The Americans, Israel’s main allies, have judged Israel’s response on the border town of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinian refugees are crowded, “excessive” and fear a “humanitarian disaster”.
The Israeli army bombs Rafah on Friday, a town in southern Gaza where more than a million Palestinians displaced by the war are crowded together. A “disaster”fear the United States which assured Thursday not to support an operation “without serious and credible planning” regarding civilians on site. “I think, as you know, that the response in Gaza, in the Gaza Strip, has been excessive”said US President Joe Biden, in a rare criticism of Israel.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said “alarm” by a land operation on site. “Such action would exponentially worsen the current humanitarian nightmare, the regional consequences of which are already incalculable”he wrote on the social network
The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken, who concluded a regional tour on Thursday aimed at encouraging efforts to obtain a truce, urged Israel to “protect” civilians in its operations in Gaza, including Rafah.
New deadly strikes
A sign of high tensions in the Middle East in the wake of the war in Gaza, salvos of rockets were launched overnight from Lebanon towards northern Israel, shortly after an Israeli airstrike against a military leader of Lebanese Hezbollah , and the United States has carried out bombings against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
During the night from Thursday to Friday, witnesses reported deadly strikes in central and southern Gaza. And the Palestinian Red Crescent expressed regret over the death of three children in an Israeli strike on Rafah. “Gaza is no longer Gaza”, testified Palestinian Authority Culture Minister Atef Abou Seif, who was there to launch Palestinian Heritage Day when the war between Israel and Hamas broke out. He was stuck there for 90 days.
New talks
In Cairo, a “new round of negotiations”sponsored by Egypt and Qatar with the participation of Hamas, began Thursday to obtain “calm in the Gaza Strip” as well as an exchange of Palestinian prisoners and hostages, according to an Egyptian official.
An agreement at the end of November allowed a one-week pause in the fighting, the delivery of more aid to Gaza, the release of around a hundred hostages and some 240 Palestinian prisoners imprisoned in Israel. This time, the talks are about a truce lasting several weeks. “We expect very (…) difficult negotiations, but Hamas is open to discussions and eager to reach a ceasefire”explained an official close to Hamas.
Saudi Arabia received Thursday heads of diplomacy from Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, the Emirates, as well as Hussein al-Sheikh, tenor of the Palestinian Authority (PA) of Mahmoud Abbas, political rival of the Hamas, for “consultations” on the situation in Gaza.