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Israel bombed on saturday Rafaa city he considers fundamental in his war against Hamas, despite the International Court of Justice (ICJ) The day before, he ordered it to suspend its operations in that area at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip.
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Witnesses and AFP journalists reported bombings by Israeli troops against Rafah, Khan Younis, also in the south, and the city of Gaza, in the north.
The attacks continue despite the UN’s highest judicial body ordering Israel on Friday to stop its operation in this border city with Egypt and any other action that could cause the “total or partial physical destruction” of the Palestinian people in Gaza.
The ICJ also demanded the opening of the border crossing between Egypt and Gaza at Rafah, a humanitarian aid gateway that Israel closed earlier this month when it began its operations in the city.
The court, whose decisions are binding even if it lacks the means to implement them, also urged Hamas to immediately release all hostages captured in its October 7 attack on Israel.
But neither side appears to have complied with the court’s demands.
The Israeli army announced that several militants were killed in “hand-to-hand combat” on Friday in Jabaliya, in the north, and by “tank fire” in the center. He also claimed to have “eliminated a terrorist cell” in Rafah.
For their part, the Ezedin al Qasam brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed to have attacked Israeli soldiers in the Jabaliya camp and to have taken at least one soldier as a “prisoner”. The Israeli army denied the version.
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The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, reminded Israel that “the precautionary measures” dictated by the ICJ are “obligatory”.
A senior Israeli official, on condition of anonymity, told AFP on Saturday that his country “intends to resume talks” with the Palestinian Islamic movement “this week”, mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt, with a view to reaching a truce. .
International contacts resumed in Paris, where American and Israeli representatives met, following a stalemate over the Israeli military operation in Rafah.
Israeli media reported that the head of the Mossad – the intelligence service –, David Barnea, woke up during meetings in Paris with the director of the CIA, William Burns, and the Prime Minister of Qatar, Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al Thani, a new framework for talks.
The head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, also spoke with the Israeli war cabinet minister, Benny Gantz, about new efforts to reach a ceasefire and reopen the Rafah crossing as quickly as possible.
The conflict erupted on October 7, when Islamic commandos killed more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli data.
The militants also kidnapped 252 people. Israel says 121 remain kidnapped in Gaza, of whom 37 have died.
In response to the October attack, Israel launched an offensive against the Gaza Strip, in which 35,903 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have died so far, according to the Hamas government’s Ministry of Health.
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On Saturday, in Tel Aviv, thousands of people demonstrated to demand urgent action from the Israeli government to allow the release of the hostages, after the army announced on Friday that it had recovered the bodies of three people kidnapped by Hamas in Gaza. .
“We need to get them out of this hell now,” said Avivit, sister of one of the deceased hostages whose body was repatriated.
Israeli troops entered some sectors of the city of Rafah in early May, despite opposition from the international community, including its American ally.
Soldiers seized the Palestinian side of the border with Egypt, further delaying the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabitants.
Israel “only listens to their extremist ideology of death and destruction to (…) increase destruction,” said Yahya, a 34-year-old Palestinian, in Rafah.
The humanitarian situation in the territory is alarming, with a risk of hunger, hospitals out of service and around 800,000 people fleeing Rafah, according to the UN.
Furthermore, the Palestinian telecommunications operator Paltel indicated on Saturday in X that internet access in Gaza City and the surrounding area was interrupted “due to the current aggression”.
And the US military reported, for its part, that four ships supporting the temporary port set up in Gaza to bring humanitarian aid ran aground in the middle of “rough seas”.
Despite this, “the pier remains fully operational”, stated the United States Central Command (Centcom).
On the other hand, the finance ministers of the G7, a group of the seven largest industrialized economies, asked Israel to “guarantee” banking services to Palestinian banks, after this week it threatened to deny them access to its own system.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
