Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip continued this morning, despite criticism from Washington over Israel’s handling of the war and the risk of what the UN said was “a colossal humanitarian catastrophe” in Rafah.
Early this morning AFP teams reported strikes in various sectors of the Gaza Strip, following a State Department assessment of the situation in the enclave where war has raged for more than seven months.
A miracle occurred in Rafah tonight, as this baby survived Israel’s bombing.
Israel has killed thousands of babies since October 7.
This is a Genocide of children.
Please keep sharing.
ALL EYES ON RAFAH pic.twitter.com/FZi0JdtAEA— Khalissee (@Kahlissee) May 9, 2024
The US finds it “reasonable to assess” that Israel has violated international humanitarian law in Gaza, but is unable to reach a definitive conclusion, so it will continue to deliver weapons to the country, the report said. US Department of State.
UN support
At the same time, a large majority in the UN General Assembly decided that the Palestinians should become full members of the organization and offered them additional rights.
The draft resolution presented by the United Arab Emirates was adopted with 143 votes in favor, 9 against (USA, Israel, Hungary, Czech Republic, Argentina, Palau, Nauru, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea) and 25 abstentions (mainly from Canada, Britain and many EU countries, including Italy and Germany).
The draft resolution “observes that the State of Palestine fulfills the conditions to become a member” of the UN and “should be admitted to the Organization”. It also asks the Security Council to “positively reconsider the matter”.
But the US warned yesterday that if the issue goes back to the Security Council, it will again exercise its veto, as it did in April.
With this in mind, the draft resolution offers “exceptionally and without precedent” a series of “additional rights and privileges” to the Palestinians from the 79th session of the General Assembly in September.
“I have been in this semi-circle hundreds of times, often in tragic circumstances, but none compares to what my people are living through today,” said Palestinian UN ambassador Riyad Mansour.
“I have been in this semicircle hundreds of times, but never for a more important vote than today’s historic one,” he added, while from Ramallah the Palestinian Authority expressed its satisfaction with a vote that proves that “Palestine (…) deserves » to be a full member of the UN.
And Hamas welcomed the decision, considering it a “reaffirmation of international solidarity towards our people”.
However, the result of the vote angered Israel. “Violence pays,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz commented to X, estimating that the UN had rewarded Hamas for its October 7 attack.
“It makes me sick,” said Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan. “With this new precedent we may see representatives of Daesh (s.a. Arabic acronym for the Islamic State) or Boko Haram sitting among us,” he complained.
“You are tearing up the Charter (of the UN), shame on you!” he stressed.
Businesses in Rafa
Indirect negotiations to reach a ceasefire and prevent a full-scale military operation in Rafah ended on Thursday in Cairo without an agreement.
In order to “defeat” Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is defending the ground operation in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, where the last fighters of the Palestinian organization have taken refuge, as he says. However, almost 1.4 million Palestinians, according to the UN, most of them displaced due to the war, are piled up there.
Israel has butchered Palestinians in #Rafah beyond recognition! pic.twitter.com/qT4HGOxTyc
— Rania (@umyaznemo) May 11, 2024
Defying international warnings, the Israeli army has been conducting operations in the eastern part of Rafah since Tuesday and took control of the border crossing with Egypt there, closing a critical entrance to the enclave for convoys carrying humanitarian aid.
At the same time, the Israeli army announced yesterday Friday that it will continue “the precision anti-terrorist operation” in some areas of eastern Rafah and added that it “neutralized terrorist cells”.
Famine
A wide-scale operation in Rafah would lead to a “colossal humanitarian disaster,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned, adding that famine loomed in the Gaza Strip.
“We ask the Israeli authorities to stop this military operation without delay and to return to the path of negotiations, the only path that can lead to the immediate release of the hostages and achieve a sustainable truce”, called on the night of Friday to Saturday the French diplomacy.
US President Joe Biden has threatened to halt some arms deliveries to Israel in the event of a large-scale military operation in Rafah.
The US is “watching with concern” the Rafah operation but does not believe it is “broad” at this stage, White House spokesman John Kirby said yesterday.
A miracle occurred in Rafah tonight, as this baby survived Israel’s bombing.
Israel has killed thousands of babies since October 7.
This is a Genocide of children.
Please keep sharing.
ALL EYES ON RAFAH pic.twitter.com/FZi0JdtAEA— Khalissee (@Kahlissee) May 9, 2024
They leave Rafa
According to the UN, some 110,000 people have fled the city since Monday when Israel asked those in the eastern part of Rafah to leave.
“About 30,000 people are fleeing the city every day,” the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced, adding that most had “already been displaced five or six times” since the start of the war.
Despite the reopening on Wednesday of the Kerem Shalom crossing, which Israel had closed for three days after Hamas fired rockets, the delivery of aid to Gaza remains “extremely difficult”, said Andrea De Domenico, OCHA’s head of Palestinian territories.
Last night Cogat, the Israeli agency responsible for the Palestinian territories, announced “the transfer of 200,000 liters of fuel to international organizations” via Kerem Shalom.
Egypt yesterday called on Hamas and Israel to show “flexibility”, while the efforts of the mediators “continue” to reach a truce, despite the departure from Cairo of the delegations of the two sides.
For Hamas, “Israel’s rejection” of this proposal brings the negotiations “back to square one.”
On Monday, the Palestinian movement gave the green light to a three-phase deal, each lasting 42 days, which included the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the exchange of hostages it holds for Palestinian prisoners in view of a “permanent truce”. .
But Israel is opposed to a permanent ceasefire unless Hamas is defeated.
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