After months of unease from the Joe Biden administration over the conduct of Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will deliver a speech to the US Congress in Washington on July 24, said Thursday to AFP a parliamentary source.
In their letter of invitation to Benyamin Netanyahu, the four parliamentary leaders of the House and the Senate said they were “with the State of Israel in its fight against terrorism.” The American president publicly stated his opposition to a large-scale ground offensive in Rafah where more than a million civilians are trapped, and threatened to stop certain arms deliveries to Israel if his warning was not followed. heard.
Information to remember
⇒ Netanyahu will speak to the US Congress on July 24
⇒ UN chief warns of ‘wider’ conflict in Lebanon
⇒ According to Hamas, “there is no new proposal” for a ceasefire
In Gaza, a hospital reports at least 37 dead in a strike claimed by Israel
A hospital in the Gaza Strip on Thursday reported the death of at least 37 people in a bombing against a school of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in the Nousseirat region, the army Israeli claiming responsibility for this strike which targeted “a Hamas base”.
“We were sleeping, and at 2 a.m., we saw the ceiling, walls and windows falling on us,” Salmane al-Maqdama, a Palestinian witness to the bombing, told AFP. Unrwa leader Philippe Lazzarini affirmed that Israel had struck “without prior warning” the school, transformed into a shelter for the population displaced by the fighting.
The United States called on Israel to be “fully transparent”, in particular by “making public” the “names of the people” killed in the strike, said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.
Israel-Lebanon: UN chief warns of “wider” conflict
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called for a cessation of hostilities along the United Nations-established demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon, worrying about a risk of “wider conflict with devastating consequences for the region. “As exchanges of fire continue around the Blue Line, the Secretary General once again calls on the parties for an urgent ceasefire,” his spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement.
Daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Lebanese Hezbollah have intensified in recent days, in the midst of the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Palestinian Hamas, of which Hezbollah is an ally. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel was “ready for a very intense operation” on its northern border, as rocket and drone fire by the Lebanese formation from southern Lebanon initially provoked week several fires in northern Israel, near the border.
Hamas says ‘there is no new proposal’ for ceasefire
A senior Hamas official said Thursday that the plan presented by Joe Biden last week did not constitute a “new proposal” for an agreement with Israel for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the liberation of hostages.
The American president announced on May 31 the broad outlines of a staged plan, proposed according to him by Israel, with a view to a complete ceasefire between the Israeli army and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, including a gradual release of hostages held in Gaza.
“There is no proposal, these are only words spoken by (Joe) Biden in a speech, said Mr. Hamdane. So far, the Americans have not presented any document which commits them to respect this that Biden said in his speech.” According to the Hamas official, the Democratic president “tried to hide the Israeli rejection” of another agreement presented at the beginning of May which had been accepted by the Palestinian movement. The latter provided for a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.