Middle East crisis live: Rafah operation could result in ‘slaughter’, UN official says (2024)

Seven people have been killed in an overnight airstrike on a home in northern Rafah, reports Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum who is sending updates from the southern Gaza district. He says that four of the victims were children.

Elsewhere in Rafah, especially to the east, there has been a “surge in airstrikes and artillery bombardment,” Abu Azzoum told Al Jazeera.

An Israeli incursion in Rafah would put the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians at risk and be a huge blow to the humanitarian operations of the Gaza Strip, the UN humanitarian office said on Friday, according to Reuters.

“It could be a slaughter of civilians and an incredible blow to the humanitarian operation in the entire strip because it is run primarily out of Rafah,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office, at a Geneva press briefing.

Aid operations run from Rafah included medical clinics and food distribution points, including centres for malnourished children, he said.

A World Health Organization (WHO) official said at the same briefing that a contingency plan for an incursion had been prepared, which included a new field hospital, but said it would not be enough to prevent a substantial rise in the death toll (See 10.32 BST).

“I want to really say that this contingency plan is a Band-Aid,” said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory via video link. “It will absolutely not prevent the expected substantial additional mortality and morbidity posed by a military operation.”

He added that he was “extremely concerned” that any incursion would close the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt which is being used to import medical supplies.

Al Jazeera report that “artillery shelling is intensifying” in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, southeast of Gaza City. It cites the information as coming from its colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.

Al Jazeera write: “The attacks come after Israeli warplanes bombed a residential home in the same neighbourhood yesterday, killing two civilians and injuring others.”

The Guardian has not been able to independently verify the reports.

Turkish exporters with firm orders are looking at ways to send their goods to Israel via third countries after Turkey halted bilateral trade, four export sector sources told Reuters on Thursday.

Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz said blocking ports for Israeli imports and exports ignores trade deals, adding on social media platform X that Israel would work toward alternatives for trade with Turkey.

According to Reuters, Turkey has denounced Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, sent thousands of tons of aid for Palestinians and, this week, said it would join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Yet its decision to maintain commercial ties with Israel until last month, despite Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s strong rhetoric, prompted a domestic backlash and hurt the results of the ruling AK Party in nationwide local elections in March, writes the news agency.

Hamas said on Friday Turkey’s trade halt was “brave and reflective of the Turkish people’s longstanding support for Palestinian rights and self-determination.” Turkey maintains ties with Hamas leaders and does not deem it a terrorist group.

A World Health Organization (WHO) official said on Friday that the agency had a contingency plan prepared in case of an Israeli incursion into Gaza’s Rafah but said it would not be sufficient to prevent a substantial rise in the death toll, reports Reuters.

“I want to really say that this contingency plan is a Band-Aid,” said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, at a Geneva press briefing via video link.

“It will absolutely not prevent the expected substantial additional mortality and morbidity posed by a military operation,” he said.

Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli authorities released 64 Palestinians they had detained during their military offensive in Gaza via the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing, the Palestinian borders and crossings agency said, according to Reuters.

One of them was the body of another man who had died in detention, the prisoners’ associations said. Another freed detainee arrived in critical condition and was moved into hospital upon arrival, the crossings agency added.

Dozens of Palestinians who had been freed by Israel in past months including some staff of a UN agency have reported ill-treatment during detention, including torture and deprivation of food and sleep.

The two new deaths bring the toll of Palestinians who died in Israeli custody to at least 18 since the start of the war, the prisoners associations said, urging Israeli authorities to disclose the number, location and fate of detainees from Gaza.

The UN Palestinian Refugee Agency has documented the release of 1,506 people detained by the Israeli authorities through the Kerem Shalom crossing as of 4 April and said the transfer of detainees regularly holds up aid. The 1,506 included 43 children and 84 women, it said.

A senior Palestinian doctor died in an Israeli prison after more than four months of detention, two Palestinian prisoner associations said on Thursday, blaming Israel for his death.

