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🔴 Live: Netanyahu orders military to prepare evacuation of Rafah ahead of expected ground invasion
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has ordered the military to prepare a plan to evacuate the civilian population of Rafah ahead of an expected Israeli invasion of the southern Gaza city. Israel conducted deadly air strikes on the city early Friday, where more than one million displaced Palestinians are seeking shelter. Read our liveblog for all the latest developments.
Issued on: 09/02/2024 – 02:56
Modified: 09/02/2024 – 17:05
2 min
Smoke rises following Israeli bombardment on a position by the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt in Rafah on February 9, 2024, amid continuing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant
Smoke rises following Israeli bombardment on a position by the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt in Rafah on February 9, 2024, amid continuing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. © Said Khatib, AFP
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FRANCE 24
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Summary:
Nearly 10 percent of children under five in Gaza are acutely malnourished, a rate about 12 times higher than before the Israel-Hamas war, according to initial UN data from arm measurements that show physical wasting published in a note from the UN humanitarian office OCHA relased on Friday.
Israel conducted air strikes on southern Gaza’s overcrowded border city of Rafah early on Friday. The territory’s Hamas-run health ministry said early Friday that at least eight people were killed there, part of an overnight toll of 100 who were killed throughout the Palestinian territory.
About 30 rockets were fired into northern Israel from Lebanon late Thursday into early Friday, following an Israeli drone strike that seriously wounded a commander of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, the Israeli army said.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 27,947 people have been killed and 67,459 wounded in Israeli strikes on the enclave since October 7. Israeli officials say about 1,140 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks in southern Israel. Militant fighters took some 250 hostages during the attack and 132 are still in Gaza, according to Israeli figures.
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Iran vows to keep backing Hezbollah during regional tensions linked to Israel-Hamas war
Iran’s foreign minister vowed after arriving in Beirut on Friday to keep supporting the militant Hezbollah group, saying Lebanon’s security affects that of Iran and the region.
Hossein Amirabdollahian was welcomed by representatives of Lebanon’s Hezbollah as well as the militant Palestinian group Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Iran, a main backer of the militant groups, has been calling on the US to pressure Israel to stop its offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah began attacks along Lebanon’s border with Israel on October 8 after 17 years of relative calm, a day after Hamas launched its attack on southern Israel that triggered the ongoing war. Hezbollah officials have said they will stop attacking Israeli military posts when Israel’s attack on Gaza ends.
“Hezbollah and the resistance in Lebanon have courageously and wisely carried out their deterring and effective role,” Amirabdollahian told reporters at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport.
He said Iran will continue “its strong support to the resistance in Lebanon, as we consider Lebanon’s security as the security of Iran and the region.”
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2 hours ago
Norway gives $26 million to UNRWA this year, more could come
Norway is giving 275 million crowns ($26 million) this year to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and could increase that sum if needed, it said on Friday, days after the agency warned it could
cease all activity by the end of the month.
A string of countries including the United States, Germany and Britain paused their funding to the aid agency after accusations by Israel last month that some UNRWA staff were involved in Hamas’s October 7 attacks in southern Israel.
Norway, a top donor to UNRWA, is maintaining its funding.
UNRWA said on Feb. 1 that it could be forced to shut down its operations in the Middle East, not only in Gaza, by the end of February if its funding remains suspended.
Oslo said on Wednesday it was transferring 275 million crowns to UNRWA. On Friday the ministry of foreign affairs said that money covered Norway’s regular, annual contribution to UNRWA, but that there could be additional payments.
“Due to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, there may be additional funds from Norway to UNRWA throughout the year,” said a foreign ministry spokesperson.
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2 hours ago
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders military to prepare to evacuate Rafah ahead of expected invasion
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has ordered the military to prepare a plan to evacuate the population of Rafah ahead of an expected Israeli invasion of the southern Gaza town. He made the announcement Friday following international criticism of Israel’s plan to invade the crowded town on Egypt’s border.
Israel says Rafah is the last remaining Hamas stronghold and it needs to send in troops to complete its war plan against the Islamic militant group. But an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians have crammed into the town after fleeing fighting elsewhere in Gaza.
Netanyahu said a “massive operation” is needed in Rafah. He said he asked security officials to present a “double plan” that would include the evacuation of civilians and a military operation to “collapse” remaining Hamas militant units.
Earlier Friday, Israel bombed targets in Rafah. The attack took place hours after Biden administration officials and aid agencies warned Israel against expanding its Gaza ground offensive to the town where more than half of the territory’s 2.3 million people have sought refuge.
Airstrikes overnight and into Friday hit two residential buildings in Rafah, while two other sites were bombed in central Gaza, including one that damaged a kindergarten-turned-shelter for displaced Palestinians. Twenty-two people were killed, according to AP journalists who saw the bodies arriving at hospitals.
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4 hours ago
Almost 10% of children under five in Gaza now acutely malnourished, says UN
Almost one in 10 of children in Gaza under five are now acutely malnourished, overwhelmingly as a result of Israel’s war on the territory’s Hamas rulers, according to initial UN data from arm measurements that show physical wasting.
The food supplies that Gaza depends on have shrivelled from their pre-war level, and aid workers have reported visible signs of starvation, especially in areas of northern and central Gaza worst hit by Israel’s war on Hamas since October 7.
Measurements of arm circumferences in thousands of young children and infants showed that 9.6 percent were acutely malnourished, up about 12 times from pre-war levels, according to a note from the UN humanitarian office, OCHA.
In northern Gaza, the rate was 16.2 percent, or one in six children.
