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On the 180th day of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, the number of martyrs in the Strip increased, international anger escalated after 7 aid workers were killed in an Israeli raid, and Israeli internal disputes worsened.
The Israeli occupation forces committed 5 massacres in the Gaza Strip, killing 59 martyrs and 83 injured within 24 hours.
Martyrs and resistance operations
The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced that the victims of the Israeli aggression had risen to 32,975 martyrs and 75,577 injured since last October 7.
A report by the World Bank and the United Nations stated that infrastructure damage in Gaza from October 7 to January 2024 amounted to $18.5 billion, and that more than a million people in Gaza were left without homes, while 75% of the population was displaced.
During the past 24 hours, the resistance in the Gaza Strip carried out a number of operations. The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), said that its forces bombed with mortar shells an Israeli foot force east of the Al-Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza City.
The Al-Quds Brigades also announced that they bombed the "Kissufim" settlement on the Gaza Strip with a missile barrage.
Results of the investigation with the Authority’s intelligence officers
On another issue, a security official at the Ministry of Interior in the Gaza Strip said that the head of the Palestinian General Intelligence Service, Major General Majid Faraj, developed a security plan to manage the situation in the Gaza Strip based on 3 stages, according to what investigations revealed.
The security official in the Gaza Interior Ministry revealed that the first stage is food security under the cover of the Palestinian Red Crescent, the second targets the tribes, and the third is related to comprehensive security.
He added that the plan designated the Red Crescent headquarters in Al-Quds Hospital as the headquarters of the security force, with Israeli air protection.
He pointed out that Major General Majid Faraj assigned a team of officers from the Palestinian Intelligence Service to follow up on the implementation of the plan, and that the officers assigned by Majid Faraj were: Nasser Adawi, Sami Nasman, Shaaban Al-Gharabawi, and Fayez Abu Al-Hindud.
He confirmed that members of the force were assigned to collect information from Al-Shifa Medical Complex on behalf of Majed Faraj, two weeks before the recent raid.
A Qatari-Spanish call to stop the war
Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani called on the international community to assume its responsibility and impose a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani said - in a joint press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, held today, Wednesday in Doha - that he hopes that the decisions of the International Court of Justice will represent the beginning of a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
He also said that the main point of contention in the negotiations regarding a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip is the return of displaced persons to different areas of the Palestinian Strip.
For his part, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez affirmed his country's support for Palestine's accession to the United Nations as a sovereign state, stressing that his country's political vision is based on the two-state solution and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Sanchez also called on Israel not to launch a military operation in Rafah, saying, "I remind Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Security Council resolutions are binding and that he must stop the war."
Repercussions of the killing of the kitchen team
World Central Kitchen founder José Andres said that Israeli forces "systematically targeted our staff in Gaza car after car" and that they were aware of the movements of aid workers in Gaza at the time of the attack.
In the continuing reactions, US President Joe Biden expressed his anger and great sadness at the killing of 7 relief workers from the World Central Kitchen organization - including an American - in an Israeli raid in the Gaza Strip on Monday, and said that Israel did not do enough to protect relief workers.
Canada and a number of other countries also intend to "rebuke" Israel for killing a number of aid workers in Gaza.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that the killing of World Central Kitchen workers in an Israeli bombing "put the solidarity between Warsaw and Tel Aviv before a difficult test."
The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it "invited" the Israeli ambassador to Poland to discuss "moral, political and financial responsibility" after the Israeli bombing that targeted Western aid workers, including a Pole.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg condemned the killing of 7 employees of the World Central Kitchen organization in an Israeli bombing.
“What we are seeing now in Gaza is a humanitarian catastrophe,” Stoltenberg said. “We see suffering and civilians being killed, and we also saw the strike against aid workers, which I condemn.”
In the Qatari capital, Doha, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said, "Israel's explanations about the killing of 7 relief employees of the World Central Kitchen organization as a result of an air strike in the Gaza Strip are 'insufficient and unacceptable,'" and called for more details.
Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the "Global Central Kitchen" convoy in Gaza "should never have been targeted" because its vehicles bore "clear signs" indicating that they belong to the organization.
Relief organizations call for urgent action
13 human rights and relief organizations warned countries about the need to “take urgent measures to prevent crimes against humanity” in the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
The statement explained that the Israeli government "clearly" revealed its intention to expand its military operations in Rafah, ignoring the binding resolution issued by the Security Council demanding an immediate ceasefire.
The statement indicated that humanitarian and human rights organizations have repeatedly warned that the planned Israeli ground attack against Rafah “will destroy the lives and humanitarian aid of more than 1.3 million civilians.”
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said that 176 of its employees have been tragically killed since the beginning of the war in Gaza, and that the Israeli authorities continue to prevent it from reaching the north to provide food aid and basic supplies.
In a related context, the government media office in Gaza reported that the number of journalist martyrs had risen to 140 since the start of the genocidal war on the Strip.
Demonstrations by families of detainees in Gaza
Families of detainees in Gaza boycotted a plenary session of the Knesset on Wednesday and demanded an immediate exchange deal to return all prisoners detained in Gaza.
Relatives of Israeli prisoners and detainees announced their sit-in inside the Knesset, and this coincided with the last day of the Knesset’s General Assembly meetings before it left for a two-month holiday.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid addressed a call to the demonstrators and asked them to uphold the law, and called on the police to preserve the safety of the demonstrators. He said, "The demonstrators are the families of the kidnapped people whom you abandoned and who became inside Hamas tunnels during your reign."
