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

Students at Queen Mary University and King’s College London launched surprise encampments on Monday for Gaza as the number of encampments continues to grow.

Early in the afternoon, activists from both campuses set up tents and launched their encampments in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

The encampments come after UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak summoned university leaders to Downing Street to discuss the encampments and concerns around growing anti-Semitism.

During the meeting, Sunak was flanked by UK Education Secretary Gillian Keegan and Jewish leaders from the Union of Jewish Students and the University Jewish Chaplaincy.Earlier this year, MEE revealed that the UJC was hiring chaplains and said it was an essential requirement that they be “pro-active advocates for Israel.”

US national security advisor Jake Sullivan strongly rejected reporting in the US that there is a rift between the US and Israel.

There was speculation that US President Joe Biden’s decision to pause a single shipment of bombs due to concerns over Israel’s assault in Rafah reflected a change in administration policy. Not so, said Sullivan.

“No president has stood stronger with Israel than Joe Biden. He was the first president to visit Israel during wartime. He’s protecting Israel at the United Nations. He mobilised a coalition to directly defend Israel against an unprecedented Iranian attack. He led the bipartisan effort to pass a supplemental ensuring Israel’s defence and military edge for years to come. His commitment to Israel is ironclad. Ironclad doesn’t mean you never disagree, it means you work through your disagreements as true friends do,” Sullivan said at the daily press briefing.

US national security advisor Jake Sullivan in his daily press briefing addressed the widespread looting of aid convoys en route to Gaza on Monday.

"It is a total outrage that there are people who are attacking and looting these convoys coming from Jordan going to Gaza to deliver humanitarian assistance. We are looking at the tools we have to respond to this and we're also raising our concerns at the highest level of the Israeli government. It's something we make no bones about - we find it completely and utterly unacceptable," he said.

In a post on X the secretary general Antonio Guterres said that “humanitarian workers must be protected”.

“I condemn all attacks on UN personnel and reiterate my urgent appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire & the release of all hostages,” he added.

Earlier in the day, the Israeli military shot and killed a foreign NGO worker and wounded another in Rafah in southern Gaza, according to Palestinian officials in the besieged territory.

According to the local authorities, the pair were in a United Nations vehicle displaying the UN flag and insignia when they were targeted.

“We strongly condemn the ongoing atrocities perpetrated by the Israeli occupation against both the Palestinian population and foreign aid workers in Gaza,” a statement released by the government in Gaza said.

“As somebody who was on the ground and has spent a lot of time in hospitals in Gaza, including in Rafah, I saw the impact of this fighting on children’s bodies and it is horrific,” said UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram in an interview with US broadcaster ABC.“

I saw a nine-year-old girl who was clinging to life on a hospital bed in Rafah with major blast wounds down one side of her body, and when I met her, she had been that way 16 days because the medical ability in Gaza to repair those wounds was non-existent.”

“We need to see an end to the fighting and the indiscriminate killing of civilians, especially children.”

“As somebody who was on the ground and has spent a lot of time in hospitals in Gaza, including in Rafah, I saw the impact of this fighting on children’s bodies and it is horrific,” said Unicef spokesperson Tess Ingram in an interview with the US broadcaster, ABC.

“I saw a nine-year-old girl who was clinging to life on a hospital bed in Rafah with major blast wounds down one side of her body, and when I met her, she had been that way 16 days because the medical ability in Gaza to repair those wounds was non-existent.”

“We need to see an end to the fighting and the indiscriminate killing of civilians, especially children.”

A US army officer has publicly resigned from the Department of Defence in protest against the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

Major Harrison Mann said he resigned from the Department of Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) over the “nearly unqualified support” the US has provided Israel “which has enabled and empowered the killing and starvation of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians [in Gaza]". 

In a resignation letter posted on LinkedIn on Monday, Mann, who resigned on 1 November, explained to colleagues the reason for his “abrupt departure” from the agency.

“At some point…you’re either advancing a policy that enables [the] mass starvation of children, or you’re not,” he wrote. “I know that I did, in my small way, wittingly advance that policy.”

Read more: Army officer resigns after being ‘haunted’ by US support for Gaza’s ‘ethnic cleansing’

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that at least one thousand Palestinian civilians from Gaza are receiving treatment in Turkey.

Erdogan made the comments during a joint address with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and initially said that one thousand “Hamas members” are being treated in hospitals.

However, two Turkish sources with knowledge speaking to Middle East Eye said the president misspoke and in fact that number referred to Palestinian civilians from Gaza.

