Israel which rules out a cease-fire “at this stage”, the White House national security adviser expected in Israel, multiplication of calls for a cease-fire… Le Figaro takes stock of the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
The Jewish state is facing growing pressure from its allies in the war it has been waging against the terrorist group Hamas since October 7. On Tuesday, American President Joe Biden denounced the “indiscriminate bombings” carried out by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave where the humanitarian situation is deteriorating more every day. “Nothing will stop us” on the path to “victory” in the war against Hamas, neither the death of soldiers nor “international pressure” for a cease-fire, the Israeli Prime Minister declared on Wednesday Benjamin Netanyahu. “We will continue until the end. there is no doubt. I also say this in light of the great suffering” caused by military losses but “also in view of international pressure,” he said. “Nothing will stop us. We will go to the end, until victory, nothing less,” he added.
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The head of Israeli diplomacy Eli Cohen also assured Wednesday that the war against Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip would continue “with or without international support” and that a ceasefire was currently ruled out. “A ceasefire at this stage would be a gift to the terrorist organization Hamas and would allow it to return to threaten the inhabitants of Israel,” he added, referring to the bloody attack by the Islamist movement. October 7.
Hamas leader Ismaïl Haniyeh on Wednesday described any political solution in the Gaza Strip after the war with Israel without the participation of Palestinian “resistance movements” as an “illusion”. “Any arrangement in Gaza or regarding the Palestinian cause without Hamas or the resistance movements is an illusion,” Qatar-based Ismail Haniyeh said in a televised speech.
Also read: Hamas-Israel War: IDF in Chajaya’s mess
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan will visit Israel on Thursday and Friday, the US executive said, after differences between the two allies came to light. He will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli “war cabinet” as well as President Isaac Herzog, according to a press release from Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the National Security Council, an body directly attached to Joe Biden.
Despite calls for a ceasefire, fighting rages in Gaza. Airstrikes and ground fighting continued overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, particularly in Khan Younes and Rafah, in the south, and in Gaza City, in the north, according to AFP correspondents on place. According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, the raids left more than 50 dead in Gaza City, Khan Younes and Rafah, as well as in Nusseirat and Deir al-Balah in the center of the territory.
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The Hamas Health Ministry also accused the Israeli army on Wednesday of having reinforced the siege of the Kamal Adwan hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip, and of having “fired on the patients’ rooms”. On Tuesday, Hamas said Israel had launched an assault on the facility, following a several-day bombardment.
The population of the Gaza Strip, constantly bombarded for weeks by the Israeli army, “has no more time, no more options”, insisted Wednesday Philippe Lazzarini, head of the aid agency for Palestinian refugees. of the UN in Geneva. The High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, for his part reiterated his concern about an exodus of Gazans towards neighboring Egypt and called for a ceasefire. “Faced with bombings, deprivations and diseases, in an ever more cramped space, (the Palestinians) are confronted with the darkest chapter of their history since 1948 and yet it was a painful story,” underlined the head of the UNRWA, during the Global Refugee Forum which is being held until Friday.
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Philippe Lazzarini explains that “the inhabitants of Gaza are now crowded into less than a third of the original territory, near the Egyptian border”. He says he saw a humanitarian aid truck stopped by the population, who asked for food and “swallowed it in the street”. The humanitarian response in the Palestinian territory depends largely on UNRWA’s capabilities, “it is now on the verge of collapse”, he said. Already on Tuesday, he described the situation as “hell on earth”. According to OCHA, 100 trucks carrying aid have entered via Rafah since Monday evening, as well as 120,000 liters of fuel. “This figure is well below the daily average of 500 truck loads (including fuel) entering each working day before October 7,” warns the UN agency.
A fervent supporter of Israel, the American Democratic president nevertheless criticized Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in an unprecedented manner for its opposition to a “two-state” solution with the Palestinians, and warned against an erosion of international support for his war. “There is no doubt about the need to eliminate Hamas,” the American president said. But, he warned, while Israel currently has the support of “most of the world,” “they are losing that support with the indiscriminate bombing that is taking place.” In a rare joint statement, Justin Trudeau, Anthony Albanese and Christopher Luxon, the prime ministers of Canada, Australia and New Zealand respectively, said they were “alarmed by the diminishing security space for civilians in Gaza. “The price of defeating Hamas cannot be the continued suffering of all Palestinian civilians,” they added.
On Tuesday evening, the UN General Assembly called for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in the blockaded territory, in a non-binding resolution adopted by 153 votes in favor, 10 against (including Israel and the United States ), and 23 abstentions. An overwhelming majority which even exceeded those gathered for the resolutions condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, welcomed the “powerful message” sent by the United Nations and a “historic day”. “It is our collective duty to continue on this path until we can see the end of this aggression against our people, the end of this war against our people,” he said. This text does not, however, condemn Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement in power in Gaza since 2007 and author of the bloody attack of October 7 in Israeli territory.
Pope Francis also renewed his “call for an immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and pleaded for “this great suffering for Israelis and Palestinians to come to an end.” He also called for the release of all Israeli hostages and the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Hamas claimed that “vaccine stocks for children are completely exhausted” and warned of “catastrophic health repercussions on children’s health and the spread of diseases, particularly among displaced people housed in overcrowded shelters,” in a statement from the Hamas Health Ministry, which has controlled Gaza since 2007. It did not specify what types of vaccines were out of stock.
“Vaccines are one of the priority products that we are trying to bring (into the Gaza Strip) so that we can continue the vaccination campaign,” said the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian Territories, Canadian Lynn Hastings, during an online press briefing, without giving further details. “Gaza’s health system is on its knees and collapsing,” with 14 of the 36 hospitals only partially functioning, the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned on Sunday. “The situation is expected to worsen and deteriorate” with winter conditions, he added.
The Israeli army announced on Wednesday the deaths of 115 soldiers in Gaza since October 27. Ten soldiers died on Tuesday, the deadliest day for the army since the start of the ground offensive.
The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said she was in favor of sanctions against “extremist” settlers in the West Bank, denouncing violence which risks worsening regional tensions. “Rising extremist settler violence is inflicting immense suffering on Palestinians. It undermines prospects for lasting peace and could further aggravate regional instability. This is why I am in favor of sanctioning those who are involved in the attacks in the West Bank,” Ursula von der Leyen declared before the European Parliament in Strasbourg. “This violence has nothing to do with the fight against Hamas and must stop,” she insisted.
The head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov called on the United Nations to convene an international conference on the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, seeing it as the only possible way to resolve the crisis “forever”. According to him, the UN must play “the key role”. “The only possible way to resolve this problem forever and settle it fairly is to organize an international conference with the obligatory participation of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Gulf Cooperation Council,” declared Vladimir Putin’s Minister of Foreign Affairs to the press, after an intervention before Russian senators.
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Joe Biden met on Wednesday at the White House with families of American hostages held in Gaza, the American executive announced in a statement. This is the American president’s first in-person interview with the families of hostages captured during the unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 on Israeli soil from the Gaza Strip. The meeting takes place in the presence of Secretary of State Antony Blinken. There remain eight American people held hostage in Gaza, according to John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council. In total, there are 135 hostages remaining in Gaza, some of whom have died, according to the army.
The United States and the United Kingdom announced on Wednesday a new series of sanctions against Hamas officials and affiliates, saying they wanted to fight against the financing of the Islamist organization, in the midst of the war in Gaza. This is the fourth set of sanctions decided by Washington since the start of the war launched by Hamas against Israel on October 7, and the second for London. Both countries classify the Palestinian Islamist movement in power in Gaza since 2007 as a terrorist organization.
