Armenia recognizes a Palestinian state, as malnutrition spreads among children in Gaza

Armenia said it would recognize a Palestinian state on Friday, prompting Israel to summon its ambassador for what the Foreign Ministry described as a “severe reprimand.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Three-quarters of the 193 United Nations member nations have recognized a Palestinian state, including Ireland and Spain, although none of the major Western powers has done so. Palestinians believe the recognitions confer international legitimacy on their struggle, especially as Israel’s war against Hamas, now in its ninth month, faces growing international criticism over the campaign of systematic destruction in Gaza and huge cost in civilian lives.

Also Friday, the head of a major hospital in north Gaza said his staff have seen some 250 children suffering from malnutrition, with numbers rising daily due to acute food shortages. Palestinians face widespread hunger as the war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and basic goods to Gaza, which is now totally dependent on aid.

Meanwhile, Israel’s pledge to guard a new aid route into southern Gaza has fallen flat, as the U.N. and international aid organizations say a breakdown in law and order has made that route unusable.

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FILE – Trucks, carrying humanitarian supplies for the Gaza Strip, wait in line on the Egyptian side, at the Kerem Shalom Crossing border as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, April 25, 2024. A persistent breakdown in law and order is rendering an aid route in south Gaza unusable, the UN and NGOs say, days after Israel’s military said it would pause combat there to help aid reach desperate Palestinians. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
Israel’s pledge to guard an aid route into Gaza falls flat as lawlessness blocks distribution
The Israeli military said that two soldiers were killed in combat in central Gaza, while three were severely injured.

Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,100 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

Israel launched the war after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.

— The fate of the latest cease-fire proposal hinges on Netanyahu and Hamas’ leader in Gaza.

— Israel’s pledge to guard an aid route into Gaza falls flat as lawlessness blocks distribution.

— A rare public rift appears between Israel’s political and military leadership over how the war in Gaza is being conducted.

— The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group warns archenemy Israel against wider war.

UN chief warns a rash move along the Israel-Lebanon border could set off a ‘catastrophe’
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations chief is warning that one rash move or miscalculation in the escalation between Israel and Hezbollah along the Lebanon border “could trigger a catastrophe that goes far beyond the border, and frankly, beyond imagination.”

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters on Friday: “Let’s be clear: The people of the region and the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.”

On both sides of the U.N. drawn boundary between Israel and Lebanon known as the Blue Line, he said many have been killed and thousands displaced while exchanges of fire continue along with escalating rhetoric from both sides “as if an all-out war was imminent.”

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