Tension is not falling in the Middle East, in the wake of the war in Gaza. Salvos of rockets were launched, on the night of Thursday February 8 to Friday February 9, from Lebanon towards northern Israel, shortly after an Israeli airstrike against a military leader of Lebanese Hezbollah. For its part, the United States has carried out new bombings against the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Follow our live stream.
Joe Biden considers Israel’s response “excessive”. “I think, as you know, that the response in Gaza, in the Gaza Strip, has been excessive”, declared the President of the United States, in remarks particularly critical of Israel. Washington warned of a “disaster” in Rafah and assured not to support an operation in this city in the south of the Gaza Strip, which shelters more than a million displaced people, “without serious and credible planning” regarding civilians on site.
Strikes continue in central and southern Gaza. During the night from Thursday to Friday, witnesses reported deadly strikes in central and southern Gaza. And the Palestinian Red Crescent announced the death of three children in an Israeli strike on Rafah.
A “new round of negotiations” has started in Cairo. An agreement at the end of November allowed a one-week pause in the fighting. In Cairo, a “new round of negotiations”sponsored by Egypt and Qatar with the participation of Hamas, began Thursday to obtain “calm in the Gaza Strip” as well as an exchange of Palestinian prisoners and hostages, according to an Egyptian official.