Soon a break in the fighting? International pressure intensified on Tuesday, February 13, for a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas including a new release of hostages, after the Israeli announcement of an upcoming offensive on Rafah, the last refuge for more than one million Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip. Egypt, traditional mediator between Israel and the Palestinians, hosted the American and Israeli intelligence directors as well as the Qatari Prime Minister on Tuesday for discussions on a truce. Follow our live stream.
French sanctions against Israeli settlers. France “adopts sanctions against extremist Israeli settlers who are guilty of violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank”, announces the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release, Tuesday February 13. In details, “28 individuals are subject to an administrative ban from French territory.” The Quai d’Orsay also specifies that France “is also in favor of the adoption of sanctions at European level against these violent settlers”.
Words from the head of UNRWA. Dismantling the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) would be a “disaster”, said his boss on Tuesday February 13, under pressure after the discovery, according to the Israeli army, of a Hamas tunnel under the organization’s headquarters in Gaza. Speaking to journalists after being heard by diplomats in Geneva, the head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, also called for a “investigation”, after the end of the war in Gaza, on the Hamas tunnels and on the attacks against the population and UN installations in Gaza carried out by the Israeli army.
Two Al Jazeera journalists seriously injured. Two Al Jazeera journalists were seriously injured Tuesday by an Israeli strike in the south of the Gaza Strip, the Qatari channel announced. According to Al Jazeera, correspondent Ismaïl Abou Omar and his cameraman were injured by a strike in the Rafah sector, at the southern tip of the territory. Questioned by AFP, the Israeli army did not immediately comment.
China’s statements. China calls on Israel to stop “as quickly as possible” its military operation in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, in order to “to prevent an even more serious humanitarian catastrophe”. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently ordered his army to prepare an offensive on Rafah, where 1.4 million Palestinians are massed according to the UN, or more than half of the territory’s total population.