Haley writes ‘finish them’ on Israeli shell

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This article was published 30/05/2024 (671 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

JERUSALEM — Nikki Haley has signed an Israeli artillery shell with the words “finish them” while touring the country’s northern border with Lebanon.

Haley, a former contender for the Republican presidential nomination, is visiting the Mideast this week and met Wednesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and families of Israelis taken hostage into Gaza. Haley also toured areas struck by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

Haley, who served as UN ambassador during the Trump administration, visited an Israeli military post Tuesday with Israel’s former ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon. His office shared the photos of the signed artillery shell.

“Finish them! America (heart) Israel. Always Nikki Haley,” read the message she left on the munition.

Haley’s visit comes as Israel faces heightened criticism for not doing enough to protect civilians in Gaza amid its war against Hamas, and days after Israeli airstrikes triggered a fire in a camp for displaced Palestinians that appeared to be one of the war’s deadliest attacks.

Israel has been battling Hezbollah militants in Lebanon along its northern border throughout the war in Gaza.

Israel’s military said Wednesday it has seized control of the entire length of Gaza’s border with Egypt, without elaborating. Capturing the strategic Philadelphi corridor signals that Israel has deepened its offensive in southern Gaza.

Palestinians in the border city of Rafah reported heavy fighting Wednesday. Israel previously said it was carrying out limited operations in eastern Rafah along the Gaza-Egypt border. The United States and other allies of Israel have warned against a full-fledged offensive in the city, saying it would cause a humanitarian catastrophe.

Fighting in Rafah has already spurred more than one million Palestinians to flee, most of whom had already been displaced in the war between Israel and Hamas. They now seek refuge in makeshift tent camps and other war-ravaged areas, where they lack shelter, food, water and other essentials for survival, the UN says.

Earlier Wednesday, a top Israeli official said the war with Hamas is likely to last through the end of the year. Israel has vowed to expunge the militants from the entire Gaza Strip and has done so by a strategy of systematic destruction, at a huge cost in civilian lives.

Israeli bombardments and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Israel launched its war in Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250. Israel says around 100 hostages are still captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of around 30 more.

Meanwhile, the amount of humanitarian aid flowing into Gaza has dropped by two thirds since Israel launched its ground offensive into the southern city of Rafah three weeks ago, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported Wednesday.

The sharp decline in food, fuel, medicine and other aid comes while widespread Israeli bombardments as well as ground incursions and heavy fighting are affecting Gaza’s north, centre and south, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, citing the humanitarian office.

The office, known as OCHA, reports the 67 per cent drop in aid since May 7 is due to the closure of the border crossing from Egypt to Rafah, a key transit point, as well as the inability to safely pick up food and other items dropped off on the Palestinian side of Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, plus limited deliveries through other points, Dujarric said.

As for Rafah, he said, OCHA reports that health, humanitarian relief, and social services are being forced to close due to expanded fighting, insecurity, Israeli evacuation orders and the need to transfer resources to other areas after more than a million Palestinians fled Rafah.

Dujarric said the UN World Health Organization reports that just one hospital in Rafah remains partially functional – the Al Emirati Maternity Hospital.

The United States says a proposed UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a halt to Israel’s military operations in the southern city of Rafah “is not going to be helpful.”

Algeria, the Arab representative on the Security Council, circulated the draft resolution Tuesday evening to all 15 members after emergency council consultations about Rafah.

U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told reporters ahead of Wednesday’s Security Council monthly meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that “another resolution is not necessarily going to change anything on the ground.”

The U.S. has vetoed multiple previous Security Council resolutions demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.

Wood said the U.S. is focused on getting agreement on a temporary pause in the fighting and the release of all hostages taken during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, and then working on a long-term end to the war.

UN Mideast envoy Tor Wennesland told the council that “agreement on a deal to achieve a ceasefire and secure the release of hostages is blocked — and as Israel rolls out a significant ground operation in and around Rafah, the devastation is only intensifying.”

The draft resolution, circulated by Algeria’s UN Ambassador Amar Bendjama, demands compliance with previous council resolutions calling for opening all border crossings and securing humanitarian access to Gaza’s 2.3 million people who need food and other aid.

» The Associated Press