ISRAELI PROTEST
At the G7 summit in Italy, US President Joe Biden called Hamas “the biggest hang-up so far” to reaching a deal on a Gaza truce and hostage release.
Blinken has said Israel backs the plan, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose far-right government allies are strongly opposed, has not publicly endorsed it.
In Jerusalem on Thursday, a student-led protest near Israel’s parliament urged the government to secure an agreement to bring the remaining hostages home.
“Ceasefire now,” read one banner.
Similar demonstrations have regularly occurred in Tel Aviv.
Biden’s roadmap for the first truce since a week-long pause and hostage-prisoner release in November includes a six-week ceasefire, an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, and Gaza’s reconstruction.
On Monday, the United Nations Security Council adopted a US-drafted resolution supporting the plan.
The World Health Organization said more than 8,000 children aged under five in Gaza had been treated for acute malnutrition.
AFP images from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital showed the grieving family of a 10-year-old boy who died suffering from malnutrition. His limbs appeared thin and his ribcage was clearly visible.
“NO EID SPIRIT”
As Muslims worldwide prepare to mark Eid al-Adha starting Sunday, Gazans lamented soaring prices and shortages of essential goods – including sacrificial animals for the festival – leaving little to celebrate in the besieged territory.
“There is no Eid spirit,” Mohammed Shabat, who like most of Gaza’s population has been displaced by the war, said outside his tent in Deir al-Balah.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said an Israeli military raid killed three people in the town of Qabatiyah on Thursday. Israel’s military reported it had “eliminated two wanted suspects”.
The United States on Thursday condemned the Israeli finance minister’s “wrongheaded” decision to redirect US$35 million in tax revenue collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority to families of “victims of terrorism”.
Economists have previously said Israel is withholding tax revenues it collects on the PA’s behalf. In May, the World Bank said the PA’s fiscal situation had worsened, putting it at risk of financial collapse.
The fallout from the Gaza war also escalated this week off Yemen.
Two cruise missiles launched by Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels struck a bulk cargo carrier in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday, severely injuring a sailor who was evacuated by American forces, the US military said.
The Huthis said they had carried out attacks on three ships within 24 hours, including against the bulk carrier.
They are the latest Huthi strikes on shipping in the area’s waterways, vital to world trade, in what they say are acts of solidarity with the Palestinians.
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