The “battle of Rafah” in the south of the Gaza Strip is “decisive” for Israel, engaged in more than seven months of war against Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday. This battle, launched on May 7, is “a fight which will decide many things in this campaign”, declared the Prime Minister, quoted in a press release, while addressing soldiers in the Rafah area. It does not target “only the remaining battalions” of Hamas, but also their “loopholes and supply routes”.
For her part, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called on Thursday for greater protection of civilians in Rafah, at a time when Israel is intensifying its operations in this southern Gaza city. The head of German diplomacy said she was “deeply concerned by the current operations of the Israeli army in Rafah”, stressing that thousands of people had “no longer any safe place to flee”.
Information to remember
⇒ Humanitarian aid was unloaded by the temporary jetty
⇒ Israel before the ICJ this Friday to defend itself against accusations of “genocide”
⇒ Hamas says it “regrets” Mahmoud Abbas’ criticism of it
Humanitarian aid was unloaded by the temporary jetty
A first load of humanitarian aid intended for the Gazan population began to be unloaded Friday morning by the temporary pier that the army had finished docking the day before on the coast of the Gaza Strip, the American army said on Monday. x.
On Friday “around 9:00 a.m. (06:00 GMT), trucks carrying humanitarian aid began disembarking (a first load) by a temporary jetty” on the Gaza coast, as part of “a multinational effort to deliver “additional aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza via a maritime corridor of an exclusively humanitarian nature”, indicates the American Central Military Command (Centcom), covering in particular the Middle East.
Israel before the ICJ to defend itself against accusations of “genocide”
Israel will respond this Friday before the highest UN court to South Africa’s allegations that it has intensified a “genocidal” campaign with its military operation in Rafah. Pretoria has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which sits in The Hague, to order Israel to stop its incursion into Rafah, essential according to Israel to eliminate militants of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
Israel has previously stressed its “unwavering” commitment to international law and called South Africa’s case “completely baseless” and “morally repugnant.”
Pretoria’s lawyers told the ICJ on Thursday that “the genocide” committed by Israel “has reached a horrible level”, citing in particular mass graves, acts of torture and a blockage of humanitarian aid. “South Africa had hoped, when we last appeared before this court, to bring an end to this genocidal process in order to preserve Palestine and its people,” said Pretoria representative Vusimuzi Madonsela. “Instead, Israel’s genocide has continued apace and has reached a new and horrific level,” he added.
Arab League summit calls for ceasefire in Gaza
Arab leaders called Thursday for an “immediate” ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and an end to “the forced displacement” of Palestinians, following a summit in Bahrain. The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, for its part, called in a statement “brotherly Arab states to take the necessary measures to force the occupation (Israel) to put an end to its aggression and to withdraw troops from the entire strip of Gaza, including Rafah.
Meeting in Manama, Arab leaders said they wanted the deployment of peacekeepers in the “Palestinian territories occupied” by Israel until the implementation of the two-state solution, Israeli and Palestinian, to resolve the decades-old conflict. . But such a deployment would require international consensus and acceptance by Israel, which experts say appears to be very difficult if not impossible.
Hamas says it “regrets” Mahmoud Abbas’ criticism of it
Hamas also said on Thursday that it “regretted” the criticism of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who accused the Islamist movement of having “given pretexts” to Israel to attack the Gaza Strip. “We regret the remarks made by the President of the Palestinian Authority […] during the Arab summit in Manama,” the group said in a statement.
Weapons to Israel: Republicans try to force Biden’s hand
The Republican-dominated US House of Representatives on Thursday passed a largely symbolic measure aimed at forcing Democratic President Joe Biden to end his suspension of a bomb delivery to Israel. This suspension of the delivery of a shipment of weapons, consisting of bombs of 2,000 pounds (907 kg) and 500 pounds (226 kg), was decided at a time when Washington, Israel’s main military supporter, opposes to a major offensive by Israeli troops in Rafah.
The measure passed Thursday has no chance of becoming law. In theory, it would prevent Joe Biden from freezing any military aid to Israel approved by Congress. “The president and his administration must immediately reverse course and stand with Israel,” Mike Johnson, Republican leader of the House of Representatives, said in a statement.
Two Thai hostages suspected in Gaza dead
The Israeli army announced Thursday that two Thais, agricultural workers on a kibbutz attacked by Hamas on October 7, had died during the attack by Palestinian fighters and that their bodies had been taken to the Gaza Strip.
“We have informed the families of two kidnapped Thai nationals, agricultural workers on plantations near Kibbutz Beeri, that they were killed during the terrorist attack on October 7 and that their bodies are in the hands of Hamas,” he said. declared army spokesperson Daniel Hagari during a press briefing. He identified the two Thai victims as Sonthaya Oakkharasr and Sudthisak Rinthalak.