what to remember from Wednesday, February 14

Israel threatens to carry out an operation in Rafah despite increasing international pressure.

Soon a “powerful” operation in Rafah? “We will fight until complete victory”, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday, February 14, despite increasing international pressure to try to avoid a potentially devastating offensive in this overpopulated city in the south of the Gaza Strip. Here’s what to remember from the day.

Macron asks Netanyahu to end Israeli operations

Emmanuel Macron asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “cease” Israeli operations in Gaza because “the human toll and the humanitarian situation” are there “intolerable”, reported the Elysée. In a phone call he “expressed France’s firm opposition to an Israeli offensive in Rafah”, and mentioned “the extreme urgency that there was to conclude, without further delay, an agreement on a ceasefire”. According to the French head of state, it is “imperative to open the port of Ashdod, a direct land route from Jordan and all crossing points” in order to deliver aid to the Palestinian territory.

Israeli raids in Lebanon

The Israeli army announced that fighter jets launched “a series of raids on Lebanon” neighbor, raising fears of an escalation between the two border countries after months of daily exchanges of fire in the context of the war in Gaza. The army has not provided further details at this stage on these raids, which come after a rocket fired from Lebanon left several injured on Wednesday in northern Israel, according to Israeli medical sources. According to the Lebanese newspaper The Orient By Day, at least four people died in these Israeli strikes. An Israeli soldier was also killed in a strike from Lebanon, according to the Israeli army.

Negotiations around a truce continue

Egypt, traditional mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, particularly in Gaza, hosted on Tuesday the directors of American and Israeli intelligence as well as the head of the Qatari government for talks on a truce including a new release of hostages. The discussions were “positive” and will continue for “the next three days”, announced AlQahera News television, close to Egyptian intelligence.

Mahmoud Abbas urges Hamas to ‘conclude quickly’

The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, on Wednesday February 14, urged Hamas to “conclude quickly” an agreement, to protect the Palestinian people from “repercussions of a new catastrophe”after four months of war between Israel and the Islamist movement in the Gaza Strip. “We call on the Hamas movement to quickly conclude the agreement on prisoners to spare our Palestinian people from another catastrophe, no less dangerous than the Nakba of 1948”he said, quoted by the Palestinian news agency Wafa, in reference to the “disaster” what was the creation of Israel for the Palestinians.