Hamas sets its conditions. Trucks of pharmaceutical products intended in particular for hostages in Gaza “will return without Israeli inspection”, declared, among other demands, Wednesday January 17, a senior official of the Palestinian Islamist movement, Moussa Abou Marzouk. In the process, the Israeli authorities rejected any possibility of allowing the convoy to return without control. All humanitarian aid convoys have so far been subject to such inspection since the start of the war. Follow our live stream.
Paris refutes accusations of genocide in Gaza. The Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Séjourné, refused on Wednesday to support accusations of genocide in Gaza made by South Africa. “We cannot exploit the notion of genocide for political purposes,” denounced the new head of French diplomacy in the Senate. “Accusing the Jewish state of genocide is crossing a moral threshold”he estimated.
Seven Palestinians killed in occupied West Bank. Three men died in an Israeli airstrike on a car in the Balata camp in Nablus, according to the official Palestinian Wafa agency. Israeli authorities announced that they had killed the head of a “terrorist cell”, who planned an attack “imminent and large-scale”. In the Tulkarem camp, four Palestinians were killed Wednesday morning, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Communications cut in Gaza. The Gaza Strip entered its sixth day of shutdown on Wednesday “almost total” internet and telephone, “the longest” since the start of the war, according to NetBlocks, the world’s telecommunications network monitoring organization.