Israeli strike kills dozens in Nuseirat, Gaza hospital at critical stage after generator runs out

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British security firm Ambrey said in a statement on Thursday a Greek-owned bulk carrier was allegedly targeted by Yemen's Houthis while underway northbound in the Red Sea.

Her transmissions stopped 118NM east of Massawa, Eritrea. At the time, she was underway from Mormugao, India, with her destination as Suez, Egypt, the statement said.

(Reuters)

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza has issued an urgent call for electricity supplies as one of its two generators collapsed on Wednesday evening.

In a statement, the administration said the hospital had been powered on two generators over the past eight months which are powering incubators for premature babies, ICU wards and supporting critically ill patients.

It said the hospital is currently serving over 700 wounded patients and has received dozens of wounded in the past day following heightened Israeli attacks in Deir al-Balah nearby.

The generator collapse "threatens a humanitarian disaster that may kill dozens of wounded, sick and premature babies sleeping in intensive care rooms and under ventilators that operate on electricity".

"We call on the World Health Organization and all international organizations to examine the dangerous conditions experienced by Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital," the statement read.

Gaza's hospitals have all but collapsed following repeated Israeli attacks and a dearth of medical supplies, as the number of wounded rises each day.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Hezbollah's attacks on northern Israel cannot continue, as tensions between the two foes flared in recent days.

Netanyahu said Israel was ready with an "extremely powerful" response to the attacks from the Lebanese Shia Muslim group.

"Anyone who thinks that they can harm us and that we will sit on our hands is sorely mistaken," Netanyahu said during a visit to the north.

"Iran is trying to choke us and encircle us and we are fighting back directly and with its proxies, Netanyahu said. "We can’t accept the continuation of the situation in the north, it won’t continue."

Speculation has been growing of an imminent Israeli invasion into southern Lebanon to push back Hezbollah's forces, after Israeli media reported that Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi said the military was close to making a decision regarding an incursion. 

Aharon Barak, a former president of Israel's Supreme Court, has resigned from his role as ad hoc judge on an International Court of Justice panel weighing a genocide allegation filed over the country's war in Gaza, officials said on Wednesday.

In a resignation letter dated June 4 and republished by Israeli media, the 87-year-old Barak cited unspecified personal and family reasons for his decision.

Under the ICJ's rules, a state that does not have a judge of its nationality already on the bench can choose an ad hoc judge to sit in their case. It was not immediately clear who Israel might appoint to replace Barak.

In a statement thanking Barak for his service at the Hague, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said: "We will continue to stand steadfast against the evil, hypocrisy and libels cast against the State of Israel and IDF (Israel Defence Forces)."

An official from the UN Palestinian refugee agency described the devastation of Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis as like "an earthquake hit and then a tornado destroyed it".

Philippa Greer, head of legal at UNRWA, said the city's destruction was overwhelming in a post on X on Wednesday. Greer shared a video taken from inside a vehicle showing piles of rubble and collapsed buildings.

Israeli forces sieged Khan Younis from December to April, decimating the city and prompting thousands of civilians to flee while its forces were engaged in intense battles with Hamas fighters.

More than one hundred bodies were discovered by Gaza's civil defence following Israel's withdrawal in April.

This is Khan Younis today. It still looks and feels as though an earthquake hit and then a tornado destroyed it. The destruction is overwhelming- commensurate to the needs of the civilians here trying to survive. #Gaza #CeasefireNOW pic.twitter.com/VJkLAiCXLg

— Philippa Greer (@philippa_bear) June 5, 2024

Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the conflict in Gaza as a "total destruction of the civilian population", as Israel's military pounded central Gaza with heavy air strikes on Wednesday.

"What is happening now in Gaza in response to the terrorist attack on Israel, does not resemble a war. It is a kind of total destruction of the civilian population," Putin told representatives of foreign news outlets during a briefing in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, including AFP.

Yemen's Houthis conducted three military operations targeting three vessels in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, the Iranian-backed group's military spokesperson Yahya Saree said on Wednesday.

The two Red Sea attacks targeted ships owned by companies which "violated the decision to ban entry to the port of occupied Palestine" Saree said.

It said the attack in the Arabian Sea targeted a US ship 'Maersk Seletar' with several drones.

The Houthis have been disrupting shipping since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October, conducting attacks in solidarity with Palestinians.

The Israeli army said on Wednesday that two explosive-laden drones "launched from Lebanon" hit the area around the town of Hurfeish in northern Israel.

At least eleven people were wounded in the attack, according to Israeli medics. Lebanon's Hezbollah group claimed the hit, saying it launched the drones at a military position several kilometers from the border area.

