Gaza live: Biden moves ahead with military aid for Israel as it launches ground assaults on Rafah

The Israeli army said twelve soldiers were wounded after being stung by wasps in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday.

The incident occured when a tank from the Gaza Division's Southern Brigade drove over a large wasp in the border area, near the Nirim kibbutz.

The insects then stung the troops, moderately injuring one and leaving 11 with light wounds.

They were all taken to a hospital in Israel for treatment.

A Belgian broadcaster interrupted its coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest semi-final on Thursday night to display a protest message condemning Israel's war on Gaza. 

In an act organised by a trade union, the screen briefly went black ahead of the semi-final coverage on VRT, Belgium's public-service broadcaster in Flemish. 

It then aired the message: "This is a union action. We condemn the human rights violations by the state of Israel. Moreover, the state of Israel destroys press freedom. Therefore, we are interrupting the broadcast momentarily." 

The message concluded with the hashtags "CeasefireNow" and "StopGenocide". 

READ MORE: Belgium broadcaster interrupts Eurovision semi final to condemn Israel's war on Gaza

Israel's onslaught on Gaza since October has taken a heavy toll on faith leaders from the majority Muslim population, but officials say they are undeterred.

Around 300 Islamic scholars and sheiks, including Quran instructors, Islamic preachers, and imams, have been killed so far in the military assaults, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Religious Affairs. 

Meanwhile, more than 500 mosques have been completely flattened, and dozens of mosques have been partially destroyed, including the historic Al-Omari Mosque.

Three churches have also been reduced to rubble, including the historic Church of Saint Porphyrius. The ministry’s main building and the Quran Podcast Institute were also struck and damaged by Israeli raids. 

READ MORE: Israel kills hundreds of imams offering message of hope and patience

Palestinians abducted by Israeli forces in Gaza are being "stripped [...] down of anything that resembles human beings", whistleblowers told CNN in a new investigation.

The pictures obtained by CNN from Sde Teiman, a military base that now also serves as a detention center in the Negev (Naqab) desert, show "rows of men in gray tracksuits are seen sitting on paper-thin mattresses, ringfenced by barbed wire. All appear blindfolded, their heads hanging heavy under the glare of floodlights".

The detainees were not allowed to speak, and therefore mumbled to each other.

"We were told they were not allowed to move," one whistleblower said. "They should sit upright. They’re not allowed to talk. Not allowed to peek under their blindfold."

Guards were reportedly instructed to scream "uscot" ("shut up" in Arabic) and to "pick people out that were problematic and punish them".

The investigation says that doctors sometimes amputated detainees's limbs "due to injuries sustained from constant handcuffing" and that underqualified medics were called to perform medical procedures. Some wounds were even left to rot.

The prisoners were placed under heavy physical restraint in the detention center, while the wounded ones are strapped to their beds in a field hospital, wearing diapers and fed through straws. Detainees were also often beaten.

"[The beatings] were not done to gather intelligence," another whistleblower said. "They were done out of revenge. It was punishment for what they (the Palestinians) did on October 7 and punishment for behavior in the camp."

Arizona State University (ASU) said that Jonathan Yudelman, a postdoctoral researcher who was involved in the verbal assault of a woman wearing a hijab, was terminated and will no longer be allowed to enter campus to teach.

"He is no longer permitted to be on campus and will never teach here again," ASU President Michael Crow said in a statement to CNN.

Yudelman was recognised in a video where he seemed to be partaking in the intimidation of two people near a pro-Israel rally in a social media video that has since gone viral.

Israel’s Channel 12 says that Israeli Finance Minster Bezalel Smotrich is reportedly withholding some 170 million shekels ($46m) in tax revenue for the Palestinian Authority.

Quoting anonymous sources, the channel says the funds have been withheld for nine days in response to the PA's attempt to get the International Ciminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials over alleged war crimes in the war on Gaza.

Israel collects tax revenues on behalf of the PA, and had previously threatened to take actions that would lead to the PA's collapse should the ICC ever issue arrest warrants.

Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth leaked comments from last night's security cabinet meeting, in which ministers reportedly discussed far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir's "Hamas loves Biden" post on X.

The meeting was scheduled to discuss Israel's response to US President Joe Biden's decision to withhold arms shipments should an large-scale invasion of Rafah take place.

Ben Gvir defended his post, saying that he was "gentle, relative to what most Israelis think".

"We need to talk to the Americans with respect — but make it clear that if there are sanctions on us then there will be less humanitarian aid" to Palestinians in Gaza, he was quoted saying.

"To speak with respect like your tweet?" Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reportedly responded.

The report said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu burst out laughing when Science and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel said "He’s a romantic — he even added a heart emoji".

Ben Gvir apparently doubled down and said, "Such tweets will multiply".

"I expect all ministers to join me. There is support for what I said not only by [Republican presidential candidate Donald] Trump, who made very important comments, but also by some Democrats."

War cabinet minister Gabi Einsenkot then told Ben Gvir to remain respectful towards Biden.

