THE international communitywith the USA first, continues today to calls his government Israel not to launch a full-scale attack on Rafawhere some 1.5 million Palestinians have taken refuge, on the closed border with Egypt.

Mr. Netanyahu has announced a “vigorous” operation in Rafah, to give what he says is a free shot to Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, however he assures that his army will first allow civilians to “flee from the war zones”, without explaining in which direction.

Some 1.4 million Palestinians, in other words “more than half the population of the Gaza Strip,” have flocked to this city and its environs, after being forcibly displaced—many more than once—from other areas of the enclave, for to be saved from the bombings and the fighting.

All this world is crammed into “less than 20%” of the enclave’s surface, the UN summarizes.

Rafah, moreover, is the main entrance gate for the humanitarian aid that reaches the Gaza Strip through Egypt, the amount of which is a drop in the ocean of needs of the population, which is now threatened by famine and epidemics, in the middle of winter.

Israel’s pounding of the southern part of the Gaza Strip

After more than four months of war between Israel and Hamas, hostilities are now centered in the southern part of the besieged and largely leveled Gaza Strip, from Khan Younis — where the Israeli military said Thursday it had conducted a “targeted operation » at the Nasser Hospital, reception center for thousands of internally displaced persons— to Rafah.

The Health Ministry of Hamas said today that it fears for the lives of six patients in the intensive care unit and three newborns in the nursery: they have no oxygen, since the generators stopped.

The ministry said “112 people were killed” overnight Thursday to Friday across the enclave in Israeli shelling.

US President Joe Biden reiterated to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their phone call that he opposes launching a military operation in Rafah “without a credible and workable plan that will guarantee the safety and support of civilians in Rafah,” according to his services. in the White House.

Frustrated (?) American hopes for a deal before Ramadan

Negotiations for a truce that would allow further releases of Hamas hostages and Palestinian prisoners in Israel continued today, for the final day, according to reports, brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the US.

During their conversation, Joe Biden reiterated to Benjamin Netanyahu to “work tirelessly” for the hostages, to guarantee the release of all of them “as soon as possible.”

After his discussion with Mr Biden, Netanyahu yesterday rejected any international recognition of a Palestinian state outside the context of direct Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, arguing that any such initiative would “offer a huge reward to terrorism”, apparently reacting to a report by American newspaper Washington Post.

“Any such recognition, after the October 7 massacre, would offer a huge reward to unprecedented terrorism and prevent any future peace agreement,” Mr Netanyahu said in Hebrew via X (the former Twitter handle).

The US newspaper reported that the US, Israel’s main ally, and Arab countries close to Washington are drawing up a comprehensive plan for lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians after the Israel/Hamas war ends.

The plan refers to a ceasefire “expected to last at least six weeks”, the release of hostages and a timetable for the establishment of a Palestinian state, a prospect rejected by the Netanyahu government.

The newspaper cited US and Arab officials as saying they hoped a deal would be reached before March 10, the day Ramadan begins. The plan may be discussed at the Munich security conference, which starts today.

According to Israeli sources, more than 130 Israeli hostages remain in the hands of Hamas in the Gaza Strip — although an army spokesman said last week that at least 31 of them are believed to be dead — of the approximately 250 kidnapped on October 7. A week-long truce in November allowed the release of more than 105 of them and in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. On both sides, it was mostly women and children.

30,000 dead to date in the war

The war broke out on October 7 when members of the Palestinian Islamist movement’s military wing Hamas launched an unprecedented raid from the Gaza Strip against southern sectors of the Israeli territory, killing more than 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to a count of AFP based on official data from the Israeli authorities.

In retaliation, Israel, whose civilian-military leadership vows to “eliminate” Hamas and release “all” hostages, is conducting large-scale military operations in the Palestinian enclave that have so far killed at least 28,663 people, the vast majority of them women and children, according to the latest casualty count released by the Hamas Health Ministry.

Among the victims are dozens of journalists.

72 of the 99 journalists and media workers killed worldwide in 2023 were lost during “Israeli attacks in Gaza,” the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said yesterday, releasing its annual report.
This is one of the worst annual figures ever announced by the non-governmental organization in the last forty years of systematically keeping statistics.