AFP :
Israeli strikes hit Gaza on Saturday after renewed US criticism over its conduct of the war and a UN warning of “epic” disaster if an outright invasion of crowded Rafah city occurs.
AFP journalists reported the strikes in various sectors of the coastal territory, where the UN says aid is blocked after Israeli troops defied international opposition and entered eastern Rafah this week, effectively shutting two crossings.
A long-awaited US State Department report on Friday said Israel likely violated norms on international law in its use of weapons from the United States — its main military supplier — but it did not find enough evidence to block shipments.
The State Department submitted its report two days after President Joe Biden publicly threatened to withhold certain bombs and artillery shells if Israel goes ahead with an all-out assault on Rafah, where the United Nations said 1.4 million had been sheltering.
After rising criticism from Washington over the civilian impact of Israel’s war against Hamas Palestinian militants, the threat was the first time Biden raised the ultimate US leverage over Israel — its military aid which totals $3 billion annually.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that Gaza risked an “epic humanitarian disaster” if Israel launched a full-scale ground operation in Rafah.
Israeli troops on Tuesday seized and closed the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza — through which all fuel passes into the territory — after ordering residents of eastern Rafah to evacuate.
– ‘Heavily militarised’ –
Israel said its southern crossing with the Palestinian territory — Kerem Shalom — was reopened on Wednesday.
But a UN report late Friday said both crossings remain “heavily militarised” and cited Martin Griffiths, the UN’s aid chief, as saying closure of the crossings “means no aid”.
The war began with Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,943 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Israel’s military said it went into eastern Rafah to pursue militants. Fighting continued on the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing, the military reported on Friday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel cannot defeat Hamas and eliminate any possibility of the militant group repeating its October 7 attack without sending ground troops into Rafah in search of remaining Hamas fighters.
The State Department report said it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel has used American weapons in ways inconsistent with standards on humanitarian rights but that the United States could not reach “conclusive findings”.