Israel-Hamas war: IDF ramps up strikes on Rafah

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned 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," Borrell posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron also said he was "deeply concerned about the prospect of a military offensive in Rafah."

"The priority must be an immediate pause in the fighting to get aid in and hostages out," Cameron posted.

The Israeli military has claimed the discovery of a Hamas tunnel under the headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza City. The UNRWA said it had vacated the premises in October.

The Israeli military took reporters on a tour of the tunnel. However, the lack of a mobile signal in the tunnel made it impossible to geolocate it and confirm it was indeed below the UNRWA headquarters, the Reuters news agency said.

"Everything is conducted from here. All the energy for the tunnels, which you walked through them are powered from here," Reuters cited a lieutenant-colonel, who gave only his first name, Ido, as saying during the tour.

He was referring to a side room in the tunnel packed with industrial battery stacks. Israel claimed the tunnel was powered by electricity supplied from the UNRWA headquarters.

UNRWA said its staff were forced to leave the headquarters on October 12, under Israeli instructions. It added that it had not used the facility since vacating and was not "aware of any activity that may have taken place there." 

Gaza City, where the headquarters is based, was among the first regions of the enclave where Israel's ground offensive was focused.

The UN agency said it "does not have the military and security expertise nor the capacity to undertake military inspections of what is or might be under its premises." 

UNRWA has come under fire in recent weeks after Israel alleged that members of its staff were involved in the deadly October 7 terror attacks, which Israel says left around 1,200 killed. 

The agency fired 12 staff members  and probed the allegations, but, in the process, many of its major donors have frozen their aid contributions, including Germany and the US.

UNRWA helps provide education, health care and welfare to some 6 million Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Israel has downplayed Moody's downgrading of its credit rating, with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich saying it was "political" and akin to a pessimistic "manifesto."

"The Israeli economy is strong by all measures. It is capable of sustaining all war efforts, on the front line and home front, until, with God's help, victory is achieved," he said, as quoted by the Reuters news agency and local media.

The US ratings agency has cut Israel's rating to A2, which is five notches above investment grade, down from A1. Moody's also kept Israel's credit outlook as negative, which means a further downgrade is possible.

The agency expected Israel's debt burden to be "materially higher" than projected before the latest conflict with Hamas. It also forecast doubling defense spending by the end of this year.

S&P Global Ratings also lowered Israel's credit outlook to negative last October, while Fitch, the last of the three US rating agencies, placed it on negative watch. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Saturday it had killed two Hamas operatives and a policeman in Rafah.

Fighting has intensified in the Rafah border area of the Gaza Strip, despite international warnings due to the presence of hundreds of thousands of war-displaced civilians.

Israeli aircraft killed Ahmed Eliakubi, the IDF said in a social media post, describing him as a "Hamas operative who was responsible for the security arrangements for senior Hamas officials and served as a senior director in the Rafah District Police Department."

The Israeli military added that it also killed Iman Rantisi. The latter was described as a "military operative and a senior in the investigation department of Hamas' general security."

Israel designates Hamas, the group that rules the Gaza Strip, as a terrorist organization alongside several other countries, including the US and Germany.

Meanwhile, at least 44 Palestinians were killed in the southern city of Rafah, including over a dozen children, The Associated Press news agency reported on Saturday. 

More than half of Gaza's population of more than 2 million has flooded into Rafah, which lies on the Egyptian border, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directed Israel's military to plan for the "evacuation of the population and destroying" Hamas fighters in Rafah on Friday, despite warnings against the move from many of Israel's allies.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebel group has  held a funeral for 17 of its members, whom it said were killed in US-UK strikes targeting the group.

The public funeral was held in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa on Saturday, reported the Houthi-controlled Saba news agency.

"The bodies of a number of martyrs of the nation and the armed and security forces who were martyred as a result of the bombing of the American-British aggression were carried through Sanaa today in a solemn funeral procession," Saba said in its coverage.

The Houthis have controlled large parts of Yemen since rebelling against the government in 2014, including Sanaa and the port city of Hodeida.

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on October 7, Houthis have targeted ships they said were affiliated to Israel in the Red Sea. They have justified their attacks as a show of solidarity with the Palestinians in the devastated Gaza Strip.

The attacks have disrupted international shipping through this crucial trade route, and the US and the UK announced last month strikes against the Iran-backed rebels in retaliation. Houthis have since declared US and British-affiliated ships also legitimate targets.

An Israeli strike some 60 kilometers (around 37 miles) deep into the southern border region of Lebanontargeted a Palestinian figure affiliated with militant group Hamas, but did not kill him, sources said Saturday.

The strike was deep into Lebanese territories, unlike the regular border skirmishes between Israeli forces and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, ongoing since the start of the conflict in Gaza.

