Israel shuts down Associated Press’s live feed from Gaza

Rafah, Palestinian Territories – AFP

Israel on Tuesday shut down US news agency the Associated Press’s live feed from Gaza, two weeks after it ordered the closure of Al Jazeera.

The AP said Israeli authorities accused the news agency of violating its ban on Al Jazeera, which was targeted based on a new Israeli law governing foreign broadcasters.

The news agency decried the decision “in the strongest terms”, while the White House described Israel’s decision to shut AP’s feed as “concerning”.

Meanwhile, a UN official said they were “running out of words to describe what is happening in Gaza.

“We have described it as a catastrophe, a nightmare, as hell on earth. It is all of these, and worse,” Edem Wosornu of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told a Security Council meeting on Monday, speaking of conditions in the besieged territory of 2.4 million people.

Wosornu said “1.1 million people face catastrophic levels of hunger and Gaza remains on the brink of famine” while three quarters of its people had been forcibly displaced, some up to five times.

– ‘Al-Awda Hospital under siege’ –

Israel has killed at least 35,647 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.

The World Health Organization said Jabalia’s Al-Awda Hospital had been under Israeli siege for two days, trapping 170 patients and staff who had reported sniper fire and a rocket hit.

Israel launched its ground assault on parts of Rafah early this month, defying international opposition including from top ally the United States, which feared for the more than one million civilians trapped there.

Israel has launched mass evacuations from Rafah where it has vowed to destroy Hamas and its tunnel system and rescue remaining hostages.

The UN says more than 800,000 people have fled Rafah, and Wosornu confirmed that “the once over-crowded camps and emergency shelters in Rafah have now largely emptied”.

She said most of the displaced had fled to Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah in camps where “they lack adequate latrines, water points, drainage and shelter”.