Gaza live: Israeli attack hits Unrwa centre

“Almost 3,000 children have been cut off from treatment for moderate and severe acute malnutrition in southern Gaza, putting them at risk of death as harrowing violence and displacement continue to impact access to healthcare facilities and services for desperate families,” the UN’s agency for childrens’ relief says in a statement.

“Horrific images continue to emerge from Gaza of children dying before their families’ eyes due to the continued lack of food, nutrition supplies, and the destruction of healthcare services,” said UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Adele Khodr.

“UNICEF has more nutrition supplies prepositioned to arrive in the Gaza Strip, if access allows,” she added.

An alliance of Palestinian organisations and Colombian trade unionists and indigenous groups has claimed victory after Colombia's President Gustavo Petro announced a halt to the country's coal exports to Israel earlier this month.

Colombia's decree on Saturday said coal shipments to Israel would be suspended until the country obeys the International Court of Justice order to halt its assault on Rafah.

It came after the Palestinian Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD) wrote to Petro in June, reiterating its calls for a coal export ban by Colombia’s largest coal miners union, Sintracarbon.

“The ongoing genocide, its length and magnitude would not have been possible if the colonising state of Israel had stopped receiving energy sources allowing it to commit one of the most atrocious crimes in history,” it said.

Read more: Bogota's Israel coal exports ban fuelled by Palestinian-Colombian coalition

At least pne man was killed and another wounded when Israeli forces raided the village of Kufr Dan in the occupied West Bank, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said on Tuesday.

Clashes erupted between Palestinian fighters and Israeli troops, Wafa added.

An Israeli army helicopter was used in the operation.

In more than 90 percent of French constituencies, the far-right National Rally (RN) came first in last week's European elections.

The political reverberations from this prompted President Emmanuel Macron to dissolve the National Assembly and call snap parliamentary elections, which could see the party of Marine Le Pen storm to victory once again.

Yet in North Africa, French citizens cast their ballots another way, mainly voting for the left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) on Sunday.

Overall, the more than 130,000 voters of the ninth constituency (which includes French citizens living in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia) stayed away from the ballot box altogether: only 13.94 percent of them went to the polls, while the turnout back home in France reached 51.49 percent.

Those that did make their way to consulates in the Maghreb countries voted mostly for the list led by LFI candidate Manon Aubry.

Read more: French in North Africa opt for the left and its pro-Palestine stance

At a conference in Jordan, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced more than $400 million in humanitarian assistance to Palestinians and urged other donors to increase their contributions.

Blinken's call for aid comes as the US continues to fund Israel's war machine which has destroyed much of the Gaza Strip and killed more than 37,000 Paletinians the majority women and children.

In May, a United Nations agency estimated that rebuilding Gaza after the destruction caused by Israel would cost $30-40 billion and require an effort on a scale unseen since World War II.

"Only one-third of the current UN appeal is funded, leaving a shortfall of approximately $2.3 billion. Every country can help fill this gap. Some have expressed great concern over the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza, including countries with the capacity to give a lot, but they have provided very little or nothing at all," Blinken said.

"It is time for everyone to step up. For those who have already given generously, give more."

Four Israeli soldiers were killed and another seven were wounded in the occupied Gaza Strip when a booby-trapped building collapsed on them the Israeli media reported on Tuesday. 

The deaths brought the number of troops killed during Israel’s onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza to 300. 

Intel is halting its plans for a $25-billion factory in Israel, according to the Israeli financial news website Calcalist, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

In December, Israel's government announced it would give Intel a $3.2-billion grant to build the chip plant in southern Israel.

It is unclear if Israel's ongoing conflicts with its neighbors or the numerous international criminal investigations against Israel and its leaders for suspected war crimes and genocide in Gaza influenced this decision.

Gaza's health ministry has called on countries meeting at an emergency conference in Jordan to address the "urgent" medical disaster in the enclave.

“We call on the countries currently meeting at the International Conference for Emergency Humanitarian Response in Gaza to take concrete and urgent measures to save the Gaza Strip, which was destroyed by the Israeli occupation, on the humanitarian and health levels," ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said in a statement.

World leaders backed a US push for a ceasefire at the conference, which was called by Egypt and Jordan.

The UN has warned that there are now less than 100,000 people left in Rafah following Israel's attack on the city.

Unrwa said the fast majority of people in the former safe area had left, adding that there were now more than 1.7 million displaced people in Gaza

Survivors of Saturday's massacre in Nuseirat in central Gaza have recounted a "nightmare" situation that saw hundreds killed and many more left wounded as part of an Israeli operation to free captives.

Sharifa Hassan, 35, and her husband, Yehia, were preparing lunch in front of the crowded house in Nuseirat where they had sought refuge when the Israeli army started their assault.

