Netanyahu okays plan for Rafah ground assault

• Biden says Rafah offensive will be a 'red line' without credible civilian protection plans in place
• Death toll in Gaza hits 31,490 
• Hamas lashes out at Abbas's 'unilateral' designation of new PM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office yesterday said he had approved the military's plan for an operation in Rafah, where most of war-battered Gaza's population has sought refuge. 

Netanyahu "approved the plans for action in Rafah," his office said in a statement, without giving details or a timeline.

The statement said the military was "prepared for the operational side and for the evacuation of the population".

Rafah is the last major population centre yet to be subjected to a ground assault during Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.

Meanwhile, a United States charity yesterday said it was unloading the first shipment of food aid sent via a maritime corridor from Cyprus to war-ravaged Gaza.

"World Central Kitchen is unloading the barge connected now to the jetty," said Linda Roth, a spokesperson for the group.

The Israeli military confirmed that the vessel, the Open Arms, had arrived in Gazan waters and said Israeli troops had "been deployed to secure the area".

Open Arms, the Spanish charity that operates the vessel, earlier said it had been towing a barge loaded with 200 tonnes of food for Gazans threatened with famine after more than five months of war.

Since October 7, Israel's relentless bombing campaign has killed at least 31,490 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The ministry said at least 149 people had been killed in the past 24 hours.

US President Joe Biden, who has supported Israel during the war, has said an Israeli invasion of Rafah would be a "red line" without credible civilian protection plans in place.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a visit to Vienna on Friday that Washington had not seen any plans for a Rafah operation, but reiterated that it wants a "clear and implementable plan" to ensure civilians are "out of harm's way".

The office of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas "expressed  deep concern over an imminent Israeli military offensive in Rafah, which could result in a new massacre and further displacement of the Palestinian people in Gaza," the official Wafa news agency reported.

The German foreign ministry said "a large-scale offensive in Rafah cannot be justified".

"Over a million people have sought refuge there and have nowhere to go," it said on X. "We need a humanitarian ceasefire now, so that the dying ends and the hostages are finally released."

On the ground, witnesses reported air strikes and fighting in the southern Gaza Strip's main city Khan Yunis as well as areas of the north where humanitarian conditions have been particularly dire.

Israel yesterday said it would send a delegation to Qatar for fresh talks on a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza, keeping faint hopes for a truce alive despite rejecting a long-awaited counter-offer from Hamas.

Negotiators failed this week to reach a ceasefire agreement for the Gaza war in time for the Ramadan Muslim holy month. But Washington and Arab mediators are still determined to reach a deal to head off an Israeli assault on Rafah and let in humanitarian aid to stave off mass starvation.

More than two weeks after receiving an Israeli-approved proposal for a truce, Hamas gave mediators on Thursday its first formal counter-proposal in more than a month. Like previous proposals from both sides, the offer, reviewed by Reuters on Friday, foresees dozens of Israeli hostages being freed in return for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails, during a weeks-long ceasefire that would let in aid.

It also calls for talks in a later stage on ending the war, seen as anathema to Israel which says it will negotiate only over a temporary truce.

Though Israel did not accept, its description of the terms as "still unrealistic" was notably milder than the language it used about the previous Hamas offer last month, which Netanyahu called "completely delusional" and "from another planet".

The United Nations has repeatedly warned of looming famine, with only a fraction of the supplies needed to sustain Gaza's 2.4 million people being let in.

With fewer aid trucks entering by road, efforts have multiplied to get relief in by air and sea.

Gaza's health ministry said Israeli troops opened fire from "tanks and helicopters" as Palestinians gathered at a roundabout in Gaza City in the north, killing 20 people and wounding dozens on Thursday.

The Israeli military denied it had fired on the crowd. "Armed Palestinians opened fire while Gazan civilians were awaiting the arrival of the aid convoy," and then "continued to shoot as the crowd of Gazans began looting the trucks", an army statement said.

Similar claims were made after a chaotic melee in the same area on February 29 in which more than 100 Gazans were killed, according to the health ministry.