Hamas rockets hit playground in rare attack on Israeli city of Be’er Sheva

A rare Hamas attack hit the southern Israel city of Be’er Sheva on Friday evening, injuring a woman.

A total of five rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip at Be’er Sheva, the Israeli Defence Forces said in a statement. One was intercepted by the Iron Dome and the other four hit open areas.

A 37-year old woman was taken to hospital as she was lightly injured by shrapnel. Images from the city showed impact at a children’s playground, with some of the plastic installations mangled by the blast wave.

Be’er Sheva, the largest Israeli city in the south on the verge of the Negev Desert, has not been targeted by rocket fire since December.

Hamas used to pound all of Israel with rockets during the first three months of the war in Gaza but shelling has become increasingly rare as the terrorist group ran out of ammunition and sustained heavy personnel losses.

Recent launches targeted Israeli communities immediately across the border.

04:38 PM BST

Today’s live blog is now closed

That’s all for today, thanks for following along. Here is a summary of the day’s most important events:

• US Republicans are pushing forward legislation designed to stop the Biden administration from being able to pause arms shipments to Israel.

• The UN General Assembly is expected to vote in the next hour on a resolution that would grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine and call on the Security Council to favorably reconsider its request to become the 194th member of the United Nations.

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he hopes to overcome his differences with US President Joe Biden, after the relationship hit a new low over a possible invasion of Rafah.

• The main United Nations aid agency for Palestinians has closed its headquarters in East Jerusalem after Israeli residents set fire to areas at the edge of the sprawling compound, the agency said, in a second attack on the headquarters this week.

• The US has warned Israel that it will hand a strategic victory to Hamas if it carries out its plans for a full invasion of Rafah.

• The Israeli military says that it has finished a series of exercises “simulating war in Lebanon” as it “continues enhancing readiness and preparation for various combat scenarios in the north”.

• More than 100,000 people have fled Rafah in recent days under the threat of a full-scale Israeli ground invasion. Humanitarian workers have been sounding the alarm in press briefings for days, warning that aid operations could grind to a halt within a matter of days with vital crossings remaining shut forcing hospitals to close down.

• Almost all of the pro-Palestine demonstrations that have swept US universities since mid-April have been peaceful, new research has found. 97 per cent of the demonstrations were peaceful, it found.

• The Israeli war cabinet on Thursday night reportedly approved an expansion of the IDF’s operation in Rafah. While two of the sources who spoke to Axios said that it would be a “measured” expansion of the operation, that would not cross Biden’s red lines, one said that it could be interpreted as doing so.

• Truck drivers stuck at Egypt’s border with Gaza say the food they are taking to the Palestinian enclave could spoil as they wait, exacerbating a hunger crisis among Gazans as war rages on.

04:36 PM BST

Israel captures road dividing Rafah

Israeli tanks have captured the main road dividing the east and west of Rafah as they encircled the eastern side of the city and sealed it from the south.

Residents on the western side of Rafah described to The Telegraph being able to hear near-constant bombing, with Israeli forces and Palestinian groups fighting intensely across the east.

The UN on Friday said that more than 100,000 people have fled Rafah in recent days and that aid operations would grind to a halt “within days” if the border crossing with Egypt, which Israel captured and closed earlier this week, remains shut.

Under the threat of a full-scale Israeli invasion, residents in the west of the city – which has not yet received evacuation orders from Israel – are also fleeing. “The east of the city is basically empty,” one 19-year-old student said.

A resident of Tel al Sultan in the west of Rafah told The Telegraph that Israeli tanks are now only six or seven kilometres away and that everywhere in Rafah is being targeted with airstrikes.

The Israeli military said its forces in eastern Rafah had found several tunnel shafts and that troops backed by an air strike fought at close quarters with groups of Hamas fighters, killing several. Hamas said it ambushed Israeli tanks near a mosque in the east of the city.

04:22 PM BST

Hamas fires rockets at Beersheba, lightly injures one woman

Five rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip at Beersheba, according to the IDF.

