Antony Blinken continues his diplomatic tour in the Middle East, in order to advance negotiations for a truce. The head of American diplomacy will be in Egypt and Qatar on Tuesday, February 6, mediators in the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. At the same time, the Israeli army continues its offensive in the south of the enclave, and says it is tracking down members of Hamas in Rafah, a city where 1.3 million Palestinian refugees are now crowded, raising fears of numerous civilian losses.
Information to remember
⇒ Blinken continues his tour and will be in Egypt and Qatar on Tuesday February 6
⇒ Intense fighting in Khan Younès
⇒ UN Security Council calls to “prevent further escalation”
Antony Blinken in Egypt and Qatar
The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken continues his tour of the Middle East on Tuesday February 6 to try to impose a truce in the war between Israel and Hamas which is about to enter its fifth month. The American Secretary of State, who began this fifth regional tour in Saudi Arabia on Monday since the start of the war, heads to Egypt on Tuesday morning then will reach Qatar at the end of the day, two mediator countries alongside Washington, before traveling to Israel and the occupied West Bank.
Before him, the new French Minister of Foreign Affairs Stéphane Séjourné spoke on Monday with Israeli and Palestinian officials in the hope of promoting a truce, or even “a global political settlement”. During his new tour in the region, the head of American diplomacy supports the project of Qatari, American and Egyptian mediators developed in Paris at the end of January and which has yet to be approved by Hamas and Israel.
According to a Hamas source, the proposal provides for a six-week truce during which Israel will release 200 to 300 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 35 to 40 hostages held in Gaza, and 200 to 300 aid trucks will be able to enter the country every day. territory. However, Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007, demands a total ceasefire. Israel, for its part, continues to affirm that it will only definitively end its offensive once the Islamist movement has been eliminated and the hostages freed.
British ship damaged by drone attack in Red Sea
A British ship was slightly damaged by a drone attack in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen overnight from Monday to Tuesday, said the security company specializing in maritime transport Ambrey. The “port side” of a British cargo ship flying the Barbados flag suffered “minor damage” during a drone attack, according to the same source.
According to the British Maritime Safety Agency (UKTMO), a window of the cargo ship was “slightly” damaged by a drone strike above the ship which was then located 57 nautical miles, or approximately 105 kilometers, away. west of Hodeida, a major port on the west coast of Yemen, under the control of the Houthi rebels.
Intense fighting in Khan Younes
On the sidelines of these diplomatic negotiations, raids continue in Gaza, where the Hamas Ministry of Health reported 99 deaths between Monday evening and Tuesday morning, and airstrikes and artillery fire in the Rafah sectors. and Khan Younes.
The Israeli army indicated that it was engaged in “close combat” in Khan Younes, the major city of the territory, which, according to Israel, is home to leaders of the Palestinian Islamist movement. The leader of Hamas for Gaza, Yahya Sinouar, originally from Khan Younes, is “on the run” and is moving “from hiding place to hiding”, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday evening.
Over the past 24 hours, strikes have also targeted Rafah, in the far south of the territory, a town which had 270,000 inhabitants before the war, but where more than 1.3 million are now crowded together in desperate conditions. of people having fled the fighting, according to the UN.
Acute humanitarian crisis
In Israel, Antony Blinken must also insist on the urgency of letting aid enter the Gaza Strip, besieged and plunged into a major humanitarian crisis after four months of war. This crisis is particularly acute in the Rafah sector, where half of Gaza’s population is now crowded, joined every day by thousands of other people fleeing the fighting.
According to the UN, new arrivals in Rafah now have only 1.5 to 2 liters of water each per day for drinking, cooking and washing, and cases of chronic diarrhea among children are skyrocketing. Adding to the distress, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has seen donor countries, including the United States, suspend funding after accusations from Israel that 12 of its employees participated in the attack of October 7.
“Avoid regional escalation”
The conflict in Gaza has also spread in the region with tensions between Israel and its allies on the one hand and Iran and its “axis of resistance” on the other which includes, in addition to Hamas, the Lebanese Hezbollah , Iraqi militias and Yemeni Houthis. The United States carried out strikes last week against sites in Syria and three in Iraq, targeting the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, and pro-Iranian armed groups, according to Washington.
During a meeting, Monday, February 5, of the UN Security Council on these strikes, the Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo called on States to “actively cooperate” to “prevent further escalation”. During the night, the United States also carried out a new strike against the Houthis in Yemen, targeting two marine drones loaded with explosives, announced US Middle East Command (Centcom).