Israel’s war on Gaza updates: ‘No homes, no hope’ in Rafah – UN chief

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Follow along with our ongoing coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.

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We will be closing this live page soon. Here is a recap of today’s events:

• Members of the international community have warned any Israeli operation in Gaza would lead to a “humanitarian catastrophe”.
• Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl who appealed for help on the phone after coming under Israeli fire with her family, was found dead after 12 days along with two medics sent to find her.
• A senior Hamas official survived an Israeli assassination attempt in Lebanon, which killed two civilians.
• The death toll in the Gaza Strip has surpassed 28,000, with more than 67,600 Palestinians wounded.
• Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) says Israeli forces continue to fire at people inside the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis.

Israel has announced that it discovered a Hamas tunnel network, including a communications centre, that runs under the headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza.

Israeli military officials, who took foreign journalists on a tour of the compound, said the tunnel network is 700 metres long (765 yards) and 18 metres deep (70 ft), and appears to have used UNRWA’s electricity supply.

“The shaft led to an underground terror tunnel that served as a significant asset of Hamas’s military intelligence and passed under the building that serves as UNRWA’s main headquarters in the Gaza Strip,” Israel’s army and the Shin Bet security agency said in a statement.

These findings were found within @UNRWA facilities:

Acting on ISA intelligence, the forces discovered a tunnel shaft near an UNRWA school, leading to an underground terrorist tunnel beneath UNRWA's main headquarters. The forces found electrical infrastructure inside the tunnel… pic.twitter.com/n5EWJpyI4o

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 10, 2024

Commissioner-General of UNRWA Philippe Lazzarini said his agency could not “confirm or otherwise comment on these reports” and “did not know what is under its headquarters in Gaza”.

“UNRWA is a human development and humanitarian organisation that does not have the military and security expertise nor the capacity to undertake military inspections of what is or might be under its premises,” Lazzarini said in a post on X.

Israel’s announcement comes after it last month alleged that several UNRWA staff were involved in Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel, prompting more than a dozen countries to pause funding to the relief agency.

– UNRWA did not know what is under its headquarters in Gaza.

– UNRWA is made aware of reports through the media regarding a tunnel under the UNRWA Headquarters in Gaza.

– UNRWA staff left its headquarters in Gaza City on 12 October following the Israeli evacuation orders and as…

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) February 10, 2024

Foreign Minister Hanke Bruins Slot says the situation in the southern Gaza city is “very worrying” amid a looming Israeli military operation on the area.

“Many civilians in Gaza have fled south,” she posted on X.

“Hard to see how large-scale military operations in such a densely populated area would not lead to many civilian casualties and a bigger humanitarian catastrophe. This is unjustifiable.”

Rafah is densely populated, as more than 1 million displaced Palestinians are estimated to be sheltering close to the border with Egypt.

The situation in Rafah is very worrying. Many civilians in Gaza have fled south. Hard to see how large-scale military operations in such a densely populated area would not lead to many civilian casualties and a bigger humanitarian catastrophe. This is unjustifiable.

— Hanke Bruins Slot (@HankeBruinsSlot) February 10, 2024

Miri Regev, a member of PM Netanyahu’s Likud Party, has given an interview with Israeli broadcaster Channel 14, in which he said that regardless of any deal Israel agrees to with Hamas to secure the release of Israeli captives, he will not agree to a permanent ceasefire.

“We need to understand that if we stop the war, the next step is massacre,” he said.

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic and the Wafa news agency are reporting that Muhammad Ahmad Muhammad Khadour, a resident of the town of Biddu, north of West Jerusalem, has died.

Just 19 years old, he was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers while in a vehicle in Kharb al-Lahm, before being rushed to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah. He died of his wounds there.

At least 21 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli snipers since Thursday.

Watch our video report below:

The Palestine Red Crescent Society says four people were killed and eight injured in the central Gaza city following an attack on the al-Hakr area.

Deir el-Balah has become the target of relentless air raids by the Israeli army since the war began on October 7.

🚑 The Palestine Red Crescent ambulance teams transported today four martyrs and eight injuries due to the Israeli occupation's shelling of a house in the Al-Hakr area in Deir al-Balah, central #Gaza.
📷 Filmed by: PRCS volunteer, Mohammed Suleiman pic.twitter.com/RjeXfkAubE

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) February 10, 2024

Furthermore, the European Union’s top foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the offensive would also result in “grave” tensions between Israel and Egypt.

“Release of hostages and resumption of negotiations to fit hostilities is the only way to prevent bloodshed,” he posted on X.