For its part, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority quoted Shin Bet head Ronen Bar as saying that last night's demonstrations "are moving in a worrying direction, and may lead to dangerous situations that should not be reached."
Internal conflicts in Israel
Israeli Defense Council Minister Benny Gantz called, this evening, Wednesday, for early general elections in his country next September.
At the beginning of a press conference broadcast on television, Gantz said, “We are working day and night until the kidnappers (Israeli detainees in the Gaza Strip) sit with us, perhaps on the eve of the upcoming Passover (April 24 of this month).”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid and head of the New Hope Party Daon Sa'ar criticized the statements of Minister in the War Council, Benny Gantz.
Lapid said that it is not possible to wait another 6 months for the worst and most dangerous failed government in the country's history to go, and that the government must leave until the prisoners are recovered, the displaced return, and Hamas is defeated.
Meanwhile, Saar said that Gantz is a partner in the failed and idealess war cabinet that led us to a dead end in the war.
Israeli Channel 12 also quoted the Likud Party, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in response to the statements of the Minister in the War Council, Benny Gantz, saying that at a fateful moment and in the midst of the war, Gantz must stop engaging in petty politics solely because of the disintegration of his party.
In turn, the extremist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said: We are in a time of war and victory, and this is not the time for politics.
A ramming operation inside Israel
Four Israeli police officers were injured - including two in serious condition - in a run-over attack at the entrance to the town of Kochav Yair near the town of Tira inside the Green Line, while the police announced that they had killed the perpetrator of the attack.
The Israeli police said that the perpetrator of the ramming attack also attempted to stab security personnel at a military checkpoint in the area located west of the city of Qalqilya in the northern West Bank.
The Israeli police confirmed that two of those injured as a result of the run-over were in serious condition.
Incursions into the West Bank
The Israeli occupation forces stormed towns in the West Bank, including Al-Arroub Camp and the town of Idna in Hebron, and raided a number of Palestinian homes there, in addition to raids that included the city of Qalqilya, a town in Jenin, Shuafat Camp, and the village of Hizma, northeast of Jerusalem.
The occupation forces also stormed the camp and sent in military reinforcements, accompanied by a bulldozer, from the direction of the Hamra military checkpoint. The bulldozers destroyed a number of streets.
The Palestinian Prisoners' Club said that the occupation forces arrested at least 30 Palestinians during their storming of West Bank cities since last night.
The West Bank has witnessed a security escalation and incursions by the occupation army since the start of the war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, which was met with operations launched by members of the Palestinian resistance factions that caused the death and injury of Israeli soldiers and settlers.
Lebanese Front
Hezbollah said that it targeted a gathering of Israeli occupation soldiers in Khallet Wardah with appropriate weapons, confirming that it achieved direct hits. It also said that its forces targeted the Al-Raheb site and a gathering of occupation soldiers in its vicinity with missile weapons.
Sirens have sounded in the areas of Zarait, Natua, Fasuta, Shumira and Shtoula in the Upper Galilee several times since the morning.
Israeli Channel 12 reported that the rockets launched from Lebanon fell in open areas.
Israeli forces bombed the towns of Aita al-Shaab and Ramia in the central sector of southern Lebanon.
During the past 24 hours, Israeli aircraft launched 6 raids on the towns of Blida, Ainata, Aitaroun, and Yarin.
In the wake of a devastating Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, since October 8, 2023, the Israeli-Lebanese border has witnessed an exchange of fire between the Israeli army on the one hand and Hezbollah and Palestinian factions on the other hand, which led to deaths and injuries on both sides of the border.
“The Flood of the Free” and Jerusalem Day
On Wednesday afternoon, the southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, witnessed an event as part of the Jerusalem Day celebrations, during which recorded speeches were broadcast by leaders and general secretaries of political parties in the region, in which they renewed the necessity of uniting the resistance forces in the face of the Israeli occupation and its supporters.
Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi said, "On Jerusalem Day, we salute the Palestinian people and our people in Gaza who stand on the front of jihad and resistance."
He added that the Al-Aqsa flood "brought the Palestinian people closer to achieving their freedom, and the historical operations carried out by the Palestinians against the Zionist entity brought us closer to victory."
In turn, Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), said that “Gaza today presents a glorious page on the nation’s pages with its unrelenting resistance,” stressing that “today the world is watching the crimes of the occupation in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem.”
As for the Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, he said, “What is happening in Palestine, the region, and the world is a flood of free people. We hope that it will grow, increase, and become stronger with time. We value the achievements of the resistance in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in the face of the strongest armies in the region.”
The Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement, Ziad Nakhalah, affirmed that the people of Gaza stand with legendary steadfastness in the face of the forces of evil represented by the occupying entity and its supporter, the United States and its allies, adding, “I bow in reverence to our people in Gaza, whose sacrifices exceeded all the peoples of the earth.”
For his part, the leader of the Ansar Allah movement (Houthis), Abdul Malik al-Houthi, said that Yemen "stands with all its capabilities, officially and popularly, to support the Palestinian people and the sanctities of the nation, and since the battle of the Al-Aqsa flood began, we have tended to support it with everything we can."
Source: Al Jazeera + agencies