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ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
🔴 Live: Israel steps up Gaza offensive on Rafah and Jabalia
Israeli forces pushed deep into the ruins of Gaza’s northern edge on Monday to recapture an area where they had claimed to have defeated Hamas months ago, while tanks and troops pushed across a highway into Rafah in the enclave’s south. An all-out Israeli offensive on Rafah would provoke “anarchy” without eliminating Hamas, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday. Read our liveblog for all the latest developments.
Issued on: 13/05/2024 – 02:49
Modified: 13/05/2024 – 06:56
2 min
Smoke billows during Israeli strikes in eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 13, 2024.
Smoke billows during Israeli strikes in eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 13, 2024. © AFP
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FRANCE 24
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Summary:
Israeli tanks, under cover from heavy fire from air and ground, pushed further into Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, residents and Hamas media said, while air strikes hammered Rafah in the south.
An all-out Israeli offensive on the Gaza city of Rafah would provoke “anarchy” without eliminating Hamas, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday, as Washington stepped up a pressure campaign against such an assault.
Israel’s leaders commemorated Memorial Day on Monday, a usually sombre holiday that this year was almost entirely absorbed by the ongoing war in Gaza.
At least 35,034 Palestinians have been killed and 78,755 wounded in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Some 1,170 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.
LIVE
37 minutes ago
Israel is fighting to secure its ‘existence, liberty, security and prosperity’: Netanyahu
Attending a Memorial Day ceremony to mark Israel’s fallen soldiers in Jerusalem on Monday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the war against Hamas is a struggle to secure Israel’s “existence, liberty, security and prosperity”.
“Our war of independence is not over yet, it continues to these days,” he said.
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2 hours ago
Israel’s Gallant briefs Blinken on ‘precise’ Rafah operation
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant briefed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken about Israel’s military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah and takeover of the nearby border crossing into Egypt, Gallant’s office said on Monday.
In an overnight phone call, Gallant and Blinken “discussed developments in Gaza … and the precise operation in the Rafah area against remaining Hamas battalions, while securing the crossing,” the statement said.
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2 hours ago
Israel’s leaders mark Memorial Day as Netanyahu vows once again to defeat Hamas
Israel’s leaders commemorated Memorial Day on Monday, a usually sombre holiday that this year was almost entirely absorbed by the ongoing war in Gaza.
At 11am sirens announced two minutes of silence, and a formation of four fighter planes then flew over Jerusalem and the surrounding areas.
At a ceremony, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu vowed once again to defeat Hamas, a promise he has made repeatedly during Israel’s brutal seven-month war with the militant group.
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4 hours ago
Gaza officials warn health system ‘hours from collapse’ due to fuel shortage
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Monday that the besieged Palestinian territory’s health system is “hours away” from collapse, after fighting has blocked fuel shipments through key crossings.
“We are just hours away from the collapse of the health system in the Gaza Strip due to the lack of the necessary fuel to operate generators in hospitals, ambulances, and (for vehicles to) transport staff,” the ministry said in a statement.
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4 hours ago
Nearly 360,000 people have fled Rafah ahead of Israeli onslaught, UNRWA says
Nearly 360,000 people have fled the city of Rafah in Gaza’s south since Israel first ordered its evacuation a week ago, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Monday.
Residents told Reuters that Israeli tanks have cut off the Salahuddin Road that bisects the eastern part of the city, while the eastern part of Rafah remained a “ghost town”.
Intense fighting was reported and Israeli forces and tanks were seen in the southeast area of Rafah, residents said.
Jack Lew, the US ambassador to Israel, signalled on Sunday that the Rafah incursion was still on a scale acceptable to Washington.
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6 hours ago
Israeli forces step up attacks on Gaza’s Jabalia camp, Rafah
Israeli tanks, under cover from heavy fire from air and ground, pushed further into Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, residents and Hamas media said, while airstrikes hammered Rafah in the south.
In Jabalia, tanks were trying to advance towards the heart of the camp, the biggest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps. Residents said tank shells were landing at the centre of the camp and that air strikes had destroyed clusters of houses.
Israeli troops forced hundreds of Palestinians housed in shelters to leave.
In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, Israel stepped up aerial and ground bombardments on the eastern areas of the city, killing people in an air strike on a house in the Brazil neighbourhood.
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12 hours ago
Israel offensive on Rafah would not eliminate Hamas, says Blinken
An all-out Israeli offensive on the Gaza city of Rafah would provoke “anarchy” without eliminating Hamas, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday, as Washington stepped up a pressure campaign against such an assault.
Separately, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan emphasized Washington’s concerns about an offensive in a call with his Israeli counterpart, Tzachi Hanegbi.
“Mr. Sullivan reiterated President Biden’s longstanding concerns over the potential for a major military ground operation into Rafah, where over one million people have taken shelter,” a White House readout of the phone call said.
It said Hanegbi “confirmed that Israel is taking US concerns into account,” but did not elaborate.
Israeli bombardment in the eastern parts of Rafah have already sent 300,000 Gazans fleeing.
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Yesterday’s key developments:
Israel sent tanks into the Jabalia area of northern Gaza Sunday to try to stop Hamas from re-establishing its military presence in a zone the Israeli army claimed to have cleared months ago.
Israeli forces also pushed deeper into Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.
Egypt on Sunday said it will formally support South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Sunday an immediate halt to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, the return of hostages and a “surge” in humanitarian aid to the besieged Palestinian territory.
US President Joe Biden said Saturday that a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war was possible as soon as “tomorrow” if the militant group released its hostages.
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. For more on the health ministry’s casualty figures, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, Reuters, AP)
