Israel-Gaza war live updates: Israeli military hits Rafah and continues fighting in Khan Younis as safe places for Palestinians run out

Israel says its attempting to increase number of aid trucks coming into Gaza

By Liana Walker

Israel says it is working to increase the number of aid trucks allowed into the Gaza Strip.

The UN says its ability to distribute aid inside Gaza has been severely impaired by fighting and road closures linked to Israel’s widening offensive against Hamas.

The military body in charge of civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, known as COGAT, says it plans to open the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza for inspections in the coming days. The aid would still enter Gaza through Egypt via the Rafah crossing.

Before Hamas’ October 7 attack across the border, which ignited the war, Kerem Shalom was the main crossing for cargo into Gaza. It has been closed since then.

Colonel Elad Goren, a COGAT official, said Israel can currently inspect up to 250 trucks per day at the Nitzana crossing between Israel and Egypt, and that the number could increase to 400 with the opening of Kerem Shalom for inspections.

But he expressed doubt that international agencies would be able to distribute larger amounts of aid.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says efforts to bring aid into Gaza and distribute it have been impaired by fighting and road closures since Israel expanded its ground offensive into the south, with some of its staff and trucks stranded in central Gaza.

It says agencies have been unable to deliver aid north of the southernmost governorate of Rafah for four days.

Reporting by AP

Iran involved in planning and executing attacks by Yemen’s Houthis: White House

By Liana Walker

The United States believes Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is helping to plan and carry out missile and drone attacks by Yemen’s Houthis on Israel and ships in the Red Sea, a top White House aide said on Thursday.

“We believe that they are involved in the conduct of these attacks, the planning of them, the execution of them, the authorisation of them and ultimately they support them,” deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told the Aspen Security Forum.

Iran denies involvement in the missile and drone attacks by the Houthis on Israel and vessels in the Red Sea.

The Houthis say they have been staging the attacks in response to the offensive that Israel launched against Islamist militant group Hamas in Gaza after the militant group’s October 7 rampage into Israel. Hamas is backed by Iran.

Reporting by Reuters

Deadly Israeli strike on journalists was ‘apparently deliberate’, rights groups find

By Brad Ryan

Two human rights groups say Israel should face a war crimes investigation over an attack on seven journalists in Lebanon, which killed one and wounded six others.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have just published separate investigations, finding the group was clearly identifiable as journalists and was not near any fighting or military targets.

Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed, Agence France-Presse photographer Christina Assi lost a leg, and others – including from the Qatari-funded Al Jazeera network – sustained severe shrapnel injuries after the Israeli tank twice fired on them on October 13.

Human Rights Watch said the strikes were “apparently deliberate attacks on civilians, which is a war crime”:

“Evidence indicates that the Israeli military knew or should have known that the group of people they were firing on were civilians.

“Israel’s key allies – the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany – should suspend military assistance and arms sales to Israel, given the risk they will be used for grave abuses.”

And Amnesty International’s Aya Majzoub said:

“No journalist should ever be targeted or killed simply for carrying out their work. Israel must not be allowed to kill and attack journalists with impunity.”

Reuters – which provides content for the ABC – has just published its own investigation, with findings in line with the rights groups.

Reuters editor-in-chief Alessandra Galloni said:

“We condemn Issam’s killing. We call on Israel to explain how this could have happened and to hold to account those responsible for his death.”

Reuters said it presented the Israeli military with its findings and asked a series of questions. An IDF spokesman responded by saying: “We don’t target journalists.” He did not comment further. The IDF has previously said it’s investigating.

The group was reporting on border clashes between Israel and Hezbollah militants.

Press freedom groups have also been raising concerns about the high number of journalists killed in Gaza.

Israeli military hits Rafah and Khan Younis in southern Gaza

By Liana Walker

The Israeli military hit Rafah in southern Gaza twice overnight, residents say, with United Nations officials warning there are no safe places left in the besieged territory.

The center of Gaza’s second-largest city, Khan Younis, has also seen fighting amid Israel’s widening air and ground offensive in the southern part of the territory that has displaced tens of thousands more Palestinians and worsened dire humanitarian conditions.

Distribution of food, water and medicine have been prevented outside a sliver of southern Gaza, and new military evacuation orders are squeezing people into ever-smaller areas.

The United Nations said 1.87 million people — more than 80 per cent of Gaza’s population — have been driven from their homes since the start of the war, triggered by the deadly October 7 Hamas assault on southern Israel.

About 1,200 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during Hamas’ October 7 attack.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll in the territory had passed 17,100, with more than 46,000 wounded. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but said 70 per cent of the dead were women and children.

AP