The UN warns Israel against an assault on Rafah. “I do not see how such an operation could be compatible with the restrictive interim measures issued by the International Court of Justice” (ICJ), declared Thursday February 29 Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. This ground assault on the city of the Palestinian enclave is promised by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. At the end of January, the ICJ called on Israel to prevent any possible act of “genocide” in Gaza. “The prospect of an Israeli ground attack on Rafah would give a new dimension to the nightmare inflicted on Gaza residents”, denounced Volker Türk. Follow our live stream.
Dozens of dead in front of al-Chifa hospital. Al-Chifa hospital in Gaza City reported at least 50 dead and 120 wounded on Thursday after Israeli fire targeted Palestinians rushing towards humanitarian aid trucks in northern Gaza. territory threatened with famine. According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, at least 70 people were killed and 280 injured in the Israeli fire. Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army did not immediately comment on this information.
More than 30,000 dead in Gaza. The Hamas Ministry of Health announced Thursday that the death toll in the Gaza Strip was “more than 30,000” since the start of the conflict with Israel, which began on October 7. Around 1.7 million Palestinians out of the 2.4 million inhabitants have fled their homes. On the Israeli side, the terrorist attack of October 7 caused the death of at least 1,160 people, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.
Escalation in cross-border clashes. Israeli strikes killed two people in southern Lebanon on Wednesday evening. “Enemy aircraft attacked the towns of Siddiqin and Kafra, killing two residents of the town of Kafra and injuring 14 others”, said the Lebanese News Agency (NNA). Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, has exchanged fire almost daily with the Israeli army since the war broke out. On Wednesday morning, the Hamas armed group in Lebanon, the al-Qassam Brigades, claimed to have launched two volleys of Grad rockets at two military sites in northern Israel.
New Zealand designates entire Hamas “terrorist entity”. The country thus follows Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and the European Union, which had already designated the armed but also political wing of Hamas as “terrorist”. New Zealand has considered the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, a terrorist entity since 2010.