Closing summary
It has gone 5pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.
Here is a recap of the latest developments from today:
The European Commission, Cyprus, the UAE, UK and US put out a joint statement on what it described as the activation of a maritime corridor to deliver humanitarian assistance to Gaza. “This maritime corridor can – and must – be part of a sustained effort to increase the flow of humanitarian aid and commercial commodities into Gaza through all possible routes,” it added.
It is believed that the maiden aid voyage will be made by Spain’s Open Arms in what will be a test voyage of the sea corridor. The vessel had been waiting at Cyprus’s port of Larnaca for permission to deliver food aid from World Central Kitchen, a US charity founded by celebrity chef José André.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said she expected the maritime aid corridor to start operating between Cyprus and Gaza over this weekend, taking desperately needed aid to besieged Palestinians. Von der Leyen said a pilot test run of food aid collected by a charity group and supported by the UAE could be leaving Cyprus as early as Friday from the port of Larnaca.
Von der Leyen held talks with the president of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, on Friday. The EU chief travelled to Larnaca to inspect the command centre and port facilities that will be used.
US forces will build a temporary dock on the Gaza shoreline to allow delivery of humanitarian aid on a large scale, president Joe Biden announced in his State of the Union speech, amid warnings of a widespread famine among the territory’s 2.3 million Palestinians. He promised “no US boots will be on the ground”, and said: “This temporary pier would enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza every day.”
Biden also warned Israel that it cannot use aid as a “bargaining chip” as he issued a call for an immediate, temporary ceasefire with Hamas. “To the leadership of Israel I say this – humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip. Protecting and saving innocent lives has to be a priority,” Biden said in his annual State of the Union address.
Sigrid Kaag, the UN senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, told reporters late on Thursday that air and sea deliveries cannot make up for a shortage of supply routes on land. Kaag said that while airdrops represented a “symbol of support for civilians in Gaza” and were “a testament to our shared humanity”, they were “a drop in the ocean”. “It’s far from enough,” she added.
Aid groups have welcomed Biden’s announcement of relief finally reaching the war-ravaged coastal strip. But there are also fears that with needs now so desperate any shipment will be “a drop in the bucket.” Reacting to the news Mercy Corps’ vice-president of global policy and advocacy, Kate Phillips-Barrasso said that while “any effort to get more aid into Gaza is needed and welcome” any ‘sea aid’ would be “a drop in the bucket in terms of the volume and range of relief Palestinians need right now.”
The UK foreign secretary David Cameron said on Friday that the US-led plan to build a temporary harbour in Gaza to bring in aid would take time, reiterating his call for Israel to open the port of Ashdod in the meantime. He said it was “crucial” for the Israelis to “confirm that they’ll open the port”. Cameron also urged Israel to allow more aid trucks into Gaza.
The UN’s expert on torture said on Friday she was investigating allegations of torture and mistreatment of Palestinian detainees in Israel, and was in talks to visit the country. Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the UN human rights council in Geneva, Dr Alice Jill Edwards said she had recently received allegations of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinians being detained in the Israeli-occupied West Bank or as a result of the conflict in Gaza.
Edwards said she had also raised allegations of mass murders and mutilations of hostages and sexual violence against them with Palestinian authorities through the Palestinian Permanent Mission in Geneva. She said she had, however, received “a disappointing reply” that “showed no empathy for those individuals who were subject to terrible atrocities on 7 October”. The mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Reuters.
Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories have expanded by a record amount and risk eliminating any practical possibly of a Palestinian state, the UN human rights chief said on Friday. The UN’s high commissioner for human rights Volker Türk said that the growth of Israeli settlements amounted to the transfer by Israel of its own population, which he said was a war crime.
At least 30,878 Palestinians have been killed and 72,402 have been injured since 7 October in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry said in a statement on Friday.
“On average, 63 women are killed in Gaza per day” said the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in a social media post for International Women’s Day. According to UNRWA, at least 9,000 women have been killed in Gaza since early October, but the UN agency warned the number is likely higher due to the many more reported to be dead under the rubble.
Israel will not give in to international pressure to stall an attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah and will continue its bloody offensive against Hamas, said Benjamin Netanyahu. “There is international pressure and it’s growing, but … we need to stand together against the attempts to stop the war,” the prime minister told a military graduation ceremony in southern Israel.
