- Israeli forces have deployed more troops to areas adjacent to Rafah and destroyed agricultural land in the eastern areas of the district.
- The United States again exercised its veto power in the United Nations Security Council to block Palestine’s widely supported bid for full UN membership, a move the Palestinian presidency says is “unfair, unethical and unjustifiable”.
- At least nine people have been killed in Israeli jet fighter attacks on Gaza’s Shati refugee camp, the Sheikh Radwan area north of Gaza City, and Nuseirat in the central area of the Palestinian territory, Wafa news agency reports.
- Iran says air defence systems were activated amid reports of explosions near an airport in the central city of Isfahan, as US media quoted officials saying that Israel carried out an attack.
- At least 33,970 people have been killed and 76,770 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from Hamas’s October 7 attacks stands at 1,139 with dozens of captives held in Gaza.
- Hamas official calls for ‘expanding engagement’ against Israel: ReportSami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, has said it is time to “expand the scale of the engagement” against Israel in response to its “war of genocide in Gaza and the escalation in the region”.Speaking to Reuters news agency, Abu Zuhri slammed Israel’s “aggression” towards Iran, characterising it as a hostile act against the region.Hamas for weeks has engaged in indirect ceasefire talks with Israel, but the negotiations have stalled, according to mediator Qatar, as concern mounts in Gaza that Israel will push ahead with a bloody invasion of Rafah.
- Raid of Nur Shams camp ongoing, at least 1 killed and 3 injuredReporting from Tulkarem in the occupied West BankThe raid has been going on for about 15 or 16 hours now and there seems to be no letup in sight.We know that at least three Palestinian residents of the camp have been injured, and at least one person has been killed by an Israeli sniper’s bullets.We’ve been hearing the sound of drones overhead for hours – and multiple large, loud explosions.Sustained small-arms fire, indicative of active firefights, is ongoing. The Israeli military has at least 40 military vehicles, with potentially dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting against Palestinian armed resistance fighters who are using small arms as well as explosives.We also know that the Israelis have taken in new military bulldozers that are capable of driving directly through houses – and that’s what they’ve been doing.Dozens of homes are destroyed and demolished. Israeli soldiers have been carrying out raids in homes, carrying out on-site interrogations.This is likely to carry on for several hours. The situation remains very dangerous inside the camp.
- Smoke rises among buildings in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, during an Israeli army raid on April 19, 2024
- UAE says full Palestinian UN membership would help improve peace efforts: ReportThe United Arab Emirates says granting Palestinians full membership in the United Nations would be “an important step to boost peace efforts in the region”, the state news agency (WAM) reported after the UN Security Council rejected a resolution to that effect.
- Blinken reiterates US not supportive of Rafah operationThe United States believes that Israel can achieve its military objectives in Gaza without an all-out invasion of Rafah, which the US will not support, said Blinken.“We believe that a major military operation with a large presence of civilian population would have terrible consequences for that population,” he said.He added that the US had engaged in discussions about Rafah with senior Israeli officials as recently as this week and that such discussions would continue.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/4/19/israels-war-on-gaza-live-us-veto-at-un-unfair-unethical-pa-president
