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Live blog: Explosion at Israeli military base injures nine soldiers
Israel’s war on Gaza, now in its 243rd day, has killed at least 36,550 Palestinians — 71% of them being women, children and infants –– and wounded 82,959, Palestine reports, with 10,000+ said to be buried under debris of bombed homes.
Israeli media reports that the blast took place at a base in the Negev Desert. / Photo: Reuters Archive
REUTERS ARCHIVE
Israeli media reports that the blast took place at a base in the Negev Desert. / Photo: Reuters Archive
Wednesday, June 5, 2024
0613 GMT –– Nine Israeli soldiers have been injured, two of them seriously, when ordnance exploded at a military base in the south, the army said.
“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 Negev Desert.
However, The Jerusalem Post, citing a source, reported that the explosion was likely caused by a grenade that exploded at the end of a training exercise.
More updates 👇
0655 GMT — 70 Israeli MPs back Biden’s proposed Gaza peace deal
Seventy Israeli parliamentarians or members of the Knesset backed a Gaza peace deal proposed by US President Joe Boden by signing a campaign launched by families of Israelis held hostage by Hamas.
The families will continue their efforts with Knesset members, hoping to obtain the signatures of 100 lawmakers out of the 120-member Knesset, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported.
The families announced late Tuesday that they had received signatures from 70 Knesset members urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a prisoner swap with Hamas.
0211 GMT — US says response from Hamas on truce deal still awaited
A response from Palestinian resistance group Hamas on US President Joe Biden’s ceasefire proposal is still being awaited, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters.
“We are waiting for a response from Hamas” through the Qatari mediators, Sullivan said.
CIA Director Bill Burns will be in Doha to consult with Qatari mediators on the Gaza ceasefire proposal, Sullivan added. Qatar has been mediating on Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
2110 GMT — Famine caused by Israel is possibly under way in northern Gaza
An independent group of experts has warned that it’s possible that human-made famine is under way in northern Gaza but that the war on the besieged Palestinian enclave and Israeli 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, said about Israel-caused famine in Gaza.
Concerns about deadly hunger have been high in recent months and spiked after the head of the World Food Programme last month said northern Gaza had entered “full-blown famine” after nearly seven months of war.
2106 GMT — US House supports sanctions against ICC officials
The US House passed legislation that would sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) for requesting arrest warrants for hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials.
The 247-155 vote amounts to Congress’ first legislative rebuke of the war crimes court since its stunning decision last month to seek arrest warrants for the leaders of Israel and Palestinian group Hamas.
The move was widely denounced in Washington, creating a rare moment of unity on Israel even as there are partisan divisions over the war in besieged Gaza.
2000 GMT — Egyptian, Qatari, and US delegations to meet on ceasefire negotiations
An Egyptian security delegation is set to meet with Qatari and US counterparts in Doha on Wednesday in attempt to revive Gaza truce negotiations, Egyptian State TV and state-affiliated Al-Qahera News TV channel said, citing sources.
2000 GMT — Israel kills 19 Palestinians in Gaza
Israeli shelling and air strikes have killed at least 19 people in central and south Gaza including two policemen who were helping protect humanitarian aid deliveries in the southern city of Rafah, Palestinian medics said.
Seventeen of the killings, they said, occurred in separate Israeli air strikes on the Bureij and Maghazi camps and the city of Deir al Balah in central Gaza, and by early Wednesday Israeli tanks were shelling an area just east of the Nuseirat camp, residents said.
Some told Reuters news agency via chat app that the renewed Israeli military violence was sowing panic, with some families living in Maghazi starting to flee under tank fire, with four shells crashing near a clinic in the camp.
For our live updates from Tuesday, June 4, 2024, click here.
SOURCE: TRTWORLD AND AGENCIES
