Catherine Colonna calls for an “immediate and lasting” truce – L’Express

Visiting the Middle East, the head of French diplomacy, Catherine Colonna, called this Sunday, December 17 upon her arrival in Israel for a “new immediate and lasting truce” in the Gaza Strip, while her Israeli counterpart describes everything call for ceasefire “error”.

Wishing to put pressure on Hamas, Israel launched new rockets into the Gaza Strip. At the same time, the World Health Organization considers the state of the emergency departments of al-Chifa hospital very worrying, with some patients being treated on the floor.

⇒ Visiting Israel, Catherine Colonna calls for an “immediate and lasting” truce

⇒ The emergency departments at al-Chifa hospital are “a bloodbath” and are only functioning at a minimum, according to the WHO

⇒ Israel launched new strikes on Gaza this Sunday and intends to increase military pressure

The head of French diplomacy, Catherine Colonna, arrived in Israel this Sunday and called for an “immediate and lasting” truce in the Gaza Strip. “Too many civilians are being killed,” she declared after a meeting with her Israeli counterpart, Eli Cohen, in Tel Aviv. She stressed that the first one-week truce ended on December 1 had made it possible to free hostages – 105 out of the 250 taken by force by Hamas during the October 7 attack – and to increase humanitarian aid to the civilians in Gaza while evacuating wounded. “We know it’s not enough,” she said. Eli Cohen estimated that France could play an “important role” to prevent a war with the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, which supports Hamas and has increased its shooting towards Israel since October 8.

France condemned on Saturday an Israeli bombing in the Gaza Strip which caused the death of one of its agents and demanded that “all light be shed”. “It is with great emotion that the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs learned of the death of one of its agents, who died as a result of his injuries during an Israeli bombing in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip,” the Quai d’Orsay said in a statement.

The emergency department of al-Chifa hospital, in northern Gaza devastated by Israeli bombings, is “a bloodbath”. And what was the largest hospital in the Palestinian territory now needs “to be resuscitated”, wrote the World Health Organization (WHO) this Sunday.

A team from WHO and other UN agencies was able to deliver medical equipment on Saturday to the hospital, where “tens of thousands of displaced people” took refuge within the hospital complex to get shelter. sheltered, underlines the WHO press release, specifying that drinking water and food “are lacking”.

According to the organization’s team who visited the hospital, “patients suffering from trauma are sutured on the floor and the means to manage pain are very limited or non-existent.” The hospital is only functioning at a minimum and with a very reduced team and “critical patients are transferred to Ahli Arab hospital for surgical interventions”.

Israel launched new strikes on the Gaza Strip on Sunday as Israeli leaders face growing pressure to negotiate and secure the release of hostages kidnapped by Hamas. At least 12 people were killed in the town of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, the Hamas health ministry said. Witnesses also reported Israeli bombardment on the southern town of Bani Suheila.

Five Palestinians were also killed this Sunday morning in the Tulkarem refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank, during a raid by the Israeli army, announced the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The death toll rose to five after the announcement of the deaths of two men aged 19 and 21 in hospital, the Palestinian ministry said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Saturday evening that he wanted to maintain “military pressure” against the Palestinian movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip, despite the emotion aroused in Israel by the death of three hostages killed “by mistake” by soldiers.

“The death of the three hostages “broke my heart. This has broken the hearts of the entire nation,” he said at a press conference. He added, however, that “military pressure is necessary both for the return of the hostages and to ensure victory over our enemies”. Several media outlets affirm that after the fiasco for the army of the three hostages killed, the Israeli authorities are returning to the path of negotiations.

After the announcement of the death of three hostages, the American news site Axios reported a meeting this weekend in Europe between David Barnea, the head of Mossad, the Israeli foreign secret service, and the Qatari Prime Minister, Mohammed bin Abdelrahmane Al-Thani, to discuss a second truce in view of the release of hostages.

The meeting was to focus on a second phase of truce, in order to allow the release of hostages, continues Axios without specifying in particular the number of hostages who could be released. “The directives that I give to the negotiating team are based on this (military pressure on Gaza) and without it we have nothing,” Netanyahu said, without further details. According to the Israeli daily website Haaretzthe meeting took place.

The Swiss shipowner MSC announced on Saturday that it was suspending, like the CMA CGM, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd groups, the crossing of the Red Sea by its ships after attacks perpetrated against ships by Houthi rebels from Yemen, who say act in support of Hamas.

A US warship operating in the Red Sea on Saturday shot down 14 drones launched from “Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen”, according to the US Middle East Military Command (Centcom).