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

Defence for Children International (DCI) says it has heard testimonies of three children who described how they were used as human shields by Israeli forces in the West Bank during a recent assault on Tulkarm refugee camp on 5 May.

According to Geneva-based DCI, the children said Israeli soldiers forced them to walk ahead of them as they searched the camp, describing two instances of soldiers placing their rifles on their shoulders.

A 13-year-old recounted how Israeli forces stormed his family's apartment on 6 May and then forced him to lead them through the apartment block as they searched it. He said the soldiers placed a rifle on his shoulders and fired two shots towards an apartment door.

Another child described how, during a raid on his home, he was forcibly separated from his family and then told to knock on doors in the apartment building, asking residents to leave.

"When we reached the door of one of the apartments and found it empty, the soldiers blew up the door and forced me to enter alone to inspect it," he said.

Rescuers are unable to access Jabalia refugee camp and Gaza City amid Israel's latest wave of assaults, according to Gaza's Civil Defence.

A spokesperson told Anadolu that "direct and deliberate Israeli targeting of civil defence crews" were preventing rescuers from accessing areas of the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, where 16 members of a family remain trapped under rubble.

The Israeli military has ordered Palestinians to leave northern parts of Gaza, including Jabalia and Beit Lahiya, as well as central areas of Rafah in the south.

Some 300,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah following Israeli orders last week for Palestinians in the eastern parts of the city to leave.

They were instructed to relocate to the nearby "humanitarian zone" of al-Mawasi, an area which Unrwa says is already overcrowded and lacks basic services.

The death toll of Palestinians killed in Gaza has risen to 35,034, with 78,755 others injured since Israel's war on Gaza began, the health ministry in Gaza is reporting.

There are also an estimated 10,000 Palestinians buried under the rubble of buildings flattened by Israeli bombing, according to the Palestinian civil defence.

Israeli attacks have disrupted the fixed wireless internet network in areas of southern Gaza, the Palestine Telecommunications Company (Paltel) is reporting.

The company said its teams are trying to restore services as soon as possible.

Gaza has experienced repeated telecommunications blackouts since the Israeli assault began on 7 October.

Speaking to the BBC, Cameron said he did not agree with comments made by US President Joe Biden that suggested imposing some restrictions on weapon exports if Israel attacked the city in southern Gaza, which has become a haven for Palestinians fleeing the rest of the enclave.

"The last time I was urged to do that, I didn't do that, and just a few days later there was a brutal attack by Iran on Israel ... I think it would have sent an entirely wrong message," he said, referring to a direct attack by Iran on Israel last month that left no reported casualties.

"Just to simply announce today that we will change our approach on arms exports, it would make Hamas stronger and it would make a hostage deal less likely."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said he would push on with his plans to invade Rafah in order to uproot Hamas, which was responsible for an attack in Israel on 7 October that left 1,170 people dead and saw hundreds of captured Israelis and others taken to Gaza.

READ MORE: UK Foreign Secretary Cameron says 'not wise' to ban arms sales to Israel

The director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Sam Rose, has warned that Palestinians in Rafah are being instructed to evacuate to a nearby "expanded humanitarian area" which is already overcrowded and lacking in essential services.

In an interview with BBC news, Sam Rose explained that al-Mawasi is "essentially sand dunes on the Mediterranean coast that are crowded with hundreds of thousands of people" who have already been displaced.

"There is no water network, there is no infrastructure, sewage, sanitation," he said.

The UN agency for Palestinians, Unrwa, has condemned the displacement of some 300,000 Palestinians from Rafah as "inhumane".

In a post on X, the agency emphasised that the displaced people have "nowhere safe to go".

British foreign minister, David Cameron said that the UK will not support an Israeli offensive in Rafah without a "clear plan" to "save lives."

“For there to be a major offensive in Rafah, there would have to be an absolutely clear plan about how you save lives, how you move people out the way, how you make sure they’re fed, you make sure that they have medicine and shelter and everything,” he said in an interview with Sky News television.

He added that he had "seen no such plan … so we don’t support an offensive in that way."

Israeli forces have arrested 28 Palestinians in 24 hours from across the occupied West Bank, according to a joint statement by the Palestinian Prisoners Society and the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Authority.