In the weeks following the establishment of the first Gaza solidarity encampment in the US, much has been written on the subject of chants, antisemitism and campus culture wars in an effort to shift focus away from the genocidal acts taking place on the ground in Palestine.

As students organising in solidarity with the Palestinian people, we understand that we must reject this discourse. Our duty is to keep our demands principled, our solidarity unconditional and to keep all our eyes on Gaza.

We refuse to spread the Israeli occupation’s propaganda, to condemn the Palestinian resistance, to decentre Palestine in our organising, or to allow Yale University to continue its complicity in the genocidal war on Gaza.

The encampments at Yale and other university campuses have demonstrated that the masses of students, faculty and workers in this country will not rest until institutions of higher education disclose their investments, divest from the Israeli occupation and all companies complicit in war and colonisation, and reinvest in our communities - or, in the case of this institution, pay its fair share in taxes to New Haven.

READ MORE: From Yale to Gaza, we are globalising the intifada, opinion by Craig Birckhead-Morton and Yasmin Zainab Bergemann

The Israeli army said that it had intercepted two rockets launched from the Rafah area to the Kerem Shalom kibbutz near the southern Gaza Strip.

Unrwa, the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, said that around 110,000 people have fled Rafah as Israeli bombardments have intensified in the area.

The agency emphasises that "nowhere is safe in the Gaza Strip and living conditions are atrocious".

"The only hope is an immediate ceasefire."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel can "stand alone" after the US warned it would halt arms shipments if a large-scale invasion of Rafah takes place.

"If we need to ... we will stand alone. I have said that if necessary we will fight with our fingernails," he said.

Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda and social media publisher AJ+ won the Peabody Award, one of the highest honours in journalism, for their coverage of the impact Israel's war on Gaza has had on Palestinians in the enclave.

Owda rose to prominence for her videos on social media that detailed life in Gaza since the beginning of the war.

"Reporting from her makeshift tent outside the medical centre, [Bisan] shows what survival looks like for her and the masses around her, drawing on her indomitable spirit to keep the world informed of the day-to-day reality on the ground in Gaza," the Peabody board of jurors said in a statement announcing the award winners.

Owda dedicated her award to university students and others protesting for Palestine across the globe.

"To all the people who took to the streets. To all the people at home who are participating in boycotts. To all the people worldwide, regardless of their religion, colour, and ethnicity," she said.

The Union Theological Seminary (UTS), an affiliate college to Columbia University, announced that its board of trustees endorsed a policy of divestment from "companies substantially and intractably benefiting from the war in Palestine".

The institution becomes of the first in the US to announce a plan to divest its endowment from companies linked to Israel's war in Gaza.

UTS houses Columbia's constituent faculty of theology, but has a separate endowment from the university. A spokesperson told Columbia Spectator that UTS's endowment is worth $110 million.

“Our investment policies will continue to adapt, guided by our values, to strengthen the resolve that undergirds our decision today,” the statement reads.

“We do not take this step lightly, and we do so with all humility, recognising that our work on the global stage is far from finished. Although our investments in the war in Palestine are small because our previous, strong anti-armament screens are robust, we hope that our action today will bring needed pressure to bear to stop the killing and find a peaceful future for all.”

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates:

• Former Palestinian prisoner Ahmad Ghoneim was killed along with three members of his family in an Israeli air strike on Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip
• Clashes are reported between Palestinian armed groups and Israeli forces in eastern Rafah, while the Israeli army is conducting operations in several areas of the city
• Martin Griffiths, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the UN, said on Thursday that no one had been allowed to enter or leave Gaza for three days
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country is ready to "fight with our fingernails", after US warnings that arms supplies could be halted should an invasion of Rafah take place
• Axios reports that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to tell Congress today that Israel has not violated international law during its war on Gaza
• The UN General Assembly is expected to vote on a resolution that grants new "rights and privileges" to the State of Palestine and calls on the UN Security Council to favourably consider its bid for full UN membership

Good evening MEE readers. On Thursday, both delegations from Israel and Hamas left Cairo after the latest round of negotiations, with the current progress for a ceasefire in the war in Gaza at a standstill.

Sources familiar with the negotiations told MEE that Hamas did not entertain any changes to the proposal they accepted earlier this week after Israel walked away from the deal.

The sources said that Hamas 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.

Meanwhile, an Israeli official declared the talks over and said that Israel planned to proceed with its military operations in Rafah and elsewhere in Gaza.

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

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

• The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-aligned militias, said it launched a drone strike on an Israeli military base.

• A group of Israeli settlers on Thursday launched several attacks on the headquarters of Unrwa in East Jerusalem, setting fire to the perimeter of the building. The attack forced the compound to shut down.

• The US performed another airdrop of humanitarian assistance over northern Gaza, this time doing it in coordination with Jordan's military.

• More than 1,600 Columbia University alumni signed a letter pledging to withhold "all financial, programmatic, and academic support" to the university until a list of 13 demands is met. Chief among those demands is divestment from companies profiting off of Israel's occupation.

• After US President Biden on Wednesday said the country could hold weapons transfers if Israel launches a full-scale invasion of Rafah, Israel's military spokesperson said it had enough munitions to go ahead with its operations.