One was intercepted by the Iron Dome, while the other four hit open areas, it says.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the rocket fire. The last time rockets were fired from Gaza at Beersheba was in December.

According to medics, a 37 year old woman was lightly wounded.

04:14 PM BST

‘If you do not support our freedom, you do not support peace,’ says Palestinian ambassador to UN

Riyad Mansour, Palestinian ambassador to the UN, has just addressed the UN General Assembly.

“A yes vote is a vote for Palestinian existence, it not against any state, but it is against the attempts to deprive us of our state. That is why the Israeli government is so opposed to it, because they oppose our independence and the two-state solution altogether,” he said.

“If you do not support our freedom, you do not support peace.”

03:55 PM BST

UNGA session on ‘rights and privileges’ for Palestine has started

The UN General Assembly session on granting Palestine more “rights and freedoms” and call on the Security Council to favourably reconsider Palestine’s request to become the 194th member of the UN has begun.

“Granting Palestine full membership in the United Nations will send a message in support of the two-state solution,” said the UN representative for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Mohamed Abushahab.

“By voting in favor of today’s draft resolution, you will demonstrate that the international community refuses to settle for anything less than upholding the legitimate rights of people and rejecting double standards,” Abushahab added.

A vote is expected in the next hour.

03:31 PM BST

Israel emerges among top favourites to win Eurovision

Israel’s Eden Golan has become one of the favourites among bookmakers to win this year’s Eurovision Song Contest after she made it through the semi-finals on Thursday despite boos during her performance and protests outside the venue in Sweden.

Israel climbed to second favourite from ninth after the semi-final, according to Eurovision World, a website that compiles betting odds from 15 of Europe’s biggest bookmakers. It said Israel is seen as having a 22 per cent chance of winning, behind only Croatia’s Baby Lasagna who was seen having a 41 per cent chance.

More than 10,000 people gathered in host city Malmo in southern Sweden on Thursday to stage non-violent protest against Israel’s participation in the contest. More protests are scheduled for Saturday ahead of the final.

03:15 PM BST

Battles continue in Zeitoun, on the outskirts of Gaza City

03:08 PM BST

Truck drivers waiting at Rafah say food could spoil if delays continue

Truck drivers stuck at Egypt’s border with Gaza say the food they are taking to the Palestinian enclave could spoil as they wait, exacerbating a hunger crisis among Gazans as war rages on.

Israeli forces seized control of the Rafah border crossing this week and are preparing for a widely expected assault on the city next to the frontier where about 1 million people uprooted by the war have been sheltering.

“The closure of the border crossing is not good for all these trucks because these are fridges, which means machine failure doesn’t give a warning. If the (fridge) stops working, then all of the food inside will be ruined,” trucker Ahmed al-Bayoumi told Reuters.

“Here, there’s no (technician) available to fix things and then we will have to handle the packages again. In any country in the world, food in fridges has priority to be delivered.”

“Every day, trucks would go in and out of the border crossing and things were flowing,” said truck driver Abdallah Nassar.

“But now that the border crossing is closed, we don’t know what our situation is now. And of course, we have food, and these things have expiry dates, and it can go bad.”

02:43 PM BST

Israeli war cabinet reportedly approved expansion of IDF activity in Rafah

The Israeli war cabinet on Thursday night reportedly approved an expansion of the IDF’s operation in Rafah.

According to a report in Axios, which relies on three unnamed sources, the cabinet also instructed the Israeli negotiations to continue efforts to reach a hostage deal. Ultranationalist ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich were reported to have voted against the decision.

While two of the sources who spoke to Axios said that it would be a “measured” expansion of the operation, that would not cross Biden’s red lines, one said that it could be interpreted as doing so.

02:20 PM BST

Israel reportedly set to expand area of Rafah operation

02:15 PM BST

US police clear MIT and UPenn Gaza protests

Police carried out pre-dawn swoops on students protesting the war in Gaza at two more prestigious US universities on Friday, in the latest unrest on campuses across the country.

