Israeli artillery hits Rafah after truce talks end

RAFAH (Palestinian Territories), May 10 (Agencies): Israel bombarded Gaza including Rafah on Friday after negotiators left truce talks in Cairo without a deal and a senior UN official said aid operations are now all but impossible.
AFP journalists witnessed artillery strikes on Rafah, after US President Joe Biden vowed in an interview to cut off artillery shells and other weapons for Israel if a full-scale offensive into the southern Gaza city goes ahead. It was the first time Biden raised the ultimate US leverage over Israel, military aid totalling $3 billion a year, after repeated appeals for Israel to stay out of Rafah.
Despite widespread international opposition, Israeli troops on Tuesday entered Rafah's eastern sector, saying they were pursuing militants.
The Gaza war began with Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,904 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.
Meanwhile, dwindling food and fuel stocks could force aid operations to grind to a halt within days in Gaza as vital crossings remain shut, forcing hospitals to close down and leading to more malnutrition, United Nations aid agencies warned on Friday.
Humanitarian workers have sounded the alarm this week over the closure of the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings for aid and people as part of Israel's military operation in Rafah, where around 1 million uprooted people have been sheltering.
Earlier, more than 100,000 people have fled Rafah in recent days, the United Nations said Friday, with the southern Gaza city under threat of a full-scale Israeli ground invasion. Israel's military on Monday called for Gazans to leave eastern Rafah, which triggered widespread international alarm.
The UN children's agency UNICEF said more than 100,000 had left, with the UN humanitarian agency OCHA putting the figure at more than 110,000.
Spain, Ireland to recognise Palestinian
state on May 21
Spain, Ireland and other European Union member countries plan to recognize a Palestinian state on May 21, the EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said late on Thursday ahead of an expected UN vote on Friday on a Palestinian bid to become a full member.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in March that Spain and Ireland, along with Slovenia and Malta, had agreed to take the first steps toward recognition of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, seeing a two-state solution as essential for lasting peace.