US slams Israel's use of American weapons in Gaza

Rafah, Palestinian Territories: The United States has issued a stunning criticism of Israel's use of American weapons in the Gaza war, after Israeli forces intensified operations around the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million displaced people are sheltering.

Israel's main international ally said in a report released Friday that it was "reasonable to assess" that Israel has used weapons in ways inconsistent with international humanitarian law during the seven-month war.

But the long-awaited State Department report said it could not reach "conclusive findings" and stopped short of blocking weapons shipments.

Relations between the two allies slumped earlier in the week after US President Joe Biden said he would halt some arms deliveries if Israel went ahead with a full-scale assault on Rafah threatened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The US has warned that the reputational damage Israel will suffer if it storms a city where an estimated 1.4 million civilians are sheltering will far outweigh any possible military gain.

UN chief Antonio Guterres said Friday that Gaza risked an "epic humanitarian disaster" if Israel launched a full-scale ground operation in Rafah, while France urged Israel to cease its operations in Rafah "without delay".

The White House renewed its opposition Friday but said it saw no major operation yet against the city.

"We're obviously watching it with concern, of course, but I wouldn't go so far as to say what we've seen here in the last 24 hours connotes or indicates a broad, large (or) major ground operation," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

Earlier this week, Israeli ground troops seized eastern areas of the city, including the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, but they have yet to enter its main built-up area.

AFP journalists witnessed strikes in several parts of Gaza early Saturday, after reporting artillery strikes on Rafah a day earlier.

Displaced again

Israel's onslaught around Rafah has already had a severe impact on Gaza civilians, UN agencies said.

More than 100,000 people, many of them already displaced from other areas of Gaza, have fled Rafah this week, the United Nations said.

Many have returned to the city of Khan Yunis, where intense fighting raged earlier this year, or are crowded into shelters along the coast in the central town of Deir al-Balah.

Displaced civilian Malek al-Zaza said he had found "no food" and "no water" in central Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp.

"No one is asking about us, no one is looking for us... We only have God looking out for us," he said.

The Rafah crossing, which Israeli troops closed on Tuesday, is the only one normally used for deliveries of fuel, and the United Nations said the resulting exhaustion of stocks inside Gaza had effectively halted aid agency operations.

Meanwhile, in New York, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Friday in support of a Palestinian bid for full membership of the world body, a symbolic move after the United States vetoed the measure in the Security Council.

The resolution, which states that the Palestinians should be admitted to the UN and grants them some additional rights as observers, received 143 votes for, nine against and 25 abstentions.

The West Bank-based Palestinian Authority said the UN vote showed Palestine "deserves full membership".

Richard Gowan, an analyst with Brussels-based think tank the International Crisis Group, said the resolution sent "a very clear signal to Israel and the US that it is time to take Palestinian statehood seriously".