Middle East crisis: Hamas condemns Israeli order to evacuate Rafah as a ‘dangerous escalation’ – as it happened

It is just after 7.00pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv.

Here’s what’s happened so far:

• Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to ensure that the Kerem Shalom crossing is open for humanitarian assistance, during a Monday call with Joe Biden, the White House reported.

• Scott Anderson, the senior deputy director of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa), said that the closing of Kerem Shalom and other aid passages threatens the critical fuel supply in Gaza. “Everything we do in Gaza is run by diesel. We currently have one day of diesel on hand. If we don’t have a resume by tomorrow, everything will stop,” he said to CNN.

• Joe Biden reportedly demanded that Israel immediately reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing, one of the key routes for bringing aid into Gaza, during a call with Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Axios reported, citing a senior US official.

• During the 30-minute phone call, Biden and Netanyahu also spoke about ongoing hostage negotiations and Israel’s upcoming ground invasion of Rafah, Axios reported.

• Thousands of people are evacuating from Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, hours after the Israeli military told residents and displaced people in eastern neighbourhoods to leave in advance of a long-threatened attack on the city and its environs. Witnesses described frightened families leaving the city on foot, riding donkeys or packed with their belongings into overloaded trucks on Monday. Overnight Israeli airstrikes had reinforced “panic and fear”, prompting more to heed the instructions to move.

Thank you for reading our coverage.

Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to ensure that the Kerem Shalom crossing is open for humanitarian assistance, during a Monday call with Joe Biden, the White House reported.

The Kerem Shalom crossing is one of the major routes for bringing humanitarian aid into Gaza. The crossing was closed after a rocket attack claimed by Hamas killed three soldiers, according to the Israel military. Israel then fired on a house in Rafah, reportedly killing at least three Palestinians.

During the call, Biden also updated Netanyahu on ongoing efforts to secure the release of hostages taken by Hamas, including talks happening in Doha, Qatar.

Here is a full readout of the call from the White House:

President Biden spoke this morning with Prime Minister Netanyahu. The President reaffirmed his message on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The two leaders discussed the shared commitment of Israel and the United States to remember the six million Jews who were systematically targeted and murdered in the Holocaust, one of the darkest chapters in human history, and to forcefully act against antisemitism and all forms of hate-fueled violence.

President Biden updated the Prime Minister on efforts to secure a hostage deal, including through ongoing talks today in Doha, Qatar. The Prime Minister agreed to ensure the Kerem Shalom crossing is open for humanitarian assistance for those in need. The President reiterated his clear position on Rafah.

Scott Anderson, the senior deputy director of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa), said that the closing of Kerem Shalom and other aid passages threatens the critical fuel supply in Gaza.

In an interview with CNN, Anderson said that fuel for Gaza mainly comes from Rafah and the Kerem Shalom passage, which was closed on Sunday.

“As of this morning, we don’t have access to Kerem Shalom. We don’t have access to Rafah for the movement of goods, for the movement of fuel. Which makes this a much more daunting task for us,” Anderson said.

“Everything we do in Gaza is run by diesel. We currently have one day of diesel on hand. If we don’t have a resume by tomorrow, everything will stop,” he added.

Joe Biden reportedly demanded that Israel immediately reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing, one of the key routes for bringing aid into Gaza, during a call with Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Axios reported, citing a senior US official.

The crossing was closed after a rocket attack claimed by Hamas killed three soldiers, the Israeli military reported. Israel then fired on a house in Rafah, reportedly killing at least three Palestinians.

From Axios reporter Barak Ravid:

Biden and Netanyahu also discussed ongoing hostage negotiations and Israel’s upcoming ground invasion of Rafah, US and Israel officials reported, Axios reported.

Israel’s military chief of staff said that Israel is “preparing for an offensive in the north” and that the military operation in Gaza “will continue with strength”, Reuters reported.

Herzi Halevi, the head of armed forces in Israel, made these remarks while conducting a situational assessment at the Lebanese border, Reuters further reported.

He did not elaborate further on his remarks.

Joe Biden and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrapped up a phone call on Monday, Reuters reported, citing a US official.

Several sources have reported that the call lasted approximately 30 minutes.

The Egyptian foreign minister said that Egypt was calling on Israel to “maintain maximum restraint” as ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Gaza continue.

Sameh Shoukry, the country’s minister of foreign affairs, said that Israel must work to “avoid further escalation at this sensitive point in the negotiations on the ceasefire agreement”, Axios reported.

