The Latest | Palestinians mark 76 years of their dispossession as more catastrophe looms in Gaza

Palestinians are marking 76 years of dispossession on Wednesday, commemorating their mass expulsion from what is today Israel, as a potentially even larger catastrophe unfolds in Gaza, where more than half a million of people have been displaced in recent days by fighting.

Israel has been pressing its military operations in Rafah, a city along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, and in northern Gaza, where Hamas has regrouped. Around 450,000 Palestinians have been driven out of Rafah over the past week, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Tuesday. In northern Gaza, Israeli evacuation orders have displaced at least 100,000 people so far.

Some 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians have fled their homes since the start of the war, with many relocating multiple times.

No food has entered the two main border crossings in southern Gaza for the past week. Some 1.1 million Palestinians are on the brink of starvation, according to the U.N, while a “full-blown famine” is taking place in the north of the territory.

Israel has portrayed Rafah as the last Hamas stronghold, brushing off warnings from the United States and other allies that any major operation there would be catastrophic for civilians.

Seven months of the war have killed more than 35,000 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to local health officials.

The war began Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people there, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostage. Israel says militants still hold around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.

Currently:

— The Biden administration is sending $1 billion more in weapons and ammo to Israel, congressional aides say.

— Palestinians mark 76 years of dispossession from present-day Israel, a somber Nakba, which is Arabic for catastrophe.

— Some social media users take to a “blockout” of celebrities to pressure them to take a stand over the crisis in Gaza.

— Israelis mark a subdued Independence Day under the shadow of the war in Gaza.

— Amsterdam university cancels classes after violence erupted at a pro-Palestinian rally.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Here’s the latest:

TURKEY’S ERDOGAN MARKS PALESTINIAN NAKBA WITH A PLEDGE TO CONTINUE SUPPORTING HAMAS

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday commemorated the mass expulsion 76 years ago of Palestinians from what is now Israel and vowed to continue supporting Palestinians and the militant Hamas group.

Erdogan’s remarks came as Palestinians across the Middle East and beyond marked the anniversary of Nakba, the Arabic for “catastrophe,” when 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven out of what today is Israel before and during the war surrounding its creation in 1948.

In a speech ruling party’s lawmakers, Erdogan compared Israel’s actions to the Holocaust, and said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials would “pay the price” for the attacks in the war in Gaza.

“Even Hitler did not carry out the Holocaust, which went down as dark stain in history, so openly. He wasn’t that bold,” Erdogan claimed. “Humanity will not let these murderers go free. Even if humanity lets them go, we will chase these murderers, this genocidal network of killers.”

A long-time supporter of Palestinians, Erdogan further stiffened his stance against Israel after his ruling party lost votes to a small Islamist party in the March local elections. His government has severed trade relations with Israel and is seeking to join a legal case filed by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

EUROPEAN UNION WARNS ISRAEL THAT A CONTINUED RAFAH PUSH WOULD ‘STRAIN’ TIES

BRUSSELS — The European Union has warned Israel that continuing its military operation in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah would put a “heavy strain” on relations.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the ongoing operation is “further disrupting the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza and is leading to more internal displacement, exposure to famine and human suffering.”

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled Rafah since Israel launched an incursion last week in which it captured the Gaza side of the city’s crossing with Egypt. Israel says it is carrying out a limited operation after the United States and other close allies urged it to avoid a promised full-scale invasion.

Borrell said on Tuesday that “should Israel continue its military operation in Rafah, it would inevitably put a heavy strain on the EU’s relationship with Israel.”

Israel says it must go into Rafah in order to fully dismantle Hamas and return scores of hostages captured in the Oct. 7 attack that ignited the war.

Before the operation, Rafah was sheltering some 1.3 million Palestinians, most of whom had fled fighting elsewhere and were living in U.N.-run shelters and squalid tent camps. The United Nations says some 450,000 people have fled in the last week.

EGYPT SLAMS ISRAEL’S TOP DIPLOMAT FOR BLAMING THE CLOSING OF GAZA’S RAFAH CROSSING ON CAIRO

CAIRO — Egypt has blasted comments by Israel’s top diplomat in which he blamed the Arab country for the closure of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip.