At least two civilians were killed in the strike, Palestinian sources told the French AFP news agency. A Hezbollah member was also killed, security sources told the Reuters news agency.

The person targeted with the assassination attempt was close to Saleh Arouri, a top Hamas commander who was killed last month in a suspected Israeli strike on a Beirut suburb.

Both Hamas and Hezbollah are designated as terrorist groups by several countries.

The body of a six-year-old Palestinian girl trapped in a car in Gaza with her dead family, who begged rescuers to save her in a terrified call for help more than two weeks ago, was found Saturday.

"I am so scared," Hind Rajab had said in a desperate phone call to the Palestine Red Crescent Society. "Call someone to come get me, please."

On Saturday, her family members finally managed to reach the area previously closed off as an active combat zone.

Hind's body, along with those of her uncle and aunt and their three children, were found still in a car near a roundabout in the Tel al-Hawa suburb of Gaza City.

The bodies of the two Palestinian Red Crescent Society rescuers who went out two weeks ago to rescue her were also found there.

The Red Crescent said Israeli forces "deliberately targeted the Red Crescent crew despite prior coordination to allow the ambulance to arrive at the site to rescue Hind," the organization said in a statement.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Earlier this month, the Red Crescent released audio clips of Hind's call. 

Believed to be the only survivor, Hind stayed on the line for three hours with dispatchers, who tried to soothe her as they prepared to send an ambulance.

"Hind kept asking us to come and get her, to send someone to get her. She said it was getting dark," dispatcher Rana al-Faqeh had told Reuters.

But dispatchers eventually lost connection with her and the Red Crescent ambulance crew that was deployed to save her.

Their burned-out rescue vehicle was discovered close to the car Hind's body was found in. 

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has warned that Israel's planned offensive in the Gazan border city of Rafah — home to over 1 million refugees — would unleash a "humanitarian catastrophe."

"The emergency in Rafah is already unbelievable. 1.3 million people are seeking refuge from the fighting in a very small space," she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

"An offensive by the Israeli military in Rafah would be a humanitarian catastrophe waiting to happen. The people in Gaza cannot disappear into thin air," the foreign minister said.

She went on to say: "Israel has to defend itself against Hamas terror, but at the same time alleviating the suffering of the civilian population as much as possible."

"That's why a new cease-fire is necessary, also so that the hostages can finally be released. I will discuss how to achieve this again next week in Israel," she added.

At least 25 people were killed as Israeli airstrikes pounded the city of Rafah on Gaza's southern border overnight and into Saturday, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory.

The ministry's figures are deemed largely accurate by the UN but do not differentiate between militants and civilians.

More than half of Gaza's over 2-million-strong population has flooded into Rafah, which lies on the Egyptian border, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directed the country's military to plan for the "evacuation of the population and destroying" Hamas fighters in Rafah on Friday.

Israeli forces have already carried out operations in the strip's two main cities — Gaza City and Khan Younis.

The plan has been heavily criticized by humanitarians and some of Israel's closest allies.

"Israel's declared ground offensive on Rafah would be catastrophic and must not proceed," Doctors Without Borders said in a statement. "There is no place that is safe in Gaza and no way for people to leave."

"There is a sense of growing anxiety, growing panic in Rafah," said Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UNRWA agency. "People have no idea where to go."

"No war can be allowed in a gigantic refugee camp," said Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, warning of a "bloodbath" if Israeli operations expand there.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, which administers part of the West Bank, called it a "blatant violation of all red lines."

Mahmoud Abbas warned it would amount to a "prelude to expulsion."

The US State Department also said it does not support a ground offensive in Rafah, warning that, if not properly planned, such an operation risked "disaster."

The Syrian military has said Israel struck several sites on the outskirts of the capital Damascus on Saturday.

The attacks came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Syrian state news agency SANA reported, citing an unnamed military official. 

Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported three people were killed when a residential building was struck to the west of the capital.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on its northern neighbor since 2011, targeting Iran-backed forces, including Hezbollah and Syrian army positions.

The strikes have intensified since Hamas' October 7 attacks on Israel.

Berlin's Free University (FU) has banned a student from campus who allegedly assaulted another student in an apparent antisemitic attack.

A Jewish student at FU was hospitalized last weekend due to facial fractures. A fellow German student allegedly confronted the 30-year-old about his pro-Israeli activism and then punched and kicked him. The incident was reported to have taken place in the central Mitte district of Berlin.

"In view of the offense, the suspect would be perceived as a threat on the university campus," FU President Günter Ziegler said in a statement on Friday.

The university cannot legally expel the student.

"In order to protect the members of the university and to safeguard the peace of the university, the ban that has now been imposed for an initial period of three months is indispensable," Ziegler said, adding it could be extended. 

The public prosecutor's office is investigating the case but told the German press agency DPA it is assuming the attack was targeted and antisemitic.

lo/ab (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)