At least ten people were arrested at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) near Boston in the northeast, according to university president Sally Kornbluth, who said she had “no choice” but to dismantle the “high-risk flashpoint”.

At the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, officers in tactical gear forcibly removed several dozen students who had linked arms around a statue of Benjamin Franklin, NBC reported.

Students did not resist arrest at either university and both actions appeared to have been relatively peaceful.

01:53 PM BST

Nearly all Gaza campus protests in the US have been peaceful, research finds

Almost all of the pro-Palestine demonstrations that have swept US universities since mid-April have been peaceful, new research has found.

The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (ACLED) said data from analysis of 553 demonstrations across the US between April 18 and May 3 showed fewer than 20 resulted in any serious interpersonal violence or property damage. 97 per cent of the demonstrations were peaceful, it found.

The organisation, which tracks political violence and political protests globally, said that there had been at least 70 instances of forceful police intervention against the protests over the same period. These included the arrest of demonstrators and the use of chemical agents, batons and other kinds of physical force to disperse protesters.

ACLED said its data indicated nearly half of the campus protests it categorised as violent involved protesters fighting with law enforcement during a police intervention.

01:42 PM BST

Palestinians continue to flee Rafah and search for shelter as fighting intensifies

01:32 PM BST

‘We simply have no tents, we have no blankets, no bedding, none of the items that you would expect a population on the move to be able to get from the humanitarian system’

Georgios Petropoulos, a UN OCHA official working in Rafah, said the two main crossings near the city remain closed, cutting off supplies and preventing medical evacuations and the movement of humanitarian staff.

“Even if there were assurances to us being able to pass through a corridor, the proximity so close to a military involved in fighting is just not acceptable for something that has to be a humanitarian zone,” he said.

The UN’s World Food Program will run out of food for distribution in southern Gaza by Saturday unless more aid arrives, Petropoulos said. He said about 30,000 people were leaving Rafah daily in search of safety, but that humanitarian workers had no supplies to help them set up camp in a new location.

“We simply have no tents, we have no blankets, no bedding, none of the items that you would expect a population on the move to be able to get from the humanitarian system,” he said.

Israeli troops captured the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt on Tuesday, forcing it to shut down. Rafah was the main point of entry for fuel needed to power vehicles, as well as the generators on which hospitals and water treatment plants rely.

01:30 PM BST

Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon kills a paramedic and civilian

A drone strike on the southern Lebanese village of Tayr Harfa killed two people and injured another today, according to local media outlets.

One of the people killed was a first responder affiliated with the Amal Movement. While the second person killed was working for a telecommunications company fixing the network in the area. His colleague was injured in the strike. The two were accompanied by Lebanese army soldiers who survived the attack.

The Israeli military said they killed two armed Hezbollah operatives in Yaroun on Friday, which appeared to be a separate event. IDF fighter jets also hit what they said were Hezbollah sites in Kafr Kila and Blida, according to the statement.

01:16 PM BST

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital to run out of fuel ‘within 48 hours’

The government media office in Gaza has demanded that fuel be supplied to Al-Aqsa hospital after warning that it will run out within 48 hours.

“We call on all UN organisations and international institutions to urgently supply fuel to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital before it is too late, and we call for immediate and urgent intervention to supply fuel to all hospitals and rehabilitate and restore them before a humanitarian disaster kills thousands of people,” it said in a statement.

01:10 PM BST

UN Secretary General condemns attack on UNRWA HQ in east Jerusalem

12:35 PM BST

‘Let’s be very clear this will result in children dying’: UN

The Israeli military said a limited operation in Rafah was meant to kill fighters and dismantle infrastructure used by Hamas, but today UN agencies warn it could lead to a “slaughter” and put hundreds of thousands of lives at risk.

“For five days, no fuel and virtually no humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip, and we are scraping the bottom of the barrel,” said the UNICEF Senior Emergency Coordinator in the Gaza Strip, Hamish Young.

