Prospects for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in Gaza faded on Sunday, with Qatari negotiators expressing pessimism about the possibility of a truce.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is determined to carry out a ground offensive in Rafah, where 1.4 million Palestinians are crowded, despite calls from part of the international community.
For its part, Washington once again threatened to block a new draft resolution at the UN Security Council at the initiative of Algeria, demanding “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire which must be respected by all the parts “. Algiers requested a vote be held on Tuesday.
On Sunday, from Addis Ababa, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva accused Israel of committing a “genocide” of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, drawing a parallel with the extermination of the Jews carried out by the Hitler regime.
For his part, the day before, Mr. Netanyahu remained steadfast in his decision to launch an offensive in Rafah. “Anyone who wants to stop us from carrying out an operation in Rafah is effectively telling us to lose the war. I’m not going to give in to that,” he said in Jerusalem.
Serious concerns have been expressed around the world, including by the American ally, for the civilians, most of them displaced, in this city located on the closed border with Egypt.
During a telephone call with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, according to his services, repeated “Egypt’s categorical position of rejecting the displacement of Palestinians [vers son territoire, ndlr| sous n’importe quelle forme ».
Ces derniers jours, une ONG égyptienne et le Wall Street Journal ont rapporté que l’Égypte construisait dans le Sinaï un camp fermé et sécurisé destiné à accueillir des réfugiés palestiniens en cas d’offensive israélienne sur Rafah.
Les négociations piétinent
Des négociations impliquant les médiateurs égyptien, américain et qatari pour obtenir une trêve entre le Hamas et Israël incluant un échange entre otages israéliens et prisonniers palestiniens, ont eu lieu ces dernières semaines.
Elles n’ont « pas été très prometteuses ces derniers jours », mais « nous ferons de notre mieux pour nous rapprocher » d’un accord, a dit le premier ministre du Qatar, Mohammed ben Abdelrahmane al-Thani, à Munich.
Le Hamas, qui a pris le pouvoir à Gaza en 2007, a menacé de quitter ces pourparlers si « une aide [humanitaire] was not transported to northern Gaza.
Its leader, Ismaïl Haniyeh, repeated that his movement demanded a ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Conditions rejected several times by Israel, whose offensive in Gaza has razed entire neighborhoods, displaced 1.7 million of the 2.4 million inhabitants and caused a major humanitarian crisis according to the UN.
Military operation against the Nasser hospital
On October 7, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza carried out an attack in southern Israel during which more than 1,160 people were killed, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data. .
Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas, which it classifies, like the United States and the European Union, as “terrorist”. The offensive of its army in Gaza has cost the lives of 28,985 people, the vast majority civilians, according to a new report Sunday from the Hamas Ministry of Health.
According to Israel, 130 hostages are still being held in Gaza, 30 of whom are believed to have died, out of around 250 people kidnapped on October 7. At the end of November, a one-week truce allowed the release of 105 hostages and 240 Palestinians detained by Israel.
After having carried out incessant bombings against the 362 km territory since October 72the Israeli army launched a ground offensive in the north of the Gaza Strip at the end of October before extending it to the south.
Its soldiers have for weeks concentrated their operations in Khan Younes, hometown of Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahia Sinouar, alleged mastermind of the October 7 attack.
At the Nasser hospital in the city transformed into a field of ruins, seven patients including a child have died since Friday due to power cuts, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
Soldiers entered the hospital on Thursday based on intelligence that hostages were being held there, the army said, reporting the arrest of 100 people and the discovery of weapons.
Two Palestinians killed in West Bank
On the other hand, the Hamas Ministry of Health indicated that “70 members of the hospital’s medical staff, including doctors [de l’unité de] intensive care” were stopped. “There are only 25 medical staff left […] and they cannot treat cases that require extreme clinical care,” added the same source, reporting the “arrest of dozens of patients while they were bedridden” and who were taken to “an unknown destination “.
For its part, the army said on Sunday that it had killed around 45 “terrorists” in Khan Younes and in the center of the territory in the last 24 hours.
In the occupied West Bank, in Tulkarem, two Palestinians were killed on Sunday during a raid by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
This brings to 397 the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank by the army or by settlers since October 7, according to the same source.
On another front, the Israeli army indicated on Sunday that it had carried out air strikes and artillery fire against “terrorist infrastructure” of the pro-Iranian Islamist movement Hezbollah, in southern Lebanon.