Israel’s army said on Friday its initial probe into an incident that the Palestinian health authorities said left more than 100 Palestinians dead as crowds rushed an aid convoy, found troops “fired precisely” at approaching suspects. Releasing its initial findings on Friday, the military said in a statement that the “command review” found that “troops did not fire at the humanitarian convoy”. It added, however, that they “did fire at a number of suspects who approached the nearby forces and posed a threat to them”.
UK support for the marine aid corridor to Gaza has involved assistance with planning and surveying, Downing Street said. A Number 10 spokesperson said: “We have supported the US in planning for the pontoon, including by sending marine surveyors and will now be working with partners to operationalise our maritime aid corridor from Cyprus.” The UK’s foreign secretary David Cameron said on Friday: “Alongside the US, the UK and partners have announced we will open a maritime corridor to deliver aid directly to Gaza”.
The UN’s human rights office said on Friday that an Israeli offensive in Gaza’s border town of Rafah could not be allowed to happen because it would cause massive loss of life. “Any ground assault on Rafah would incur massive loss of life and would heighten the risk of further atrocity crimes,” said Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the UN human rights office.
A Hamas official told AFP that ceasefire negotiations were not over, on Friday. “The mediators informed Hamas that efforts will continue to reach an agreement,” the official told AFP, requesting not to be named as he was not authorised to speak on the matter. Israeli war cabinet member Gadi Eisenkot said Hamas was under “very serious pressure” from mediators to make a “counter-offer”.
British maritime agencies said on Friday an incident had been reported in waters about 50 nautical miles south-east of Yemen’s city of Aden where Houthi militants have been attacking ships.
Two civilians were killed in a Turkish airstrike in the mountainous Sheladiz area in northern Iraq’s Duhok province, two security sources said on Friday.
Updated
Reuters reports that British maritime agencies said on Friday an incident had been reported in waters about 50 nautical miles south-east of Yemen’s city of Aden where Houthi militants have been attacking ships.
The Iran-backed group has launched drone and missile attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab strait and Gulf of Aden since November. They say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians over the war in Gaza.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said that the authorities are investigating the incident while security firm Ambrey said it is aware of an incident nearly 52 nautical miles south of Aden and is also investigating.
UKMTO WARNING INCIDENT 047
— United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) (@UK_MTO) March 8, 2024
ATTACK
Warnings - 2024 (https://t.co/5An1YH0JyE)#MaritimeSecurity #MarSec pic.twitter.com/a5Xz8KIeGa
The UK foreign secretary David Cameron said on Friday that the US-led plan to build a temporary harbour in Gaza to bring in aid would take time, reiterating his call for Israel to open the port of Ashdod in the meantime, reports Reuters.
“It’s going to take time to build,” Cameron told UK broadcasters of the harbour. “So the crucial thing is today the Israelis must confirm that they’ll open the port at Ashdod.”
Updated
UN's expert on torture investigating allegations of mistreatment of Palestinian detainees in Israel
The UN’s expert on torture said on Friday she was investigating allegations of torture and mistreatment of Palestinian detainees in Israel, and was in talks to visit the country, reports Reuters.
Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the UN human rights council in Geneva, Dr Alice Jill Edwards said she had recently received allegations of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinians being detained in the Israeli-occupied West Bank or as a result of the conflict in Gaza, where Israel is fighting the ruling Palestinian Hamas movement.
“I’m looking into that as we speak and carrying out a fact-finding investigation,” said Edwards, the UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
“I’m calling on … Hamas, the state of Palestine, Israel to put their torture tools down, to really have a focus on peace and a prospect of living side-by-side as neighbours in the future,” she told Reuters.
Reuters said there was no immediate comment from the Israeli diplomatic mission in Geneva.
The UN human rights office says it has received numerous reports of mass detention, ill-treatment and enforced disappearance of Palestinians in northern Gaza by the Israeli military, and has recorded the arrests of thousands in the West Bank.
Edwards said she had also raised allegations of mass murders and mutilations of hostages and sexual violence against them with Palestinian authorities through the Palestinian Permanent Mission in Geneva.
She said she had, however, received “a disappointing reply” that “showed no empathy for those individuals who were subject to terrible atrocities on 7 October”. The mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Reuters.