The arrests were concentrated in Bethlehem Governorate, with others reported in Jenin, Ramallah, Qalqilya, Hebron and Jericho, according to the statement.

Detainees include children and former prisoners.

The groups added that the latest arrests bring the total of Palestinians detained in the West Bank since 7 October to 8,710

Israeli tanks have moved into eastern Jabalia in northern Gaza following a night of intense bombardment, which has killed some 19 Palestinians and flattened residential blocks, according to health officials.

Israeli fire targeted ambulances near the camp's Unrwa clinic, Wafa news agency is reporting.

The Israeli army said that the latest incursion on the camp was to prevent Hamas from "rehabilitating military capabilities" there.

In other areas of Gaza, Israeli air strikes reportedly killed some 27 Palestinians overnight.

In Rafah, 18 Palestinians were killed in air strikes,  including several children, according to Wafa.

Wafa is also reporting that the continuing air strikes have killed dozens more in the past few hours, with 12 bodies arriving at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates:

• The Israeli military has intensified attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, with 27 Palestinians killed overnight, including several children in southern Rafah.

• Israeli forces "carpet-bombed" Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, killing and wounding several Palestinians, Wafa news agency is reporting. Residential houses and evacuation centres have been flattened. The death toll is currently unknown.

• In the West Bank, Israeli forces have raided the Arroub refugee camp near Hebron on Sunday, Wafa is reporting.

• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres renewed calls for an "immediate ceasefire".

• UN agencies have warned that food supplies for distribution in southern Gaza will run out today.

• Unrwa estimates that 300,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah in the last week, emphasising that displaced people have "nowhere safe to go".

Hello MEE readers. 

Israeli forces ordered fresh evacuations from areas in Rafah on Saturday as it prepared to expand its operation in the city. 

The Israeli army said on Saturday about 300,000 people had left eastern Rafah after Israel ordered people to leave that area of the southern Gaza city this week.

Israeli forces issued the order and captured the Rafah border crossing with Egypt as it prepared for a ground invasion of the city.

On Friday, the UN said more than 100,000 Palestinians had evacuated Rafah this week.

On Saturday the European Union also condemned Israel's forced evacuation orders in Rafah "unacceptable". 

“Evacuation orders for civilians trapped in Rafah to unsafe zones are unacceptable,” President of the European Council Charles Michel posted on X.

The Palestinian health ministry is reporting that at least 34,971 Palestinians have been killed and 78,641 others wounded since Israel's war on Gaza began in October.

There are also an estimated 10,000 Palestinians buried under the rubble of buildings flattened by Israeli bombing, according to the Palestinian civil defence.

In other updates: 

• Bodies of at least 30 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes taken to Al-Aqsa Hospital and another 80 bodies of Palestinians recovered from Al-Shifa mass graves
• Hamas releases footage of Israeli hostage Nadav Popplewell
• UK charity Oxfam has called on the UK to end its arms sales to Israel in order to halt the "senseless deaths" in Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza
• France says expanded Israeli Rafah attack could have 'catastrophic' consequences
• Egypt has refused to coordinate with Israel on the entry of aid into Gaza from the Rafah crossing, citing Israel’s “unacceptable escalation”, Egypt's Alqahera News satellite TV reported on Saturday, citing a senior official
• Palestinian population of Gaza is 'exhausted, degraded, humiliated': Unrwa
• Israel's forced evacuation orders in Rafah ‘unacceptable’: EU

Amnesty International called for all states to stop sending arms to those “fuelling violations of international law in the occupied Gaza Strip”.

The United States has been criticised for its role as the biggest provider of military assistance to Israel which has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in the besiged Strip.

Annually the US sends about $3.8bn annually to Israel. Last month, the Biden administration announced an additional $17bn in military aid as Israel continues its assault on Gaza.

Hamas' armed wing says its fighters attacked occupying Israeli soldiers and armoured vehicles with mortar rounds as intense ground battles are ongoing in eastern Rafah.

Along with other neighbourhoods across Gaza such as Zeitoun, which the Israeli army has been coming back to repeatedly, Jabalia in the north is also being invaded again.