May 10, 2024 Israel-Hamas war

Israel's security cabinet approved an “expansion of the area of operation” in Rafah late Thursday, an Israeli official said, one day after President Joe Biden threatened to withhold US weapons if Israel carries out an all-out offensive in the city.

The approval is a way for the cabinet to express its support for expanding military operations in Rafah and empowers the war cabinet to continue to make military decisions there without further consulting the security cabinet.

The approval is not an indication of an imminent expansion of Israeli military operations in Rafah.

Biden on Wednesday warned he would halt some shipments of American weapons to Israel — which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza — if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a "major invasion" of the city of Rafah.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas applauded the UN General Assembly's overwhelming vote Friday in favor of the UN Security Council's reconsideration of Palestine's full UN membership.

He thanked countries that supported the resolution, which he said in a statement is “consistent with international law and expresses the international consensus in isolating the occupation and its crimes and serious violations of international legitimacy.”

Abbas added that, “in light of this vote, the State of Palestine will continue its endeavor to obtain full membership in the United Nations by a decision of the Security Council." 

He called on the US to withdraw its veto and support the Palestinian Authority's full UN membership.

Abbas highlighted the vote -- which also granted the Palestinian Authority additional rights within the UN system but not full membership -- as a restoration of faith in international legitimacy and law, crucial for regional peace.

Israel's Foreign Affairs Minister Israel Katz has condemned the passing of the UN General Assembly resolution on Friday calling for the UN Security Council to reconsider UN Membership for the Palestinian Authority.

Katz said the decision would further complicate negotiations surrounding the release of hostages held in Gaza, by providing "a tailwind to Hamas."

The foreign minister thanked the countries that did not vote in favor of the resolution, who he says chose to "stand on the right side of history and morality."

A United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution calling on the UN Security Council to reconsider Palestinian membership to the UN passed on Friday, with 143 votes in favor, nine votes against and 25 abstaining. 

The resolution calls for the Security Council to "reconsider the matter favourably," and stresses that the Palestinian Authority be granted UN membership, saying, "the State of Palestine is qualified for membership in the United Nations."

In a poignant address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Friday ahead of a crucial vote in the body, Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour spoke passionately about the plight of his people, highlighting the dire situation in Gaza.

The UNGA session saw a vote on a draft resolution calling on the UN Security Council to reconsider the Palestinian Authority's UN membership bid -- which passed with 143 votes in favor.

Mentioning ongoing protests at Columbia University, Mansour paused briefly.

Mansour asserted Palestinian resilience, noting the symbolic significance of their flag flying proudly both in the Palestinian Territories and across the globe, including at Columbia University.

He underscored the urgent need for global solidarity in support of Gaza, stressing that while Palestinians will not disappear, the lives lost and the scars inflicted cannot be undone.

A United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution calling on the UN Security Council to reconsider Palestinian membership to the UN passed on Friday, with 143 votes in favor, nine votes against and 25 abstaining. 

The resolution calls for the Security Council to "reconsider the matter favourably," and stresses that the Palestinian Authority be granted UN membership, saying, "the State of Palestine is qualified for membership in the United Nations."

Prior to the start of the UNGA session, the US Mission to the UN indicated that if the resolution was adopted and the membership application sent to the Security Council, the US would veto it again, saying, "We expect a similar outcome to what occurred in April."

The US mission said the Palestinian Authority does not meet the criteria for UN membership and that the resolution does not resolve concerns previously raised about Palestinian membership.

In April, the Palestinian Authority relaunched its membership request, and later that month, the US vetoed the Palestinian attempt to achieve membership status. The vote in the Security Council saw 12 members in favor and one against, in addition to the US veto. Israel commended the US veto, calling the Palestinian bid a "shameful proposal" while the Palestinian Authority presidency called the veto "unfair, immoral and unjustified".

In September 2011, the Palestinian Authority failed to win UN recognition as an independent member state. A year later, the UN decided that the Palestinian Authority's "non-member observer entity" status would be changed to "non-member observer state," similar to the Vatican.

People fleeing from the southern Gaza city of Rafah have described arriving in Khan Younis only to find it "completely destroyed," with dire living conditions.

The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) estimates nearly 110,000 people have fled Rafah since Monday, after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued an evacuation order. Many of them arrived in Khan Younis, only to reach an area already devastated by war.

Amana added that her family had left Rafah under the bombardment, which was a "horror scene."

Another man named Fayez Abu Amsha, originally a resident of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, told CNN that he and his family were told to flee to Rafah in the early days of the war.

Amsha and his family fled to Khan Younis to find an UNRWA school in the city "totally and completely destroyed and uninhabitable."

Another elderly lady named Fatama Al-Masri, from Beit Hanoun, described dire living conditions in Khan Younis, including no water electricity or running water, and being left with no choice but to "defecate on the dirt."

UN chief Antonio Guterres warned on Friday that a massive ground attack in Rafah would lead to an "epic humanitarian disaster" as well as "pull the plug on our efforts to support people as famine looms."

It comes as ceasefire-for-hostage talks are on “pause” while Israel steps up its military operation in Rafah, two US officials told CNN.

Guterres also stressed that the situation in Rafah "is on a knife's edge," as airstrikes continue throughout southern Gaza.

Guterres then reiterated his calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the immediate and unconditional release of hostages and the massive surge in life-saving aid.

The situation in Gaza has reached "even more unprecedented levels of emergency," with every single crossing into Rafah remaining closed, the United Nations' humanitarian body warned Friday.

Speaking from Rafah via video link during a UN briefing, the head of the Gaza sub-office of UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Georgios Petropoulos said that "the recent evacuation order that we had from the government of Israel, linked to the military operation in Rafah, is now counting 110,000-plus displaced people having to move north," noting that most of these are "people who have had to displace five or six times."

The closure of the vital crossing has "severed access to fuel, supplies and the movement of humanitarian staff," Petropoulos said, adding that it has also affected the movement of "any civilian or medical evacuation."

If a sustainable solution is not found quickly, Petropoulos warned that "our aid activities will halt within the next two days."

In terms of the food, the WFP and UNWRA "will run out of food for distribution in the south by tomorrow. What that means is that people will be left only with what has been distributed in their shelters and on site," he said.

It is unclear how much aid is entering Gaza since the closing of the Kerem Shalom last week, and the Israeli capture of the Rafah crossing on Tuesday. 

The IDF claimed that “dozens of humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza via the Kerem Shalom Crossing" on Thursday, and that "the IDF makes every effort to provide a constant flow of aid to civilians while Hamas repeatedly shoots at Kerem Shalom".

The Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah has received nine dead bodies in the last 24 hours on Friday, amid intense Israeli strikes overnight. 

In a statement released on their official WhatsApp account, the hospital says a 9-year-old and 15-year-old were among the dead. 

The Kuwaiti hospital is the last operational hospital in Gaza since Israel ordered the immediate evacuation of eastern Rafah on Monday.

So far, 17 injured people were also brought to the hospital in the last 24 hours. 

On Friday, the IDF said it was "continuing a precise counterterrorism operation in specific areas of eastern Rafah."

"Several sites located in the area of Rafah from which rockets and mortars were fired at Israel over the last few days, including toward the Kerem Shalom Crossing, were struck by IDF aircraft," the IDF said in a statement, adding their troops had engaged in "close-quarters combat" on the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing.