The Gaza Strip is still plunged into a catastrophic humanitarian situation this Wednesday, the day after deadly Israeli strikes against the territory. Nearly a million and a half people, according to the UN, are massed in the town of Rafah, located in the south of the Palestinian territory against the closed border with Egypt.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an upcoming offensive on the overpopulated city, targeted daily by Israeli strikes, in order to defeat the Palestinian Islamist movement in its “last bastion” and free the hostages held in Gaza. This prospect worries the international community, while hopes of an end to the fighting are increasingly slim.
Information to remember
⇒ The Colombian president in turn accuses Israel of “genocide”
⇒ For Hamas, the American veto at the UN is a “green light” to Israel for more “massacres”
⇒ British justice rejects appeal against arms exports to Israel
The Colombian president in turn accuses Israel of “genocide”
Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Tuesday accused Israel of committing a “genocide” against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. “In Gaza, there is a genocide. Thousands of children, women and elderly people are cowardly murdered. Lula only spoke the truth. Either the truth is defended, or barbarity will destroy us,” he said. declared Gustavo Petro on X.
The Colombian president also expressed his “full solidarity” with his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva plunged into a diplomatic crisis. On Sunday, President Lula caused a storm by accusing Israel of committing a “genocide” of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, drawing a comparison between the Israeli offensive and the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis. After these statements, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that Lula was now persona non grata in Israel “until he apologizes and withdraws his remarks.” Brazil and Colombia support South Africa’s historic case against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague for alleged violations of the 1948 Genocide Convention.
American diplomacy rejects Lula’s remarks
The United States on Tuesday disapproved of Brazilian President Lula’s statements comparing the Israeli war in Gaza to the Holocaust, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Brazil as part of a South American tour. “Of course we do not agree with these statements. We have been very clear that we do not believe that a genocide is being committed in Gaza,” the spokesperson for the Department of Defense told the press. State, Matthew Miller.
US veto at UN is a “green light” to Israel for more “massacres” according to Hamas
The American veto of a draft resolution of the UN Security Council demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza is a “green light” to Israel to perpetrate more “massacres” in this territory, reacted Tuesday evening Palestinian Hamas. “The American position is a green light for the (Israeli) occupation to commit more massacres […] This will only increase the suffering of our people,” the Palestinian Islamist movement said in a statement.
Despite international pressure to soften its support for Israel, the United States, criticized from all sides, again prevented the UN Security Council on Tuesday from demanding an “immediate” ceasefire in Gaza, making circulate an alternative text on a possible truce under conditions. The draft resolution, which demanded “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire which must be respected by all parties”, received 13 votes in favor, one abstention (United Kingdom) and one against, the third American veto since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas. This “irresponsible and dangerous” American veto sends the message that Israel can “continue to do anything with impunity”, for his part castigated Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour.
British court rejects appeal against arms exports to Israel
The High Court of Justice in London on Monday rejected an appeal aimed at suspending British arms exports to Israel, lawyers for the NGO behind the procedure announced on Tuesday. The Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq, represented by the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), will try to overturn this decision, they added in a statement sent to the AFP.
Accusing the United Kingdom of violating international law and its own rules on arms exports in the context of the war in Gaza, the plaintiffs initiated this procedure before the British courts at the end of January. Their case was based in particular on rules issued by the United Kingdom, which provide that the country must not export weapons when there is a clear risk that they could be used in violation of international law. The plaintiffs also highlighted the January 26 decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), seized by South Africa, which called on Israel to prevent any possible act of “genocide” in Gaza.
An Israeli offensive would transform Rafah into a “cemetery”, warns MSF in the United States
An Israeli armed ground offensive on Rafah would transform this town in the south of the Gaza Strip into a “cemetery”, said Tuesday the head of the American branch of Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), warning with other NGOs of the risk of famine on the spot.
“The consequences of a large-scale attack on Rafah are truly unimaginable,” declared the association’s executive director Avril Benoit, during an online press conference alongside Oxfam, Refugees International, and from Amnesty International.
Gaza: medicines reached hostages, says Qatar
Medicines sent to Gaza as part of an agreement negotiated by Qatar and France have reached hostages held by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Doha announced on Tuesday. Qatar “has received confirmation from the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) regarding the receipt of a shipment of medicines and the start of their distribution to the hostages concerned,” said the spokesperson for the Qatari Foreign Ministry.