IIn the fight against Hamas, Israeli Defense Minister Joav Galant wants to pursue the Islamist group's leaders and fighters into the last corner of the Gaza Strip. Galant said on Monday that they were nowhere safe from Israeli forces' access. This even applies to the last remaining areas in the coastal strip, where – like in the southern city of Rafah – no ground troops are yet deployed. “Any terrorist hiding in Rafah should know that they will end up like those in Khan Yunis and (the city of) Gaza,” Israeli media quoted him as saying. “A good half of the Hamas terrorists are dead or seriously wounded.”
However, an advance on Rafah is considered extremely sensitive. Before the war, around 200,000 people lived in the city, but now it is home to more than a million Palestinians who have fled the fighting in other parts of the Gaza Strip. At Rafah, the coastal area borders Egypt, which rejects an Israeli offensive in the border area. Cairo fears this could lead to a rush of desperate Palestinians to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
It is still unknown where the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, Jihia al-Sinwar, and his closest staff are. Israel suspects they are in the extensive network of tunnels under Khan Yunis. Israeli ground troops have been deployed there for weeks, but searching and destroying the tunnels has proven difficult and time-consuming. Al-Sinwar and his leadership may have already escaped to Rafah via the tunnel network.
The war was triggered by the unprecedented massacre carried out by terrorists from Hamas and other extremist Palestinian organizations on October 7th in Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip.
Hamas authority: More than 110 dead in the Gaza Strip within 24 hours
According to Palestinian information, at least 113 people have died within 24 hours in the ongoing fighting in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas-controlled health authority said 205 other people were injured during the period. A total of 27,478 Palestinians have been killed in the sealed-off coastal strip since the start of the war. According to the Hamas authorities, 66,835 were injured. The information cannot in fact be independently verified and does not distinguish between civilians and armed fighters. However, the UN and other observers point out that the authority's information has proven to be overall credible in the past.
Israel's army attacks targets in southern Lebanon
Israel's military said it once again attacked targets of the Shiite militia Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Artillery and fighter jets shelled Hezbollah rocket launch sites and other military facilities, the army said. The armed forces' actions are a response to fire from Hezbollah. The militia confirmed three attacks against targets in Israel on Monday. The Israeli attacks targeted, among other things, a command center in Jibain and military installations in Labuneh, Beit Lif and Barachit.
Scholz insists on a two-state solution in a telephone conversation with Netanyahu
Against the backdrop of the Gaza war, Chancellor Olaf Scholz insisted on a negotiated two-state solution to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Only in this way can there be a prospect of a sustainable solution to the Middle East conflict, he said in a telephone conversation with Netanyahu, as government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit announced. This must apply to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The term two-state solution refers to an independent Palestinian state that exists peacefully side by side with Israel. Netanyahu rejects this – as does Hamas, which violently seized power in the Gaza Strip in 2007 and denies the state of Israel the right to exist.
Former French foreign minister heads audit of UN relief agency UNRWA
Former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna is to lead an independent group of experts to examine serious allegations against the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The 67-year-old will work with experts from Sweden, Norway and Denmark, the United Nations said. Some employees of the aid organization are accused of being involved in the terrorist acts carried out by the Islamist Hamas on October 7th in Israel. Several Western countries temporarily suspended payments to UNRWA because of the allegations, including the two largest donors, the United States and Germany.
What will be important on Tuesday
The new Argentine President Javier Milei meets with Israel's President Izchak Herzog in Jerusalem. It is Milei's first official trip abroad since taking office in December. The ultra-liberal economist is considered a loyal ally of Israel. “I will underline my support against the attacks of the terrorist organization Hamas and my solidarity with Israel,” he said before his departure from Buenos Aires.
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