live blog
Given the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, US President Biden has described the actions of the Israeli armed forces against Hamas as “excessive”. According to Israel, 30 rockets were fired from Lebanon. The developments in the live blog.
According to the health authority controlled by the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas, 107 people were killed and 142 injured in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours. Since the start of the war, a total of 27,947 people have been killed and 67,459 injured in Israeli attacks. The number of victims could be much higher, as many people are missing and are likely to be lying under the rubble of destroyed buildings.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by the Palestinian and Israeli conflict parties cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
Israeli airstrikes left at least nine people dead in the Gaza Strip last night. This is reported by the AP news agency. Eyewitnesses and hospital officials said children were among those killed in the center of the isolated coastal area and in the southern town of Rafah. The attacks reportedly hit a residential building in Rafah and a kindergarten in the city of Suwayda that had been converted into a shelter for displaced people. The dead and wounded were taken to nearby hospitals, where the bodies were seen by AP journalists.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warns of a “humanitarian nightmare” in Gaza if Israel launches a military offensive in Rafah. Half of the Gaza Strip’s population is now “crammed together” in the city on the border with Egypt and has nowhere else to go, Guterres wrote on Platform X this morning: “Reports that the Israeli military wants to attack Rafah next are alarming. Such an action would deepen the humanitarian nightmare and could have untold consequences for the entire region.”
U.S. Central Command forces reported seven self-defense missions against four Houthi unmanned boats and another seven missions against anti-ship missiles that were reportedly about to be fired at cargo ships in the Red Sea.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by the Palestinian and Israeli conflict parties cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
US President Joe Biden has toughened his tone towards Israel and described the actions against the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza war as disproportionate. “I believe the response in Gaza is excessive,” Biden said at the White House.
There are many innocent people who are starving, in need or even dying. “That has to stop.” Biden added that he was working hard to bring about a permanent pause in the fighting in the Gaza Strip.
During his appearance in front of reporters, the Democrat actually spoke about a domestic political issue, but at the end he answered a question about the crisis in the Middle East.
After the Israeli attack on a leader of the Islamist Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, around 30 rockets were fired at Israel from the country. The target was the northern Israeli areas of Ein Seitim and Dalton, an Israeli army spokesman told the AFP news agency. According to current knowledge, no one was injured.
There have been demonstrations in Israeli cities for and against a possible hostage agreement with Hamas. The US has emphasized that it does not support Israel’s plans for major military operations in Rafah.