Emmanuel Macron asked, Wednesday February 14, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “cease” Israeli operations in Gaza because “the human toll and the humanitarian situation” y are “intolerable”, reported the Elysée. In a phone call he “expressed France’s firm opposition to an Israeli offensive in Rafah”and mentioned “the extreme urgency that there was to conclude, without further delay, an agreement on a ceasefire”. According to the French head of state, it is “imperative to open the port of Ashdod, a direct land route from Jordan and all crossing points” in order to deliver aid to the Palestinian territory.
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Israeli raids in Lebanon. The Israeli army announced that fighter jets launched “a series of raids on Lebanon” neighbor, raising fears of an escalation between the two border countries after months of daily exchanges of fire in the context of the war in Gaza. The army has not provided further details at this stage on these raids, which come after a rocket fired from Lebanon left several injured on Wednesday in northern Israel, according to Israeli medical sources. According to the Lebanese newspaper The Orient By Day, at least four people died in these Israeli strikes. An Israeli soldier was also killed in a strike from Lebanon, according to the Israeli army.
The words of Mahmoud Abbas. The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, urged Hamas on Wednesday February 14 to “conclude quickly” an agreement, to protect the Palestinian people from “repercussions of a new catastrophe”after four months of war between Israel and the Islamist movement in the Gaza Strip. “We call on the Hamas movement to quickly conclude the agreement on prisoners to spare our Palestinian people from another catastrophe, no less dangerous than the Nakba of 1948”he said, quoted by the Palestinian news agency Wafa, in reference to the “disaster” what was the creation of Israel for the Palestinians.
Fragile hope of a new truce. Egypt, traditional mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, particularly in Gaza, hosted on Tuesday the directors of American and Israeli intelligence as well as the head of the Qatari government for talks on a truce including a new release of hostages. The discussions were “positive” and will continue for “the next three days”, announced AlQahera News television, close to Egyptian intelligence.
Upcoming offensive on Rafah. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently ordered the Israeli army to prepare an offensive on Rafah, which he said is the “last bastion” of Hamas. Around 1.4 million Palestinians, according to the UN, or more than half of Gaza’s population, are massed in this city, in appalling conditions.