The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, urged Hamas on Wednesday February 14 to “conclude quickly” an agreement, to protect the Palestinian people from “repercussions of a new catastrophe”after four months of war between Israel and the Islamist movement in the Gaza Strip. “We call on the Hamas movement to quickly conclude the agreement on prisoners to spare our Palestinian people from another catastrophe, no less dangerous than the Nakba of 1948”he said, quoted by the Palestinian news agency Wafa, in reference to the “disaster” what was the creation of Israel for the Palestinians. Follow our live stream.
130 people still hostages. Around a hundred relatives of hostages still held in the Gaza Strip are traveling to The Hague (Netherlands) on Wednesday February 14 to file a complaint against Hamas for “crimes against humanity” with the International Criminal Court, announced their representatives. “It’s not just our story, if we don’t stop this, tomorrow it will be the story of the whole world”, said Ofri Bibas, whose brother is among the hostages. According to Israel, 130 people are still detained in Gaza, of whom 29 are believed to have died.
Fragile hope of a new truce. Egypt, traditional mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, particularly in Gaza, hosted on Tuesday the directors of American and Israeli intelligence as well as the head of the Qatari government for talks on a truce including a new release of hostages. The discussions were “positive” and will continue for “the next three days”, announced AlQahera News television, close to Egyptian intelligence.
Upcoming offensive on Rafah. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently ordered the Israeli army to prepare an offensive on Rafah, which he said is the “last bastion” of Hamas. Around 1.4 million Palestinians, according to the UN, or more than half of Gaza’s population, are massed in this city, in appalling conditions.