised to ensure adherence to international law, she said.

"Germany is doing its utmost to live up to its responsibility vis-a-vis both the Israeli and the Palestinian people," she added, with Germany the largest individual donor of humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

Israel's security is at the "core" of German foreign policy, the UN's highest court heard on Tuesday, where Berlin is defending itself against a claim that it is furnishing Israel with weapons being used in Gaza.

"Our history is the reason why Israel's security has been at the core of Germany foreign policy," Germany's representative told the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

"Where Germany has provided support to Israel, including in a form of export of arms and other military equipment, the quality and purposes of these supplies have been grossly distorted by Nicaragua," Tania von Uslar-Gleichen said.

Israel's foreign minister said that Turkey has "unilaterally violated" trade agreements with its decision to restrict exports to Israel, and that Israel will respond with its own trade restrictions on products coming from Turkey.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan "is again sacrificing the economic interests of the people of Turkey in order to support Hamas, and we will respond in kind".

Israeli warplanes struck a Syrian military position overnight in response to rocket fire on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, the military said on Tuesday.

The Israeli military said that "warplanes attacked Syrian army military infrastructure overnight in the Mahajjah area" - around 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the demilitarised zone separating the opposing forces.

The Israeli army said it identified a rocket launch from Syrian territory on Monday that caused no casualties. It said artillery struck the source of the fire.

The leaders of France, Egypt and Jordan warned Israel on Monday against a threatened offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, urging an "immediate" ceasefire in its war on Hamas.

"We warn against the dangerous consequences of an Israeli offensive on Rafah, where more than 1.5 million Palestinian civilians have sought refuge," they said in a joint editorial published in several newspapers.

"Such an offensive will only bring more death and suffering, heighten the risks and consequences of mass forcible displacement of the people of Gaza and threaten regional escalation."

The editorial was signed by France's President Emmanuel Macron, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah II.

Hamas said Tuesday it was considering a new truce framework proposed during the latest talks in Cairo, as Palestinians returning to their homes in southern Gaza confronted the extent of destruction left after Israeli troops' withdrawal.

The three-part proposal would halt fighting for six weeks to facilitate an exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

Saying it "appreciates" the mediators' efforts, Hamas accused Israel on Tuesday of not responding to any of its demands in the talks.

"Despite this, the movement's leadership is studying the submitted proposal," the group said in a statement.

China's top diplomat Wang Yi said he had discussed the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday, as the two met in Beijing.

"Foreign Minister Lavrov and I had an in-depth communication about several international and regional hotspot issues... including the Ukraine and Palestine-Israel conflicts," Wang told a press conference.

"I would like to emphasise that as a responsible major power, China always decides its own positions independently based on the individual rights and wrongs of each situation," the top diplomat said.

"At the same time, as a force for peace and stability, China will stick to playing a constructive role on the international stage... and will never add oil to the flames," he said.

Turkey will impose restrictions on the export of products from 54 different categories to Israel until a ceasefire is declared in Gaza, the Turkish Trade Ministry said on Tuesday, adding the measures would take effect immediately.

In a statement following Ankara's announcement that it would be taking measures after Israel rejected its request to take part in an aid air-drop, the ministry said the restrictions would include iron and steel products, construction equipment and products, machines and more.

France's foreign minister said on Tuesday that pressure, and possibly sanctions, must be imposed on Israel to open crossings to get humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

"There must be levers of influence and there are multiple levers, going up to sanctions to let humanitarian aid cross check points," Stephane Sejourne told RFI radio and France 24 television.

"France was one of the first countries to propose European Union sanctions on Israeli settlers who are committing acts of violence in the West Bank. We will continue if needed to obtain the opening of humanitarian aid," he said.