Wild footage as Israeli soldiers fire shots near diplomats
The latest evacuation warning for Gaza has come just hours after the United Nations said it had begun distributing truckloads of aid as Israeli strikes continue, killing 50. Follow live updates.
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Plumes of smoke rose Thursday over the northern Gaza Strip where Israel’s military urged civilians to evacuate, as rescuers said Israeli strikes across the territory killed more than 50 people.
The latest evacuation warning for parts of Gaza City and neighbouring areas came hours after the United Nations said it had begun distributing around 90 truckloads of aid in Gaza - the first such delivery since Israel imposed a total blockade on March 2.
Under global pressure to lift the blockade and halt a newly expanded offensive, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was open to a “temporary ceasefire”, but reaffirmed the military aimed to bring all of Gaza under its control.
In an Arabic-language statement on Thursday, the military said it was acting “with intense force” in 14 areas of the northern Gaza Strip, including parts of Gaza City and the Jabalia refugee camp.
A map posted alongside the warning showed a swath of territory marked in red, with the army accusing “terrorist organisations” of operating there and urging civilians to move south.
The army issued a similar evacuation call for northern Gaza late Wednesday in what it said was a response to rocket fire.
After Israel announced it would allow in limited aid, the United Nations “collected around 90 truckloads of goods from the Kerem Shalom crossing and dispatched them into Gaza”, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres.
In Gaza, the Hamas government media office reported the arrival of 87 aid trucks, which it said were allocated to international and local organisations to meet “urgent humanitarian needs”.
Mr Netanyahu said it was necessary to “avoid a humanitarian crisis in order to preserve our freedom of operational action”.
Palestinians have been scrambling for basic supplies, with Israel’s blockade leading to critical food and medicine shortages.
Umm Talal al-Masri, 53, a displaced Palestinian in Gaza City, described the situation as “unbearable”.
Hossam Abu Aida, 38, said: “I am tormented for my children”. “For them, I fear hunger and disease more than I do Israeli bombardment,” he told AFP.
AFP footage showed bags of recently delivered flour at a bakery in the central city of Deir el-Balah, where workers and a host of machines began kneading, shaping, baking and packaging stack after stack of pita bread.
“Some aid is finally reaching Gazans in desperate need, but it’s moving far too slowly,” said Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Programme.
The amount is still a “tiny drop in the bucket” compared the scale of the crisis, she said.
Israel stepped up its offensive at the weekend, vowing to defeat Gaza’s Hamas rulers, whose October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.
Alongside growing criticism of Israel’s actions, there has been a global spike in anti-Semitic attacks throughout the war.
A gunman shouting “free Palestine” shot dead two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington on Wednesday.
Britain, France, Germany, the United States and other countries condemned the shooting.
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ISRAELI SOLDIERS FIRE WARNING SHOTS NEAR DIPLOMATS
Israeli soldiers have fired warning shots near a large group of diplomats from Europe, the Middle East and Asia in the West Bank city of Jenin.
The incident, caught on video, sparked criticism at a time when Israel faces growing pressure to end the war in Gaza, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Footage showed diplomats, their staff and Palestinian Authority personnel running for cover and into their vehicles amid the shooting.
They were near the entrance to Jenin’s refugee camp at the time of the incident.
The tour, organised by the Palestinian Authority, had diplomatic representatives from countries including Egypt, Jordan, Spain, France, the UK and Canada.
ISRAEL PREPARING TO STRIKE IRAN’S NUCLEAR FACILITIES
Israel is preparing for a possible strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, according to new US intelligence.
The move comes despite the Trump administration’s efforts to forge a diplomatic deal with Tehran, the New York Post reports.
Intercepted messages between Israeli officials have led the US to believe such an attack could be imminent, officials told CNN.
“The chance of an Israeli strike on an Iranian nuclear facility has gone up significantly in recent months. And the prospect of a Trump-negotiated US-Iran deal that doesn’t remove all of Iran’s uranium makes the chance of a strike more likely,” a source familiar with US intelligence said.
