UAE warns against Israeli annexation of West Bank as strikes in Gaza kill 31

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The United Arab Emirates on Wednesday warned that any Israeli move to annex the occupied West Bank would be a “red line,” without specifying its possible impact on the landmark normalization accord between the two countries,

The warning came as Israel pressed ahead with the initial stages of its latest major offensive, in famine-stricken Gaza City. Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Wednesday killed at least 31 people, according to local hospitals.

Israelis took part in nationwide demonstrations to protest the call-up of 60,000 reserves for the expanded operation, which has sparked global condemnation and left the country increasingly isolated.

The demonstrators accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prolonging the fighting for political purposes instead of reaching a ceasefire deal with Hamas that would free hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war.

A rare warning from the UAE

The UAE was the driving force behind the 2020 Abraham Accords brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump, in which it and three other Arab countries forged ties with Israel. Trump has said he hopes to expand the accords in his second term, potentially to include regional power Saudi Arabia.

Anwar Gargash, a senior Emirati diplomat, wrote on the social platform X that “annexation is a red line.”

He linked to a Times of Israel story that quoted another Emirati diplomat, Lana Nusseibeh, as saying annexation would “severely undermine the vision and spirit of (Abraham) Accords, end the pursuit of regional integration and would alter the widely shared consensus on what the trajectory of this conflict should be — two states living side by side in peace, prosperity and security.”

The two diplomats did not specifically say that Abu Dhabi would withdraw from the agreement, and the Emirati Foreign Ministry did not respond to questions seeking clarification.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories to form their future state. Israel’s current government is staunchly opposed to Palestinian statehood and supports eventual annexation of much of the West Bank.

The Palestinians and much of the international community say that would all but end any remaining possibility of a two-state solution, which is widely seen internationally as the only way to resolve the decades-old conflict.

Palestinians face more displacement as strikes continue

Israeli strikes on Gaza City killed at least 15 people, including two children and four women, according to Shifa Hospital and Al-Quds Hospital, where the bodies were taken. An additional 16 people were killed in southern Gaza, including 10 who were seeking humanitarian aid, according to Nasser Hospital.

Israel says it only targets militants and takes measures to spare civilians. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militants operate in densely populated areas.

Israel says that Gaza City — the largest Palestinian city in either the besieged strip or the occupied West Bank — remains a Hamas stronghold above what military officials claim is a vast underground tunnel network, even after several major raids earlier in the war.

Israel has intensified air and ground assaults on the outskirts of Gaza City, according to humanitarian groups that coordinate assistance for the displaced.

Site Management Cluster, one such group, said Wednesday that families were trapped by the prohibitively high cost of moving, logistical hurdles and a lack of places to go.

“Palestinians are also reluctant to move due to the fear of not being able to return or exhaustion from repeated displacement,” it said.

Death toll mounts from war and hunger

The twin threats of combat and famine, Palestinians and aid workers say, are only growing more acute for families in Gaza City, many of whom have been displaced multiple times during the nearly two-year war.

The Gaza Health Ministry said Wednesday that five adults and one child died from malnutrition over the past day, bringing the total toll to 367, including 131 children throughout the war. Experts blame Israel’s ongoing offensive and its blockade for the starvation crisis. Netanyahu has denied there is starvation in Gaza, despite testimonies, data and findings from leading experts suggesting otherwise.

The ministry reported on Tuesday that a total of 63,633 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, including more than 2,300 seeking aid, since the start of the war. Part of the Hamas-run government but staffed by medical professionals, the ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up around half of the dead.

U.N. agencies and many independent experts consider the ministry’s figures to be the most reliable estimate of war casualties. Israel disputes them, but hasn’t provided its own toll.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and took 251 people hostage. Forty-eight are still being held in Gaza, around 20 of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel says Hamas plotted to assassinate far-right Cabinet minister

In a separate development, Israel’s internal security agency said it recently arrested a Hamas cell in the West Bank suspected of plotting to assassinate Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The Shin Bet agency said the suspects were found with drones that they had planned to rig with explosives. It did not specify how many people were arrested, and it was unclear how far the alleged plot had advanced.

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Metz reported from Jerusalem and Gambrell from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.

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