Israeli forces said on Tuesday that they had “surrounded” the entire town of Khan Younes, the epicenter of the fighting in the south of the Gaza Strip, the day after the death of 21 reservists killed in a single attack. The soldiers “carried out a large operation during which they surrounded Khan Younes,” an army statement said. The city is where Yahya Sinouar, the Gaza leader of Hamas considered to be the architect of the October 7 attack carried out by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil, was born.
Information to remember
⇒ 21 Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza on Monday
⇒ Israel offers two months of truce to Hamas against the release of hostages in Gaza
⇒ France wants to avoid an “escalation” between Israel and Lebanon
Gaza: 21 Israeli soldiers were killed Monday in Gaza
The spokesperson for the Israeli army announced this Tuesday the death of 21 “reservists”, killed the day before in the Gaza Strip, the heaviest daily death toll on the Israeli side since the launch of the ground offensive against this Palestinian territory. on October 27.
General Daniel Hagari indicated during a televised press briefing that most of these reservists had been killed by the explosion of “an RPG” (shoulder-fired rocket) which targeted a tank and a building mined by the army with a view to its demolition, in the south of the Gaza Strip. “War has a heavy, even very heavy, price. Our reservists sacrificed what was dearest to them so that we could all live here in complete safety,” added General Hagari.
The Israeli Prime Minister immediately announced the opening of a military investigation into the death of these 21 Israeli reservists. Israeli forces “have opened an investigation into the disaster. We must learn all the lessons and do everything to preserve the lives of our fighters,” Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, referring to “one of the hardest days” since the outbreak of war.
Israel offers two months of truce against the release of hostages in Gaza
Israel offered Hamas, through the mediation of Qatar and Egypt, a two-month pause in fighting and raids in Gaza in exchange for the release of all hostages, the American website reported on Monday Axios. This proposal does not imply the end of the war in Gaza, but a second truce after that of a week which allowed the release of a hundred hostages, transported to Gaza during the unprecedented attack of October 7 , in exchange for at least 240 Palestinian prisoners imprisoned in Israel. However, according to the Israeli authorities, under pressure from families to accept a release agreement, 132 hostages are still in the Gaza Strip, 28 of whom are believed to have died.
Israel’s proposal provides for the return to Israel of living hostages and remains in several phases, the first of which would include women and men aged over 60, according to Axios. This would be followed by female soldiers, men aged under 60 but not in the military, male Israeli soldiers, and finally the remains of hostages.
Under the plan, Israel and Hamas were to agree in advance on the number of Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for each hostage according to their category, and then negotiate the name of each Palestinian, Axios continues. This plan does not foresee an end to the Israel/Hamas war or even a longer-term political solution, but a redeployment of Israeli soldiers outside the main towns of Gaza, and the gradual return of hundreds of thousands of people displaced from the north to southern Gaza in an attempt to escape the violence.
Washington and London strike again in Yemen
American and British forces carried out new bombings in Yemen on the night of Monday to Tuesday against the Houthi rebels who still say they are “determined” to continue their attacks in the Red Sea, in support of the Palestinians in Gaza.
“Today’s strikes specifically targeted a Houthi underground storage site and Houthi missile and aerial surveillance sites,” the US and British armed forces said in a joint statement.
France wants to avoid an “escalation” between Israel and Lebanon
France wishes to avoid “escalation” on the border between Israel and Lebanon, French Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu reiterated on Monday in Tel Aviv, where he met political figures including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “When we search minds, when we search hearts, no one, neither in Tel Aviv, nor in Jerusalem, nor in Beirut, wants war. […] The real challenge for us is to ensure that this escalation, which may seem inevitable, does not happen,” said Sébastien Lecornu in an interview with AFP.
The priority, according to him, is to establish how United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 “can once again be executed, how we resume patrols, how we are once again in a pattern of observation and deconfliction “so “that one side does not shoot at the other side of the border and the other side […] “do not respond to it with the risk of escalation”. Resolution 1701 ended the 2006 war between the powerful Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Iran, and Israel. It established the sole presence of the Lebanese army and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in the south of the country, between the border and the Litani River. The toll of people killed by Israel in southern Lebanon exceeded 200 on Monday, including 147 Hezbollah fighters , according to an AFP count.
Primaries in the United States: call to write “ceasefire” for Gaza on the ballots
Activists are calling on American voters to write “ceasefire” on the ballots for this Tuesday’s primary in the state of New Hampshire to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden on his support for Israel, despite the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
“Vote ceasefire”: a collective of groups opposed to the war in the Middle East, sees this roundabout way as a makeshift solution to call on Joe Biden to take a stand against the continuation by the Israeli army of its offensive against the Palestinian movement.
Relatives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza protest at Parliament
Relatives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza protested in the Knesset (Parliament) on Monday, interrupting a committee meeting to push parliamentarians to secure their release, according to a statement and images from the legislative body. “Relatives of hostages in the Gaza Strip walked into the middle of a Finance Committee debate and demanded that MPs act immediately to free their loved ones,” the statement said.
UK and US sanction Hamas financiers
The United Kingdom and the United States announced new sanctions on Monday against five people and a key entity in the financing of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. These coordinated sanctions “send a clear message to Hamas: the United Kingdom and its partners are determined to ensure that those who finance terrorist activities have nowhere to hide”, declared the head of British diplomacy David Cameron, quoted in a press release from the British Foreign Office.