Thank you for following our live coverage of the war between Hamas and Israel.
We will continue our coverage of the conflict tomorrow morning.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has called on "all parties" to the conflict between Israel and Hamas not to attack the few humanitarian aid crossing points in the narrow Palestinian territory.
"I urge all parties to ensure that civilian crossings and goods necessary for the survival of the civilian population are not threatened by military operations," Volker Turk wrote in a statement.
"Given the particular importance of the free flow of humanitarian aid for civilians throughout Gaza, both sides must take special precautions to ensure that these crossings remain safe and functional, and that they are neither the direct target of attacks nor collaterally damaged," he said.
A new update on the situation in South Lebanon:
* According to local residents, Israel shelled an area between Talousseh and Markaba in Marjayoun.
* At around 8 p.m., Israeli warplanes carried out a series of air raids on the localities of Adaisseh, Khiam, Taybeh and Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun) and Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil), according to security and local sources. The airstrikes targeted homes and ambulances on their way to the targeted areas, according to residents and security sources.
* The sound produced by the rocket explosion was felt by residents of several villages in Nabatieh, according to testimonies from local residents.
* Hezbollah announced that it had again struck the Khirbet Ma'ar base (opposite the Lebanese town of Boustan, in Sour district) with dozens of Katyusha rockets, "as enemy soldiers were gathering to repair the damage from the previous strike" launched by the party "an hour and a half earlier."
⚡ Hamas has accused Israel of bringing the negotiations "back to square one" after indirectly "rejecting" "the mediators' proposal" by making "amendments" that it cannot accept.
"The attack on Rafah by the enemy army and the occupation of the crossing immediately after Hamas announced its approval of the mediators' proposal confirm that the occupation is seeking to avoid reaching an agreement," Hamas said.
The group also accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Netanyahu and his extremist government of using the negotiations as a cover to attack Rafah," a key city in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Judging that it had "shown the necessary flexibility to facilitate an agreement," Hamas promises that the Rafah attack "will not be a walk in the park" for Israel and that Gaza will be "a cemetery for the invaders."
At least 34,943 Palestinians have been killed and 78,572 injured in Israel's military offensive in Gaza since Oct. 7, Gaza's Health Ministry said in a statement, Reuters reports.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says that the United Nations General Assembly's backing today of a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member supports Palestinian efforts for another vote on the issue by the UN Security Council, Reuters reports.
"Palestine will continue its endeavour to obtain full membership in the UN," Abbas added in a statement.
In the last hour, Hezbollah has announced four attacks:
* Two of these attacks were in retaliation for Israeli strikes on southern villages and civilian houses, most recently the today's strike on Tayr Harfa, the party said. Hezbollah also said these two attacks targeted the Israeli area of Kiryat Shmona with Katyusha missiles and the Yiftah area with Falaq missiles.
* The other two attacks were against an Israeli position in the disputed Kfar Shuba Hills area and against an Israeli position facing the southern village of Bostan.
The Israeli army says four of its soldiers have been killed by an "explosive device" in Gaza City, in the north of the Gaza Strip.
"The four soldiers were killed … by an explosive device near a school in the Zeitoun district" of Gaza City, the army told AFP. It added in a statement that two soldiers, including an officer, were "seriously wounded" by the explosion.
According to the Times of Israel, this brings to 271 the number of Israeli soldiers killed since the start of the offensive launched by the Hebrew state in the besieged enclave at the end of October.
⚡The United Nations General Assembly has backed a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member by recognizing it as qualified to join and recommending the UN Security Council "reconsider the matter favorably."
The vote by the 193-member General Assembly was a global survey of support for the Palestinian bid to become a full UN member — a move that would effectively recognize a Palestinian state — after the United States vetoed it in the UN Security Council last month. ➡️ More details here.
Germany says that calls to boycott Israeli artists at the Eurovision song contest are "unacceptable," after demonstrators in host country Sweden protested against Israeli participation due to the Gaza war, AFP reports.
