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

Loud boos are heard at Eurovision as Israel is shown on screen to reveal the country's vote. 

This year's contest has been one of the most controversial for a while. 

Calls have been made for Israel to be kicked out of the contest this year due to the country's war in Gaza which has killed more than 35,000 Palestinian mostly women and children. 

An Israeli strike destroyed the home of Al Jazeera Gaza correspondent Anas al-Sharif, the channel reported.

Sharif's father was killed in an Israeli attack in northern Gaza in December last year.

Israeli actress Gal Gadot speaking to Israel’s representative at the Eurovision urged her controversial compatriot to stay strong despite in the face of anti-genocide protests that have called for Israel to be excluded from the European song contest. 

Gadot told Eden Golan, who is representing Israel that some of her movies were also boycotted in multiple countries because of her support of the Israeli government's policies towards Palestinians.  

“It doesn’t matter at all,” said Gadot adding that “haters are the ones losing."

“Let the haters hate,” Gadot said.

Thousands of anti-war activists protested against Israel's inclusion in the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday, as Israel's war on Gaza continues to cast a shadow over the final.

Thousands of anti-war activists protested against Israel's inclusion in the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday, as Israel's war on Gaza continues to cast a shadow over the final of the glitzy contest.

Large crowds of protesters, estimated between 6,000-8,000, gathered at the central square of the Swedish host city of Malmo before marching towards the contest venue, waving Palestinian flags and shouting "Eurovision united by genocide" – a twist on the contest's official slogan "united by music."

Several protesters could also be heard chanting "Shame on you" at attendees arriving at the arena, as they demanded a boycott of this year's competition for its inclusion of Israel.

Read more: Thousands protest in Malmo against Israel’s participation in final

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the Colombian president Gustavo Petro a “anti-Semitic supporter of Hamas” on X. 

Netanyahu said his country will not be lectured by the Colombian president.

On Friday, Petro urged the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant against Netanyahu over the ongoing atrocities in Gaza.

The Colombian president also said that he was cutting diplomatic ties with Israel over its war on Gaza.

There are an estimated 10,000 bodies are trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza as a result of Israel's seven month long bombing campaign the Civil Defense in Gaza said on Saturday speaking to CNN.

“For months, we’ve been working with simple equipment, which drains us (of) our time and effort,” spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal said. The group says Israel has destroyed 70 to 80 percent of Civil Defense's capabilities. 

“We demand that the United Nations and humanitarian groups immediately intervene to allow the entry of necessary rescue equipment so we can continue our work, retrieve the missing from under the rubble and provide the required fuel to operate the civil defense vehicles,” Bassal added.

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

Michel called on Israeli government to “respect humanitarian law” and not “undertake a ground operation” in the southernmost Gaza city.

“All efforts must continue to secure an agreement for a lasting ceasefire. The EU is committed to a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution.”

At least 50 professors have been arrested at pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations across the US, according to CNN news report.

Since April 18, more than 2,400 students have been arrested on more than 50 campuses, it said.

Police have also violently detained some of the professors and students during the protests. 

The Biden administration is allegedly working to stave off a full-scale invasion of Rafah by offering Israel’s military “sensitive intelligence” on Hamas officials, according to a report.

The Washington Post, citing four people familiar with the situation, reports other purported incentives not to launch a major operation in Rafah include information on the location of Hamas’s vast network of tunnels.

The Biden administration, however, has been one of the most important backers of Israel's military onslaught on Gaza which has killed at least 35,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women.

There has been widespread criticism of the Biden administration and whether it has applied any pressure towards Israel to stop its war on Gaza and the catastrophic human toll while still supplying the country with weapons.

The Palestinian population of Gaza is “exhausted, degraded, humiliated” after days of “relentless” bombardment and amid warnings of an imminent Israeli military operation an official from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said. 

Speaking to CNN, Sam Rose from Unrwa added that the "situation is already very desperate. We've suffered relentless artillery strikes, air strikes, tank shells over the past four or five days."

Israeli air strikes on a tent in the town of Zawayda in the central area of the besieged coastal enclave has killed at least three people and wounded dozens, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

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.

A senior official added that Egypt held Israel responsible for the deterioration of the situation in the Gaza Strip, according to Reuters.

Israeli military forces on Tuesday seized control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

The closing of Rafah and the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing has essentially cut off the besieged Palestinian territory from outside aid.

Students at Harvard University in the US have named one the institution's halls after Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh to mark the second anniversary of her death after she was shot by Israeli snipers while reporting in the occupied West Bank.

Students have set up pro-Palestine encampments at over 100 US universities across 46 states since Columbia students started the first encampment on 17 April.

"Shireen Abu Akleh Hall" is the latest academic hall to be renamed after Palestinians killed by Israel. Students at Columbia University occupied its Hamilton Hall and renamed it after Hind Rajab, a five-year-old child who was killed by Israel in January.

Seven Palestinians were killed and others injured in Israeli air strikes northwest of Rafah, Wafa news agency is reporting.

According to an agency correspondent, the Israeli strikes had targeted a house in the Areeba area.

He said the victims were taken to the Kuwaiti Speciality Hospital in Rafah.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned that the World Food Programme and UN aid agency Unrwa will run out of food for distribution in southern Gaza "by tomorrow" due to the continued closure of border crossings by Israeli forces.

In a video statement posted on X, OCHA chief Georgios Petropoulos warned that the "humanitarian situation in Gaza is in a downward spiral" and urged for the "immediate entry of aid and fuel".