Egypt has expressed mounting frustration with Israel’s seizure of the Palestinian side of the crossing last week, saying it threatens the two countries’ decades-old peace treaty.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Israel “is responsible for the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.”

“We reject the policy of distorting the facts,” Shoukry said in a statement on Tuesday, denouncing Israel’s “desperate attempts” to blame Egypt.

He said Israel’s incursion into Rafah was the main reason aid cannot enter through the crossing and called for Israel to allow more aid through its own crossings.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday that there was a “need to persuade Egypt to reopen the Rafah crossing to allow the continued delivery of international humanitarian aid to Gaza.”

“The world places the responsibility for the humanitarian situation on Israel, but the key to preventing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza is now in the hands of our Egyptian friends.”

Egypt has played a key role in mediation efforts aimed at brokering a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and the release of hostages. It has also expressed fears that the humanitarian crisis could send a mass influx of Palestinians across the border into its Sinai Peninsula.

ISRAELI DRONE STRIKE IN SOUTHERN LEBANON KILLS A HEZBOLLAH COMMANDER

BEIRUT — An Israeli drone strike on a car in southern Lebanon has killed a local Hezbollah commander, the militant group said Wednesday.

The Israeli military released a video of the strike along a main road near the southern port city of Tyre, saying that the Hezbollah commander had planned and carried out several attacks against Israel.

Hezbollah said 55-year-old Hussein Makki was killed late Tuesday without, giving further details. Lebanon’s emergency responders said the strike also wounded two people who were taken to a hospital. They said a fire that broke out as a result of the strike was extinguished and that the body of one person was recovered at the scene.

Hezbollah said on Wednesday it fired dozens of Katyusha rockets, heavy rockets and artillery shells toward the air traffic control base on Mount Moron in Israel’s north earlier in the day in retaliation for Makki’s killing.

The Israeli military said it identified 60 launches from Lebanon, “a small number” of which were intercepted. It was one of the largest barrages since the start of the war in Gaza.

Since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on Oct. 7, Hezbollah has launched near-daily attacks on Israel, drawing return fire. Israel’s military has managed to kill a number of local Hezbollah commanders.

Israeli airstrikes and shelling, mainly in southern Lebanon, have killed nearly 400 people, most of them militants, but also more than 70 civilians and noncombatants. In Israel, the violence has left at least 15 soldiers and 10 civilians dead.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a speech on Monday reiterated his group’s stance that it would keep up its strikes until Israel ends the war in Gaza.

UN AGENCY SAYS ISRAELI PROTESTERS SET FIRE TO THE PERIMETER OF ITS HEADQUARTERS IN EAST JERUSALEM

JERUSALEM — The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli protesters have again set fire to the perimeter of its headquarters in east Jerusalem.

Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini wrote on the social media platform X that “Israeli children and young people” had orchestrated an “arson attempt” on the facility on Monday night.

He shared video footage from Israeli media appearing to show small brush fires along the perimeter of the compound. Adam Bouloukos, an UNRWA official, said staff were present in the facility but no one was injured.

UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma said the compound had just reopened after a previous round of demonstrations outside the facility last week. Young protesters had twice set fire to the perimeter and hurled stones at UNRWA staff attempting to put out the blazes.

Touma said the compound is staying open for now.

The demonstrations began after Israel accused UNRWA, the largest provider of humanitarian aid to Gaza, of having links to Hamas and other Palestinian militants. UNRWA denies the allegations. An independent investigation found that the agency had “robust procedures” to ensure its neutrality but that there were some gaps in implementation.

LEADER OF HEZBOLLAH AND HAMMAS OFFICIAL VOW TO KEEP ATTACKS AND PRESSURE ON ISRAEL

BEIRUT — The leader of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group and a visiting Hamas official on Wednesday discussed the latest round of cease-fire talks but vowed to keep up the attacks and pressure on Israel.

The Hezbollah-run Al-Manar TV said the militant group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and Hamas’ Khalil al-Hayya also talked about so-called “backup fronts” — a reference to Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel along the Israeli-Lebanon border, as well as strikes and attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels toward Israel.

The TV station said the two pledged to keep up the pressure in order “to achieve the honorable goals” set out by Hamas’ unprecedented Oct. 7, attack on southern Israel that triggered the ongoing war.