Joe Biden has once again curbed Benyamin Netanyahu on the announced military operation in Rafah while the White House confirmed the death in an Israeli raid of Marwan Issa, number 2 of the al Qassam Brigades and ranking member of Hamas.
And at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City a battle took place which ended with 20 terrorists killed and over 200 arrested. In the first meeting after more than a month of frost, which lasted 45 minutes, the US president reiterated to the Israeli prime minister that the action in Rafah would be “a mistake”. And he asked him to send a team to Washington to discuss this, a request to which Netanyahu agreed.
The prime minister, however, replied that Israel intends to “achieve all the objectives of the war”, effectively confirming that the operation will take place: “The elimination of Hamas, the release of all the hostages and the promise that Gaza will no longer represent a threat for Israel” are the essential points listed by Netanyahu. Biden's pressure to avoid the raid in the city on the border with Egypt is motivated by the president's concerns, “first of all for the fate of a million people” who have found refuge there by fleeing from the rest of the Strip. “Rafah – explained American National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan – is also an important transit point for aid.”
The WHO expressed its strong concern about the situation: “Hospitals should never be battlefields,” said Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Meanwhile, a delegation led by Mossad chief David Barnea has arrived in Qatar on the eve of indirect negotiations between the parties for a truce in the Strip and the release of around 130 Israeli hostages still held captive.
The Doha negotiations, according to an Israeli source, will be “a long and complex process”: at least two weeks are expected. The hypothesis is that of 42 days of truce in exchange for 40 Israeli hostages. On the 164th day of the war, the FAO has predicted a famine situation by next May in the north of the Strip and it is not excluded that it will spread elsewhere.
Insights:
France asks UN for immediate action on ceasefire in Gaza
De Riviere referred to the report published today by the global Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative, a United Nations tool, which warns that 1.1 million people are currently “catastrophically insecure”, the most severe level, unprecedented in the 20 years of the index's existence. The Security Council has already rejected resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza three times due to the veto of the United States, which supported Israel's thesis according to which a truce would serve to rearm Hamas. In the last month, another draft resolution, drawn up by the United States, has circulated among the members of the Council, which would seek to limit the ceasefire to six weeks and make it conditional on the prior release of the hostages held by Hamas, but the members of the Council are unable to reach agreement on the terms of the text. France's position has evolved since the beginning of the war and, while Emmanuel Macron's government was initially more favorable to Israel, it has long joined other countries' calls for Israel to declare a ceasefire , in line with most of the international community.
#Middle #East #Biden #Netanyahu #offensive #Rafah #mistake #USA #conditions #truce #Hamas