Artillery fire and airstrikes continue in the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli forces assured, Saturday January 20, that they had destroyed “terrorist infrastructure” on the territory and struck rocket launchers in Khan Younes, now the epicenter of Israeli military operations against Hamas. The group in power in Gaza since 2007 also reported fierce fighting in the north of the besieged and devastated territory after 106 days of violence. Since the Hamas terrorist attack in the Jewish state on October 7, The Israeli army relentlessly shells the small landlocked territory.
On Saturday, she also dropped leaflets on the Gaza Strip, in the town of Rafah. These documents included photos of the hostages held by the organization, as well as calls to share any information about them.
Israelis gather in Tel Aviv to demand the departure of Benjamin Netanyahu
Thousands of Israelis demonstrated in central Tel Aviv on Saturday to demand the return of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, as well as early elections to oust Benjamin Netanyahu. Protesters marched through Habima Square, some carrying signs castigating the far-right prime minister with slogans such as “the face of evil” and demanding “elections now.” Benjamin Netanyahu faces intense pressure to obtain the return of hostages held since October 7 by Hamas. Of the approximately 250 people kidnapped, around a hundred were released during a truce at the end of November, and 132 are still in Gaza.
“The way things are going, all the hostages are going to die. It’s not too late to free them,” Avi Lulu Shamriz, the father of one of the hostages killed in Gaza, pleaded Saturday.
At least five Iranians killed in Damascus, Iran threatens Israel with reprisals
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have accused Israel of carrying out a deadly attack on a four-story building in the Syrian capital Damascus. Among the victims are five of their “military advisors” And “members of the Syrian forces”, according to Iran’s ideological army. THE “head of intelligence of the Guardians in Syria and his deputy” were among the Iranians killed, announced the Iranian Mehr press agency. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), the total death toll from Saturday’s attack is 10 dead.
Since the start of the war in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on neighboring Syrian territory, mainly targeting forces supported by Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah, allies of the Syrian regime and sworn enemies of the state. Israeli, as well as the Syrian army. Asked by AFP, the Israeli army did not, however, admit to being behind this attack, indicating that it did not “did not comment on information from foreign media.”
The spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Kanani, for his part “firmly” condemned the attack attributed to “Zionist regime” and denounced “a desperate attempt to spread instability and insecurity in the region.” In a press release from Iranian diplomacy, he thus threatened Israel with reprisals “at the appropriate time and place”.
US strikes destroy Houthi-fired anti-ship missile
These American strikes say “self-defense” were carried out around 4 a.m. local time. The United States announced on Saturday to have “destroy“ an anti-ship missile about to be fired by the Houthis, the Yemeni rebels who regularly target merchant ships they consider “linked to Israel” in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, as a sign of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza. These strikes were carried out as part of efforts to “protect freedom of navigation and prevent attacks on ships at sea”, the US military command in the Middle East (Centcom) said in a statement.
American and British forces first struck the Houthis in Yemen on January 12. Several other strikes have followed since then, including Friday by the American army against missile launchers.
Tensions between the United States and Israel
During a telephone conversation on Friday with US President Joe Biden, the Israeli Prime Minister reaffirmed his opposition to a “Palestinian sovereignty in Gaza, believing that Israel must retain “security control” of the territory, according to the exchange reported on Saturday by Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
The conflict is testing Israel’s relations with its main American ally and supporter, particularly on the question, central to the post-war period, of a solution to “two states”. Joe Biden “always believes in perspective and possibility” of a Palestinian state, but “recognizes that it will take a lot of work to get there,” the White House indicated after the telephone exchange. “The illusion that Biden preaches in favor of a State of Palestine (….) does not fool our people,” Hamas reacted on Saturday.
The Non-Aligned Movement calls for “a two-state solution”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Saturday that “the right of the Palestinian people to build their own state must be recognized by all.” “The refusal to accept the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people, is unacceptable”he declared during the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Uganda. “It would indefinitely prolong a conflict that has become a major threat to global peace and security, exacerbating polarization and emboldening extremists around the world,” he continued.
In its final communiqué, the Non-Aligned Movement, founded in 1961 to give a greater voice to countries stuck in the power struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, has “strongly condemned the illegal Israeli military aggression against the Gaza Strip”, while calling for “a lasting humanitarian ceasefire”. Countries also called for “the independence and sovereignty of the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, to achieve a two-state solution.”
Thousands demonstrate in Spain to demand an end to relations with Israel
Thousands of people carrying Palestinian flags and chanting slogans against Israel marched Saturday in Madrid and other Spanish cities to demand “stopping the genocide in Palestine”. In the Spanish capital, some 25,000 people, according to the government, marched between Atocha station and Cibeles square, asking the Spanish government to “end the arms trade and relations with Israel”.
The demonstrations, called by the Solidarity Network platform against the occupation of Palestine, also took place in other major Spanish cities, including Barcelona, Valencia and Seville.