A warning. France calls on Israel to stop “without delay” the incursion of its army into Rafah, which threatens to create a “catastrophic situation” for the population of the Gaza Strip, worries the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release published onon the night of Friday May 10 to Saturday May 11. “The path of negotiations” is here “the only possible way to lead to the immediate release of the hostages and obtain a lasting ceasefire”, adds French diplomacy.
An ongoing Israeli intervention in Rafah. The Israeli army, which has been carrying out incursions into the east of this town in the south of the enclave since Tuesday and has taken control of the crossing point with Egypt, said on Friday it was continuing its “precision anti-terrorist operation”. Despite international warnings, Benjamin Netanyahu continues to present an offensive in Rafah as necessary to “to overcome” Hamas, despite the presence of 1.4 million Palestinians, including many internally displaced people in the Gaza Strip.
It is “reasonable to assess” that Israel violated international law in Gaza. A long-awaited report from the US State Department, released Friday, estimates that it is “reasonable to estimate” that Israel used weapons in a manner inconsistent with international humanitarian law in Gaza. But Washington did not suspend the shipment of American weapons, because it could not conclude this with certainty. Despite this report, Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip continued on Saturday morning.
The UN symbolically comes out in favor of Palestinian membership. An overwhelming majority of the UN General Assembly voted Friday for Palestinians to be full members of the organization. To succeed, such an initiative requires, in addition to the vote of the General Assembly, a positive recommendation from the Security Council. But the United States vetoed it on April 18.