The closed crossings had prevented the movement of people including aid workers and medical evacuations, he said, while food shortages were pushing up prices and supplies had already been lost from the destruction and looting of warehouses.

In the next day or so, five health ministry hospitals, five field hospitals and 30 ambulances would stop without more fuel, he said, adding that any kind of meaningful safe water production in Rafah has come to a halt.

Of the 12 aid-supported bakeries in southern Gaza, eight had ceased to operate and the rest would run out of stocks by Monday.

“At a time when people are being forced to pick up and move again, the life-saving supplies that sustain and support them have been entirely cut off,” Young said.

“Let’s be very clear this will result in children dying. Deaths that can be prevented.”

12:01 PM BST

Germany condemns ‘escalation’ of violence against UNRWA in east Jerusalem

Germany condemned on Friday the “escalation of violent protest” against the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in east Jerusalem, which temporarily closed its headquarters there following repeated attacks.

“Israel must ensure the protection of UN facilities and personnel in the occupied Palestinian territories,” the German foreign ministry said on X.

“The UN need to be able to serve their important mandate in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem.”

The fire, near a fuel station inside, came after two months of “Israeli extremists” staging protests outside the compound, with one earlier this week turning violent when demonstrators threw stones, the UNRWA chief said.

The Palestinian Authority, Jordan and Saudi Arabia were among those who had already condemned the arson attack.

11:29 AM BST

Gaza aid could grind to a halt within days, UN agencies warn

More than 100,000 people have fled Rafah in recent days under the threat of a full-scale Israeli ground invasion.

Georgios Petropoulos, head of OCHA’s sub-office in Gaza, said the situation in the besieged Palestinian territory had reached “even more unprecedented levels of emergency”.

“The recent evacuation order that we had from the government of Israel linked to the military operation in Rafah is now counting 110,000-plus displaced people having to move north,” he told a briefing in Geneva, via video-link from Rafah.

“Most of these are people who have had to displace five or six times.”

Humanitarian workers have been sounding the alarm in press briefings for days, warning that aid operations could grind to a halt within a matter of days with vital crossings remaining shut forcing hospitals to close down.

“For five days, no fuel and virtually no humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip, and we are scraping the bottom of the barrel,” said Hamish Young, the UNICEF Senior Emergency Coordinator in the Gaza Strip.

“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,” he told a virtual briefing.

11:15 AM BST

Israel carries out exercises simulating war in Lebanon to ‘increase readiness’ for wider war with Hezbollah

The Israeli military says that it has finished a series of exercises “simulating war in Lebanon” as it “continues enhancing readiness and preparation for various combat scenarios in the north”.

“In the exercise simulating warfare in Lebanon, infantry, armored and engineering forces alongside logistics and communication support personnel, practiced operational cooperation in rugged and complex terrains using camouflage and combat techniques,” the statement read.

Hezbollah has vowed that it will not stop fighting over Lebanon’s border with Israel until there is a ceasefire in Gaza, while Israeli officials have promised residents in the north that the threat of Hezbollah so close to the border will not continue.

In the parallel war being fought across Israel’s northern front, more than 350 people have been killed in Lebanon, including 275 Hezbollah members and more than 70 civilians and non-combatants. In Israel, 15 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed.

11:09 AM BST

With negotiations stalled, Israel’s ‘limited’ operation in Rafah continues with Hamas fighting back

As ceasefire talks stall, fighting is raging in Gaza with the humanitarian situation worsening further as UN agencies and aid organisations say that aid is still unable to get in, for the fourth day in a row.

In a statement released Friday, the Israeli military said it had located several tunnels in eastern Rafah, near the border with Egypt, and had eliminated militants “during close-quarters combat and with an aerial strike”.

Hamas’ military wing said it carried out a complex attack in which it struck a house where Israeli troops had taken up a position, an armored personnel carrier and soldiers operating on foot.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. It was not possible to independently confirm the battlefield accounts from either side.

Hamas also said it launched a number of mortar rounds at the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing, close to where Israeli troops are operating. The Israeli military said it intercepted two launches.

