Gaza live: Hamas rejects foreign military presence in Gaza

Hello MEE readers.

Inside Gaza famine and hunger continues to loom over the Palestinian population, with aid trucks continuing to pile up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, which Israel seized last week during its offensive on the area.

The US military said it has begun distributing aid to Gaza through its newly built floating pier, as trucks carrying aid have rolled across it reaching the besieged enclave.

The pier could bring up to 150 truckloads a day to Palestinians, US officials say, which is no substitute for land deliveries, where over 500 trucks entered Gaza on a daily basis prior to the war.

Here's what else you need to know about today's developments:

• Gaza death toll rises to 35,303
• Spain will not authorise ships carrying weapons to Israel to call at its ports, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Friday, after the country refused to let a ship call at the southeastern port of Cartagena
• The Israeli army said the fighting in northern Gaza's Jabalia is highly intense and some of the "most violent" in the entire war on Gaza
• The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that it has not been able to get medical aid into Gaza since 6 May
• Israeli forces rescued the bodies of three hostages from the Gaza Strip, chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Friday
• In a statement on Friday, Hamas said that the US-built pier off the besieged Gaza Strip is no alternative to opening all land crossings that should be under the supervision of Palestinians
• US evacuated 17 American doctors from Gaza: State Department
• Two senior American officials held indirect meeting with Iranian officials in Oman this week in an effort to avoid a regional escalation, according to the Axios news site

Two senior American officials held indirect meeting with Iranian officials in Oman this week in an effort to avoid a regional escalation, according to the Axios news site.

The talks focused on “clarifying the consequences of actions by Iran and its proxies in the region and to discuss US concerns regarding the status of Iran’s nuclear program,” according to two sources quoted in the report.

The Times of Israel reported that White House Middle East enoy Brett McGurk and special envoy on Iran Abram Paley were in Oman this week for the talks.

Israel’s Kan News reported that sources said that the negotiations on a ceasefire and captive-prisoner swap between Hamas and Israel “have been stopped”.

The main sticking point was the cessation of the war in exchange for the release of captives, it said.

“The sources said the gaps between the parties are very large with an emphasis on the definition of the term ‘end of the war’, and the Israeli demand for a veto on the names of ‘terrorists’ that Hamas wants released,” said the news report.

The deepening spat between Egypt and Israel over Rafah’s shuttered border crossing is putting the Biden administration in a bind, as the minor progress it made increasing humanitarian aid into Gaza slows to a snail's pace.

For months, the Biden administration has said it is prioritising surging more humanitarian aid into Gaza. While the amount of aid reaching Gaza had been minimal compared to before Israel’s invasion of the besieged enclave, US officials and aid workers had noted some small gains in deliveries.

The number of aid trucks entering Gaza had nearly doubled from 2,545 in the month of November to 5,671 in April, according to the UN. That amount was just 37 percent of the number of trucks entering Gaza before the war broke out on 7 October, when 80 percent of Gaza’s population relied on aid. But with the closing of Rafah’s border crossing, the situation has deteriorated further.

Read more: Israel-Egypt Rafah spat puts Biden in a bind

The Palestinian health ministry reported that an Israeli Apache aircraft in Jenin killed one and wounded four in a strike on a house, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

One of the injured is seriously wounded.

A house was the target of the assault in the occupied West Bank.

An Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon reported earlier on Friday killed Sharhabil al-Sayed, a Hamas operative in charge of the group’s operations in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley.

News agencies cited unnamed sources as saying al-Sayed was the main target. Hours earlier Israeli attacks killed a Hezbollah fighter and two children according to the group.

An Israeli fighter jet bombed a house in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Friday night, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

So far no casualties have been reported.

The United States on Friday evacuated 17 American doctors out of Gaza after they were stranded following an Israeli seizure of the Rafah Crossing closed the border with Egypt, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Friday.

US diplomats arranged for the 17 doctors to leave through the Kerem Shalom Crossing into Israel.

“They’re out. There was 20 American doctors, 17 are out now, came out today. And all 17, they wanted to, they wanted to leave — I won’t speak for the other three, but just, I can assure you that any of them that wanted to leave are out now,” Kirby said.

The White House said that Israel has assured them they they are willing to continue conversations before making major decisions on any Rafah operation.

The White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan will travel on Saturday to Saudi Arabia for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and also visit Israel to see Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Palestine’s envoy to the United Nations in an event in New York titled “1948-2024: The Ongoing Palestinian Nakba” shows the Israeli takeover of land is continuing but Palestinians are “here to stay”.

"The denial of our existence as a people continues, the denial of our rights continues, the denial of our statehood continues, but at least, Israel, unchecked and unhinged, has confessed to the Nakba it had denied so far,”

Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the UN Palestinian rights committee.

“Its extremist leaders say it unequivocally, they want a second Nakba, thus confessing to the first. A second Nakba that allows them to get rid of the Palestinian people once and for all, finish the job started decades ago.”

In a statement on Friday, Hamas said that the US-built pier off the besieged Gaza Strip is no alternative to opening all land crossings that should be under the supervision of Palestinians.

The statement added that the group rejects any foreign military presence on Palestinian land.

The Arab League announced on Thursday it was calling for a UN peacekeeping force on Palestinian Territories until a two state solution materialises.

The US has in recent months also been calling for a multinational Arab force to take over security in Gaza.

Sixteen Democratic lawmakers joined Republicans to pass a bill that would force the US to expedite all approved arms shipments to Israel, including those that the White House has delayed over concerns about its assault on Rafah.

The largely symbolic vote in the House of Representatives passed by a vote of 224-187, but has little chance of becoming law because it must pass the Democrat-controlled Senate.

The Biden administration also said it would veto the bill, claiming it “undermines” the president’s foreign policy.

The bill’s passage in the House of Representatives is notable, however, because 16 pro-Israel democratic lawmakers joined with Republicans in a sign of defiance of Biden’s decision to pause a shipment of 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs to Israel.

The lawmakers who broke ranks with their party include vocal democratic supporters of Israel such as Lois Frankel, Jared Moskowitz, Josh Gottheimer, and Ritchie Torres.

Read more: Sixteen Democrats join Republicans to override Biden's halt on bomb transfers to Israel
 

Attempts to “deprive the people of Gaza of urgently needed food is cynical”, said the Germany Foreign Office in a post on X.

Germany has been one of the chief supporters of Israel’s bloody assault on Gaza and provided weapons and diplomatic support to the country over the last 7 months of fighting in the besieged Strip.

Israeli strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon killed at least five people on Friday, including Lebanese and Palestinian fighters. Amongst the dead were also Syrian civilians, security sources told Reuters.

On Friday, a series of Israeli strikes on a coastal town further north than where previous strikes have taken place, killed a Hezbollah member as well as two Syrian civilians, the security sources said.

American business leaders and billionaires set up a Whatsapp group to shape public opinion on Israel's war in Gaza and urged New York City's mayor to use police to disperse a pro-Palestinian protest at Columbia University. 

The contents of the Whatsapp group were reported by the Washington Post on Thursday. 

The group was set up on 12 October, days after Hamas's surprise attack on southern Israel, to "change the narrative" on Israel, including by conveying "the atrocities committed by Hamas... to all Americans". 

Among the business leaders in the group were the CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, Dell CEO and founder Michael Dell, and Joshua Kushner, a financier and brother to Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. 

The contents of the chat were supplied to the Washington Post by unnamed people with direct access to it. 

Read more: US billionaires joined Whatsapp group to 'change Israel narrative'