Gaza live: 600,000 children under threat as Israel says Rafah operation to proceed

Hamas's armed wing said it detonated a booby-trapped tunnel in Rafah, as Israeli forces continue to attack the city in southern Gaza.

Israel's military confirmed the explosion and said three soldiers were wounded.

The Israeli military has the amount of munitions it requires to proceed with its operations in Rafah, as well as operations in other parts of Gaza, Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said.

On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden said Washington would suspend arms transfers if Israel invades Rafah.

Israel has already launched an operation into Rafah, seizing the crossing with Egypt, but the Biden administration says this is not the "full-scale" invasion it is opposed to.

A senior Hamas delegation left Cairo for Doha early on Thursday, and sources familiar with the negotiations are telling MEE that they did not entertain any changes to the proposal they accepted earlier this week after Israel walked away from the deal.

Sources told MEE that the Palestinian group was still committed to the deal proposed by mediators earlier in the week, but Hamas was leaving Cairo after two days of talks with mid-ranking Israeli officials that failed to yield a breakthrough.

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Hamas delegation leaves Cairo after Israel rejects ceasefire proposal

A senior Israeli official told Reuters that during negotiations in Cairo, Israel submitted its reservations about the latest ceasefire proposal, and added that Israel will proceed with its operation in Rafah as planned.

The official said that this round of negotiations in Cairo is over.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said that if Israel undertakes a major invasion of Rafah, it will not advance Israel and the US's objective of defeating Hamas. 

"Smashing into Rafah, in his view, will not advance that objective," Kirby said in a news briefing.

Israel has already launched an operation into Rafah, seizing the crossing between Egypt and Gaza, but Washington says this operation is not the full-scale invasion that it is opposed to.

Reuters is reporting, citing two Egyptian officials, that Israel's delegation and CIA director William Burns have left Cairo after talks regarding the potential ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

Slovenia has initiated the procedure for the recognition of a Palestinian state, the country's Prime Minister Robert Golob said.

The move, which was announced in March, is being used as leverage to end Israel's war in Gaza.

"The horrors we see every day in Gaza are inadmissible and must stop," Golob was quoted as saying on the government's X account.

"I call on Israel to put an immediate end to its attacks on Gaza and to use the negotiating table."

The date of Slovenia's official recognition depends on the ongoing negotiations around a ceasefire, but Golob said 13 June would be the latest they would push the recognition.

The leader Yemen's Houthi movement, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, said that the group would continue to target ships of any company linked to supplying or transporting goods to Israel regardless of their destination.

He said this was in retaliation to "the Israeli aggression on Rafah" in southern Gaza, according to Reuters.

Israeli contestant Eden Golan's dress rehearsal performance at the Eurovision Song Contest was met with boos and shouts of "Free Palestine" from the audience.

"Easily the most booing I've ever heard at #Eurovision but no major disruptions of Israel at the first show with a crowd," journalist Ben Rothenberg posted on X, formerly Twitter.

One person who said they attended the show said several members of the audience left during Eden Golan's performance of "Hurricane", and returned for the following contestant.

"Eurovision ignored public backlash and outrage from other musicians over Israel being allowed to perform at Eurovision while it continues its genocidal slaughter in Gaza," posted another user alongside a clip from the show.

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Eurovision: Israel's contestant booed on stage as boycott calls continue

The Sinai Foundation for Human Rights said hospitals and blood banks in the North Sinai governorate have declared a critical state of emergency as they prepare to receive an influx of wounded Palestinians.

The measure is part of a contingency plan in the event the Rafah crossing reopens after it was taken over by the Israeli army in recent days, medical sources told the foundation.

The sources said that public and central hospitals have been recommended to release patients who are in recovery to ensure capacity to receive Palestinians.

Germany's Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger rebuked a letter of support from around 100 lecturers at Berlin universities in support of pro-Palestine protesters.

"This statement from educators at Berlin universities is staggering. Instead of taking a clear stand against hatred of Israel and Jews, university occupiers are being turned into the victims and violence trivialised," Stark-Watzinger told tabloid Bild newspaper.

Dozens of lecturers from several universities in Berlin signed a letter declaring they stand with their students and "defend" their right to peacefully protest, "regardless of whether we agree with the specific demands of the protest camp".

"We call on the Berlin university management to refrain from police operations against their own students as well as from further criminal prosecution," the statement continued.

Berlin conservative mayor, Kai Wegner, also criticised the letter, saying: "I have absolutely no sympathy for the authors of this pamphlet."

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told Israel's "enemies and friends" that it would do whatever necessary to achieve its war objectives in Gaza and the north, in an apparent response to US pressure to halt its operation in Rafah.

Gallant made the comments on Wednesday, after US President Joe Biden warned he would halt weapons supplies if Israel invades Rafah. 

"I turn to Israel's enemies as well as to our best of friends and say - the State of Israel cannot be subdued," he said, according to remarks released by his office.

"We will stand strong, we will achieve our goals - we will hit Hamas, we will hit Hezbollah, and we will achieve security."

The comments highlight the scale of the standoff between the Biden administration and the Israeli government.

The State Department has been urged to submit a delayed report to Congress on whether Israel is violating international humanitarian law in Gaza.

On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden told CNN that civilians had been killed as a consequence of US-supplied bombs and “other ways they go after population centers”.

Now Noura Erakat, human rights lawyer and associate professor at Rutgers University, and Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned in protest in late October, say Biden's comments should trigger the government to act immediately.

Erakat and Paul are the co-chairs of an independent taskforce which submitted evidence last month to the US government to show that Israel is using American weapons in violation of US National Security Memorandum-20.

Under the memorandum, the State Department had been due to deliver its report on Wednesday into Israel’s use of weapons in Gaza, but missed the deadline.

“Based on President Biden's acknowledgement, there is no remaining reason why the report should not accurately reflect Israel's misuse of US-provided weapons in violation of international law and US military best practice,” Erakat and Paul said in a statement on Thursday.

Relaxing Turkey's ban on exports to Israel is "out of the question" though companies have three months to fulfill existing orders via third countries, a Turkish trade ministry source said.

In a document seen by Reuters, the Trade Ministry outlined the three-month reprieve for companies exporting to Israel. Ankara introduced the trade ban with Israel last week.

Separately, Israel's foreign minister said on Thursday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had retreated on his earlier position and lifted many of the trade restrictions he imposed on Israel.

Reporting by Reuters.

A vessel carrying humanitarian aid to a US-built pier off Gaza set sail from Cyprus in the morning, in the first delivery to the recently built floating ramp, Cypriot officials said.

US officials have said the vessel will be used to offload supplies onto the pier built to expedite the delivery of aid into the besieged Gaza Strip.

Rights groups have stressed that the most effective way to help people in Gaza is through the entry of aid by land, saying that deliveries by sea will not be enough to address the acute humanitarian crisis in the enclave. 

The Israeli military has closed the Rafah crossing and the Kerem Shalom crossing thia week, cutting off the entry of food, supplies, and fuel.