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Telecommunications services in the Gaza Strip are reportedly down again. The USA calls for an immediate ceasefire in a UN draft resolution. All developments in the live blog.
The Islamist Hamas says it wants to continue negotiations with the mediating states until an agreement on a ceasefire with Israel is reached. “The movement will continue negotiations with mediators to reach an agreement that meets the demands and interests of our people,” Hamas said in a statement.
Representatives of the USA, Qatar and Egypt are currently negotiating a temporary ceasefire with Hamas in the Egyptian capital Cairo. Israel does not have its own delegation on site. The mediators hope to reach an agreement by the beginning of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which begins around March 10th. Hamas said it had shown the necessary “flexibility” to reach an agreement that would require “a cessation of aggression” in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has so far rejected a comprehensive ceasefire called for by the terrorist organization and continues to strive for the destruction of Hamas. From Israel’s perspective, only a temporary ceasefire in Gaza is conceivable within the framework of an agreement. Hamas again accused Israel of refusing to maintain a permanent ceasefire, withdraw from the Gaza Strip and provide supplies to the people in the area. Both sides do not negotiate directly with each other, but only indirectly through intermediaries.
A truck convoy carrying food for people in the north of the embattled Gaza Strip was turned away by Israeli soldiers and then looted by a crowd, according to the World Food Program. According to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), the convoy consisted of 14 trucks. He was turned away by Israeli forces after a three-hour wait at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint. The trucks were diverted and later stopped by a large crowd of desperate people. They looted the food shipments and took about 200 tons of them, the WFP statement said.
According to a media report, the mediating states want to gain time in the tough struggle for a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza war with a view to the approaching Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. At their meeting on Tuesday in Cairo, negotiators from the USA, Qatar and Egypt proposed a brief ceasefire in order to gain time for further talks on a longer ceasefire between Israel and the Islamist Hamas, the US newspaper ‘Wall Street’ reported Journal”. Even if such an initial ceasefire only lasts a few days, both sides could at least make it clear that they are seriously interested in a longer agreement, it said. US President Joe Biden emphasized again on Tuesday that he would like a temporary one considers a ceasefire urgently necessary before the fasting month of Ramadan.
Former US President Donald Trump has expressed his support for Israel in its war against the Islamist Hamas. In an interview with the TV channel Fox News, Trump answered “yes” when asked whether he was on Israel’s side. Asked whether he “agrees” with the way Israel’s offensive in Gaza is proceeding, Trump said: “You have to put an end to the problem.” The interview aired on Super Tuesday, when Republicans held presidential primaries in 15 states. It was Trump’s most concrete statement to date about the Gaza war.
A US destroyer in the Red Sea repelled an attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. According to the US military’s Central Command early Wednesday, bomb-equipped drones and an anti-ship ballistic missile were shot down. The attack apparently targeted the USS Carney, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer that is taking part in the US military campaign against the Houthis that began in January. The U.S. later launched an airstrike that destroyed three anti-ship missiles and three bomb-equipped drone boats, Central Command said.
According to Lebanese sources, indirect talks will soon take place in the conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon. They would begin during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced, according to the state news agency NNA. Ramadan, holy for Muslims, begins around March 10th. Lebanese officials were considering a proposal from U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, an adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden, who was in the Lebanese capital Beirut for talks the day before. It was about a diplomatic solution between the Hezbollah militia and Israel, it was said.
Telecommunications services in the embattled Gaza Strip are reportedly down again. The southern part of the sealed-off coastal area was particularly affected, the organization NetBlocks, which is known for monitoring Internet blocks, announced late in the evening on the X platform (formerly Twitter). The Israeli news site “Ynet”, citing reports from the Gaza Strip, also reported that internet connections were interrupted in large areas in Rafah in the south of the coastal strip and in the central part of Gaza. In Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt, around 1.5 million Palestinians currently live in miserable conditions, crowded together in a small space.
The US is tightening the wording of a draft United Nations Security Council resolution. The text now calls for “an immediate ceasefire of approximately six weeks in the Gaza Strip, coupled with the release of all hostages,” according to the draft, which was seen by the Reuters news agency. The third revision of the proposal, first put forward by the US two weeks ago, now reflects the clear words of Vice President Kamala Harris.
The original US draft had called for a “temporary ceasefire” in the war between Israel and Hamas. To pass the resolution, at least nine votes and no veto from the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China are required.
According to US President Biden, it is up to Hamas whether there is a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Chancellor Scholz called on Israel to make more efforts in humanitarian aid. All developments can be read in the live blog.