In a press conference with his Greek counterpart, held in the Turkish capital of Ankara, Erdogan told reporters that he considered Hamas to be a “resistance organisation”.

The spokesperson for UN secretary general Antonio Guterres, Farhan Haq, says the staff member was killed this morning in Rafah when “their vehicle was struck as they travelled to the European hospital in Rafah this morning”.

“We are deeply saddened to learn of the the death of a United Nations Department of Safety and Security staff member, and an injury to another DSS staff member”, Haq said.

“The secretary general condemns all attacks on UN personnel, and calls for a full investigation,” he added.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, on Monday that he was saddened that Greece deems Hamas to be a terrorist organization.

In a joint press conference held in the Turkish captial of Ankara, Erdogan told reporters that he considered Hamas to be a “resistance organization”.

“Hamas isn’t a terror group, it is an insurgent group that is trying to protect its territories that have been occupied since 1947,” Erdogan said.

In response, Mitsotakis said that his country and Turkey cannot agree on all the issues related to the Gaza war except that  a long-term ceasefire is needed.

“Let’s agree to disagree,” Mitsotakis said to Erdogan.

Earlier on Monday Israeli sources told Middle East Eye reported that Israel began to send back its diplomats to Turkey earlier this month, half a year after it withdrew them over security concerns.

The Israeli military has shot and killed a foreign NGO worker and wounded another in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian officials in the besieged territory.

According to the local authorities, the pair were in a United Nations vehicle displaying the UN flag and insignia when they were targeted.

"We strongly condemn the ongoing atrocities perpetrated by the Israeli occupation against both the Palestinian population and foreign aid workers in Gaza," a statement released by the government in Gaza said.

"We urge all nations to denounce these reprehensible acts."

This is a developing story...

Read more: Israel kills foreign aid worker in Gaza's Rafah, say local authorities

Hamas’s armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, has lost contact with fighters guarding four Israeli captives in the besieged Gaza Strip, including Hersh Golberg-Poline, they said in a statement on Monday.

The group released video footage on Saturday of two men being held captive in Gaza and seen alive in the footage.

The campaign group, Hostages and Missing Families Forum, identified the two in a statement as Omri Miran, 47, and Keith Siegel, 64, They were abducted by fighters during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October.

Hamas also released another video showing captive Hersh Goldberg-Polin alive last week.

The Israeli military has launched a new wave of attacks across the Gaza Strip similar in intensity to the peak of its seven-month war on the besieged Palestinian enclave. 

Heavy air strikes have been reported across the strip since Friday, killing at least 120 Palestinians and wounding dozens more, according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

The raids coincided with incursions into Jabalia in northern Gaza, Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City and eastern Rafah. 

The ground advances have been met with fierce resistance by Hamas and other Palestinian groups. 

At least five Israeli soldiers have been killed during the weekend fighting, the military said. 

READ MORE: Israel unleashes heaviest bombing in months

The UK's Labour Party is calling on the government to suspend arms sales to Israel amid a new offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza.

Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy’s call echoes US President Joe Biden’s threat to halt exports should Israel proceed with the offensive, which is likely to endanger the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians.

“President Biden is correct to tell [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu that the US will not supply weapons that could be used in a Rafah offensive if Israel proceeds with a full-scale attack on Rafah against the international community’s warnings,” Lammy said, according to a report published in the Daily Telegraph.

He added: “The UK government should now work with the US to try and prevent a Rafah offensive by being clear it will assess UK exports and, if the Rafah offensive goes ahead, join our American allies in suspending weapons or components that could be used in that Rafah offensive.”

READ MORE: UK: Labour calls for ‘pause’ in Israel arms sales as Cameron dithers

The Palestinian Red Crescent says two of its members of its medical teams in Gaza have been released from Israeli military custody but a further four remain unaccounted for.

Bassam Ahmad Abu Ta'ima and Mu'min Shaban Al-Taif spent 49 days in Israeli captivity after being detained at the Al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis in March.

The organisation says it does not know the fate of the four others believed to be held by Israel.  

This morning, the occupation forces released two members of the PRCS ambulance crews, who are the EMT Bassam Ahmad Abdul Khaliq Abu Ta'ima and the volunteer paramedic Mu'min Shaban Al-Taif, after 49 days of detention. They were arrested during the second raid on Al-Amal Hospital… pic.twitter.com/tOBkLuawPy

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) May 13, 2024