Lara Villalón Istanbul

Istanbul

Updated Wednesday, March 27, 2024-15:04

  • Middle East Tension increases between Netanyahu and Biden as truce negotiations stall

Hopes for a truce in Gaza following the UN Security Council resolution have dissipated in a few hours, with bombings in the Palestinian enclave and a new escalation on the border between Lebanon and Israel. The Israeli army

on Wednesday

bombed

five buildings in Rafah

, the city bordering Egypt that hosts more than a million Palestinians displaced from other parts of the Strip. The attacks caused

around twenty deaths

, mostly

women and children

, while the total number of deaths in the enclave on Wednesday amounts to 76.

The intense bombing in Rafah

raised fears of an imminent ground offensive

, approved two weeks ago by the cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Tel Aviv recently insisted that it will continue with the operation without contemplating a truce, although at the moment it is unknown when it will carry it out and how it will resettle the thousands of displaced civilians who are in this territory.

The international community has shown unanimous rejection of the offensive, including Israel's main supporter in the war,

the United States

, which called the operation in Rafah a

"red line

. "

On the other hand, the Israeli army carried out one of the largest attacks on Lebanese soil since the crossfire on the border between the two countries began in October. An

attack in al-Habbariyeh

, southern Lebanon, killed

seven people at a health facility

run by a Lebanese armed group.

The attack was directed against the al-Jamaa al-Islamiya organization, a group close to Egypt's Muslim brothers that supports Hezbollah in its fight against Israel. The militant organization stated that the seven deceased were "paramedics", but the Israeli army assured that the facility was a "military building" where "terrorists" were located.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health has condemned the attack and has also assured that those killed were paramedics. "These unacceptable attacks

violate international laws and regulations

, especially the Geneva Convention, which emphasizes the neutrality of health facilities and health workers," he said.

A day before the attack, the militia's secretary general, Mohammed Takkoush, stated that they decided to join the fighting on the border with Israel due to its offensive in the Gaza Strip. "We decided to unite as a national, religious and moral duty. We did it to defend our land and our villages," Takkoush said in an interview with the US agency AP. Since last October, al-Jamaa al-Islamiya has carried out several attacks against the Israeli side and has lost at least twelve fighters.

Hezbollah, for its part, assured that the attack "will not go without response or punishment." Shortly after the bombing he launched 30 rockets into northern Israel, causing one death. "A 25-year-old worker was found without signs of life and declared dead after being rescued from a building that suffered a direct impact," reported the Israeli emergency service Magen David Adom (MDA). The attack hit the city of Kiryat Shmona, in the north of the country.

Cross-border hostilities have caused 338 deaths in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters, but also 57 civilians. On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and eight civilians have died since October, while the conflict has displaced thousands on both sides of the border. In recent weeks, Israel has struck cities in Lebanon far from the country's southern border, including the Bekaa Valley, Hezbollah's main stronghold.