Updated
European Commission, Cyprus, UAE, UK and US put out joint statement on maritime corridor to Gaza
We now have the statement endorsing what it describes as the activation of a maritime corridor to deliver humanitarian assistance to Gaza. The statement has been put out jointly by the European Commission, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, the UK and the United States:
The humanitarian situation in Gaza is dire, with innocent Palestinian families and children desperate for basic necessities. That is why today, the European Commission, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, the Republic of Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, the UK, and the US announce our intent to open a maritime corridor to deliver much-needed additional amounts of humanitarian assistance by sea.
Cyprus’s leadership in establishing the Amalthea Initiative-which outlines a mechanism for securely shipping aid from Cyprus to Gaza via sea-was integral to enabling this joint effort to launch a maritime corridor. Together, our nations intend to build on this model to deliver significant additional aid by sea, working in coordination with UN senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag – who is charged with facilitating, coordinating, monitoring, and verifying the flow of aid into Gaza under UN security council resolution 2720. The dedicated efforts of the UAE to mobilise support for the Initiative will result in the initial shipment of food by sea to the people of Gaza.”
Cyprus, it continued, “will soon convene senior officials to discuss how we can accelerate this maritime channel supporting those in need, supplementing land and air routes, including from Egypt and Jordan.
The US announced an emergency mission led by the US military to establish a temporary pier in Gaza, in coordination with humanitarian partners and other countries, to enable the delivery of significant quantities of assistance by sea. These efforts will be closely coordinated with the government of Israel.”
But the statement also predicted that the delivery of humanitarian assistance directly to Gaza by sea would be complex, necessitating nations to continue “to assess and adjust our efforts to ensure we deliver aid as effectively as possible.”
“This maritime corridor can – and must – be part of a sustained effort to increase the flow of humanitarian aid and commercial commodities into Gaza through all possible routes,” it added.
“We will continue to work with Israel to expand deliveries by land, insisting that it facilitate more routes and open additional crossings to get more aid to more people. We affirm that protecting civilian lives is a key element of international humanitarian law that must be respected. And together, we must all do more to ensure aid gets to people who desperately need it.”
Updated
Here are some more of the latest images from the newswires:
UK support for the marine aid corridor to Gaza has involved assistance with planning and surveying, Downing Street has said, according to the Press Association (PA).
A Number 10 spokesperson said:
We will and have been supporting it. We have supported the US in planning for the pontoon, including by sending marine surveyors and will now be working with partners to operationalise our maritime aid corridor from Cyprus.
We continue to be very clear that we need to go much further, not enough aid is getting into Gaza, and we continue to push them to take further action, to do more to protect civilians, to abide by international humanitarian law and allow more aid in and to protect foreign aid workers and to facilitate humanitarian operations.
We continue to impress the importance of this in our conversations and as you’ve seen today we are also taking action with our allies to get more vital aid in.”
UK involvement in the maritime corridor is not expected to involve a deployment of British personnel to Gaza, added the PA.
Israeli army says its troops fired at Palestinians who 'posed threat' near aid convoy
Israel’s army said on Friday its initial probe into an incident that the Palestinian health authorities said left more than 100 Palestinians dead as crowds rushed an aid convoy, found troops “fired precisely” at approaching suspects, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
World leaders had called for an investigation into the incident on 29 February when the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said Israeli forces opened fire on people scrambling for food from a truck convoy. The Israeli military said at the time that a “stampede” occurred when thousands of people surrounded the convoy.
Releasing its initial findings on Friday, the military said in a statement that the “command review” found that “troops did not fire at the humanitarian convoy”. It added, however, that they “did fire at a number of suspects who approached the nearby forces and posed a threat to them”.
The health ministry in Gaza, in an updated toll issued on Friday, said 120 people were killed in the 29 February incident and at least 750 others were injured. It has previously alleged they were shot by Israeli forces.
Witnesses said thousands of people had rushed towards aid trucks in Gaza City early that morning, and that soldiers “fired at the crowd as people came too close to the tanks.”
A UN team that visited Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital the day after the incident reported seeing “a large number of gunshot wounds” among dozens of Palestinian patients.
In its statement on Friday, the military said about 12,000 Palestinians had gathered around the aid trucks and began taking the supplies, reports AFP.
“During the course of the looting, incidents of significant harm to civilians occurred from the stampede and people being run over by the trucks,” the army said.
At that time, “dozens of Gazans advanced towards nearby IDF troops, up to several metres from them, and thereby posed a real threat to the forces at that point,” it said.
The military said troops “fired cautionary fire in order to distance the suspects,” and after they continued to advance, “the troops fired precisely toward a number of suspects to remove the threat.”
