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

Egypt lodged a complaint to Israel over Israeli troops flying their flag over the Rafah crossing, Haaretz reported.

The complaint underscored the Egyptians' concerns that Israel’s seizure of the crossing made it difficult to “downplay” the Israeli attack with their public, according to the report. 

India’s government-owned Munitions India Ltd was permitted to export armaments to Israel until January 2024 and has applied for another export licence amid the war in Gaza.

Middle East Eye reported in February that the Israeli army was set to include Indian-made Hermes 900 drones in its expanding fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), in a move human rights activists and defence analysts said implicated India in Israel’s war on Gaza.

The Munitions India Ltd shipments are separate. The firm specialises in the production of small, medium and high-calibre ammunition, mortars, rockets, and hand grenades.

Read More: Indian-made Israeli 'killer' drones set to make their way to Gaza

Israel plans to transfer control of the Rafah border crossing to a private US security firm, according to a report by Haaretz.

According to the report, Israel is negotiating with an unnamed company, which deploys former elite US soldiers to strategic cities in Africa and the Middle East.

The expectation is that the Israeli and the US governments can help the firm if needed.

Social media users have heaped praise on Grammy Award-winning rapper Macklemore after his latest song took aim at US President Joe Biden and the American political establishment over their unwavering support for Israel, Middle East Eye reports. 

"The blood is on your hands, Biden, we can see it all," the US rapper said in "Hind’s Hall," a track released late on Monday as Israel escalated its devastating assault on Gaza.

The title, Hind's Hall, is a reference to Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall, which pro-Palestine protesters had occupied and renamed after Hind Rajab, a five-year-old child who was killed by Israel in January.

"The problem isn't the protests / it's what they're protestin' / It goes against what our country is fundin'."

Read More: US rapper Macklemore releases pro-Palestine track slamming Biden and lauding protesters

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Hamas and Israel should be able to close the remaining gaps in a ceasefire deal.

He confirmed talks brokered by Egypt and Qatar had resumed in Cairo.

He added that Israel told the US its seizure of the Rafah crossing was designed to prevent Hamas from smuggling funds and weapons into Gaza, and that the US was working to resume aid shipments

Israel is pummeling Rafah, with Palestinian media reporting blasts in the al-Geneina neighbourhood, east of Rafah.

Videos posted on social media showed large smoke clouds billowing from apartment blocs.

Israel also launched strikes on al-Salam Mill in the central Gaza Strip, Palestinian media reported.

Israel says 12 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip at Israeli communities near the besieged enclave.

The Israeli military said five rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome system. The other seven landed in open areas with no casualties reported.

The US is stalling the shipment of two types of Boeing-made precision bombs to Israel to send a message off its disapproval of Israel's offensive on Gaza, Politico reported.

The Biden administration notified the top Republican and Democratic lawmakers on the Senate and House foreign affairs committees in January of the sale, but has not followed up with an official notification to Congress, the WSJ reported earlier.

Politico reported that the stalling was meant to send a message to Israel’s government. The report was published Tuesday, the day after Israel attacked Rafah. 

The sale includes $260m worth of Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) and bombs. JDAM’s allow bombs to be guided to their targets.

Germany has warned against a “major offensive” in Rafah and called for aid corridors to reopen “immediately.”

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said Israel couldn’t attack the southern Gaza border town and expect "a million people" to “simply vanish into thin air,” referring to the roughly 1.5 million Palestinians sheltering there.

“They need protection. They urgently need further humanitarian aid. To achieve this, the Rafah and Kerem Shalom border crossings must be reopened immediately,” she said.

Israel’s capture of the Rafah border crossing means Gaza is “choked off” of aid, UN agencies say.

UN humanitarian office spokesperson Jens Laerke said Israel has closed both the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israeli proper and the Rafah crossing from Egypt.

“The two main arteries for getting aid into Gaza are currently choked off,” Laerke said, adding UN agencies had very low stocks inside the Gaza Strip. The enclave has just a one-day buffer of fuel supplies, he said. 

“If no fuel comes in for a prolonged period of time it would be a very effective way of putting the humanitarian operation in its grave,” he said.

The World Food Programme echoed those dire warnings.

“Erez will simply not be enough,” James Elder, a spokesperson for the United Nations children’s agency said, referring to a northern border crossing where aid is trickling in.

“If Rafah gate closes for an extended period, it’s hard to see how famine in Gaza can be averted.”

Hamas’s ceasefire proposal on Monday was intended to “sabotage” Israel’s offensive on Rafah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

“That did not happen,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.

He added that the Hamas ceasefire proposal “falls far short of Israel’s essential demands.”

Israeli soldiers opened fire on an 8-year-old Palestinian boy outside Jericho in the occupied West Bank on Monday night and later detained him, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Jude Ashraf Walid Hamidat, was taken to Hadassah Al-Issawiya Hospital by Israeli soldiers after the incident.

Israel’s seizure of the Rafah border crossing is a “significant step” in defeating Hamas and achieving the return of hostages held in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said.

Netanyahu said taking over the Rafah crossing was “necessary” to obtain the return of Israeli hostages.

Doctos Without Borders has warned that Israel's offensive on Rafah will have “disastrous effects” for over a million people sheltering in the southern border town.

“Living conditions all over Gaza are already extremely precarious, they will just get worse for all these people who are being displaced again and will have to live in makeshift tents with extremely limited access to basic necessities such as water,” the group said in a statement.

The group slammed the “intense” Israeli bombing on Rafah on Monday and called for an immediate ceasefire.

The families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza are making a last ditch effort to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a deal with Hamas.

“We heard from officials that what separates us and our loved ones was and remains a commitment to end the war. We say to Netanyahu and the government – end the war, bring them back and save lives,” the family members said outside the Kirya military complex in Tel Aviv, according to Israeli media outlets.

The families also called on war cabinet ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot not to let Netanyahu “torpedo” a hostage deal.

Gantz came out yesterday saying the Hamas ceasefire proposal didn’t satisfy Israeli demands.