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ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
🔴Live: Israel redeploys to northern Gaza to prevent Hamas from regrouping
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. The redeployment in the north came as Israel pushed deeper into the southern Gazan city of Rafah and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate halt to the war, the return of hostages and a “surge” in humanitarian aid to the besieged territory. Read our liveblog for all the latest.
Issued on: 12/05/2024 – 07:57
Modified: 12/05/2024 – 15:07
1 min
A displaced Palestinian woman flees Jabalia, after an Israeli evacuation order, for Gaza City in northern Gaza on May 12, 2024.
A displaced Palestinian woman flees Jabalia, after an Israeli evacuation order, for Gaza City in northern Gaza on May 12, 2024. © Mahmoud Issa, Reuters
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FRANCE 24
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FRANCE 24
Summary:
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.
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
2 hours ago
Full-scale Rafah offensive ‘cannot take place’, UN rights chief says
A full-scale Israeli assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah “cannot take place”, the UN human rights chief insisted Sunday, saying it could not be reconciled with international law.
“I can see no way that the latest evacuation orders, much less a full assault, in an area with an extremely dense presence of civilians, can be reconciled with the binding requirements of international humanitarian law and with the two sets of binding provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice,” Volker Turk said in a statement.
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2 hours ago
Health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says war deaths top 35,000
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Sunday that at least 35,034 people have been killed in the territory during more than seven months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The toll includes at least 63 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 78,755 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.
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4 hours ago
Israel pushes back into northern Gaza, ups military pressure on Rafah
Israel sent tanks into eastern Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip early on Sunday, after a night of heavy aerial and ground bombardments, killing 19 people and wounding dozens of others, health officials said.
Jabalia is the biggest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps and is home to more than 100,000 people, most of whom were descendants of Palestinians who were driven from towns and villages in what is now Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that led to the creation the state of Israel.
Late on Saturday, the Israeli military said forces operating in Jabalia are preventing Hamas, which controls Gaza, from re-establishing its military capabilities there.
“We identified in the past weeks attempts by Hamas to rehabilitate its military capabilities in Jabalia. We are operating there to eliminate those attempts,” said Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, Israel’s military spokesperson, during a briefing to reporters.
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5 hours ago
Britain’s foreign minister rejects Rafah offensive without ‘clear plan’ to save lives
Britain’s foreign minister David Cameron on Sunday said Israel should not carry out an offensive in the Gazan city of Rafah without a “clear plan” to protect people.
“For there to be a major offensive in Rafah, there would have to be an absolutely clear plan about how you save lives, how you move people out the way, how you make sure they’re fed, you make sure that they have medicine and shelter and everything,” he told Sky News television.
“We have seen no such plan … so we don’t support an offensive in that way,” he added.
Israel launched more strikes on Hamas in Gaza on Sunday after it expanded an evacuation order for eastern Rafah. It said 300,000 people had fled the city in the Palestinian territory since the army urged people to leave.
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6 hours ago
As Israel pushes deeper into Rafah, Hamas regroups elsewhere in ungoverned Gaza
Israeli forces were battling Palestinian militants across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, including in parts of the devastated north that the military said it had cleared months ago, where Hamas has exploited a security vacuum to regroup.
Israel has portrayed the southern Gaza city of Rafah as Hamas’s last stronghold, saying it must invade in order to succeed in its goals of dismantling the group and returning scores of hostages. A limited operation there has expanded in recent days, forcing some 300,000 people to flee.
But the rest of the war-ravaged territory seems to provide ample opportunities for Hamas. Israel has yet to offer a detailed plan for postwar governance in Gaza, saying only that it will maintain open-ended security control over the coastal enclave, which is home to some 2.3 million Palestinians.
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7 hours ago
UN chief calls for ‘immediate’ Gaza ceasefire, hostage release
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.
“I repeat my call, the world’s call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and an immediate surge in humanitarian aid. But a ceasefire will only be the start. It will be a long road back from the devastation and trauma of this war,” Guterres said in a video address to an international donors’ conference in Kuwait.
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8 hours ago
Gaza agency says two doctors killed in Israeli air strike on central Gaza
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Sunday that two doctors were killed in an Israeli air strike on the city of Deir al-Balah in a central area of the Palestinian territory.
“The bodies of Doctor Muhammad Nimr Qazaat and his son, Doctor Youssef, were recovered (as they were killed) because of an Israeli raid on the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, and they were transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah,” the agency said in a statement.
The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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8 hours ago
Israel strikes Gaza after fresh Rafah evacuation order
Israel launched strikes on Gaza Sunday after it expanded an evacuation order for Rafah, with the United Nations warning an outright invasion of the crowded southern city risked an “epic” disaster.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said two doctors were killed Sunday in the central town of Deir al-Balah, while AFP correspondents reported intense clashes and heavy gunfire from Israeli helicopters near Gaza City.
Witnesses said Israel had carried out strikes in Rafah near the crossing with Egypt on Saturday, and AFP images showed smoke rising over the city.
Israeli troops defied international opposition this week and entered eastern areas of the city, effectively shutting a key aid crossing and suspending traffic through another.
Israel expanded an evacuation order for eastern Rafah, after saying 300,000 people had fled the city since the army urged people to leave earlier in the week.
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Yesterday’s key developments:
Israel called on residents from more areas of Rafah in the Gaza Strip to evacuate and head to the “expanded humanitarian area” in Al-Mawasi, according to a post on social media site X by the military’s Arabic-language spokesperson.
The Israeli army said rockets were launched Saturday from Rafah in southern Gaza towards the Kerem Shalom crossing, which was temporarily shut earlier this week. “Four launches were identified that crossed from the Rafah area,” the military said in a statement.
President Joe Biden on Saturday said a Gaza ceasefire would be possible “tomorow” if Hamas released all the hostages. It was his first remarks on the Gaza war since a US State Department report released Friday that it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel has used US-supplied weapons in ways inconsistent with international humanitarian law during the Gaza war.
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)