The crossing was closed after a rocket attack last weekend that killed four Israeli soldiers. Israel says it has re-opened its side of the crossing, but the UN agency for Palestinian refugees says the Gaza side is inaccessible because of the ongoing fighting.

10:42 AM BST

Israel and Hamas must show ‘flexibility’ to achieve a deal, talks in ‘delicate’ phase

Egypt has said Hamas and Israel must show “flexibility” if they are to strike a deal for a ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange, according to a foreign ministry statement released on Friday.

The readout of a phone call between Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said both diplomats agreed on “the importance of urging the parties to show flexibility and make all the necessary efforts to achieve a ceasefire agreement and put an end to the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza”.

Hamas said early Friday that its negotiators at ceasefire talks this week in Cairo had left the city for Doha, saying Israel had “rejected the proposal submitted by the mediators and raised objections to it”.

The group added it stood by the proposal, saying that “the ball is now completely in the hands of the occupation”.

The statement from Egypt said the talks were in a “delicate phase”, with Cairo expressing fears that a full-scale Israeli incursion into the crowded Gazan city of Rafah, which sits on Egypt’s border, could threaten the “stability and security” of the region.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that during the same conversation, Blinken assured Shoukry “that the United States does not support a major military operation in Rafah” and rejects “any forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza”.

10:31 AM BST

US warns Israel it will hand Hamas a strategic victory if its Rafah offensive goes ahead

The US has warned Israel that it will hand a strategic victory to Hamas if it carries out its plans for a full invasion of Rafah.

“Our view is any kind of major Rafah ground operation would actually strengthen Hamas’ hands at the negotiating table, not Israel’s,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said last night.

“We believe that they have put an enormous amount of pressure on Hamas and that there are better ways to go after what is left of Hamas in Rafah than a major ground operation.”

The warning came after US President Joe Biden said he would pause more military assistance to Israel if the offensive goes ahead as planned.

10:25 AM BST

Analysis from Jerusalem as hopes for an imminent ceasefire for hostages deal dissipate

Once within a touching distance, the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas is increasingly looking like a distant prospect. Or, rather, when a truce is announced after more fighting and devastation in Gaza, it will unlikely be a much-anticipated achievement by the current Israeli government.

Both Israeli and Hamas delegation left Cairo on Thursday as did William Burns, the CIA chief who spearheaded American efforts to bring about the deal. Gaps between Israel and Hamas seem to be unbridgeable at this point as Hamas caught Israel by surprise on Monday with its approval of a draft deal and Israel decided to launch an albeit limited operation in Rafah.

Americans reportedly gave the Benjamin Netanyahu government a heads-up but Israel reportedly ignored it. CIA chief Burns, according to Israeli media, told Israel of an upcoming Hamas reply ahead of the Monday announcement, suggesting they send to Cairo the chief of Mossad or someone who would be in a position to hammer out the final details, but Israel refused to send anyone. Raising stakes is how the bargaining is done in the Middle East, Israeli officials insisted.

An emboldened Hamas, which is closely watching the Biden administration conditioning weapons supply on Israel’s actions on the ground, is now more than ever firm in its demand that any hostage deal should provide for a lasting truce. While Israel last month appeared to have agreed to a vaguely phrased “sustainable peace” for Gaza that would likely bring about an end to hostilities, the time for nuance is gone now.

It increasingly looks like Benjamin Netanyahu will do his best to delay any decision-making on Gaza – from the release of hostages to post-war governance – before he will either have his hand forced by Americans to sign a truce or he will be swept away from office by angry Israelis who are growing tired of living in limbo amid Israel’s longest war since 1949. Neither is what Israel’s long-serving prime minister had in mind when he promised the voters a “total victory” just a few months earlier.

10:09 AM BST

Israeli demonstrators torch part of UNRWA HQ in East Jerusalem

The main United Nations aid agency for Palestinians has closed its headquarters in East Jerusalem after Israeli residents set fire to areas at the edge of the sprawling compound, the agency said, in a second attack on the headquarters this week.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNWRA, said in a post on X that he had decided to close the compound until proper security was restored.

