Israel is planning an advance on Rafah – Scholz and Blinken are pushing for a solution to the conflict

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Cloud of smoke in the southern Gaza Strip after Israeli bombardments on February 5, 2024

Photo: Said Khatib / AFP

In the fight against Hamas, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant wants to pursue the Islamist group's leaders and fighters into the last corner of the Gaza Strip. They are nowhere safe from Israeli forces, Gallant said. 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 authorities: 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 be independently verified and does not distinguish between civilians and armed fighters. However, the UN and other observers point out that the authorities' information has proven to be credible in the past.

Israel's army has attacked 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's 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

Chancellor Olaf Scholz insisted on a negotiated two-state solution to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Only in this way could 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.

Blinken urges Saudi Arabia for a “permanent end to the crisis in the Gaza Strip”

In the struggle for a new agreement between Israel and the radical Islamic Hamas, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken began another trip to the Middle East with a visit to Saudi Arabia. In Riyadh on Monday, Blinken spoke with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the need for "regional coordination to achieve a lasting end to the crisis in the Gaza Strip," according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

Blinken and bin Salman also discussed "the urgent need to reduce regional tensions," Miller said, referring to increasing attacks in the region by Iranian-backed and Hamas-allied groups, which in turn are being counterattacked by the United States and its allies had a consequence.

It is Blinken's fifth trip to the Middle East since the war between Israel and Hamas began. After his visit to Saudi Arabia, Blinken will visit the mediating countries Qatar and Egypt as well as Israel and the occupied West Bank, according to the US State Department.

Before the meeting, the US State Department said Blinken would "use diplomatic efforts to reach an agreement that ensures the release of all remaining hostages and includes a humanitarian pause to ensure sustained and increased delivery of humanitarian assistance to civilians in the Gaza Strip make possible".

After a good four months of war, international pressure is growing on both sides to seal a new agreement, which was negotiated by high-ranking representatives of the USA, Israel, Egypt and Qatar in Paris at the end of January. This involves an initial six-week ceasefire, which is intended to lead to the release of further hostages held by Hamas.

On Tuesday, new Argentine President Javier Milei wants to meet in Jerusalem with Israel's President Isaac Herzog. 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.

aka/dpa/AFP