Updated
A Hamas official told AFP that ceasefire negotiations were not over, on Friday.
“The mediators informed Hamas that efforts will continue to reach an agreement,” the official told AFP, requesting not to be named as he was not authorised to speak on the matter.
Israeli war cabinet member Gadi Eisenkot said Hamas was under “very serious pressure” from mediators to make a “counter-offer”. “Then it will be possible to advance it and take a position,” he said.
US president Joe Biden had urged Hamas to accept a ceasefire plan with Israel before Ramadan, but Hamas negotiators left talks with mediators in Egypt to consult with the movement’s leadership in Qatar.
According to AFP, Hamas’s delegation voiced dissatisfaction with Israeli responses so far before leaving Cairo, although US ambassador to Israel Jack Lew denied the talks had “broken down”.
We are hearing that the maiden aid voyage will be made by Spain’s Open Arms in what will be a test voyage of the sea corridor.
The vessel had been waiting at Cyprus’s port of Larnaca for permission to deliver food aid from World Central Kitchen, a US charity founded by celebrity chef José André.
The Guardian has learned that a joint statement by the EU, US, UK, Cyprus and the United Arab Emirates will detail how the aid operation will work.
Earlier this week a source familiar with the matter divulged that aid was being coordinated with the UAE.
Speaking from Nicosia, one western diplomat told us: “The facilities at the port are ready and the aim is to get the first shipment out before Sunday.”
Updated
Aid groups have welcomed US president Joe Biden’s announcement of relief finally reaching the war-ravaged coastal strip. But there are also fears that with needs now so desperate any shipment will be “a drop in the bucket.” Reacting to the news Mercy Corps’ vice-president of global policy and advocacy, Kate Phillips-Barrasso said this morning:
Any effort to get more aid into Gaza is needed and welcome as the entire population faces crisis levels of hunger and the abyss of famine. However, any ‘sea aid’ will be a drop in the bucket in terms of the volume and range of relief Palestinians need right now.
While inspection and logistics details are still unclear, any aid moving through this route would still be subject to many, if not all, the same impediments, delays, and bureaucratic obstacles we’re facing getting aid in through land crossings. And even if a seaport enables more aid into Gaza, once it arrives there is still no way to effectively distribute at the scale needed or to the people who are most urgently facing starvation absent a ceasefire.
The Biden administration is rightly focused on getting more lifesaving assistance to Palestinians trapped in Gaza – but ad hoc, time-consuming, and unsustainable workarounds like airdrops and offshore deliveries further underscore that the US is not adequately using its leverage with Israel to end the siege that is driving humanitarian needs or to enable increased, safe, and sustainable access for aid and aid workers in a meaningful way.”
Air and sea deliveries cannot make up for shortage of supply routes on land, says UN aid coordinator for Gaza
Sigrid Kaag, the UN senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, told reporters late on Thursday that air and sea deliveries cannot make up for a shortage of supply routes on land.
Speaking on the diversification of aid supply routes, after addressing the UN security council, Kaag told reporters that land remained the “optimal solution”. “It’s easier, it’s faster, it’s cheaper – particularly if we know we need to sustain humanitarian assistance to Gazans for a long period of time – and, of course, I’ve spoken to the importance of opening additional crossings,” she said.
Kaag said that while airdrops represented a “symbol of support for civilians in Gaza” and were “a testament to our shared humanity”, they were “a drop in the ocean”. “It’s far from enough,” she added.
Kaag commended the government of Cyprus for, what she called “their foresight and inclusive planning” on a maritime corridor to Gaza. She said:
In recent days you will have heard, and will hear more today or tomorrow, on a number of big countries joining and accelerating – or almost, I’d say, fast forwarding the establishment of a maritime corridor with a focus on humanitarian goods – and I think this is really important.”
However, she pointed out that delivering aid by air and sea could not to make up for a shortage of aid supply routes on land:
“Air or sea is not a substitute for what we need to see arrive at land.”
Kaag also spoke about other considerations regarding aid for Gaza: “Humanitarian assistance, and I’ve mentioned this before, is not an exercise in counting trucks. We need to know quality, relevance, it meets the needs, and as I said, volume.”
Updated
Maritime corridor to Gaza from Cyprus could start this weekend, says von der Leyen
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said she expected a maritime aid corridor to start operating between Cyprus and Gaza over this weekend, taking desperately needed aid to besieged Palestinians.
