Twenty-two people were killed and 45 others injured on Friday, June 21, during gunfire that damaged the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza. According to the ICRC, these shots which occurred in the evening “caused a massive influx of victims to the nearby Red Cross field hospital” Who “received 22 dead and 45 injured”the organization wrote on X. “Firing so dangerously close to humanitarian structures, the location of which is known to parties to the conflict and which are clearly marked with the Red Cross emblem, endangers the lives of civilians and Red Cross personnel,” the organization continued. Follow our live stream.
Lebanon cannot become “another Gaza”, says Antonio Guterres. The UN Secretary-General denounced Friday the “belligerent rhetoric” of Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah which raises fears of a catastrophe “unimaginable”. “Let us be clear: the people of the region and the people of the world cannot afford for Lebanon to become another Gaza,” Antonio Guterres told the press. “The risk of the conflict spreading to the Middle East is real and must be avoided. A rash move, a miscalculation, could cause a catastrophe well beyond the border, and frankly unimaginable”he warned.
Qatar says it is continuing its mediation efforts. The government of Qatar assured on Friday that it was continuing its mediation efforts in order toe “bridging the gap” between Israel and Hamas and achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages held by the Palestinian Islamist movement. “There have been several meetings with the Hamas leadership to try to bridge the gap between the two sides and reach an agreement that results in a ceasefire and the release of the hostages”declared the Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdelrahmane Al-Thani, during a joint press conference in Madrid with the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares.
The Israeli army is intensifying its strikes. On Friday, Israeli aerial and artillery bombardments intensified, according to witnesses cited by AFP, in several sectors of the Palestinian territory besieged by Israel since October 9. The strikes also targeted the town of Rafah where the army reported fighting with Hamas. The conflict erupted on October 7, when Hamas commandos carried out a series of attacks on Israeli soil.