Israel-Gaza updates: 300,000 have fled Rafah, UN agency says

Israel called again on Saturday for civilians to leave parts of the city.

ByABC NEWS
Last Updated: May 12, 2024, 2:28 PM EDT

As the Israel-Hamas war crosses the seven-month mark, renewed negotiations are underway to secure the release of hostages taken by the terrorist organization, as Israeli forces continue to prepare for an apparent invasion of the southern Gazan town of Rafah.

May 10, 2024, 12:30 PM EDT

UNGA passes resolution calling on Security Council to reconsider Palestinian membership

The United Nations General Assembly has passed a resolution calling on the Security Council to reconsider Palestinian membership in the U.N.

The motion passed overwhelmingly with 143 countries in favor, nine against and 25 abstaining.

"Granting Palestinian membership requires a recommendation from the Security Council. At the same time, the Assembly determines that the State of Palestine is qualified for such status and recommends that the Security Council 'reconsider the matter favourably,'" the U.N. said in a statement.

Despite broad support, the U.S. voted "no."

"President Biden has been clear that sustainable peace in the region can be achieved only through a two-state solution, with Israel’s security guaranteed, where Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side with equal measures of freedom and dignity. It remains the U.S. view that unilateral measures at the UN and on the ground will not advance this goal," Ambassador Robert Wood said in a statement Friday.

If approved, the new status would not take effect until the General Assembly opens in September.

-ABC News' Will Gretsky

May 10, 2024, 11:27 AM EDT

110,000 estimated to have fled Rafah this week

As Israel's offensive on Rafah intensifies, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees estimates that around 110,000 people have now fled Rafah looking for safety.

"The only hope is an immediate Ceasefire," the UNRWA said in a statement Friday.

-ABC News' Will Gretsky

May 10, 2024, 11:20 AM EDT

Cease-fire negotiations have stopped, Israeli source says

Cease-fire negotiations between Hamas and Israel are on pause, with no negotiations currently happening, according to an Israeli source familiar with the talks.

-ABC News' Jordana Miller

May 10, 2024, 11:20 AM EDT

As Rafah needs rise, humanitarian response forced to ‘scrape the bottom of the barrel’

UNICEF officials continued to raise an alarm over the humanitarian conditions in Gaza, saying people are "exhausted, terrified" and don't have access to proper sanitation facilities and warn that if aid is not allowed into Gaza in the next 48 hours conditions will deteriorate further.

"I have been working on large-scale humanitarian emergencies for the best part of the last 30 years and I've never been involved in a situation as devastating, complex or erratic as this," James Elder a spokesperson for UNICEF, said.

Palestinians inspect a house damaged in an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 9, 2024.
Hatem Khaled/Reuters

"When I arrived in Gaza in the middle of November, I was shocked by the severity of the impact of this conflict on children and, impossibly, it has continued to worsen since. Yesterday, I walked around Al-Mawasi, the so-called 'humanitarian zone’ that people in eastern Rafah are being told to move to. More than 100,000 people have fled Rafah in the last 5 days and the stream of displacement continues. The roads to Mawasi are jammed – many hundreds of trucks, buses, cars and donkey carts loaded with people and possessions," Elder said.

Food stock for people in the south is expected to run out on Saturday while lack of fuel means that hospital wards cannot function. Elder also warned that a ground offensive in Rafah will lead to the number of children dead increasing "dramatically," with 14,000 being killed already.

"For 5 days, no fuel and virtually no humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip and we are scraping the bottom of the barrel. This is already a huge issue for the population and for all humanitarian actors but in a matter of days, if not corrected, the lack of fuel could grind humanitarian operations to a halt," Elder said.

A mourner reacts next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 10, 2024.
Hatem Khaled/Reuters

"At a time when people are being forced to pick up and move again, the lifesaving supplies that sustain and support them have been entirely cut off. Let’s be very clear – this will result in children dying. Deaths that can be prevented," Elder said.

-ABC News' Will Gretsky

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