According to Reuters, von der Leyen said a pilot test run of food aid collected by a charity group and supported by the United Arab Emirates could be leaving Cyprus as early as Friday from the port of Larnaca in Cyprus.
Updated
The UK to work with the US on Gaza maritime aid corridor, says foreign secretary
The UK said it would work alongside the US to open a maritime corridor to deliver aid directly to Gaza, the UK’s foreign secretary David Cameron said on Friday.
“Alongside the US, the UK and partners have announced we will open a maritime corridor to deliver aid directly to Gaza,” Cameron said on social media.
“We continue to urge Israel to allow more trucks into Gaza as the fastest way to get aid to those who need it,” he added.
People in Gaza are in desperate humanitarian need.
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) March 8, 2024
Alongside the US, the UK and partners have announced we will open a maritime corridor to deliver aid directly to Gaza.
We continue to urge Israel to allow more trucks into Gaza as the fastest way to get aid to those who need…
Israeli offensive in Gaza's Rafah 'cannot be allowed to happen', says UN human rights office
The UN’s human rights office said on Friday that an Israeli offensive in Gaza’s border town of Rafah could not be allowed to happen because it would cause massive loss of life, reports Reuters.
“Should Israel launch its threatened military offensive into Rafah, where 1.5 million people have been displaced in deplorable, subhuman conditions, any ground assault on Rafah would incur massive loss of life and would heighten the risk of further atrocity crimes,” said Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the UN human rights office.
“This must not be allowed to happen,” he said.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images on the newswires:
Updated
Over in Cyprus, EU Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen is holding talks with local leader Nikos Christodoulides in the latest fine-tuning of plans to create a maritime corridor from the east Mediterranean island to Gaza.
The EU chief, who arrived in the country last night, will travel from Nicosia, its capital, to Larnaca to inspect the command centre and port facilities that will be used to ship desperately needed aid to the besieged coastal strip a mere 210 nautical miles away.
Speaking to the state-run CyBC radio this morning the government spokesperson, Konstantinos Letymbiotis said an announcement on how the operation would work would be issued later today. “The presence of von der Leyen alone in Cyprus sends messages as to the progress of the Cypriot initiative,” he said.
Nicosia first proposed establishing an humanitarian maritime corridor to Gaza in October but the scheme is believed to have come up against the opposition of Israel which has repeatedly expressed concerns over the potential of Hamas to hide weapons among the aid shipments. Israeli agents would inspect supplies, expected to include food and medicines, both at the Cypriot port and once they were transferred on to ships.
The EU’s most easterly member state, Cyprus has good relations with Israel and the Arab world. Christodoulides has said the initiative highlights the strategic island’s ability to be “a bridge to the region.”
Officials have hinted that the first shipment could happen as early as Sunday, the expected start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Israeli settlements expand by record amount, UN rights chief says
Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories have expanded by a record amount and risk eliminating any practical possibly of a Palestinian state, the UN human rights chief said on Friday, reports Reuters.
The UN’s high commissioner for human rights Volker Türk said that the growth of Israeli settlements amounted to the transfer by Israel of its own population, which he said was a war crime. The US Biden administration said last month the settlements were “inconsistent” with international law after Israel announced new housing plans in the occupied West Bank.
“Settler violence and settlement-related violations have reached shocking new levels, and risk eliminating any practical possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian State,” Türk said in a statement that accompanied the 16-page report.
Reuters said that the report, based on the UN’s own monitoring as well as other sources, documented 24,300 new Israeli housing units in the occupied West Bank during a one-year period through to end-October 2023, which it said was the highest on record since monitoring began in 2017.
It also said there had been a dramatic increase in the intensity, severity and regularity of both Israeli settler and state violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, particularly since the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October.
A top EU official visits Cyprus to inspect preparation to supply to Gaza by sea - reports
A top EU official is in Cyprus to inspect preparations to send desperately needed aid to Gaza by sea, just hours after US president Joe Biden announced that the US military will set up a temporary port off Gaza’s Mediterranean coast to support deliveries, reports the Associated Press (AP).
Biden’s announcement of the seaport plan underscored how the US is having to go around Israel, its main Middle East ally and the top recipient of US military aid, to get aid into Gaza, including through airdrops that started last week. Israel accuses Hamas of commandeering some aid deliveries.
Efforts to set up a sea route for aid deliveries come amid mounting alarm over the spread of hunger among Gaza’s 2.3 million people. Hunger is most acute in northern Gaza, which has been isolated by Israeli forces for months and suffered long cutoffs of food supply deliveries.
