The High Representative of the European Union (EU) for foreign policy and security, Josep Borelj, assessed today that the Israeli offensive plan on the Rafah, the last refuge of Palestinians displaced by the war in the Gaza Strip, is alarming.
"The news about the Israeli military offensive on the Rafah is alarming," Borelj wrote on the X platform, adding that it would have catastrophic consequences and worsen the already "catastrophic humanitarian situation."
According to him, 1,4 million Palestinians are currently in Rafah, without a safe place, facing starvation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that he ordered the army to prepare a plan for the evacuation of civilians from Rafah before the expected Israeli invasion of the densely populated city.
The order was preceded by international criticism, including from the US, over Israeli plans to move ground forces to Rafah on the border with Egypt.
Before the war between Israel and Hamas, which began on October 7 last year, 280.000 people lived in that city, and now there are 1,3 million to 1,4 million of them after they fled from other parts of Gaza affected by the conflict.
Israel claims that Rafah is the last stronghold of Hamas in Gaza after four months of war.
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The office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced today that the plan announced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a military escalation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip is aimed at driving Palestinians out of their country.
The Palestinian Authority, which controls parts of the other Palestinian territory of the West Bank, holds the Government of Israel and the administration of US President Joseph Biden responsible for the consequences of the plan, Israeli media reported.
She calls on the UN Security Council to be careful, "because taking that step threatens security and peace in the region and the world and crosses all red lines," the statement said.
Netanyahu said today that he ordered the army to prepare a plan for the evacuation of civilians from Rafah before an expected Israeli invasion of the densely populated city.
The order was preceded by international criticism, including from the US, due to Israeli intentions to move ground forces to Rafah on the border with Egypt, the Associated Press reports.
Before the war between Israel and Hamas, which began on October 7 last year, 280.000 people lived in that city, and now there are 1,3 million to 1,4 million of them after they fled from other parts of Gaza affected by the conflict.
Israel claims that Rafah is the last stronghold of Hamas in Gaza after four months of war.
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The UN Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) warned today that any major offensive by the Israeli army in Rafah, the last refuge of those displaced by the Gaza war, would worsen the "endless tragedy" unfolding there.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Wednesday that he had ordered the army to prepare for an offensive in Rafah, the last city in the south of the Gaza Strip, on the closed border with Egypt.
He said today that he ordered the army to prepare a plan for the evacuation of civilians from Rafah before the expected Israeli invasion of that densely populated city, the Associated Press reported.
About 1,3 million Palestinians now live there, most of whom have been displaced by the conflict.
This is more than half of the total population of Gaza and five times more than lived in Rafah before the start of the war in October last year, reports France Presse.
UNRWA Commissioner General Filipe Lazzarini said at a press briefing in Jerusalem that the situation is "very worrying" because "operations and bombing are intensifying and getting closer."
On Thursday, the US warned Israel of the risk of disaster in Rafah in the event of a rapid and unplanned start of a major military offensive in Rafah.
On the same day, an airstrike hit an area near the UNRWA headquarters in the city, adding to the tension and fear.
Lazarini said that there is also a sense of panic because the Palestinians who took refuge there "don't know at all where they could go" in the event of an offensive in the city, which has already been bombarded for several days, and added that he did not know how many agencies would be able to works in such a high-risk environment.
In particular, he emphasized that police officers in Gaza are reluctant to follow trucks carrying food, which are often stolen by groups of hungry people.
Earlier this week, Lazarini warned that 300.000 people are at risk of dying due to food shortages in the north and central Gaza Strip where UNRWA has been unable to deliver any aid for two weeks because Israeli forces have blocked roads.
UNRWA has been in turmoil since Israel accused some of its employees of taking part in attacks on southern Israel on October 7.
After that, sixteen countries decided to suspend the funding of the agency.
Lazarini said that after accusations of Hamas infiltration, the relationship with the agency has deteriorated and that he is calling for it to end its activities.
On Thursday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres ruled out that possibility, saying that its 13.000 employees represent the "backbone of humanitarian distribution in Gaza".
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UN human rights experts assessed today that the operation by members of the Israeli security forces dressed as women and medics, who entered a hospital in the West Bank in January and killed three Palestinians, could be a war crime and a violation of international law.
Security camera footage shows more than a dozen disguised members of the security forces entering Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin on January 29.
Some wore Muslim headscarves, some wore surgical gowns or white doctor's coats, and one had a rifle in one hand and a folded wheelchair in the other.
The Israeli military said the forces killed Muhammad Jalamneh, who it claimed planned the attack, and the brothers Bazel and Muhammad Ghazawi, who were allegedly hiding in the hospital and were involved in the attacks.
"In occupied territory under Israeli control outside of active hostilities, Israeli forces might have had the right to arrest them, or detain them. They could have used force if strictly necessary to prevent a threat to life and serious injury. Instead, Israel chose to kill them." which is a flagrant violation of their right to life," experts said.
Based on international humanitarian law, "killing a defenseless wounded patient being treated in a hospital is a war crime," the experts added.
Dozens of independent experts work with the UN based on the mandate of the Human Rights Council, but it does not represent the world body.