“This is an outrageous development. Once again, the lives of UN staff were at a serious risk,” he said.

“It is the responsibility of the State of Israel as an occupying power to ensure that United Nations personnel and facilities are protected at all times,” he said.

“While there were no casualties among our staff, the fire caused extensive damage to the outdoor areas. The UNRWA headquarters has on its grounds a petrol and diesel station for the Agency’s fleet of cars,” he added.

Lazzarini said that “a crowd accompanied by armed men were witnessed outside the compound chanting “Burn down the United Nations” uploading a video to X from Israeli media in which the chants could be heard.

09:51 AM BST

IDP tents crowd the beach in Deir el Balah

09:46 AM BST

Netanyahu says he hopes to overcome differences with Biden, but will fight alone

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he hopes to overcome his differences with US President Joe Biden, after the relationship hit a new low over a possible invasion of Rafah.

“I’ve known Joe Biden for many years, 40 years or more,” Netanyahu said in an interview on Dr Phil last night. “We often had agreements, but we’ve often had disagreements. We’ve been able to overcome them. I hope we can overcome them now, but we will do what we have to do to protect our country... If Israel has to stand alone, we will stand alone,” he said.

09:33 AM BST

UN General Assembly set to back Palestinian bid for membership

The UN General Assembly is expected to vote today on a resolution that would grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine and call on the Security Council to favorably reconsider its request to become the 194th member of the United Nations.

The United States vetoed a widely backed council resolution on April 18 that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for Palestine, a goal the Palestinians have long sought and Israel has worked to prevent. US deputy ambassador Robert Wood made clear on Thursday the Biden administration is opposed to the assembly resolution.

“We’ve been very clear from the beginning there is a process for obtaining full membership in the United Nations, and this effort by some of the Arab countries and the Palestinians is to try to go around that,” Wood said on Thursday. “We have said from the beginning the best way to ensure Palestinian full membership in the UN is to do that through negotiations with Israel. That remains our position.”

But unlike the Security Council, there are no vetoes in the 193-member General Assembly and the resolution is expected to be approved by a large majority, according to three Western diplomats, speaking to AP on condition of anonymity because negotiations were private.

While the General Assembly alone cannot grant full UN membership, the draft resolution being put to a vote on Friday will give the Palestinians some additional rights and privileges from September 2024 – like a seat among the UN members in the assembly hall – but it will not be granted a vote in the body.

09:19 AM BST

Good morning

Hello and welcome to the Telegraph’s live blog on the war in Gaza and its spillover across the Middle East. Follow along as we bring you all of the latest developments.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last night made defiant comments that Israel will “stand alone” if it has to, a day after US President Joe Biden warned that the US will stop supplying some weapons if it launches a major ground operation in the Gaza city of Rafah. The pressure tactic that the US is using has been used before, but represents a significant turning point in a historic relationship between the two countries as we wait to see whether Netanyahu will openly defy Biden. Negotiators left Cairo least night without a deal as Israel continued to hit Gaza.

First up this morning:

Republicans push to force Biden to send arms to Israel

US Republicans are pushing forward legislation designed to stop the Biden administration from being able to pause arms shipments to Israel.

Joe Biden this week paused transfers of ammunition, 500-pound bombs and 2000-pound bombs to Israel as a way of signalling its discontent over a planned invasion of Rafah but the move has drawn fury among Republicans and divided the Democrats.

US congresswoman Beth Van Duyne on Thursday introduced the “Immediate Support for Israel Act”, which would require transfers of some weapons to Israel to happen within 30 days of procurement, but would not apply to the currently paused shipments.

Other Republicans have said they are drafting articles of impeachment against Biden for withholding the aid.

The backlash comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to submit a report on Friday set to be highly critical of Israel’s conduct in Gaza but stopping short of concluding it has violated the terms for its use of US weapons, according to Axios.

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