US officials said it will probably be weeks before the Gaza pier is operational, say the AP.
Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the EU’s powerful executive arm, arrived in Cyprus late on Thursday to inspect facilities at the port of Larnaca, where aid ships are expected to depart for Gaza.
In November, Cypriot president Nikos Christodoulides offered the use of the port, which is a 230 mile (370 km) journey from Gaza.
It is unclear when the first ship will set sail, report the AP, but it is believed it could happen as early as Sunday, the expected start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
According to the AP, a ship belonging to Spain’s Open Arms NGO is moored at Larnaca waiting for permission to deliver food aid from World Central Kitchen, a US charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés.
Updated
At least 30,878 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, say Gaza health ministry
At least 30,878 Palestinians have been killed and 72,402 have been injured since 7 October in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry said in a statement on Friday.
On average, 63 women are killed in Gaza per day, says UNRWA
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) have posted on X highlighting the number of women killed in Gaza.
In the social media post for International Women’s Day, UNRWA said: “the women in Gaza continue to endure the consequences of this brutal war.”
According to UNRWA, at least 9,000 women have been killed in Gaza since early October, but the UN agency warned the number is likely higher: “This figure is likely an underestimate, as many more women are reported to be dead under the rubble.”
“On average, 63 women are killed in Gaza per day – 37 are mothers who leave their families behind,” it added.
On #InternationalWomensDay, the women in #Gaza continue to endure the consequences of this brutal war.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) March 8, 2024
‼️ At least 9,000 women have been killed, many more are under the rubble.
‼️ On average, 63 women are killed in #Gaza per day - 37 are mothers who leave their families behind.
Israel will resist pressure to halt Rafah attack, says Netanyahu
Israel will not give in to international pressure to stall an attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah and will continue its bloody offensive against Hamas, said Benjamin Netanyahu.
“There is international pressure and it’s growing, but … we need to stand together against the attempts to stop the war,” the prime minister told a military graduation ceremony in southern Israel, saying that Israel’s forces would operate against Hamas all through the Gaza Strip “including Rafah, the last Hamas stronghold”.
He added: “Whoever tells us not to act in Rafah is telling us to lose the war and that will not happen.”
The uncompromising statement came just hours after news that Hamas had withdrawn its delegation from indirect ceasefire negotiations in Cairo, suggesting that the chances of even a short pause to the war in Gaza before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan are now very slim.
You can read Jason Burke’s full report here:
Julian Borger has also written an analysis piece on Biden’s plans for an aid pier in Gaza. You can read it here:
Two civilians have been killed in a Turkish airstrike in the mountainous Sheladiz area in northern Iraq’s Duhok province, two security sources said on Friday, reports Reuters.
You can watch key moments from US president Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, during which he announced an aid pier for Gaza, in the below video.
Biden announces US will build pier on Gaza shore for large-scale aid delivery
US forces will build a temporary dock on the Gaza shoreline to allow delivery of humanitarian aid on a large scale, Joe Biden announced in his State of the Union speech, amid warnings of a widespread famine among the territory’s 2.3 million Palestinians.
“Nearly two million more Palestinians under bombardment or displaced, homes destroyed, neighbourhoods in rubble, cities in ruin, families without food, water, medicine. It’s heartbreaking,” Biden said on Thursday night, declaring that the US was leading humanitarian relief efforts.
“Tonight, I’m directing the US military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters,” the president said.
He promised “no US boots will be on the ground”, and said: “This temporary pier would enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza every day.”
But Biden warned Israel that it “must also do its part.”
“To the leadership of Israel I say this,” he said. “Humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip. Protecting and saving innocent lives has to be a priority.”
You can read more of Julian Borger’s report from Washington here:
Updated
Opening summary
It has gone 9am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. This is our latest Guardian live blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis.
US President Joe Biden has warned Israel that it cannot use aid as a “bargaining chip” as he issued a call for an immediate, temporary ceasefire with Hamas in the bloody Gaza war.
“To the leadership of Israel I say this – humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip. Protecting and saving innocent lives has to be a priority,” Biden said in his annual State of the Union address.
Biden laid out a plan, announced by officials earlier in the day, to set up a temporary pier in the Mediterranean to bring aid into Gaza, where the UN has warned of the risk of famine.
