As the conflict entered its fourth month on Sunday, January 7, the American Secretary of State, currently on tour in the Middle East, called on Israel to protect Palestinian civilians. This message follows in particular the death of two Palestinian journalists in Gaza. In Lebanon, tensions are not weakening since Beirut airport was the target of a cyberattack targeting to discredit the powerful Hezbollah movement.
Information to remember
⇒ Blinken insists on protection of Palestinian civilians
⇒ The head of German diplomacy called on Israel to limit its operations in Gaza
⇒ Beirut airport suffered a cyberattack
Blinken calls on Israel to spare civilians
The war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas has entered its fourth month with no sign of respite in Gaza. Touring the region to try to avoid a conflagration in the Middle East, the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, present in Doha this Sunday, January 7, called on the Israeli army to spare civilians. The Secretary of State thus considered it “imperative” that Israel, supported militarily and politically by Washington, do more to protect Palestinian civilians.
The conflict “could easily metastasize causing even more insecurity and more suffering”, he warned, affirming that the United States was working to “prevent the conflict from spreading” in the region. The head of American diplomacy is expected this Monday in Tel Aviv to discuss the war.
Two Palestinian journalists killed
The death in Gaza on Sunday, January 7, of two Palestinian journalists, Moustafa Thuraya, a freelance videographer working with various international media, and Hamza Waël Dahdouh, of Al Jazeera, is an “unimaginable tragedy,” according to Antony Blinken.
According to the Qatari channel, which accused the Israeli army of “targeting” Palestinian journalists in Gaza, they were killed by an Israeli strike on their car. With these deaths, at least 79 journalists and media workers, the vast majority Palestinian, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Germany urges Israel to show more “restraint”
“The suffering of many innocent people cannot continue like this. We need less intensive conduct of operations” carried out in the Gaza Strip, warned this Sunday the head of German diplomacy Annalena Baerbock, visiting Jerusalem. “It is increasingly clear that the Israeli military must do more to protect civilians in Gaza. It must find ways to fight Hamas without many Palestinians suffering,” she added.
Germany has provided Israel with unconditional support since the start of the war launched against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in reaction to the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023.
Cyber attack at Beirut airport
Beirut airport was the target of a cyberattack this Sunday, disrupting the “baggage inspection system”, according to Lebanon’s National Information Agency (ANI). According to ANI, the authorities are working to restore the display “and maintain normal traffic at the airport.”
According to images broadcast by the press, a message criticizing the powerful Lebanese movement Hezbollah was displayed on the screen near the emblem of a Christian group bearing the name “Soldiers of God”. This airport is “not the airport of Hezbollah and Iran”, it was written. The rest of the message was addressed directly to the leader of Hezbollah: “Hassan Nasrallah, no one will support you if you drag the country into war […] We will not fight in anyone’s name.”
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, the pro-Iranian movement has exchanged fire almost daily with Israel on the Israeli-Lebanese border, in support of its Palestinian ally in the Gaza Strip.