Israel-Gaza – live updates: 80,000 flee Rafah as Biden says US won’t supply weapons for major ground assault

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The Slovenian government has initiated the procedure for the recognition of a Palestinian state as a form of leverage to end the conflict in Gaza, a move it announced in March, Prime Minister Robert Golob said.

“The horrors we see every day in Gaza are inadmissible and must stop,” Golob was quoted as saying on the government X platform. “I call on Israel to put an immediate end to its attacks on Gaza and to use the negotiating table.”

Mr Golob said he would like his country’s recognition to be “an incentive for these negotiations to proceed more quickly” and speed up the dialogue in the United Nations on an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages and the security and existence of Israel through a two-state solution.

The announcement came as Ireland, Spain and a number of other European Union member states are reportedly considering recognising a Palestinian state on 21 May, according to a report by Ireland’s national broadcaster.

Israel has vowed it will not be “subdued” in the face of “friends and enemies” after the United States warned it would withdraw weapons supplies to the country.

Defence minister Yoav Gallant said Israel would do whatever necessary to achieve its war aims in Gaza despite growing international pressure to halt an invasion of Rafah.

He said: “I turn to Israel’s enemies as well as to our best of friends and say - the State of Israel cannot be subdued. We will stand strong, we will achieve our goals - we will hit Hamas, we will hit Hezbollah, and we will achieve security.

“We have no choice, we have no other country. We will do whatever is necessary, and I repeat - whatever is necessary, in order to defend the citizens of Israel, to remove the evil threats against us, and to stand up to those who attempt to destroy us.”

On Wednesday, US president Joe Biden warned Israel it would stop supplying weapons if it went ahead with its planned ground invasion of Rafah, which the UN warned would be a “bloodbath”. Israel claims Hamas’s last four battalions are hiding in the city.

Over 240 aid workers have died in Gaza since the beginning of the Hamas war, a UN Official has told The Independent.

UN spokesperson Olga Cherevko who is currently in Rafah, has also described the “horrific” conditions people are living in. She said: “We have not had enough aid entering since the beginning of this war.

“It’s horrific, there’s almost a 1.5 million people living here, basically on top of each other.

“The number of humanitarian workers that we’ve lost which is now over 240 people that have been killed, some of them in the line of duty.”

Ms Cherevko’s comments come as Israeli military launched its offensive in Rafah, despite repeated warnings from the US and UK.