MANAMA/GAZA/BEIRUT - The Arab League on Thursday called for the deployment of United Nations peacekeeping forces in the occupied Palestinian territories until the implementation of the two-state solution.

In the Bahrain Declaration issued after the conclusion of the 33rd Arab League Summit held in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, participating countries urged the international community to assume its responsibilities to advance the peace process and achieve a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution.

The declaration called for an immediate halt to Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip, complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, lifting of the siege, removal of all obstacles, and opening all crossings to ensure the entry of adequate humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave.

The declaration rejected any attempts to forcibly displace the Palestinian people from their land in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

On May 5, Israel closed the only commercial crossing of Kerem Shalom with Gaza, in response to a Hamas rocket attack on an Israeli military point nearby that killed four soldiers

It condemned the Israeli forces' control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing to tighten the siege on the civilians in the Strip.

The declaration supported Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's call to convene an international peace conference and take irreversible steps to implement the two-state solution.

It also expressed solidarity with Sudan in preserving its sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and the institutions of the Sudanese state.

It reaffirmed the need to end the Syrian crisis in accordance with Security Council Resolution 2254, in a way that preserves Syria's security, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The declaration renewed firm support for the Presidential Leadership Council of Yemen and the Yemeni government's efforts to achieve national reconciliation. 

Aid delivery

Also on Thursday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that distributing humanitarian aid "is almost impossible" in Gaza, due to the irregular fuel supply and interrupted communications amid intense fighting there.

OCHA said in a statement posted on social media platform X that key crossings for aid into Gaza have been closed for several days and now the access to the Palestinian enclave is neither safe nor logistically feasible.

On May 5, Israel closed the only commercial crossing of Kerem Shalom with Gaza, in response to a Hamas rocket attack on an Israeli military point nearby that killed four soldiers.

Shortly after its reopening on May 8, militants fired eight rockets from southern Gaza's Rafah toward the Kerem Shalom crossing area in Israel.

The attack came after the Israeli army announced on May 7 "operational control" of the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing, which in effect closed this crucial entry point for truckloads of aid from Egypt into Gaza.

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OCHA and other humanitarian organizations warned of the devastating impact of the crossings' closure on over 2 million Palestinians in war-stricken Gaza.

On Thursday, the Jordan Armed Forces said it conducted three airdrops of humanitarian aid over various locations in southern Gaza.

The move was part of Jordan's commitment to assisting Gazans to overcome the difficult conditions, said the army without detailing further.

Earlier in the day, local sources and eyewitnesses in Gaza told Xinhua that aircraft were seen flying over and dropping food aid through parachutes in Al-Mawasi, an open area along the enclave's southwestern coast that is now flocked with residents coming at the Israeli army's evacuation order.

This is the first eyewitness report of an aid drop operation in Rafah since the Israeli army's renewed attacks on the southernmost Gazan city last week.

Hezbollah members killed

Meanwhile, two Hezbollah members were killed and a civilian wounded on Thursday when an Israeli drone hit a car in southern Lebanon's Tyre district, said Lebanese military sources.

The sources, who spoke anonymously, said an Israeli drone targeted, with an air-to-surface missile, a car that was driving on the road between Qana and Ramadiyeh in Tyre, causing a fire and killing the people inside it.

According to the sources, one of the fatalities was Ali Fawzi Ayoub, a local Hezbollah official from the Tyre district and the son of Hezbollah leader Fawzi Ayoub, who was killed in Syria in May 2014.

Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated on Oct 8, 2023, following a barrage of rockets launched by the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas' attack on Israel the day before. Israel then retaliated by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon.

The confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel have killed 465 people on the Lebanese side, including 293 Hezbollah members and 86 civilians, according to Lebanese security sources.