The essential

  • The town of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians threatened by the war in Gaza have taken refuge, is the scene of intense Israeli strikes on Saturday at a time when diplomacy is trying to impose a new truce against a backdrop of regional conflagration.

  • The Hamas health ministry announced the deaths of at least 100 civilians in the evening and night, including 14 early Saturday in strikes on two residences in Rafah.

  • The displaced are trying to protect themselves in Rafah, where there are now more than 1.3 million of the approximately 2.4 million inhabitants of the micro-territory threatened in the middle of winter by famine and epidemics, according to the UN.

  • While the war knows no respite, diplomacy attempts to negotiate a second truce. The leader of Hamas, Ismaïl Haniyeh, based in Qatar, is still expected in Egypt to discuss a proposal developed during a meeting at the end of January in Paris between the head of the CIA, William Burns, and Egyptian officials , Israelis and Qataris.

The essentials of the day before

  • The United States said Friday it had "successfully" carried out retaliatory strikes targeting elite Iranian forces and pro-Iranian groups in Iraq and Syria, with President Joe Biden warning they would "continue." The strikes follow the death of three American soldiers in Jordan in an attack attributed by Washington to groups supported by Iran.

  • Fighting between the Israeli army and Palestinian Hamas is still raging in the Gaza Strip despite "first" signs suggesting a new truce and the release of hostages, after almost four months of war. At least 17,000 children are "unaccompanied or separated" from their families, while the population is now congregating in Rafah, in the south, a veritable "factory of despair", the UN warned on Friday.

  • The Hamas Ministry of Health announces a toll of 27,131 people killed, the majority women, children and adolescents, in the enclave, since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement. has

  • Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility for new missile attacks against Israel on Friday, after the Israeli army said it had intercepted a missile over the Red Sea. 

  • US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to the Middle East on Sunday and into Thursday to push for a hostage release deal and secure a humanitarian pause, the State Department announced. The trip will include stops in Israel, the West Bank, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar.

Please note: the number of victims is provided by the Hamas-led Gaza Ministry of Health.

The ministry collects information provided by hospitals in the enclave and by the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The Gaza Health Ministry does not indicate how the Palestinians were killed, whether by Israeli airstrikes and/or barrages or missed Palestinian rocket attacks. It describes all victims as victims of "Israeli aggression" and also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

During the four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, United Nations agencies regularly cited Health Ministry figures in their reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Palestinian Red Crescent also use these figures.

In the aftermath of previous episodes of war, the United Nations Humanitarian Office published casualty figures based on its own research into medical records. The UN figures largely agree with those of the Gaza Ministry of Health, with a few differences.

To learn more about the reports from the Gaza Ministry of Health, click here or here.

(France 24 with AP)

The France 24 summary of the week

invites you to look back at the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you! Download the France 24 application