I echo the warning by several EU member states that an Israeli offensive on Rafah would lead to an unspeakable humanitarian catastrophe and grave tensions with Egypt.

Resuming negotiations to free hostages and suspend hostilities is the only way to avert a bloodshed.

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) February 10, 2024

Our colleagues are reporting that Israeli soldiers have stormed the occupied West Bank town of Azzun.

Earlier, Israeli forces also raided the al-Dhahr area in the town of Beit Ummar in Hebron.

More than 6,900 Palestinians have been arrested in the occupied West Bank since the war on Gaza began on October 7.

As the nearly 2 million displaced Palestinians in Rafah wait in terror for the Israeli army to follow through with its stated plans to begin a ground operation against the city, reports from media outlets within Israel say the assault may not be starting as soon as expected.

Newspaper Haaretz is reporting that the Israeli government has not concluded the details of the Rafah operation with Egypt, specifically how to handle action against Hamas’s tunnels that cross from Gaza into Egyptian territory. For this and other reasons, the newspaper says citing a source familiar with Israeli war cabinet deliberation, a date for the beginning of the assault has not yet been set.

Supporting the assertion that the operation is not imminent is a report from broadcaster Channel 12, which says that while an attack plan has been finalised by the Israeli army, no green light has been given from the government.

Prominent members of the international community have been drawing attention all week to the dire humanitarian consequences of any attack on Rafah.

A number of high-profile people, from top UN and government officials to the leaders of major NGOs, have sounded the alarm on Isareal’s planned military operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

The UK’s foreign secretary is the latest to add his voice to the chorus, drawing attention to the fact that “over half of Gaza’s population are sheltering there”.

“The priority must be an immediate pause in the fighting to get aid in and hostages out, then progress towards a sustainable, permanent ceasefire,” he wrote in an X post.

Deeply concerned about the prospect of a military offensive in Rafah – over half of Gaza’s population are sheltering in the area.

The priority must be an immediate pause in the fighting to get aid in and hostages out, then progress towards a sustainable, permanent ceasefire.

— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) February 10, 2024

The director of the UN health agency Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says reports of the Israeli raid into the Khan Younis hospital, and the detention of health staff and patients, are “extremely concerning”.

“We urge for patients’ and health workers’ immediate release. Health personnel, patients and facilities MUST be protected at all times,” he posted on X.

We previously reported that the Palestinian Red Crescent Society had said its headquarters in al-Amal Hospital were being raided by Israeli forces.

The reports of raid into Al Amal hospital in Khan Younis, #Gaza, detention of health personnel and patients, damage to the facility, and confiscation of hospital assets and personal belongings are extremely concerning.

We urge for patients’ and health workers’ immediate…

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) February 10, 2024

Our colleagues are reporting an Israeli attack on a home in Deir el-Balah, leading to the death of one woman and the injury of several other Palestinians.

Deir el-Balah, an area that has been largely designated as safe in the initial weeks of the war, has become the target of relentless air raids by the Israeli army.

Fighters of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad say that, after returning from front-line areas in the west of the city, they took the following actions:

• Quds fighters attacked a group of Israeli soldiers inside a house with a rocket, killing and wounding several.
• They said that an Israeli position in the al-Hawoz area was targeted with a barrage of mortar shells.
• Fighters from the group clashed with Israeli soldiers and vehicles using machine guns and explosives.

The Israeli prime minister urged Israeli army chief of staff Herzi Halevi to recruit again reservists who had been released from military service, Israeli broadcaster Channel 13 reports.

Halevi’s response, according to the report, was to tell Netanyahu that the army can handle any task.

Channel 13 goes on to say, citing a “senior Israeli official”,  that the army’s Rafah operation is getting closer to starting, but that coordination with the Egyptians has not yet been achieved.

Israeli media outlets are reporting that police took action against the demonstrators, who number in the thousands, after they tried to block Kaplan Street in central Tel Aviv.

The protesters are demanding elections and showing their anger at the Israeli prime minister for his failure to bring captives still held in Gaza home.

Reports say that these protests are occurring at dozens of other locations throughout Israel’s capital.

Video published by one outlet shows protesters blocking Kaplan Street:

משטרת ישראל פינתה מפגינים, שאינם משתייכים למשפחות החטופים, לאחר שניסו לחסום את רחוב קפלן בת"א pic.twitter.com/b5ePK5HuPK

— ישראל היום (@IsraelHayomHeb) February 10, 2024