Middle East live blog: ++ Baerbock calls for a ceasefire ++

Foreign Minister Baerbock has again called on Israel for a ceasefire. Talks between the US, Egypt, Israel and Qatar over a ceasefire ended inconclusively. All developments in the live blog.

According to Israeli media reports, a woman was killed when a rocket hit the city of Safed in northern Israel. The media also reported that the attack came from neighboring Lebanon, citing the head of the Magen David Adom rescue service, Eli Bin.

The rescue service had previously reported seven injuries as a result of the rocket impact. The injured were conscious and taken to a hospital. Israeli media also reported power outages in the Galilee town with around 40,000 inhabitants.

In view of the humanitarian suffering, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has called for a ceasefire from the Israeli government instead of a ground offensive against Hamas in the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. “In Rafah, 1.3 million people are waiting in a very small space under the most terrible conditions,” explained the Green politician before her departure for a two-day visit to Israel. “An offensive by the Israeli army on Rafah under these conditions would completely destabilize the humanitarian situation,” she said.

The people in Rafah “couldn’t just disappear into thin air,” said Baerbock. They would need safe places and safe corridors to avoid getting further caught in the crossfire. “They need more humanitarian aid. And they need a ceasefire,” the Federal Foreign Minister demanded of the Israeli government in an unusually clear tone. In Israel she will also talk about how the humanitarian suffering can be alleviated and at the same time the hostages can be released, said Baerbock.

Following Israel’s serious allegations against the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA, an independent group of experts is starting to review the organization today. The United Nations set up the body under the leadership of former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna. The 67-year-old will work with experts from the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Sweden, the Michelsen Institute in Norway and the Danish Institute for Human Rights. An interim report is planned for the end of March.

The Israeli army says it has discovered an abandoned hideout of the leader of the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Jahia Sinwar. Sinwar lived with his family and Hamas fighters in the tunnel section under the southern city of Khan Yunis while the war raged above them, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said, publishing a short video of a tour of the alleged hiding place.

In it, an Israeli soldier shows a room where Al-Sinwar lived, including a safe full of banknotes in Israeli and US currency worth millions. The information on the video could not initially be independently verified. The complex also included toilets and showers, a kitchen where supplies would have been kept for a long time, and a room for bodyguards with weapons and ammunition. The video was recorded on October 10th – three days after the start of the Gaza war – by a surveillance camera in one of the Hamas tunnels, it said. It allegedly shows how the Hamas warlord “is currently fleeing with his wife and children,” it said. It is not known where Al-Sinwar and his command staff are today.

Talks between the USA, Egypt, Israel and Qatar over a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip have ended without results. However, according to the Egyptian State Information Service, consultations and coordination on key issues will continue.

Egyptian President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi, American CIA Director William Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani took part in the talks. The aim was to agree a ceasefire for the Gaza Strip and to provide the civilian population with more aid. Israel is not mentioned on the information service’s website.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is setting off today on her fifth trip to Israel since the terrorist attack by the Islamist Hamas on October 7th. After her arrival in Jerusalem, the Green politician will have a conversation with Foreign Minister Israel Katz. Baerbock wants to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the afternoon. A meeting with opposition leader Jair Lapid is also planned.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Katz sharply rejects EU Foreign Affairs Representative Borrell’s call to reduce arms deliveries to Israel. UNRWA chief Lazzarini calls calls for the UN relief agency’s dissolution “short-sighted.”