Israel-Hamas war: hundreds of Gazans massed on the border with Egypt – L’Express

No “ceasefire” or “entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza in exchange for the exit of foreigners” is planned for the moment, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, October 16. Israel announced it was evacuating residents along its northern border with Lebanon, after closing the area following exchanges of fire. The UN Security Council will meet this Monday evening.

There are 24 hours of water, electricity and fuel left in Gaza and if aid does not arrive, doctors will only have to “prepare death certificates”, said Monday to AFP Ahmed Al-Mandhari, the regional boss of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Humanitarian and medical aid, particularly from the WHO, is currently blocked in Egyptian Sinai, bordering the Gaza Strip, due to lack of an agreement between Israel and Egypt. The Gaza Strip is constantly bombarded by Israel in response to a deadly and unprecedented attack by Hamas against Israeli territory on October 7. Hundreds of Palestinians are massing in the south of the Gaza Strip in the hope of an opening of the Rafah crossing point.

The UN Security Council will meet on Monday at 10:00 p.m. GMT (midnight in France) to decide on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the United Nations confirmed, with diplomatic sources speaking of two competing draft resolutions.

Russia circulated to Council member states on Friday a draft resolution which will be put to a vote and which calls for an “immediate, lasting and fully respected humanitarian ceasefire” and “unhindered” humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip under siege, according to these sources.

During a meeting of justice ministers from Arab countries in Baghdad this Monday, the head of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, “demanded” Monday “the immediate cessation of military operations” in the Gaza Strip and the establishment of “corridors” to help the population.

Eleven Palestinian journalists have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, triggered after the Islamist movement’s attack on Israeli soil on October 7, the Palestinian journalists’ union said on Monday. In a statement, the union, based in the occupied West Bank, also indicated that “20 journalists were injured as a result of Israeli aggression” in Gaza.

TikTok announced it had removed videos and shut down live streams linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict, days after an EU warning reminded it of its obligation to combat illegal content.

Since October 7, “we have deleted more than 500,000 videos and closed 8,000 livestreams in the affected region, for violating our rules,” TikTok said on its blog on Sunday, specifying that it had strengthened its moderation teams.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to Israel on Monday, as part of his crisis tour in the Middle East after the bloody Hamas attack on October 7 in Israel sparked a new war. Antony Blinken, who has visited Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar in recent days, has arrived in Tel Aviv and is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, according to an AFP journalist who accompanied.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is also due to travel to Israel this Tuesday to express his solidarity with this country since the surprise Hamas offensive on October 7, German and Israeli media said on Monday.

Any attempt by Israel to re-occupy the Gaza Strip would be a “serious mistake”, said US President Joe Biden. After Hamas’ bloody attack on its territory on October 7, Israel launched retaliation against the Palestinian Islamist group with numerous strikes and ordered residents of northern Gaza to move south for a ground intervention.

Interviewed on the show 60 Minutes from the American channel CBS, Joe Biden assured that Hamas “does not represent all the Palestinian people”. But “eliminating extremists” is a “necessary measure.”

This Monday, a ship evacuating American nationals left Israel for Cyprus, noted an AFP team in the port of Haifa (north). The US Embassy in Israel said on Sunday that US authorities were assisting nationals “and their immediate family members, in possession of a valid travel document, to depart from Haifa by sea to Cyprus on 16 October 2023.

Many foreigners have been killed, taken hostage or have disappeared since the attack on October 7 by the Islamist movement Hamas against Israel, which left more than 1,400 dead on the Israeli side. In the Gaza Strip, local authorities reported 2,670 deaths in Israeli retaliatory strikes.

According to an AFP count, the deaths of more than 160 foreign nationals, many of whom also had Israeli nationality, were confirmed by the authorities of their respective countries. Among them, at least 30 Americans, 28 Thais, 19 French and 16 Russians died.

The Israeli army said Monday that 199 people were captured by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas during the bloody attack on October 7, according to an updated report.

Emmanuel Macron “warned” Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi on Sunday “against any escalation or extension of the conflict” between Israel and Hamas, “particularly in Lebanon”, during a telephone interview with his counterpart on Sunday, announced the Elysium. “Iran, given its relations with Hezbollah and Hamas, has a responsibility” and “must do everything possible to avoid any regional conflagration,” insists the French presidency.

Germany also called on Iran “not to add fuel to the fire” in the war between Hamas and Israel, warning of a “major regional escalation”. Anyone “who throws fuel on the fire should really think carefully because it is possible that we are facing a major regional conflict,” declared Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sebastian Fischer during a regular press briefing in Berlin, asked about the meeting on Sunday of the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs with the leader of Hamas in exile.