Hamas: Iran warns of regional “explosion” after American veto – L’Express

The Israeli army continued its offensive on Friday in the Gaza Strip, in Khan Younes, in the south of this territory, in particular where it is fighting on the ground, as well as in Gaza City, in the North. At the same time, the UN called for an “immediate ceasefire”, immediately rejected by the United States, to put an end to the “hecatomb” in the Gaza Strip. The American veto on Friday before the UN Security Council was quickly condemned by humanitarian organizations.

⇒ The United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip.

⇒ Israel must respect its humanitarian obligations in Gaza, according to a draft resolution at the WHO

⇒ The Israeli army acknowledged the failure of an operation to free hostages in the Gaza Strip, in which two soldiers were seriously injured.

Iran warned this Saturday, December 9, against “the possibility” of “an uncontrollable explosion” in the Middle East if the United States continued to support Israel in the war against Hamas in Gaza. “As long as America supports the crimes of the Zionist regime and the continuation of the war […] there is the possibility of an uncontrollable explosion of the situation in the region,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said during a telephone conversation with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, according to a statement of the ministry.

This exchange took place as the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution on Friday calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza. This text, which received 13 votes in favor, one against and one abstention (United Kingdom), was prepared by the United Arab Emirates after the unprecedented invocation by Antonio Guterres of article 99 of the United Nations Charter allowing the attention of the Council to be drawn to a matter which “could endanger the maintenance of international peace and security”.

The American veto before the UN Security Council was quickly condemned by humanitarian organizations. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh also castigated “the failure of the Security Council”, calling the United States veto a “shame” and “a new license given to the occupying state to massacre, destroy and displace” . Hamas “strongly condemned” the American veto, considering it an “immoral and inhumane position” and a “direct participation” in the “massacres”, according to Ezzat al-Rishq, a senior political official of the movement.

A draft resolution submitted to the WHO on Friday by 17 member countries and special status Palestine demands that Israel fully respect its protection obligations towards medical and humanitarian personnel in the Gaza Strip.

This text must be examined this Sunday during a special session of the Executive Council of the World Health Organization, convened to discuss “the health situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.” It is presented by Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Bolivia, China, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, Pakistan , Palestine, Qatar, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen.

“The Executive Council expresses its deep concern about the catastrophic humanitarian situation prevailing in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and more particularly about the military operations carried out in the Gaza Strip,” we can read in the preamble to this project.

The Israeli army on Friday recognized the failure of an operation to free hostages in the Gaza Strip, in which two soldiers were seriously injured and, according to the Palestinian movement Hamas, one hostage died.

“During the night (Thursday to Friday), two Israeli soldiers were seriously injured during an operation aimed at rescuing hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip,” the army said in a statement. “No hostages were saved,” she added, affirming that “during the operation, many terrorists who participated in the kidnapping and custody of the hostages were killed.”

The Ezzedine al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, announced that they had “succeeded in thwarting an Israeli attempt to free a hostage, by spotting members of the Israeli special forces sneaking into the center of the Gaza Strip” and who had “slipped into an ambulance”.

Three Lebanese soldiers were lightly injured on Friday by Israeli fire in southern Lebanon, medical sources said, while the Lebanese army reported an Israeli bombardment against a military hospital. “Israeli artillery fire targeted the outskirts of a Lebanese army post in Ras el-Naqoura, lightly injuring three soldiers,” medical sources told AFP.

Furthermore, on Friday, the Lebanese army, deployed in the border area, declared in a statement that “the military hospital center in the locality of Ain Ebel” had been “bombarded” on Friday “by the Israeli enemy”, causing “damage material damage but no casualties.