Gaza: new strikes against Rafah, complicated talks for an ongoing truce
As talks begin in Cairo for a truce in Gaza, Israel launched new airstrikes on Rafah overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, killing nearly 100 people, according to Hamas.
“
The situation is only getting worse
,” warns Doctors Without Borders.
Palestinians check the rubble of the al-Faruq mosque on February 22, 2024, following an overnight Israeli airstrike in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip.
AFP - SAID KHATIB
By: RFI Follow
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An American special envoy is expected in
Israel
this Thursday to try to relaunch discussions between the different protagonists.
The objective?
Obtain a truce for the Palestinian territory plagued by daily bombings.
Since October 7 and the Hamas attack on Israel, the Israeli response, both air and land, has caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
Nearly 30,000 people have been killed in
Gaza
since October 7, 2023, according to Hamas, and the United Nations has warned that 2.2 million people are at risk of famine.
During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, numerous strikes again hit the town of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli air force carried out around ten strikes there, according to AFP.
And according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, 99 people were killed last night.
Also readIn the news: will we still be able to live in Gaza after the war?
“There is an urgency to stop this war”
Despite the urgency of the situation for the civilian population of the Palestinian enclave, negotiations are struggling to succeed.
“
We want an agreement to be reached (...) as quickly as possible
,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told the press.
Currently on the table, the draft agreement concerns a six-week truce, associated with an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and the entry into Gaza of a large quantity of humanitarian aid.
But some warn about the slowness of discussions compared to the seriousness of the situation.
“
The temporality of the negotiations, of the discussions at the UN level between governments is not at all that of the field
,” says Guillemette Thomas, the medical coordinator for the Palestine mission of Médecins sans frontières (MSF) France.
“
I think that governments do not understand the catastrophe that is unfolding today in Gaza.
There is an urgency to do something, an urgency to stop this war, an urgency to stop these massacres in the Gaza Strip
,” she urges.
And added: “
As long as there is not an immediate ceasefire and a massive influx of humanitarian aid, these are only words and the reality on the ground means that we have difficulty to believe in all that
.”
According to the latest Hamas report, 29,410 people have died in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war.
Also read: Gaza: “If Washington says stop, it will be the only time Israel says no”
(With AFP)
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