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The Gaza Strip was the bloody scene of Israeli air raids and intense fighting on Monday after threats from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas not to release the hostages it is holding “alive” without negotiation.
⇒ “Heavy fighting” in Gaza City and Khan Younes.
⇒ Strikes in Syria.
⇒ A UN meeting.
UN ambassadors visit Rafah
Ambassadors to the United Nations Security Council arrived in Egypt on Monday to visit the Rafah border post, a crossing point to the Gaza Strip, a few days after a United States veto of a resolution in favor of a ceasefire.
The informal one-day visit, organized by the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, comes as the humanitarian crisis worsens in the besieged Gaza Strip. Around ten ambassadors from countries such as Russia and the United Kingdom are taking part in the visit. But the United States did not send a representative, just like France.
France, Germany, and Italy call for more sanctions against Hamas
According to ReutersFrance, Germany and Italy called on the European Union for more sanctions against Hamas, as EU foreign ministers met on Monday to consider possible next steps in response to the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.
In a letter to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, the foreign ministers of the bloc’s three largest countries said it was important for the EU to take “all necessary measures against the Hamas terrorist group and those who support it. Among the sanctions envisaged, we find in particular more repressive measures on the finances of Hamas, while the EU added this Friday Mohammed Deif, commander in chief of the military branch of Hamas, to its terrorism blacklist.
Four dead in Syria, including two Hezbollah members
Two Syrian security agents and two Lebanese Hezbollah fighters were killed in overnight Israeli strikes against targets near Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) said on Monday, while three other fighters and three Civilians were injured late Sunday evening, the NGO said.
Two Hezbollah sites in the Sayyeda Zeinab sector, south of the capital, and “a radar unit” near Damascus airport were hit by the strikes, she added. Israel rarely comments on its operations in neighboring Syria but says it wants to prevent Iran, its sworn enemy, from establishing itself on its doorstep, particularly through its allies, such as Hezbollah.
Violent fighting
During the night from Sunday to Monday, an AFP reporter reported powerful airstrikes on the town of Khan Younes, the new epicenter of the war located in the southern tip of the Gaza Strip. The health ministry of the Hamas administration in Gaza reported “dozens” of deaths in nighttime raids. An assessment that no source is able to verify. Islamic Jihad claimed that one of its fighters had blown up a house in an area of Gaza City where Israeli soldiers were trying to identify the mouth of an underground tunnel.
The Israeli army reported rocket fire from Gaza on Monday and “fierce fighting” on Sunday in neighborhoods in the Gaza City sector and in Khan Younes, where Palestinian fighters “emerged from the tunnels”, “disposed explosives”. ” and fire “rocket launchers”.
For Netanyahu, “the beginning of the end” of Hamas
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on Hamas fighters to lay down their arms without delay, claiming to have recorded numerous surrenders in recent days which herald “the beginning of the end” of the Palestinian Islamist movement.
“They are laying down their arms and surrendering to our heroic soldiers. It will take time. The war continues but this is the beginning of the end of Hamas,” Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted as saying in a statement. “I say to the Hamas terrorists: this is the end. Do not die for [le chef du mouvement à Gaza, Yahya] Sinouar. See you – now!”, he added.
A meeting at the UN
A special meeting will take place Tuesday afternoon on the subject of Israel’s war against Hamas, the spokesperson for the President of the Assembly announced on Sunday. It was requested by representatives of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab group. According to diplomatic sources, the General Assembly, whose resolutions are not binding, could decide on a text. The draft text seen by AFP on Sunday largely takes up the resolution rejected Friday by the Security Council due to the American veto.
The text, expressing concern about the “catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip”, “demands an immediate humanitarian ceasefire”. It also calls for the protection of civilians, humanitarian access, and the “immediate and unconditional” release of all those born.