The five experts who spoke today focused, among other things, on terrorism, the right to health and arbitrary execution.
They called on Israel to investigate what happened at the hospital and prosecute those responsible.
In addition, they announced that they would invite the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to initiate an investigation into the murders, if Israel does not conduct it immediately.
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Israeli forces today stormed a hospital in Khan Younis, the largest city in the south of the Gaza Strip, which they had besieged for weeks, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
It said that "occupation forces stormed Al-Amal hospital and began to search it" and that the Red Crescent was having difficulty communicating with its teams at the hospital.
The Israeli army did not immediately respond to France Presse's question about what is happening there.
The Al-Amal hospital is at the center of the conflict between Israeli forces and the fighters of Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007.
The Palestinian Red Crescent yesterday reported "heavy shelling and armed fire" around the hospital.
For several days now, the non-governmental organization of medical aid has been calling for the institution to be protected and to enable the continuation of supplies, pointing out that there is not enough oxygen, medicine and fuel for the electricity generators in the hospital.
The Red Crescent said this Sunday that 8.000 people had been evacuated, taking refuge in Al-Amal Hospital and around its nearby local offices.
About 40 displaced people, 80 patients and 100 employees remained in the hospital after the evacuation.
Although they theoretically have special protection under the laws of war, the hospitals are targets of the Israeli army in the war that began in October.
There is no longer a single hospital functioning normally in Gaza, the UN announced on Wednesday.
Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7 killed more than 1.160 people, most of them civilians, according to France Presse data based on Israeli information. About 250 people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza. Israeli authorities say more than 130 hostages are still being held, but not all are alive.
In Israel's revenge offensive on the Gaza Strip, at least 27.947 people, mostly women and children, were killed, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Health there.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today ordered the army to evacuate more than a million civilians who have taken refuge from the conflict in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, ahead of an upcoming ground attack.
The order was preceded by a warning from US officials that Israel had not planned how to protect civilians and that they were therefore at risk of "disaster". They joined humanitarian officials who earlier also warned of the danger to civilians.
Netanyahu said he had instructed the Israeli army (IDF) and defense establishment to present plans to the government for the evacuation of Palestinian civilians from the southern Gaza Strip and the destruction of Hamas battalions in the Rafah area.
"It is impossible to achieve the war goal of eliminating Hamas, while leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah," Netanyahu's cabinet said in a statement.
"On the other hand, it is clear that the large-scale operation in Rafah requires the evacuation of the civilian population from the combat zone," the statement added.
More than 1,3 million Palestinians are estimated to have taken refuge in the Rafah area as the IDF ordered evacuations from the north and other areas of Gaza ahead of a ground offensive against Hamas, according to Israeli media.
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Since the beginning of the conflict, over 650 people have been left homeless in the Gaza Strip, while 1,9 million have been displaced, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs announced.
As reported by Anadolu Agency, 100 thousand displaced families in the Gaza Strip need winter tents.
"It is estimated that more than 650 people do not have a home to return to. Many people will not be able to return to their homes due to infrastructure damage and the risk posed by explosive remnants," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs announced.
It added that 1,9 million people were forcibly displaced in the Gaza Strip.
Many displaced Palestinians took refuge in the Rafah region, located in the south of the enclave.
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Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accused incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu of "unnecessarily" prolonging the offensive in the Gaza Strip, blocking the path to peace and leaving Hamas hostages to die.
In an interview with the British "Independent", Olmert assessed that Netanyahu's "arrogance" and "manipulation" led to "catastrophic security failures", enabling the attack by Hamas that caused the latest war.
He warned that the right-wing "messianicists and extremists" brought into the ruling coalition by Netanyahu are blocking the crucial need to find a solution and plan to "cleanse the Palestinians" in order to realize their vision of a "Greater Israel".
Olmert criticized Netanyahu for rejecting the latest international attempt to establish a ceasefire this Sunday and announcing that the war would continue until Israel's total victory over Hamas.
American Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Thursday completed his fifth visit to the Middle East in the past four months, and the state of relations between the Government of Israel and Washington is described as the worst since the beginning of the war.
"Israel has received enormous support from the West - from Rishi Sunak in Great Britain, Olaf Scholz in Germany, Emmanuel Macron in France and of course Joseph Biden, whom I know well," Olmert said.
He added that these leaders were opposed in their own countries and asked how long they would be able to continue supporting the Israeli government, which does not open the slightest possibility for a peace agreement to end the war.
Olmert was the deputy prime minister and then from 2006 to 2009 the prime minister of Israel. He was a long-time member of the conservative Likud, which is now led by Netanyahu.
He began his career as a "political hawk" who opposed the return of territory won in the Six-Day War in 1967 and voted against the 1978 Camp David peace agreement between Israel and Egypt.
However, he later became the main organizer of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and came close to achieving a two-state solution with the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas, who is still at its head today.
Olmert believes that a ceasefire is needed and that then all possible efforts should be made to rescue the hostages who are still held in Gaza.
Failure to do so and continue a military mission that is no longer viable while the hostages are held would be "absolutely unforgivable" and "will never be forgotten by the people of Israel," said the former Israeli prime minister.
