efforts “continue” towards a truce, says Qatar – L’Express

Israel said on Saturday it was determined to “increase the pressure” in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, after an American veto at the UN on a resolution proposing a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory, where the residents are desperately trying to protect themselves from the fighting.

⇒ Intense fighting takes place in southern Gaza

⇒ Antonio Guterres deplores the “paralysis” of the UN

⇒ Mediation efforts to obtain a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip continue, according to the Prime Minister of Qatar

Mediation efforts to obtain a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip continue despite incessant Israeli bombardments which “reduce the possibilities” of a positive outcome, said Sunday December 10 the Prime Minister of Qatar.

“Our efforts, deployed by the State of Qatar jointly with our partners, continue. We will not give up,” assured Mohammed ben Abderrahmane Al-Thani during the Doha Forum. He recognized, however, that “continued bombing reduces these possibilities.”

The Israeli army and Hamas are still engaged in heavy fighting in the south of the Gaza Strip. Early this Sunday, Israeli aircraft carried out “very violent air raids” near Khan Yunis, and on the road between this town and Rafah, near the border with Egypt, the Hamas administration said. .

A few hours later, a source close to the military branches of Hamas and Islamic Jihad told AFP that the two movements were involved in “violent clashes” around Khan Younes. The Israeli army said it had “intensified” its operations in these areas of the southern Gaza Strip. “We must increase the pressure,” said his army chief of staff Herzi Halevi, reporting a growing number of Hamas fighters “killed”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres deplored this Sunday the “paralysis” of the United Nations in the face of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, saying he regretted that the Security Council had not voted in in favor of a ceasefire.

Speaking at the Doha Forum in Qatar, Antonio Guterres said the Security Council was “paralyzed by geostrategic divisions”, thus compromising its ability to find solutions to the war. “The authority and credibility of the Security Council have been seriously compromised” by its late response to the conflict, a damage to its reputation aggravated by the veto opposed Friday by the United States to a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, he said again.

The draft resolution was prepared after the UN Secretary General’s unprecedented invocation of Article 99 of the United Nations Charter, allowing him to draw the attention of the Security Council to a matter which “could endanger the maintenance of international peace and security. “I reiterated my call to declare a humanitarian ceasefire […] unfortunately, the Security Council failed to do so,” lamented Antonio Guterres. “I can promise that I will not give up,” he added.

The American government approved “urgently”, without going through Congress, the sale to Israel of nearly 14,000 tank shells used in its war against Hamas in Gaza, he said on Saturday. The State Department notified Congress on Friday, invoking an “emergency” authorization, of the sale to its Israeli ally of 13,981 120 mm shells equipping the Merkava battle tanks engaged in the offensive in the Palestinian territory, according to press releases published Saturday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Pentagon. This military equipment represents a value of 106.5 million dollars.

“The Secretary of State (Antony Blinken) determined and justified in detail to Congress that there was an urgency to immediately sell this equipment to the Israeli government […] by bypassing the parliamentary review required by the arms export control legislation,” American diplomacy indicated.

The “just war” that Israel is waging in the Gaza Strip “to eliminate” Hamas will continue, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday evening. “Other countries must understand that we cannot on the one hand support the elimination of Hamas and on the other hand call for an end to the war, which would prevent the elimination of Hamas,” he declared. . “So Israel will continue its just war to eliminate Hamas,” he added.

The Hamas Health Ministry announced on Saturday that Israeli bombardments in the Gaza Strip had left 17,700 dead and 48,780 injured in two months of war – figures that cannot be independently verified. The Hamas government, which has controlled Gaza since 2007, estimates that the real number of dead and injured is much higher, with Palestinian rescue services and foreign NGOs unable to access all of the bombed areas. to free the victims from the rubble.