Gaza: Israel intensifies strikes in Rafah, talks on ceasefire – 02/08/2024 at 5:58 pm

The Israeli army intensified its strikes on Rafah on Thursday, raising fears about the fate of more than a million Palestinians stuck in the Gaza Strip city, against the backdrop of renewed talks to reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

US diplomatic chief Anthony Blinken, who on Thursday concluded a regional tour aimed at encouraging efforts to stop the fighting, urged his Israeli ally a day earlier to “protect” civilians in its military operation in Gaza, which was launched in retaliation for the unprecedented attack. by Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered preparations for an offensive on Rafah, a town in the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip, on the closed border with Egypt, where 1.3 million Palestinians crowd together, most of them displaced. Clashes in recent months.

Mr Blinken left Israel in the early afternoon after pleading during his trip for a ceasefire agreement allowing more aid to be delivered to the besieged Gaza Strip, where the humanitarian situation is a “nightmare” according to the UN, and for the release of Israeli hostages. Held in the Palestinian Territory.

– “War Crimes” –

On the ground, witnesses and hospital sources reported deadly overnight strikes in the south of the region, particularly in Rafah, with Hamas’ health ministry counting a total of 130 deaths in the past 24 hours.

According to an AFP reporter, the Israeli army carried out seven airstrikes in Rafah. The home of the local police chief was particularly affected, according to Hamas’ health ministry.

“This bombing is proof that Rafah is not a safe place,” says Om Hassan, 48, whose house nearby was damaged by the strike.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the attack on Rafah would “expand what is already a humanitarian nightmare.”

And UN human rights chief Volker Turk warned on Thursday that the Israeli army’s destruction of buildings along the border with Israel in Gaza, in an attempt to establish a “buffer zone”, constituted a “war crime”.

“With respect to Rafah…Israel has an obligation to…do everything possible to ensure that civilians are protected and receive the assistance they need.”

– “Terrorists” killed –

On October 7, when Hamas commandos infiltrated the Gaza Strip, where the movement took power in 2007, launched an attack in southern Israel, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,160 people. According to AFP, most were civilians. Calculation based on official Israeli data.

About 250 people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza. According to Israel, 132 hostages are still being held there, 29 of whom are believed to have died.

In retaliation, Israel, which considers Hamas a terrorist organization like the United States and the European Union, vowed to “destroy” the group and launched an offensive that killed at least 27,840 people in the Palestinian Territory. Most of them were women. , children and adolescents, according to a recent Hamas report from the Ministry of Health, also reported 67,317 injured.

The army said on Thursday that it was conducting operations in the north and south of the Gaza Strip, saying it had made significant arrests of two “terrorists” involved in the October 7 attack.

In his fifth trip to the region since the start of the war, Mr Blinken supported a cease-fire proposal drawn up by American, Qatari and Egyptian officials in late January in Paris, to which Hamas responded.

Although he believed elements of Hamas’ response were “unacceptable”, he said he hoped for another ceasefire a week later in November that favored the release of hostages in Gaza and the detention of Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

– Discussions in Cairo –

In Cairo, a “new round of talks”, sponsored by Egypt and Qatar with the participation of Hamas, began on Thursday to obtain “calm in the Gaza Strip” as well as the exchange of Palestinian prisoners and hostages, an Egyptian official announced to AFP. .

“We expect very (…) difficult negotiations, but Hamas is open to discussion and eager to reach a ceasefire,” explained an official close to the Palestinian Islamic movement.

For his part, American President Joe Biden will receive King Abdullah II of Jordan at the White House on February 12 to discuss the “situation in Gaza” and discuss “the idea of ​​lasting peace through a two-way solution.” Guarantees Israel’s security.

Iran on Thursday condemned the US strike as a “threat to peace and security”, a day before it killed a senior commander of the Hezbollah Brigades, an influential Iraqi armed group.

The war in Gaza is also raising tensions in the Middle East between Israel and its allies, including Washington, on the one hand, and Hamas and its supporters on the other.

The Israeli army on Thursday reported shelling from Lebanon on northern Israel, seriously wounding one soldier. Since October 7, the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, regularly claims fire toward Israel, which retaliates.

A pro-Iranian Hezbollah military officer was seriously wounded during an Israeli strike targeting his car in southern Lebanon on Thursday, according to a Lebanese security source.