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4 hours ago
Israeli ground assault in Rafah would add to ‘endless tragedy’ in Gaza, says UNRWA
Major Israeli military action on Rafah, in Gaza’s far south, would heap further devastation on civilians, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned Friday.
“Any large-scale military operation among this population can only lead to an additional layer of endless tragedy that’s unfolding,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Jerusalem.
“There’s a sense of growing anxiety and growing panic in Rafah. People have absolutely no idea where to go after Rafah.”
Lazzarini said air strikes had hit near UNRWA’s base in Rafah on Thursday, heightening tensions and fear among civilians, and putting into doubt the agency’s overall relief effort.
UNRWA operations were “on edge”, he said, adding: “I don’t know how long we will be able to operate in such a high-risk environment.”
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6 hours ago
Intensified fighting in Rafah ‘could collapse the humanitarian response’, say aid workers
Any Israeli military advance into southern Gaza’s southern Rafah area could cause mass deaths among the more than 1 million Palestinians trapped there, with humanitarian aid in danger of collapse, aid workers said on Friday.
“No war can be allowed in a gigantic refugee camp,” said Norwegian Refugee Council chief Jan Egeland, warning of a “bloodbath” if Israeli operations expand there.
“Expanded hostilities in Rafah could collapse the humanitarian response,” NRC added in a statement.
The development charity ActionAid said some people were resorting to eating grass. “Every single person in Gaza is now hungry, and people have just 1.5 to 2 litres of unsafe water per day to meet all their needs,” its statement said.
Humanitarian agencies say they cannot move people to safer areas because Israeli troops are positioned to the north, and that the aid that is allowed into the enclave is not nearly enough to go around.
“All our shelters are overflowing and cannot take any more people,” said Juliette Touma, spokesperson for the embattled UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
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8 hours ago
At least 27,947 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7, says health ministry
A total of 27,947 Palestinians have been killed and 67,459 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7, the Hamas-run health ministry said in a statement on Friday.
Some 107 Palestinians were killed and 142 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
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8 hours ago
Survivors of Israeli strikes on Rafah assess damage amid rubble
Israel carried out deadly strikes on southern Gaza’s overcrowded border city of Rafah on Friday, where more than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering.
The territory’s Hamas-run health ministry said early Friday that more than 100 people were killed overnight, including at least eight in Rafah.
The Palestinian Red Crescent meanwhile said three children had died in a strike on Rafah.
Friday’s strikes came after Israeli air strikes killed more than a dozen people in Rafah on Thursday.
“Nothing was left, not even a window or door,” cried Mariam Al-Goul, a local resident. “What did we do to deserve this?”
Watch FRANCE 24 journalist Vedika Bahl’s report on Thursday’s strikes below:
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10 hours ago
Israel launches new air strikes on overcrowded Rafah
Israel conducted fresh strikes on southern Gaza’s overcrowded border city of Rafah on Friday, where more than 1 million Palestinians are seeking shelter.
The territory’s Hamas-run health ministry said early Friday that at least eight people were killed in Rafah, part of a toll of more than 100 people who were killed overnight in Gaza.
The Palestinian Red Crescent meanwhile said three children had died in a strike on Rafah.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said he has ordered troops to “prepare to operate” in Rafah, the last major city in the Gaza Strip that Israeli ground troops have yet to enter.
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13 hours ago
Saudi Arabia hosts Arab diplomats for Gaza talks after Blinken tour
Four top Middle Eastern diplomats reiterated calls for “irreversible” steps towards the recognition of a Palestinian state during talks on the war in Gaza hosted by Saudi Arabia, state media reported on Friday.
The meeting – held on Thursday as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded his fifth crisis tour of the Middle East since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war – was attended by the foreign ministers of Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, as well as a senior Palestinian official.
Two diplomats briefed on preparations for the meeting told AFP it was intended to promote a unified Arab position on the war, now in its fifth month.
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15 hours ago
US conducts new air strikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels
The US military conducted new air strikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels, officials said Friday.
American forces destroyed four explosive-loaded drone boats and seven mobile anti-ship cruise missile launchers Thursday that could target vessels in the Red Sea, the US military’s Central Command said.
“They presented an imminent threat to US Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region,” Central Command said. “These actions will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for US Navy and merchant vessels.”
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15 hours ago
Biden calls Israel’s Gaza response to the October 7 attacks ‘over the top’
Israel’s military response in the Gaza Strip to the October 7 attacks by Hamas “has been over the top”, US President Joe Biden said Thursday.
“I’m of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in Gaza, in the Gaza Strip, has been over the top,” the 81-year-old Democrat told reporters at the White House.
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Yesterday’s key developments:
Israel’s military response in Gaza to the October 7 attacks by Hamas has been “over the top,” US President Joe Biden said Thursday night. The US State Department earlier said that an Israeli military operation in Rafah, where more than 1 million people are sheltering, “with no planning or little thought … would be a “disaster”.
Iraq condemned a US air strike that killed a senior commander from a pro-Iran armed group accused of having been involved in attacks on American troops in the region.
Israel’s reported ongoing destruction of all buildings along the border inside Gaza with the aim of creating a “buffer zone” is a war crime, the United Nations rights chief warned.
An Israeli air strike on a car in south Lebanon seriously wounded a commander of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, sources on both sides of the border said.
Hamas still wants to discuss a ceasefire in its war with Israel, a Palestinian official close to the militant group told AFP Thursday, despite Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s dismissal of its latest proposal.
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:
Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the largest in the enclave, receives data from every hospital in the strip. Hospital administrators say they keep records of every wounded person occupying a bed and every body arriving at a morgue. The ministry also collects from other sources including the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”. The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.
In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN’s counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies.
For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP and Reuters)
