After more than seven months of incessant Israeli fighting and bombing, indirect talks aimed at securing a truce and avoiding a major offensive on Rafah ended without agreement on Thursday in Cairo.
Published
Reading time: 5 min
An Israeli ground offensive on Rafah would lead to “colossal humanitarian disaster”, warned the Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, Friday May 10. Meanwhile, an overwhelming majority of the UN General Assembly has ruled that the Palestinians deserve full membership in the organization, even if real membership is blocked by the United States. This symbolic vote, welcomed by the Palestinian Authority, angered Israel. “Violence pays”reacted his head of diplomacy Israel Katz, for whom this vote rewards the Islamist movement Hamas for its attack of October 7.
UN General Assembly votes in favor of Palestinian membership
An overwhelming majority of the UN General Assembly ruled that the Palestinians deserve full membership in the organization, granting them some additional rights in the absence of real membership, which is blocked by the US. United. “I have stood at this podium hundreds of times, often in tragic circumstances, but none comparable to what my people are experiencing today”launched Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour.
This resolution “will have a significant impact on the future of the Palestinian people”even if in itself, it “does not do justice to the State of Palestine” who remains an observer, added the Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates Mohamed Issa Abushahab, on behalf of the Arab countries. Faced with the war in Gaza, the Palestinians, who have had “non-member observer state” status since 2012, relaunched their 2011 request at the beginning of April demanding to become a full member state of the United Nations.
UN warns Israel of ‘catastrophe’ in Rafah
An Israeli ground offensive on Rafah would lead to “colossal humanitarian disaster”warned the UN Secretary General, AAntonio Guterres, at a time when military operations against Hamas in this overpopulated city are paralyzing the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip. According to the UN, around 110,000 people have fled since Israel called on the population in the east of the city to evacuate on Monday. “Some 30 000 people flee the city every day”declared in Geneva the head of the UN humanitarian affairs office for Gaza, Georgios Petropoulos, most of whom “have already had to travel five or six times” since the start of the war.
Israel says it delivered fuel to Gaza
Israel announced the delivery of 200,000 liters of fuel to the Gaza Strip on Friday, May 10, after a UN warning. This measure was made public by Cogat, the Defense Ministry’s body overseeing civil affairs in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The fuel transited via the Kerem Shalom crossing point. After inspecting the trucks, he “was transferred to meet the current essential needs of the international community, including hospitals, humanitarian areas, logistics centers and the distribution of humanitarian aid”continues Cogat.
Washington observes Rafah operation “with concern”
United States “observe with concern” the ongoing Israeli military operation in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, but do not consider it to be “major”, said a White House spokesperson. John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council, also affirmed that the United States still judges “possible” an agreement on a truce in Gaza provided that the parties involved demonstrate “courage” and of “sincerity”while Hamas and Israel left talks taking place in Cairo, without being able to reach an agreement.
Woman injured in Israeli city of Beersheva
A woman was injured in Beersheba, a large city in southern Israel targeted by two salvos of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip by Hamas, the Israeli army announced on Friday May 10. Aged 37, she was “slightly injured” by a shrapnel and evacuated to the hospital. The Israeli army specifies that nine rockets were fired from the Rafah region, in the south of the Gaza Strip, and five more, later, from the center of the besieged Palestinian territory, in the direction of Beersheba, about forty kilometers as the crow flies from the demarcation line between Israel and Gaza. The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks in a statement published on Telegram.
Israeli army announces death of four soldiers
The Israeli army announced Friday the death of four of its soldiers, killed by an “explosive device” in Gaza City, in the north of the Gaza Strip. “The four soldiers were killed (…) by an explosive device near a school in the Zeitoun neighborhood” of Gaza City, the army told AFP. It specifies in a press release that two soldiers, including an officer, were “seriously injured” by the explosion. These deaths bring to 271 the number of soldiers killed in the Israeli military campaign on Gaza since the start of the ground offensive on October 27, according to the army. In addition, two Israeli soldiers were seriously injured during fighting in the south of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army said, without further details.
UN Security Council calls for investigation into mass graves
The UN Security Council has called for an investigation “independent” And “immediate” after the discovery around hospitals in Gaza of mass graves where were buried “hundreds” of people. In a statement, the members of the Council express “their deep concern regarding reports of the discovery of mass graves, in and around the Nasser and al-Chifa hospitals in Gaza, where hundreds of bodies, including women, children and the elderly, were buried”.
They emphasize the need to “accountable” and call for investigators to have a “unhindered access to all locations of mass graves in Gaza, to conduct an immediate, independent, rigorous, comprehensive, transparent and impartial investigation to determine the circumstances behind the graves”. The Council does not specify who could lead this investigation.