According to Reuters, the associations said in a joint statement that Adnan al-Bursh, head of orthopedics at al-Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest medical facility, had been detained by Israeli forces while temporarily working at al-Awada hospital in north Gaza.

They called his death an “assassination” and said his body remained in Israeli custody.

Reuters reports that the Israeli prison service issued a statement on 19 April, saying that a prisoner detained for national security reasons had died in Ofer prison but giving no detail on the cause of death. A prison service spokesperson confirmed to Reuters that the statement referred to Bursch, and said the incident was being investigated.

Medical groups, including the World Health Organization, have repeatedly called for a halt to attacks on Gaza healthcare workers, with more than 200 killed so far in the Gaza conflict, according to an estimate from Insecurity Insight, a research group that collects and analyses data on attacks on aid workers around the world.

The Palestinian health ministry said in a statement that Bursh’s death raised to 496 the number of medical sector workers who had been killed by Israel since 7 October. It added that 1,500 others had been injured while 309 had been arrested.

Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes and says its operations against them have been justified by the presence of fighters. Hamas and medical staff deny the allegations.

Daniel Hurst is Guardian Australia’s foreign affairs and defence correspondent.

The Australian government faces a decision next week on whether to support admitting Palestine as a full member of the UN and is swapping notes with allies including South Korea and Germany.

A copy of the draft resolution, seen by Guardian Australia, expresses “deep regret and concern” that the US used its veto power to block the proposal at the UN security council last month.

The Palestinian-backed draft text, due for a vote in New York on 10 May, will be put to the general assembly where all UN member states have a vote.

It laments that “one negative vote” had scuttled a proposal backed by 12 others in the 15-member security council, including US allies South Korea, Japan and France. The UK and Switzerland abstained.

The proposed new resolution is understood to be backed by the Arab Group and some members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. The general assembly would recommend that the UN security council “reconsider the matter favourably”.

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Turkey’s trade halt with Israel will continue until a permanent ceasefire in Gaza is secured as well as unhindered humanitarian aid flow to the region, Turkish trade minister Omer Bolat said on Friday, reports Reuters.

Turkey stopped all exports and imports to and from Israel on Thursday, citing the “worsening humanitarian tragedy” in the Palestinian territories.

Israel’s uncompromising attitude and worsening situation in Gaza prompted Turkey to halt trade, Bolat said in a speech in Istanbul while announcing April trade figures.

The two countries had a trade volume of $6.8bn in 2023.

Bryony Moore, Lucy Swan, Tural Ahmedzade and Alex Olorenshaw have created a visual guide to the pro-Palestinian US campus protests and the police response.

You can take a look here:

Jasper Jolly is a financial reporter for the Guardian.

Turkey has halted all trade with Israel, citing the “worsening humanitarian tragedy” in the Palestinian territories, which prompted strong criticism from the Israeli foreign minister.

“Export and import transactions related to Israel have been stopped, covering all products,” Turkey’s trade ministry said late on Thursday.

“Turkey will strictly and decisively implement these new measures until the Israeli government allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.”

Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, accused Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, of acting like a “dictator” after the restrictions were first reported.

The row will probably deepen tensions between the two formerly close allies, which have deteriorated since the start of the crisis in Gaza.

You can read the full piece here:

The Guardian’s Today in Focus podcast asks whether we are on the brink of a ceasefire deal for Gaza.

In Cairo a deal between Israel and Hamas has been tabled and the two sides are discussing whether to accept it. Julian Borger explains how such negotiations happen, what the deal includes and why there is pressure on both sides to make it happen.

Michael Safi asks how rumours that the international criminal court may issue warrants for the arrest of Israel’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Hamas leaders are playing into the ceasefire talks, and if more aid is finally being allowed into the strip.

You can listen to the podcast episode here:

Iran has released the crew of a seized Portuguese-flagged ship linked to Israel, but remains in control of the vessel itself, foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said, according to the Reuters news agency.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized the container ship MSC Aries, with a crew of 25, in the strait of Hormuz on 13 April, days after Tehran vowed to retaliate for a suspected Israeli strike on its consulate in Damascus. Iran had said it could close the crucial shipping route.