Both Hezbollah and Israel have upped attacks in recent days, with Israeli fighter jets striking dozens of locations in southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah missiles scattered northern Israel yesterday and triggered major fires.

There has been growing speculation as to whether Israel could declare an outright war on Lebanon in the coming months.

Thousands of Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Wednesday evening calling for a hostage deal, as pressure mounts on the prime minister to accept the US brokered ceasefire deal.

Crowds of protesters holding banners calling for the release of Israeli captives in Gaza blocked off roads, Israeli media reported.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to express public support for the deal presented by US President Joe Biden last weekend which would see the return of hostages and a cessation of hostilities.

עכשיו בקפלן - צעדה המונית בדרישה לעסקה עכשיו pic.twitter.com/2vf4GxpKzn

— דמוקרטTV (@Democrat_TV) June 5, 2024

Hundreds of ultra-orthodox and nationalist Israelis descended on occupied East Jerusalem on Wednesday to mark the provocative 'Flag Day'.

Eighteen people were arrested for violent and aggressive acts according to Israeli police, including one for possession of a knife. Five ultranationalist youths were arrested for throwing items at international journalists in the Old City, Israeli media reported.

Tensions flared during the annual Flag Day march which recognises when Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem after it seized it from Palestinian control during the 1967 war.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir declared that breaching Haram al-Sharif or the Temple Mount, where Al Aqsa Mosque compound is was the "status quo". Hundreds of Israelis stormed the compound on Wednesday morning.

Ben-Gvir said Jews should be allowed to pray at the site, which is the third holiest in Islam and holds significance in Judaism too.

Commenting on the attacks on journalists, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said such attacks "should be prevented" during a press briefing at the White House.

"Attacks of that nature should be prevented when possible and when they can’t be prevented, they should be fully prosecuted. People should be held accountable under the law," Miller said.

Qatar's foreign ministry described Slovenia's recognition of the State of Palestine as "an important step" in a statement on Wednesday praising the European country's decision.

It said it was "an important step that reflects the growing support of the international community for the two-state solution towards achieving peace and stability in the region".

Earlier this week, Slovenia joined Ireland, Spain and Norway in recently recognising a Palestine state, as the war in Gaza has thrust the issue back into the global spotlight.

Qatar called on more countries to follow suit and enhance efforts towards a two-state solution.

Israel is phasing out the use of a military-run detention camp for Palestinians captured during the Gaza war where rights groups say there has been abuse of inmates, justice officials said on Wednesday.

State attorneys told the Supreme Court that inmates held at the Sde Teiman site, which was opened after Hamas' Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza, would be gradually transported to permanent holding facilities.

The transfers have started and most prisoners would be relocated within a couple of weeks. This would allow conditions to improve in the meantime, they said.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), which filed a petition for the closure of the Sde Teiman site, was one of a number of groups demanding the closure of the detention facility at the former army base.

Israeli whistleblowers have spoken of human rights abuses against detainees who are blindfolded for long periods of time and forced into stress positions.

The United States on Wednesday warned against an "escalation" in Lebanon after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of an operation, saying conflict would only harm Israeli security.

"We don't want to see that escalation of the conflict which would just lead to further loss of life from both Israelis and the Lebanese people and would greatly harm Israel's overall security and stability in the region," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

Netanyahu, visiting the northern border area after eight months of war with Hamas that has devastated Gaza, warned Israel was "prepared for a very intense operation" along the border.

Miller, however, played down suggestions that war was imminent with Lebanon.

"The statements from the Israeli government saying that they are ready for military operation, if necessary, (are) different than saying that they have made a decision to conduct a military operation," Miller said.

"We are still in a place where we believe they prefer a diplomatic solution," he said.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said on Wednesday the Palestinian group sought a "comprehensive cessation of aggression" in Gaza as part of a ceasefire deal.

The leader of Hamas's political office also urged a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the exchange of Palestinian captives.

"Hamas is conducting the negotiations armed with this stance," Haniyeh said.

Qatar's Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egypt's intelligence chief Abbas Kamel met with Hamas members in Doha on Wednesday for talks on a Gaza truce, a source with knowledge of negotiations told AFP.

The lead mediators met with the Palestinian militant group to "discuss a deal for a truce in Gaza and the exchange" of captives, the source said on condition of anonymity because of sensitivity of the talks.

Lebanese group Hezbollah said on Wednesday it had targeted Israel's Iron Dome air-defence system in Ramot Naftali with a guided missile.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military spokesperson's office.

(Reuters)

The European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Wednesday he had formally invited Israel's top diplomat to a meeting to discuss ties amid the Gaza war.

The EU's 27 member states last week agreed to ask Israel's foreign minister, Israel Katz, to a special gathering under an accord between the two sides that links rights to trade ties.