"Calls to boycott the participation of Israeli artists at cultural events there, as everywhere in Europe and Germany, are absolutely unacceptable," said German Culture Minister Claudia Roth on X, formerly Twitter
Here's the latest update on the situation in south Lebanon:
* The Islamist military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Lebanon has announced the death of one of its members: Ali al-Aswad was killed in an Israeli strike on Blida (Marjayoun) earlier today.
* Hezbollah also earlier announced the death of its fighter, Ahmad Mahdi, who was from the village of Adsheet (Marjayoun) in southern Lebanon.
Spain, Ireland and Slovenia plan to recognize the Palestinian state simultaneously on May 21, according to the European Union's chief diplomat Josep Borrell.
Asked on Spanish public radio about the date of May 21 mentioned on Thursday by the Irish public broadcaster RTE, Borrell agreed, assuring that he had been informed of it by the Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister José Manuel Albares.
Hezbollah has announced the death of another of its fighters: Ahmed Ali Mahdi.
Born in 1991 in the southern Lebanese town of Adsheet, Madhi "died as a martyr on his way to Jerusalem," Hezbollah said in a statement, without specifying the circumstances of his death.
According to our correspondent, the fighter was killed in an air raid on the locality of Yaroun.
Here's an update on what has happened in south Lebanon over the last hour:
* Artillery fire resounded at 3:45 p.m. between Tayr Harfa and Jibbayn (Sour), according to local residents. Artillery fire was also heard on the outskirts of Kfar Hammam (Hasbaya).
* Israeli artillery fire targeted the locality of Wadi Hanine at around 3:47 p.m. (Bint Jbeil).
* Israeli fighter jets attacked the locality of Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil), at around 4:16 p.m., according to local residents.
In the last two hours on the Lebanese-Israeli border:
- Hezbollah announced an attack, which they said took place at 1 p.m., against surveillance equipment in the village of Misgav Am, facing the southern Lebanese village of Markaba (Marjayoun).
- The Israeli army fired what appears to be phosphorous weapons on the outskirts of Kfar Kila and Adaisseh in the Marjayoun district, residents of the villages told L'Orient Today.
A drone strike on the village of Tayr Harfa (Sour) killed two people and injured another, according to security and medical sources.
The first person killed was Ghalid Hussein al-Hajj, born in Shihine in 1971 and worked as a Risala Scout first responder, a group affiliated with the Amal Movement.
The second person killed was an affiliate with the MTC Touch telecommunications company who was targeted while fixing the network in the area. His colleague was injured in the strike. The two were accompanied by Lebanese army soldiers who survived the attack.
A picture showing the funeral of a Hezbollah member Ali Ahmad Hamzeh in the village of al-Majadil who was killed yesterday in an Israeli drone strike on a car in Baflieh, east of Sour, which killed at least three people. Hezbollah announced the death of four of its members. (Credit: Hezbollah Media Office)
In the last hour on the Lebanese-Israeli border:
- The Israeli army launched an airstrike on a house in the southern village of Blida (Marjayoun), a security source told L'Orient Today. It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties as first responders are searching under the rubble.
- The Israeli army launched an airstrike on the village of Yaroun (Bint Jbeil), residents of the village told L'Orient Today.
Around 110,000 people have now fled the town of Rafah – threatened by a full-scale assault by the Israeli army – to areas they consider less dangerous in the narrow Palestinian territory, UN officials said.
“Some 30,000 people are fleeing the city every day,” said Georgios Petropoulos, head of the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for Gaza, adding that “most of these people have already had to move 5 or 6 times” since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to submit a highly critical report to Congress on Friday on Israel's conduct in Gaza, which does not, however, conclude that the conditions for the use of US weapons have been violated, Axios reported on Thursday, quoted by Reuters.
The report, citing three officials, adds that the State Department is examining the use of weapons by Israel and six other countries engaged in various armed conflicts. On Tuesday, Reuters reported that the Biden administration was poised to miss Wednesday's deadline to report to Congress on whether Israel is violating international humanitarian law in Gaza.
This morning, Hezbollah announced the death of its member Hassan Krayyem, born in 1978 and originally from Deir Siryane in southern Lebanon. The party stated that he died after having been previously wounded “on the road to Jerusalem.”
