al jazeera“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centres,” Biden said in an interview when asked about 2,000-pound (900kg) bombs sent by the US to Israel.
Tens of thousands of displaced, terrified and exhausted Palestinians pack up their belongings and flee Rafah as Hamas-Israel fighting intensifies in the eastern area of the overcrowded city and as aid organisations warn of a looming “catastrophe”.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says Hamas and Israel are not far apart on a ceasefire and “they should do what they can to get to a deal”.
At least 34,844 people have been killed and 78,404 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from Hamas’s October 7 attacks stands at 1,139 with dozens of people still held captive.
The Israeli military has announced that a soldier has been killed in the northern Israeli community of Malkia.
The soldier, a 20-year-old with the Field Intelligence Corps’ 869th Battalion, was killed in a mortar and missile attack carried out on Wednesday by Hezbollah from southern Lebanon.
The Lebanese armed group said on Wednesday that it carried out 12 attacks on various Israeli positions across the border, including buildings housing Israeli troops in the towns of Manara and Shlomi.
Two Israeli soldiers were also killed on Monday in a Hezbollah drone attack on an Israeli military position near the northern Israeli town of Metula.
Doug Bandow, senior fellow at the Cato Institute think tank in Washington, DC, spoke to Al Jazeera earlier about the likely fallout from Biden’s warning that arms supplies to Israel could be suspended if a ground invasion of Rafah proceeds.
“It’s going to be a very real challenge if they [Israel] lose access to these munitions,” Bandow said.
“It’s going to be harder for them to prosecute the war.
“Netanyahu’s political future really depends on keeping the war going. If there was an election tomorrow, he’d almost certainly lose. He is also going to be under extraordinary pressure from other coalition partners [in his government]. They want the war to continue. They threatened to abandon him if he doesn’t.
“Almost any Israeli is going to feel some frustration at being told by the US how it should run its [military] campaign. So I suspect they may go ahead and try a game of geopolitical chicken with the US.
“They certainly have a lot [of munitions]. But this kind of campaign [in Gaza], they’ve expended an awful lot.
“What’s important is if you launch a campaign, you want to know that your supplies are secure.
“It’s hard to run a campaign if you’re not certain that the resupply is coming.”
Students at Trinity College in the Irish capital have ended their protest and will dismantle their Gaza solidarity encampment after their demands to divest from Israel were met by the university’s leadership.
In a statement posted on its website, Trinity College Dublin said that “an agreement was reached” after “successful talks between” the university’s senior management and the protesters.
Laszlo Molnarfi, president of the university’s student union and organiser of the protests, said the university’s statement was a “testament to grassroots student-staff power”.
“There are decades where nothing happens and weeks where decades happen. 5 days is all it took for @tcddublin to commit to fully divesting from Israel,” he said on social media.
The university said it “will complete a divestment from investments in Israeli companies that have activities in the occupied Palestinian Territory and appear on the UN blacklist in this regard”.
Mr.BadGuy
Publisher
Mr.BadGuy
Publisher
These soldiers are from a country whose president is a Jew Zelensky. Orthodox churches are also being destroyed in this country. Synagogues are not touched. Surprisingly, it turns out that Jews get along well with the Bandera Nazis.