Borrell said at the time that he wanted to press Israel on the catastrophic situation in Gaza, its respect for human rights, and a ruling by the UN's top court to stop an offensive in Rafah.

The ball is now in Israel's court to accept the invitation. EU officials concede that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to drag out any response as it continues to wage its war on Gaza.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says at least 70 dead and more than 300 injured people have arrived at Gaza's Al-Aqsa Hospital since Tuesday after heavy Israeli strikes in the centre of the strip.

"The odor of blood in the hospital's emergency room this morning was unbearable. There are people lying everywhere, on the floor, outside... bodies were being brought in plastic bags. The situation is overwhelming", says MSF medical referent in Gaza Karin Huster.

"With the insane escalation of violence in various locations of the Gaza strip over the last 48 hours and while the Rafah crossing point has remained closed for a month, the health system has been stretched to the point of collapse.

"The situation is apocalyptic."

MSF says that medical teams at Al-Aqsa are attempting to deal with a "huge influx" of patients, many arriving with severe burns, shrapnel wounds, fractures, and other traumatic injuries.

The Gaza Strip faces unprecedented disease outbreaks this summer caused by piles of uncollected waste rotting in the heat, fuelling further misery for residents already suffering from food shortages, according to Action Against Hunger.

Fenia Diamanti, project coordinator of emergencies at the non-governmental organisation, told Reuters that managing rubbish is one of its main concerns, since it can't be removed from the war-torn territory and nor do inhabitants have access to dumps.

"This amount of solid waste all over the strip causes multiple hygiene and sanitation problems," Diamanti told Reuters.

"We fear diseases that never appeared in the strip before are going to appear and that will affect the entire population, especially in the summer when temperatures are going to rise."

(Reuters)

A resumption of mediated talks on a deal between Israel and Hamas would not mean a suspension of the Gaza war, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday.

"Any negotiations with Hamas would be conducted only under fire," Gallant said in remarks carried by Israeli media.

(Reuters)

Far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Wednesday his party would "disrupt" the ruling coalition until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discloses details of the prospective Gaza deal amid renewed truce efforts.

Netanyahu still holds a majority in parliament but the national security minister's post on X reveals deepening ruptures in the country's wartime coalition.

(Reuters)

Participants chant "death to Arabs" in a nationalist Israeli march through a Palestinian area of Jerusalem, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Israel's military pounded central Gaza with heavy air strikes on Wednesday as US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators planned to resume talks on a truce and hostage release deal.

US President Joe Biden last Friday outlined what he called a three-phase Israeli plan that would halt the fighting for six weeks while captives are exchanged and aid is stepped up.

Biden has urged Hamas to accept the deal and also called on "the leadership in Israel to stand behind this deal, despite whatever pressure comes".

Biden has deployed CIA chief Bill Burns to Qatar for a renewed push after months of back-and-forth negotiations.

A source with knowledge of the talks said Burns would "continue working with mediators on reaching an agreement between Hamas and Israel on a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages".

Brett McGurk, Biden's top Middle East adviser, was also headed to Qatar, according to news website Axios which quoted an administration source as talking of a "full-court press… to get a breakthrough".

Egypt's state-linked Al-Qahera News said an "Egyptian security delegation will meet with its Qatari and US counterparts in Doha on Wednesday to discuss the mechanism of restoring the truce talks".

Qatar said Tuesday it had yet to see statements from either side "that give us a lot of confidence", but that Doha was "working with both sides on proposals on the table".

Biden earlier told Qatar's emir that "Hamas is now the only obstacle to a complete ceasefire", and "confirmed Israel's readiness to move forward" with the terms he set out last week.

A senior Hamas official in Beirut on Tuesday accused Israel of seeking "endless" negotiations and repeated the group's position rejecting any deal that excludes a permanent ceasefire.

United Nations agencies warned on Wednesday that over one million Palestinians in Gaza could experience the highest level of starvation by the middle of next month if hostilities continue.

The World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization said in a joint report that hunger is worsening because of heavy restrictions on humanitarian access and the collapse of the local food system in the nearly eight-month Gaza war.

It says the situation remains dire in northern Gaza, which has been surrounded and largely isolated by Israeli troops for months.

Israel recently opened land crossings in the north but they are only able to facilitate truck loads in the dozens each day for hundreds of thousands of people.

Israel's incursion into Rafah has meanwhile severely disrupted aid operations in the south.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the world authority on determining the extent of hunger crises, said in March that around 677,000 people in Gaza were experiencing Phase 5 hunger, the highest level and the equivalent of famine.

The two UN agencies said in their report Wednesday that that figure could climb to more than one million – or nearly half of Gaza's total population of 2.3 million – by the middle of next month.

