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Israel continues to face growing international pressure to agree to a ceasefire amid a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Here’s how things are going on Tuesday, February 13, 2024:
Humanitarian crisis in Gaza
- On Tuesday, at least five people were killed in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, while four others were killed by an Israeli bomb in the Brazilian neighborhood of Rafah. A growing international chorus is calling for a ceasefire as Israel plans an attack on Rafah – home to 1.4 million people, most of whom have been displaced from other parts of Gaza.
- Meanwhile, on the Israeli side, three soldiers were killed and two others injured in the fighting. They were part of the 630th battalion deployed in southern Gaza.
- Hala Mekdad, a 10-year-old girl, died in the intensive care room of Nasser Hospital after the electricity was cut overnight, according to a video shared on social media by a hospital doctor and verified by Tel Aviv Tribune. .
- The Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip, has been under siege for weeks. Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for Gaza’s health ministry, said Israeli snipers shot at people in the hospital courtyard and killed them.
- The bodies of several people killed near the Nasser hospital are believed to have been lying on the ground for several days because it is too dangerous to reach them, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said.
- Israel has described Rafah as the last Hamas stronghold in the territory and signaled that its ground offensive could soon target the town on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip. At least 63 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in Rafah on Sunday night, ahead of the imminent ground offensive.
- Palestinian health authorities say more than 28,000 people have been killed. More than 85 percent of Gaza residents were left homeless due to the destruction of residential buildings during Israeli strikes. A UN survey found that almost one in ten children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition.
Regional tensions and diplomacy
- Israel faces growing international pressure to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas.
- Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement “strongly” condemning the “Israeli military aggression against the town of Rafah in Gaza and the resulting destruction and massacre of the Palestinian people.” More than 100 people were killed overnight from Sunday to Monday in intense Israeli bombardments.
- Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden and King Abdullah II of Jordan discussed strategies to end the war during a meeting in Washington, DC.
- Biden and Netanyahu also spoke after two Egyptian officials and a Western diplomat said Cairo was threatening to suspend its peace treaty with Israel if troops were sent to Rafah.
- Separately, a cargo ship that Yemen’s Houthis struck in the Red Sea was bound for an Iranian port, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said. The ship was hit by two missiles but is “seaworthy with minor damage and no crew injuries,” CENTCOM added.
Houthi attack on Bab al-Mandeb
On February 12, from 3:30 a.m. to 3:45 a.m. (Sanaa time), Iranian-backed Houthi militants fired two missiles from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen towards Bab al-Mandeb. The two missiles were launched towards the MV Star Iris, a Greek-owned Marshall… pic.twitter.com/vfihRaw0rr
– US Central Command (@CENTCOM) February 13, 2024
Occupied West Bank
- According to information from the Palestinian news agency Wafa, Israel set fire to a Palestinian truck overnight in the town of Huwara, in the occupied West Bank.
- Meanwhile, Wafa also said that around 9,000 Palestinian prisoners were subject to “unprecedented retaliatory measures.”
- “The Israeli Prison Service has further deprived inmates of basic tools and means of communication with the outside world, such as television and family visits,” Wafa said.
- The number of settlers in the West Bank now stands at 517,407, compared to 502,991 a year earlier. Additionally, the UK also announced sanctions against four Israeli settlers accused of committing human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank, following a similar move by the US this month.
- Announcing the asset freeze and travel and visa ban on settlers, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said: “Israel must also take stronger action and end settler violence. »
