More than 120 days of war and thousands of deaths. China called on Israel on Tuesday February 13 to stop “as quickly as possible” its military operation in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, in order to “to prevent an even more serious humanitarian catastrophe”. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently ordered his army to prepare an offensive on Rafah, where 1.4 million Palestinians are massed according to the UN, or more than half of the territory’s total population. Follow our live stream.
New talks in Qatar. CIA Director William Richard Burns is expected in Cairo on Tuesday for new talks mediated by Qatar, notably on the exchange of Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian Islamist movement. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, one of Israel’s most critical leaders, is also expected in Dubai on Tuesday and in Cairo on Wednesday.
Catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. Some 550,000 people find themselves facing catastrophic food insecurity, deplored the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. In Rafah, the last refuge for fleeing civilians, many residents sleep outside in tents or makeshift shelters, lacking water, food and sanitation services.
Release of two Hamas hostages. Israel released two of its hostages, two Israeli-Argentinians, in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, during a night commando operation on the night of Sunday to Monday accompanied by bombings which left around a hundred dead, according to Hamas. The condition of the two hostages, Fernando Marman, 60, and Luis Har, 70, is stable.