“The seized ship, which turned off its radar in Iran’s territorial waters and jeopardized the security of navigation, is under judicial detention,” Amirabdollahian said, according to a foreign ministry post on X late Thursday night.

He said the release of the crew was a humanitarian act and they could return to their countries along with the ship’s captain, reports Reuters.

Iran’s foreign ministry had earlier said the Aries was seized for “violating maritime laws” and that there was no doubt it was linked to Israel.

MSC leases the Aries from Gortal Shipping, an affiliate of Zodiac Maritime, which is partly owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer.

An Israeli man held hostage in Gaza since the 7 October Hamas attack has been confirmed dead, the government said early Friday.

Dror Or, 49, was killed and his body was held in Gaza since 7 October, said the Be’eri kibbutz where he had lived. It was one of the communities hardest hit in the Hamas attack on southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

His wife, Yonat, was killed in the initial assault while two of their three children, Noam and Alma, aged 17 and 13, were abducted and then freed in November as part of a ceasefire and hostages-for- prisoners swap deal between Israel and Hamas.

“We are heartbroken to share that Dror Or who was kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October, had been confirmed as murdered and his body is being held in Gaza,” the Israeli government said on X. The two children and their brother Yahli are now orphans, it added.

The government did not say how it learned of the death of Or.

Or’s death was announced as mediators Qatar, the United States and Egypt waited for Hamas’s response to a new proposal for a ceasefire and hostage release.

In late November during a week-long ceasefire, 105 hostages were released including 80 Israelis and people from other countries in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians held by Israel.

Israel estimates that 129 captives seized by militants during their attack remain in Gaza. The military says 35 of them are dead including Or.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 34,596 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

It has gone 9.30am in Gaza and in Tel Aviv. This is our latest Guardian live blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis.

An Israeli man held hostage in Gaza since the 7 October Hamas attack has been confirmed dead, according to the government.

Dror Or was a resident of the Be’eri kibbutz, one of the communities hardest hit in the Hamas attack on southern Israel. His wife was killed in the initial assault while two of their three children, Noam and Alma, aged 17 and 13, were abducted and then freed in November as part of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

“We are heartbroken to share that Dror Or who was kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October, had been confirmed as murdered and his body is being held in Gaza,” the Israeli government said on X.

His death was announced as mediators Qatar, the United States and Egypt are waiting for Hamas’s response to a new proposal for a ceasefire and hostage release.

More on that in a moment, but first here is a round up of other main events.

• A UN agency said on Thursday that rebuilding Gaza will cost an estimated $30bn to $40bn and require an effort on a scale unseen since the second world war. “The scale of the destruction is huge and unprecedented,” UN assistant secretary general Abdallah al-Dardari told a press conference in Amman, Jordan.

• Hamas confirmed that the group will visit Egypt for further ceasefire talks in the Gaza war. A statement by the group added that Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh had affirmed the group’s “positive spirit in studying the ceasefire proposal” in a phone call with Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel.

• Turkey has halted all trade with Israel, citing the “worsening humanitarian tragedy” in the Palestinian territories, which prompted strong criticism from the Israeli foreign minister. “Export and import transactions related to Israel have been stopped, covering all products,” Turkey’s trade ministry said late on Thursday.

• Israel’s president on Thursday criticised US universities for campus unrest over Israel’s war in Gaza, saying these institutions were “contaminated by hatred and antisemitism”. Isaac Herzog said in a special broadcast that he was issuing an urgent message of support to Jewish communities amid a “dramatic resurgence in antisemitism and following the hostilities and intimidation against Jewish students on campuses across the US in particular”.

• Two people were arrested after shouting verbal abuse and throwing stones and eggs at a demonstration being held by relatives of those held hostage in Gaza which was attempting to block a highway in Tel Aviv.