‘WORLD IS JUDGING’ ISRAEL’S CONDUCT IN GAZA
Britain has suspended free-trade negotiations with Israel and summoned its ambassador to the foreign ministry in its toughest stance yet against Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of “egregious actions and rhetoric” over its expansion of military operations in the Palestinian territory.
During an impassioned speech to Britain’s parliament, Mr Lammy also said the UK government was imposing new sanctions on individuals and organisations involved in settlements in the West Bank.
“The world is judging, history will judge them. Blocking aid, expanding the war, dismissing the concerns of your friends and partners. This is indefensible and it must stop,” he said.
Mr Lammy said Britain “cannot stand by in the face of this new deterioration” in Gaza and was pausing negotiations with Israel on a new free-trade agreement.
He said Britain would be “reviewing co-operation” with Israel under its so-called 2030 road map for UK-Israel relations.
“Netanyahu government’s actions have made this necessary,” Mr Lammy said. Israel’s government responded by saying “external pressure will not divert Israel from its path in defending its existence and security against enemies who seek its destruction”.
“If, due to anti-Israel obsession and domestic political considerations, the British government is willing to harm the British economy – that is its own prerogative,” Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said in a statement.
Mr Lammy said the Israeli’s government’s plan to displace the Gaza population and its limiting of aid to civilians “facing starvation, homelessness and trauma” meant the conflict was “entering a dark new phase”.
Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer said Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely was being summoned to the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office in protest against “the wholly disproportionate escalation of military activity in Gaza”.
He added that Israel’s weeks-long blockade on aid entering the strip, which was marginally lifted on Monday, had been “cruel and indefensible”.
The UK government announced financial restrictions and travel bans, targeting prominent settler leader Daniella Weiss and two other individuals, as well as two illegal outposts and two organisations accused of backing violence against Palestinian communities.
Mr Lammy said Israel suffered a “heinous attack” at the hands of Palestinian Hamas militants on October 7, 2023 and the UK government had backed Israel’s right to defend itself.
He repeated calls that Hamas must release all remaining Israeli hostages seized that day “immediately and unconditionally.”
He also reiterated that Hamas “cannot continue to run Gaza.”
Britain and Israel opened negotiations on a free-trade agreement in 2022. According to the British government, Israel was the country’s 44th-largest trading partner last year, with the two countries exchanging A$12.1 billion in goods and services
AUSTRALIA CONDEMNS ISRAEL
Australia is among 23 countries condemning Israel’s pledge to “take control” of Gaza and allow aid to flow in via IDF-controlled checkpoints after blocking humanitarian assistance into the war zone for months.
Israel said it was letting trucks of baby food into the Gaza Strip on Monday, the first aid to be admitted since the Israeli government announced the partial lifting of a two-month blockade.
In a joint statement signed alongside the foreign ministers of major democratic nations, including the UK, Japan, Canada and Italy, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she could not support the “new model” and said humanitarian aid should not be subject to political or military conditions.
“Humanitarian principles matter for every conflict around the world and should be applied consistently in every war zone,” the statement reads.
“The UN has raised concerns that the proposed model cannot deliver aid effectively, at the speed and scale required.
“It places beneficiaries and aid workers at risk, undermines the role and independence of the UN and our trusted partners and links humanitarian aid to political and military objectives.
“Humanitarian aid should never be politicised and Palestinian territory must not be reduced nor subjected to any demographic change.”
Israel, pressing a newly expanded military offensive across the Gaza Strip, has faced mounting pressure including from key backer the United States to end the aid blockade it imposed on March 2.
“Today, Israel is facilitating the entry of trucks with baby food into Gaza,” foreign ministry director general Eden Bar Tal told reporters on Monday, adding that “in the coming days, Israel will facilitate the entry of dozens of aid trucks.”
Asked how many trucks had already entered Gaza, foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein told journalists that “we need to check the exact number”.
He added that “the idea is to have some significant numbers coming in the upcoming days”.
UN agencies have warned of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicines in the besieged territory.
World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday that the vast majority of Gazans “are starving” while “tonnes of food is blocked at the border, just minutes away”.
— with AFP
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