According to information from L'Orient Today's correspondent in the South, Krayyem was the fourth passenger in the car targeted by a drone strike the previous day in Baflieh, Sour. All the people in the vehicle were killed in the strike and were members of the party.
This death brings to 296 the number of Hezbollah members killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon and Syria since Oct. 8.
Since early morning, several other Israeli strikes and shots have been reported from southern Lebanon:
- Two missiles were fired by an Israeli fighter jet at an empty house in Kfar Kila, with no reports of casualties so far.
- Machine-gun fire targeted Naqoura (Sour), from the Israeli position of Jal el-Alam.
- Israeli artillery fire targeted Wadi al-Assafir, in Khiam (Marjeyoun).
Hezbollah also claimed responsibility for two night strikes:
- At around 10 p.m., it struck “with missiles” at the “Samaka” position in the disputed Kfar Shouba Hills.
- At 12:50 a.m., the party fired artillery at Israeli army vehicles as they arrived at the Malkia position, opposite the Lebanese border village of Aitaroun (Bint Jbeil).
What happened on the Lebanese-Israeli border last night:
- Shortly after 10 p.m., Israeli aircraft fired several missiles at Kfar Kila (Marjayoun).
- Israeli fighter jets struck Yaroun (Bint Jbeil) three times during the night.
- A strike also targeted Alma al-Shaab before midnight. For this strike, the Israeli army used a “seismic missile,” which explodes in the ground to provoke a shock wave. The use of such a weapon caused an explosion that was heard in many villages in the region, as far away as Nabatieh.
- After midnight, artillery fire targeted Yarine and Boustan (Sour).
“The situation is disastrous,” echoed UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell, asserting that if fuel was not allowed in, “incubators for premature babies will no longer be fed, children and families will be dehydrated or drinking unsafe water, and sewers will overflow spreading disease.”
Despite the reopening on Wednesday of the Kerem Shalom crossing, closed for three days due to rocket fire according to Israel, the delivery of aid remains “extremely difficult,” Andrea De Domenico, head of the office of the United Nations humanitarian agency (OCHA) in the Palestinian territories, told AFP. “It's crazy,” the Israelis “have tanks everywhere, troops on the ground, they're shelling the area east of Rafah and they want us to go and get fuel or basic commodities” in these war zones when “they know we simply can't go there,” he added.
According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), whose offices in Jerusalem were the target of an attempted fire by “Israeli extremists,” some 80,000 people have fled Rafah since Israel called on the population of the eastern part of the city to leave earlier this week. Some have taken the road to Khan Younis, a ruined town a few kilometers to the north, while others are still wondering where to go.
During the night, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry to reiterate US opposition to “a major military operation at Rafah” and its “rejection” of “any forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.”
CIA Director William Burns, who was heavily involved in the talks and present in Cairo and Jerusalem this week, is returning to the US later today, the White House said, quoted by AFP.
The representatives of Hamas and Israel left Cairo after “two days of negotiations,” reported the Al-Qahera News media, close to Egyptian intelligence, adding that the efforts of the mediating countries (Egypt, Qatar, USA) “are continuing to bring the points of view of the two parties closer together.”
And Egyptian diplomacy today urged Hamas and Israel to show “flexibility” to reach an agreement “as soon as possible” to “put an end to the humanitarian tragedy” in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Hamas sent a message to the other Palestinian factions to explain its views on the state of the indirect negotiations with Israel that had been taking place since Wednesday in Cairo.
“The delegation left Cairo for Doha. The occupation has rejected the proposal submitted by the mediators, which we had accepted. Consequently, the ball is now entirely in the court of the occupation," the name given to Israel by the Islamist movement, it said in the letter.
Israel steps up strikes in the Gaza Strip. In the early hours of today, AFP crews reported Israeli artillery fire towards Rafah, on the Egyptian border, and witnesses of air strikes and fighting in the northern city of Gaza.
Make sure to read the Morning Brief so you are caught up with what has been happening.
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Thank you for joining us for our live coverage of the ongoing war in Gaza and its regional and global impacts.
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