“Egypt is holding talks with all parties to find a solution that will prevent an explosion,” he said.

From Axios reporter Barak Ravid:

• Thousands of people are evacuating from Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, hours after the Israeli military told residents and displaced people in eastern neighbourhoods to leave in advance of a long-threatened attack on the city and its environs. Witnesses described frightened families leaving the city on foot, riding donkeys or packed with their belongings into overloaded trucks on Monday. Overnight Israeli airstrikes had reinforced “panic and fear”, prompting more to heed the instructions to move.

• The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had dropped leaflets and were broadcasting instructions through “announcements, text messages, phone calls and media broadcasts in Arabic” telling residents to head to what it called an “expanded humanitarian zone” on the coast.

• A senior Hamas official described the Israeli order for civilians to evacuate Rafah as a “dangerous escalation that will have consequences”. Hamas also warned that any military operation in Rafah “will not be a picnic”, saying its military wing is “ready to defend our people and defeat the enemy”. Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported that 22 Palestinians, including eight children, have been killed by Israeli strikes on Rafah since yesterday evening.

• In a televised address on Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, rejected Hamas’s demands for a definitive end to the war in Gaza, saying that any permanent ceasefire would allow the Islamist organisation to remain in power and pose a continuing threat to Israel. US president Joe Biden and Netanyahu are set to speak by phone today.

• Israel closed the Kerem Shalom crossing, one of the main crossings used to deliver humanitarian aid into Gaza, after a rocket attack claimed by Hamas killed four soldiers. The armed wing of Hamas said it fired rockets at an Israeli army base next to the crossing.

• Egypt has raised its military’s level of preparedness in northern Sinai, which borders the Gaza Strip.

• Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, has said his organisation will not be evacuating Rafah.

• Noga Weiss, who was one of the hostages seized and abducted by Hamas on 7 October, then released in November last year as part of the ceasefire and hostage-release deal, has enlisted today in the IDF.

• Germany has criticised Netanyahu’s government for its decision to ban Al Jazeera in Israel, saying it was “the wrong signal”. Israeli officials have claimed the move was justified because Al Jazeera was a threat to national security.

• Tents have started springing up today on the lawns of the UK’s oldest universities, Oxford and Germany has criticised Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for its decision to ban Al Jazeera in Israel, as student protesters gather to pressure their institutions to divest funds from Israel as part of a growing worldwide student protest movement.

In the US a White House national security office spokesperson has issued this statement, saying that talks are still ongoing to try to get a hostage and ceasefire deal in place. They said:

We can’t speak for IDF operations. We have made our views clear on a major ground invasion of Rafah to the Israeli government, and the president will speak with the prime minister today. We continue to believe that a hostage deal is the best way to preserve the lives of the hostages, and avoid an invasion of Rafah, where more than a million people are sheltering. Those talks are ongoing now.

6 May 202409.31 EDT

Rachel Hall

Tents have started springing up today on the lawns of the UK’s oldest universities, Oxford and Cambridge, as student protesters gather to pressure their institutions to divest funds from Israel.

The protesters have arrived with supplies, sleeping bags and cardboard signs bearing hand-painted slogans that read “there are no universities left in Gaza” and “divest from genocide”. A large banner reads “welcome to the people’s university for Palestine” outside the encampment in front of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford.

The encampments mirror the wave of protests that have swept across universities in the US, which have led to mass arrests of students and staff. They are now quickly spreading across university campuses in what organisers are calling a “global student uprising”, which includes UK universities University College London, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, Warwick, Swansea and Bristol.

At Oxford, camp leaders have pinned up a board with a list of six demands to the university, including to “boycott Israeli genocide, apartheid and occupation”, to “disclose all finances”, “stop banking with Barclays”, help rebuild Gaza’s education system and “divest from Israeli genocide, apartheid and occupation”.

A list of demands posted to social media by Cambridge For Palestine organisers urges that the university “discloses and divests from its financial and professional support for Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza; re-invests in affected academics; and protects all forced migrants and protesting students”.

It also cites the ways in which it claimes the university “facilitates the ethnic cleansing of Palestine”, through academic partnerships and investments in companies which manufacture arms for the Israeli government.

The encampment on King’s Parade, Cambridge is hosting a number of events over the day, including de-escalation training for protesters, a rally and a dinner funded by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign.

An Oxford University spokesperson said the university was aware of the demonstration, adding: “We respect our students and staff members right to freedom of expression in the form of peaceful protests. We ask everyone who is taking part to do so with respect, courtesy and empathy.”