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

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.

Trinity College Dublin has announced it will divest from Israeli companies involved in the occupation of Palestine after a sit-in by students protesting against the war on Gaza.

Ireland's most prestigious university decided to end its investments in Israeli companies after talks with the protesters.

It marks a significant victory for the global campus movement, which has involved students establishing encampments within university grounds demanding that their institutions cut ties with Israel.

In the United States, riot police have violently dispersed protesters and Congress is working to pass legislation that widens the definition of antisemitism to include criticism of Israel.

In France and the Netherlands, police have also used violence to evict protesters from their universities.

Read more: Trinity College Dublin divests from firms involved in Israel's occupation of Palestine

Foreign Secretary David Cameron described Britain's system and scale of arms exports to Israel as completely different from those in the United States, saying the sales it licences were relatively small and policed by strict procedures.

Cameron was responding to a question on whether Britain would follow the US after it warned that it would withhold weapons from Israel in case of a major invasion of Rafah.

"There's a very fundamental difference between the US situation and the UK situation," Cameron said after a speech.

"The US is a massive state supplier of weapons to Israel ... we do not have a UK Government supply of weapons to Israel, we have a number of licences, and I think our defence exports to Israel are responsible for significantly less than 1% of their total."

Reporting by Reuters

Gaza's health ministry said in a new press release that Israel's closing of the enclave's border crossings constituted "a new genocide" as it prevented travel for wounded and sick people and blocked the entry of "aid, medicine, medical supplies, food, trucks, and the fuel needed to operate hospitals".

"Every hour, we lose some of the wounded from previous inspections who were waiting to travel to neighbouring countries, but [Israel]'s control of the crossing and its closure prevented the travel of these wounded," the statement read.

The ministry added that the Rafah Governorate's only dialysis center stopped operating due to Israeli bombings and threats.

The minsitry launched an "urgent and humanitarian appeal" to pressure and take action in order to open the crossings, provide treatment to those in need and allow necessary aid in.

"The wounded and sick will suffer a slow death because there is no treatment [or] supplies and there is no possibility for them to travel," the statement read.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog called Ben Gvir's post on X criticising US President Joe Biden "irresponsible and insulting", emphasising that the American leader is "a great friend of the State of Israel".

Speaking at a state ceremony commemorating the Allies's victory over Nazi Germany, Herzog also addressed Biden's decision to withhold arms transfers to Israel should an invasion of Rafah take place.

"In the context of this morning’s news, it is important for me to say that even when there are disagreements and moments of disappointment between friends and allies, the disputes should be resolved in a certain way, and it is beholden upon all of us to avoid baseless, irresponsible and insulting statements and tweets that harm the national security and the interests of the State of Israel," he said.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir had previously posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that "Hamas [loves] Biden" as an apparent reaction to the threat of withholding weapons.

A UN-commissioned report has finally confirmed what many Palestinians knew to be true: there is no evidence that any employees of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, in Gaza participated in the 7 October attack on Israel.

Yet for seven months, the Israeli government has waged an aggressive smear campaign against the UN agency during its ongoing genocide in Gaza - driving several countries to suspend life-saving aid while targeting its employees, schools, warehouses and facilities in deadly strikes.

Many have argued that Israel is explicitly targeting and seeking to destroy Unrwa as part of its strategy to eliminate the Palestinian refugee issue and the right of return.

Globally, Unrwa has become synonymous with the intractable Palestinian refugee crisis and is recognised for its work to sustain Palestinian life and resilience, particularly in the camps.

READ MORE: For Palestinian refugees, Unrwa means survival and protection of their identity, opinion by Wesam Sabaaneh

Quoting security sources, Reuters said that the four people killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle near Balfiyeh, south Lebanon, were members of the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

Gaza's health ministry said 60 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on the Palestinian enclave in the past 24 hours, bringing the total t0 34,904 killed since 7 October.

Additionally, 78,514 have been wounded since the start of the war.

Four people have been killed by the reported Israeli drone strike on a vehicle near the town of Bafliyeh, south Lebanon, medical sources told Al Jazeera.

Unrwa, the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, said that around 80,000 people have fled Rafah since Israel launched an intensified military operation in the area on Monday.

"The toll on these families is unbearable," the UN agency said on X. "Nowhere is safe. We need a ceasefire now."

An alleged Israeli drone strike on a vehicle near the town of Bafliyeh, southern Lebanon has killed two people and wounded a third, a medical source told Al Jazeera.

In an apparent response to US President Joe Biden's decision to stop offensive arms shipments to Israel should it invade Rafah, Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir posted on X: "Hamas [loves] Biden".