"In the absence of a cessation of hostilities and increased access, the impact on mortality and the lives of the Palestinians now, and in future generations, will increase markedly with every day, even if famine is avoided in the near term," it said.

On Tuesday, a separate group of experts said it's possible that famine is underway in northern Gaza but that the war, and restrictions on humanitarian access, have impeded the data collection to prove it.

"It is possible, if not likely," the group known as the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, or FEWS NET, which is funded by the US Agency for International Development, said about famine in Gaza.

Last month, the head of the World Food Programme, Cindy McCain, said northern Gaza had already entered "full-blown famine", but experts at the UN agency later said she was expressing a personal opinion.

An area is considered to be in famine when three things occur: 20 percent of households have an extreme lack of food, or are essentially starving; at least 30 percent of the children suffer from acute malnutrition or wasting, meaning they’re too thin for their height; and two adults or four children per every 10,000 people are dying daily of hunger and its complications.

A Syrian man was arrested after a shooting near the US embassy in Beirut on Wednesday and a judicial official said the assailant carried out the attack "in support of Gaza".

The embassy in the capital's northern suburb of Awkar "was subjected to gunfire by a person holding Syrian nationality", the army said on X.

"Army personnel deployed in the area responded to the sources of fire, wounding the shooter," the statement said, adding that "he was arrested and transported to hospital".

The US embassy said on X that "small arms fire was reported in the vicinity of the entrance" and that "thanks to the quick reaction" of the Lebanese army, security forces "and our embassy security team, our facility and our team are safe".

The judicial official told AFP that the assailant, who was wounded seriously, said he carried out the attack "in support of Gaza", where Israel has been waging a war since October.

The shooter's brother, who lives in Lebanon's Bekaa valley in the country's east, was also detained, the official added, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Hamas's armed wing says it has targeted a D9 military bulldozer with a Yassin-105 anti-armour rocket.

The Al-Qassam Brigades say they attacked the vehicle east of Deir Al-Balah, a city in central Gaza.

The armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad says it has targeted Israeli forces east of the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

The Al-Quds Brigades say they used a number of Ababil explosive projectiles.

The number of Palestinians killed during Israel's war on Gaza has risen to at least 36,586, according to the territory's health ministry.

The number of injured stands at 83,074, the ministry says.

It adds that Israeli forces carried out for massacres "against the families in the Gaza Strip", saying 36 killed people and 115 injured had arrived at hospitals in the last 24 hours.

Rescue teams recovered bodies of three people who had been killed as well as dozens of injured people from under the rubble of a house bombed by Israeli forces in the east of Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reports.

A shooting took place earlier this morning in front of the American embassy in Beirut, the Lebanese army confirmed, leaving two injured, including the shooter.

In a statement, the army confirmed that a Syrian national was behind the shooting, adding that he was arrested and transferred to hospital.

It said it had launched a preliminary investigation to determine the circumstances of the incident.

Israeli bombing targeting a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza has killed people, Palestinian media reports.

Nine Israeli soldiers were injured, two of them seriously, when ordnance exploded at a military base in the south, the army announced on Wednesday.

"An explosion of munitions occurred on a military base in southern Israel. The incident is under investigation," an army statement said of the Tuesday blast.

It added that the injured soldiers were receiving treatment.

Israeli media reported that the explosion took place at a base in the Naqab (Negev) Desert.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society retrieved the bodies of six killed people from an area in central Gaza after Israeli forces shelled several houses.

The humanitarian group says on social media platform X that the dead were retrieved alongside over eight injured people from the Al-Jafrawi area east of Deir Al-Balah.

🚨Palestine Red Crescent ambulance teams retrieved six martyrs and more than eight injured people from the Al-Ja'frawi area east of Deir al-Balah, central #Gaza after the Israeli occupation targeted several houses with artillery shells.
📷Filmed by: PRCS volunteer, Mohammed… pic.twitter.com/xYRBOkFicv

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) June 5, 2024

Israel is phasing out the use of a military-run detention camp for Palestinians captured during the Gaza war where rights groups alleged there has been abuse of inmates, justice officials said on Wednesday.

State attorneys told the Supreme Court that inmates held at the Sde Teiman site, which was opened after the war began, would be gradually transported to permanent holding facilities.

The transfers have started and most prisoners would be relocated within a couple of weeks. This would allow conditions to improve in the meantime, they said.

State attorney Aner Helman, responding to a petition filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, told the court that 700 inmates had already been moved to Ofer, a military stockade in the occupied West Bank.

Another 500 were slated to be transferred in the coming weeks, leaving 200 at Sde Teiman whose future was yet to be decided.

Israel's military is investigating the deaths of Palestinians captured during the Gaza war as well as the Sde Teiman facility.

(Reuters)