"Dozens of helicopters and quadcopters suddenly appeared in the sky. I thought it was an air aid, but they started shooting and bombing randomly,” Sharifa recounted.

Sharifa and her family had already fled from Gaza City to Rafah and then to Nuseirat after the Israeli army announced it as a so-called safe zone.

“We rushed to take shelter behind a wall, all the while thinking about our eight-year-old daughter who had gone to buy snacks from a nearby grocery,” Sharifa said.

“The quadcopters were shooting at anything that moved in the area. Many of our neighbours were killed or left bleeding on the ground. After a few minutes, we heard the loud sounds of trucks. We thought it was civil defence or ambulances, but it was tanks.

“Yehia fainted, and I was just crying because we couldn’t understand what was happening.

“The tanks filled the street and bombed any house that showed any movement. One tank moved over and crushed a man who was injured in his leg. It was the most painful thing I’ve ever seen in my life."

Abdulfattah Aouda and his 73-year-old father were, for their part, on their way home after shopping in Nuseirat's main market when their day took a horrifying turn.

"It was a normal day until we heard multiple air strike explosions around us. We quickly decided to get inside a nearby school, but an air strike hit a trash container beside us," Aouda recalled.

"My father, bleeding, fainted and fell to the ground. I carried him and ran to the school. He had shrapnel injuries on his hand and bladder."

Aouda and his father stayed in the school, along with other evacuees and injured people, all unsure of what was happening until the forces withdrew.

"I tried to stop my father’s bleeding while people rushed in all directions, searching for their loved ones or taking shelter from the continuous bombardment. It was like a nightmare," Aouda said.

"This was not an operation to free captives - it was a massacre, killing more innocent children and women. We couldn’t bear more loss and pain."

Last month, Spain, Ireland and Norway formally recognised Palestine as a state, joining more than 140 UN member countries that already recognise it.

This recognition has been hailed as a positive step forward, particularly as the International Criminal Court (ICC) considers issuing arrest warrants against Israeli leaders for their involvement in alleged war crimes in Palestine. 

The move by the three countries was welcomed by Palestinian officials, as other nations were urged to follow suit. Legally, achieving statehood would enable Palestine to join numerous international agreements and treaties related to human rights and trade. 

Although the recent recognitions are merely another step towards full UN recognition, Israel has condemned them and discussed escalatory measures against the countries involved, accusing them of supporting terrorism. 

Israeli officials have also proposed punitive measures for the Palestinians, as the US mulls sanctions on the ICC for attempting to issue arrest warrants against two Israeli leaders.

READ MORE: Can Palestine achieve financial independence? Opinion by Ahmed Alqarout

Palestine’s President Mahmoud Abbas has delivered his speech at the Jordan-hosted emergency aid summit for Gaza.

Abbas highlighted the struggles of Palestinians in Gaza due to their desperate need for medicine and food, which Israel is restricting, as well as the need for children to return to school.

"The UN Security Council and other international partners have a great role to play in applying more pressure on Israel to open the crossings," he said, adding that it is time to "stop the suffering of the Palestinian people".

On the morning of Saturday, 8 June, the racist Zionist colonial army carried out horrific massacres in the central governorate, killing at least 274 Palestinian civilians, including women, children and men.

Hours later, they announced that these massacres were a cover to free four Israelicaptives in the Nuseirat camp.

At the time of the massacre, I was visiting the central governorate and heard Israeli bombing everywhere. F-16 fighter jets, Apache helicopters, artillery and warships were all involved in the random bombing of civilian gatherings. People fled in all directions, not knowing where to go, as there is no safe place in Gaza.

Many of those in the central governorate at that moment had recently fled Rafah after the occupation army dropped leaflets urging residents to evacuate.

READ MORE: Nuseirat massacre: Dehumanising Palestinians is the first step towards their extermination, opinion by Ahmed Abu Artema

Gaza's health ministry said that 40 were killed in Israeli attacks on the enclave in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 37,164 people killed since 7 October.

Additionally, 84,832 have been wounded since the start of the war.

The European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations has said that "more than 2,000 trucks carrying humanitarian aid and commercial goods are waiting in Egypt, ready to enter Gaza".

"Due to intense military operations, the Rafah crossing remains closed. The EU advocates for sustained, unimpeded, and safe humanitarian access," it added.

More than 2,000 trucks carrying humanitarian aid and commercial goods are waiting in Egypt, ready to enter Gaza.

Due to intense military operations, the Rafah crossing remains closed.

The EU advocates for sustained, unimpeded, and safe humanitarian access. pic.twitter.com/I1EPHr38Td

— EU Civil Protection & Humanitarian Aid 🇪🇺 (@eu_echo) June 11, 2024