According to the latest intelligence estimates, about 30 of the total of 130 hostages in Gaza are no longer alive after four months of war.
The hostages released at the end of November last year appealed to Netanyahu to negotiate a ceasefire and bring the remaining detainees home.
They fear the hostages will pay the price for the Prime Minister's bid to achieve "absolute victory".
Olmert believes that Netanyahu is trying to cover up his government's failure to prevent the attacks by Hamas on October 7, when the hostages were kidnapped and taken to Gaza, by continuing a military campaign whose goals are unattainable.
"The attack by Hamas on October 7 was probably the biggest military defeat in the history of the state of Israel," Olmert said, adding that the people's trust had been betrayed.
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The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has called on all parties to refrain from military escalation in Rafah, in the far south of the Gaza Strip, warning that more than 600.000 children are housed there, some of whom have been displaced multiple times since the start of the war.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said late last night that a military escalation in Rafah would mark "another devastating turn" in a war that has so far killed more than 27.000 people, according to Gaza health officials.
She said thousands more could die in the violence or die from lack of basic necessities, and that humanitarian aid could be further hampered.
"We need Gaza's last remaining hospitals, shelters, stores and water systems to remain functional. Without them, hunger and disease will escalate and more children will die," Russell said.
More than half of Gaza's total population of 2,3 million fled to Rafah, following Israeli evacuation orders, before the ground offensive widened.
Evacuation orders are now in place for two-thirds of the territory of that besieged small enclave.
Russell appealed to all parties to the conflict to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law, which includes taking care to spare civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Israeli airstrikes on central Gaza and Rafah in the south, on the border with Egypt, continued overnight between Thursday and Friday. More than 20 people, including women and children, were killed in them, eyewitnesses and hospital officials said.
The attacks continued even after US President Joseph Biden said on Thursday that he considers Israel's actions in this war to be excessive.
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Member of the New Serbian Democracy, Jovan Vučurović, said that it should be taken into account that proceedings are being conducted against Božović, and some MPs condemn him in advance. He repeated that he believed that he was innocent and that this would be proven.
"It is mentioned by the DPS, those who created clans and used it to attack the former DF. And today they accuse the former DF". He warned that if the accusations continued, he would leave the session and that he would talk to Novović about Božović later.
Laković said that he did not comment on the court proceedings.
Živković replied that he is not presenting anything that is not available to every citizen. "And that is that Milo Božović is a member of a counterfeiting group and that he was involved in the narcotics trade".
He told Šuković that he did not accuse him of giving information to Božović, but Božović himself, who submitted evidence to the prosecution that Šuković was advising him.
At least nine people, including women and children, were killed in overnight Israeli strikes in the central Gaza Strip and the southern city of Rafah on the border with Egypt, witnesses and health officials said.
The strikes came just hours after US President Joe Biden said he believed the way Israel was waging war was excessive.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken yesterday concluded his latest Middle East mission where he was told that Israel does not accept the proposed Gaza ceasefire plan. He was on his fifth visit to the region since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas, where he was trying to reach an agreement on a new ceasefire in Gaza.
In Israel, a rift between the two close allies appeared to be growing over how to proceed in this war.
More than half of Gaza's 2,3 million inhabitants have been pushed towards the border with Egypt by the Israeli military offensive. Unable to leave the small Palestinian territory, many live in temporary tent camps or overcrowded shelters run by the United Nations.
According to the health ministry in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, more than 27.840 people have died in the war in the territory so far. A quarter of Gazans are starving.
The war began with a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, when militants killed around 1.200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped around 250. Hamas still holds around 130 hostages, but around 30 are believed to have died.
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The forces of the US Central Command carried out strikes on seven mobile anti-ship cruise missiles that were prepared for launch on ships in the Red Sea.
"CENTCOM has identified these missiles and USVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and determined that they pose an imminent threat to US Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region," US Central Command said in a statement on the X social network.
The war between Israel and Hamas - 126th day.
Israel's military response in Gaza is excessive, US President Joe Biden said, and called for a permanent pause in the fighting as diplomats try to salvage ceasefire talks after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a Hamas proposal.
"I believe, as you know, that the response in the Gaza Strip is excessive," Biden told reporters at the White House, reports Radio Free Europe.
Biden's remarks are some of his harshest public criticism yet of Netanyahu's government, and follow mounting domestic pressure to convince Israel to halt the attacks.
Biden said he favors a deal to normalize Saudi-Israeli relations, increase humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians and a temporary pause in fighting to allow the release of hostages taken by Hamas.
"Now I'm trying very hard to deal with this ceasefire and the hostage issue. There are a lot of innocent people who are starving, a lot of innocent people who are in trouble and dying, and that has to stop," Biden said.
In a sign that diplomacy is not over, a Hamas delegation led by senior official Khalil Al-Haji arrived in Cairo on Thursday for ceasefire talks with mediators Egypt and Qatar.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu said the terms proposed by Hamas for a ceasefire in the four-month war were a "delusion" and vowed to keep fighting, saying victory was within reach in just a few months.
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