Battles rage across Gaza city

GAZA, May 15 (Reuters/AP/BBC): Israeli troops fought militants across Gaza on Wednesday, including in the southern city of Rafah that had been a refuge for civilians, in an upsurge of the more than seven-month war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.
Antagonism between Israel and the United Nations worsened as the Israeli army sought an explanation for footage showing armed men next to UN Palestinian relief agency vehicles. Separately, the UN said it was investigating an unidentified strike that killed an international staffer in Gaza earlier this week.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's army has in recent days pressed into the east of Rafah in pursuit of what it says are four Hamas battalions, despite warnings from its ally the US and others to hold off to avoid mass civilian casualties.
Since Hamas' Oct 7 attack, Israel has killed 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, with 82 dead on Tuesday in the highest single day toll for weeks.
EU urges Israel to end Rafah
operation 'immediately'
The European Union on Wednesday urged Israel to end its military operation in Gaza's Rafah "immediately", warning that failure to do so would undermine ties with the bloc.
"Should Israel continue its military operation in Rafah, it would inevitably put a heavy strain on the EU's relationship with Israel," said the statement issued in the EU's name by its foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
"The European Union urges Israel to end its military operation in Rafah immediately," the statement said, warning it was "further disrupting the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza and is leading to more internal displacement, exposure to famine and human suffering."
The bloc-the main aid donor for the Palestinian territories and Israel's biggest trading partner-said more than a million people in and around Rafah had been ordered by Israel to flee the area to other zones the UN says cannot be considered safe.
Biden plans to send $1.0b
arms shipment to Israel
The White House has told Congress it wants to send more than $1bn (£800m) in new weapons to Israel. This comes despite the US being opposed to a full-scale invasion by the Israeli military on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
It said last week it had paused a shipment of bombs to Israel over concerns civilians would be killed if used in densely populated areas. The new package, confirmed by US media, must still be approved by lawmakers.
It would include $700m in tank ammunition, $500m in tactical vehicles and $60m in mortar rounds, according to the Associated Press news agency. On Tuesday, Israeli tanks advanced deeper into residential areas in the south-east of the Gazan city.
Last month, Congress passed a bill providing $95bn in aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. A US state department report last week found that some American-made weapons provided to Israel may have been used in breach of international law.
While the report was a clear rebuke of some Israeli operations in Gaza, it stopped short of definitively saying that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) campaign had breached international law.
It added that assurances it had received from Israel about adhering to the legal use of US weapons were "credible and reliable". The package being sent to Congress is the first since Mr Biden's administration paused arms transfers to Israel last week.