Truce talks between Israel and Hamas showed signs of progress on Tuesday. But fears of famine are growing, as are fears of an armed operation in the Rafah sector, where 1.5 million people are crowded together.
Information to remember
⇒ Marwan Issa, Hamas number 3, killed in an Israeli strike
⇒ Biden calls on Israel to send a delegation to Washington to try to avoid an operation in Rafah
⇒ Returning from Gaza, two French doctors recount the “unspeakable” situation of overwhelmed hospitals
Marwan Issa, Hamas number 3, killed in Israeli strike
Washington, for its part, confirmed the death of the deputy head of the armed wing of Hamas, Marwan Issa, who becomes the most senior official killed in this territory by the Israeli army since the start of the war. “Marwan Issa was killed in an Israeli operation last week,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said at a news conference Monday.
The Israeli army reported an airstrike “in the center of the Gaza Strip, near Nuseirat”, against an “underground base”, which was “used by two senior leaders of the organization (including) Marwan Issa.” Israel, however, had not confirmed the death of the man, born in 1965, who was the deputy of Mohammed Deif, the leader of the al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.
Gaza: Anthony Blinken will visit Egypt this week
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will once again travel to the Middle East, to Saudi Arabia and then to Egypt, as part of efforts to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and increase security there. humanitarian aid, the State Department spokesperson announced Tuesday from Manila. In Jeddah on Wednesday, Antony Blinken will hold talks with Saudi leaders before traveling to Cairo on Thursday for discussions with the highest Egyptian authorities, according to spokesperson Matthew Miller.
The head of American diplomacy will discuss “efforts to reach an immediate ceasefire agreement guaranteeing the release of all remaining hostages, the intensification of international efforts to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza and post-conflict coordination in Gaza,” Matthew Miller said in a statement. Antony Blinken will also address the question of “a political path for the Palestinian people with security guarantees for Israel, and an architecture for lasting peace and security in the region”, adds the text.
Biden calls on Israel to send a delegation to Washington
US President Joe Biden said Monday that he had ordered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to send a delegation to Washington to discuss how to avoid a widespread assault in the town of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. This summons is one of Joe Biden’s clearest attempts to try to slow down Israel, which is considering a major ground offensive by its army in Rafah, where more than a million Palestinian civilians are refugees.
“I asked the Prime Minister to send a team to Washington to discuss ways to target Hamas without carrying out a large ground offensive in Rafah,” Joe Biden said after an interview with Benyamin Netanyahu, the first in more than a month between the two leaders, whose relationship has clearly cooled.
Two French doctors recount the unspeakable situation of overwhelmed hospitals
They tell of the lack of antiseptics and patients screaming in pain, “avoidable deaths”. Returning after several weeks to the European hospital in Gaza, two French doctors described surgeries carried out in “terrible” conditions in the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave. “There are no longer any means to ensure asepsis (prevention of infectious diseases, editor’s note) in a hospital service,” summarized Monday Doctor Khaled Benboutrif, Toulouse emergency doctor, who went to the south of the Gaza Strip between January 22 and February 6 with the Palmed medical association, specializing in helping Palestinians.
“We couldn’t find anywhere to treat, there was no stretcher […]we were obliged to treat seriously injured people on the ground”, added the sixty-year-old during a press conference in Marseille. His colleague Pascal André, an infectious disease specialist by training, noted between February 8 and 22 that “a lot of patients suffer from serious post-operative infections”, because the block “is not sufficiently clean” in the absence of antiseptic. “We are in a situation which is unspeakable, which is unjustifiable”, estimated the French doctor.
The United States destroyed Houthi drones and anti-ship missiles
The United States on Monday struck drones, anti-ship missile systems and weapons storage containers belonging to Houthi rebels in Yemen, the US military Middle East Command (Centcom) announced.
In total, American forces “destroyed seven anti-ship missiles, three drones, and three weapons storage containers in areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthis,” according to a message published Monday by Centcom on the social network Drones and missile systems presented “an imminent threat” to American merchant ships and warships, Centcom said, as with every American strike.