Biden again said that Israel was justified in attacking Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, over the attack on 7 October and said that the militants “could end this conflict today” by releasing hostages.
But he called the impact on Gaza “heartbreaking”. The flow of aid has rarely been more than a trickle in relation to the vast needs of 2.3 million Palestinians. Fewer than 100 trucks a day are getting across.
Aid groups have said that efforts to deliver desperately needed supplies to the beleaguered territory have been hampered by difficulties coordinating with the Israeli military, ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of public order.
In other developments:
Delivering humanitarian supplies to Gaza by airdrops or sea cannot sufficiently “substitute” land deliveries, the UN aid coordinator for the Palestinian territory has said after a closed-door security council meeting. “The diversification of the supply routes via land” remains the “optimal solution,” Sigrid Kaag said.
A Hamas statement has confirmed that talks over a deal with Israel will continue, despite a Hamas delegation leaving Cairo where talks were being held, and a senior Hamas official claiming that Israel had “thwarted” any deal. Official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that Israel had been “thwarting” efforts to conclude a ceasefire deal mediated by Qatar and Egypt during the four days of talks, rejecting Hamas’s demands to end its offensive in the territory, withdraw its forces, and ensure freedom of entry for aid and the return of displaced people.
Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said “it is Hamas who is the stumbling block right now by not telling us who is alive and who they have in their custody”. Separately an Israeli official told the CNN network it believes Hamas is playing a “game”, and that the group does know where hostages are being held.
At least 30,800 Palestinians have been killed and 72,298 have been wounded since Israel began its military assault on Gaza after the 7 October Hamas attack inside Israel, according to the latest figures from the health ministry. In addition, the Palestinian Authority ministry of health – which is separate to the Hamas-led one that operates inside Gaza – says that 424 Palestinians have now been killed by Israeli security forces or settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since 7 October.
A UN expert said on Thursday that Israel was destroying Gaza’s food system as part of a broader “starvation campaign” in its war against Hamas militants and berated a UN human rights body for not doing more. “The images of starvation in Gaza are unbearable and you are doing nothing,” Michael Fakhri, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, said in a speech to the UN human rights council.
In its latest operational update Israel’s military says it continues “operations against terrorist infrastructure and operatives in Khan Younis and the central Gaza Strip”. It claims in the last 24 hours to have located “weapons manufacturing facility, explosive devices and military equipment” as well as having “dismantled command centers used by terror organizations in the Gaza Strip”.
Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will push on with its offensive in Gaza, including in Rafah, regardless of international pressure. Israel’s prime minister said “There is international pressure and it’s growing, but particularly when the international pressure rises, we must close ranks, we need to stand together against the attempts to stop the war.”
The health ministry in Gaza said Israel on Thursday returned 47 bodies of Palestinians it had killed earlier during the military offensive. Images appeared to show a mass gave being prepared near where people are sheltering in makeshift tent camps in Rafah.
Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, is reported to have instructed diplomats to push calls for the UN to declare Hamas a terrorist organisation in the wake of a UN report on sexual violence occurring during and after the 7 October attacks inside southern Israel.
Turkey’s Red Crescent is sending its biggest aid shipment yet to Gaza via Egypt, with a ship carrying about 3,000 tons of food, medicine and equipment leaving for the Egyptian port of Al-Arish.
The IDF has said that it struck on Thursday at what it described as two Hezbollah outposts inside Lebanon.
Lior Haiat, spokesperson for Israel’s foreign affairs ministry, has accused South Africa of acting “as the legal arm of Hamas in an attempt to undermine Israel’s inherent right to defend itself and its citizens, and to release all of the hostages”. South Africa has been pressing the international court of justice in The Hague to order Israel into a ceasefire.
Three crew members of the True Confidence dry bulk carrier were killed in a missile attack off Yemen on Wednesday, the owners and manager of the ship confirmed in a statement on Thursday. Two other crew members sustained serious injuries. The ship is drifting away from land and salvage arrangements are being made.
Russia’s Federal Security Service said it prevented an attack on a synagogue in Moscow that was plotted by an Islamic State cell.
Malaysia’s prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, has criticised the west for its attitude to the situation in Gaza during a speech in Australia. He said the west had been “so vociferous, vehement and unequivocal in the condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine” but “utterly silent on the relentless blood-letting inflicted on innocent men, women and children of Gaza”. Anwar said it would foolish to think these inconsistencies would “go unnoticed”.
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