According to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-administered Gaza Strip, the Israeli offensive carried out in the Palestinian enclave in retaliation for the incursion of Hamas commandos into the south of the Jewish state, on October 7, 2023 , left 32,226 dead, including 84 over the past day, notably in Gaza City, in the North, and in Khan Yunis and Rafah, in the South.
French President Emmanuel Macron once again marked “his firm opposition” to an Israeli offensive on Rafah on Sunday, warning Benjamin Netanyahu that “the forced transfer of the population constituted a war crime.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to repeat that a ground offensive is necessary in Rafah in order to achieve “total victory” against Hamas. According to the UN, nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are massed in this city on the border with Egypt.
During a telephone interview with the head of the Israeli government, the French leader also reiterated his call for “an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza” and “strongly condemned the recent Israeli announcements regarding colonization.” Israel announced on Friday the seizure of 800 hectares of land in the occupied West Bank, with a view to building new settlements there.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported on Sunday the siege of two other hospitals in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli army, which confirmed an intervention in the neighborhood but not in the hospital establishments. Since last Monday, the army has been carrying out a major operation on the large Al-Shifa hospital complex.
According to the Red Crescent, military vehicles arrived on Sunday morning near the Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals in the southern town of Khan Younes amid “intense” gunfire and bombardment. The organization adds in a press release that one of its volunteers was killed at dawn by Israeli fire while he was in Al-Amal hospital.
The Israeli army, contacted by Agence France-Presse, declared that it had launched an operation in the Al-Amal neighborhood “with a view to continuing to dismantle terrorist infrastructures and eliminate terrorist actors in the sector”, but asserts that its troops “are not currently operating in hospitals.”
The heads of the American and Israeli intelligence services left Doha after a new round of talks aimed at a truce in the Gaza Strip, we learned on Sunday from a source close to the discussions, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
William Burns, director of the CIA, and his Mossad counterpart, David Barnea, left the Qatari capital late Saturday “to inform their respective teams (…) of this round” of negotiations, which focused “on the details and a ratio for the exchange of hostages and prisoners,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
Israeli authorities announced Thursday that the head of Mossad would travel to Doha on Friday to meet with the head of the CIA, as well as the Qatari prime minister and the head of the Egyptian intelligence services. It was his second visit in a week since talks resumed after efforts by the United States, Qatar and Egypt to reach a truce before Ramadan, which began yesterday, failed. two weeks ago.
A Hamas official reported on Saturday “deep differences” with Israel in discussions on the ceasefire, the full return of displaced people and the management of humanitarian aid.
On Sunday, the Israeli army announced the continuation of its ground and air operations in Khan Younes. According to witnesses interviewed by AFP, dozens of armored vehicles and tanks carried out an incursion into the city center around 2 a.m., accompanied by airstrikes, in the center of the city and around the two large hospitals, Nasser and Al-Amal.
In Gaza City, the army is also continuing the operation launched on March 18 against the Al-Shifa hospital complex. She announced that more than 170 Palestinian fighters had already been killed, and 480 others arrested, while “weapons” were discovered in the hospital. According to Hamas, three buildings housing hundreds of displaced, sick and injured people were bombed and burned on Sunday.
Visiting Cairo, the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) on Sunday called on the State of Israel “to remove the last obstacles” to the delivery of humanitarian aid.
“When we look at Gaza, it almost seems as if the four horsemen of the Apocalypse are galloping above, spreading war, famine, conquest and death,” lamented Antonio Guterres during a joint press conference with the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Sameh Choukri. “The whole world believes that it is high time to silence the guns and declare an immediate ceasefire,” he added.
The UN diplomat had previously met the Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi, in the presence of Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner General of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). Mr. Guterres had already been moved the day before by the “pain” of the Gazans, prisoners of “an endless nightmare”, during a trip to the Rafah crossing point, on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
“On one side of the border, we see humanitarian trucks as far as the eye can see, on the other a humanitarian catastrophe which is getting worse every day,” he noted. He also recalled the “vital political and humanitarian role of Egypt with the El-Arich airport and the Rafah crossing point, essential arteries for the entry of vital aid into Gaza”.
