GAZA: The Israeli army said it took control on Wednesday of a vital Gaza-Egypt corridor suspected of aiding weapons smuggling as it intensified its offensive against Hamas in the border city of Rafah.
The UN Security Council was set to meet for a second day of emergency talks after a strike at the weekend ignited a fire that Gaza officials said killed 45 people and injured about 250.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was among the many leaders to voice revulsion at the bloodshed, demanding that “this horror must stop.”
Israel’s National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said, however, that the war could go on until the year’s end.
“We may have another seven months of fighting to consolidate our success and achieve what we have defined as the destruction of Hamas’s power and military capabilities,” Hanegbi said.
An Israeli military official later told reporters the army had taken “operational control” of the strategic, 14-kilometer (8.5-mile) Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border.
The corridor had served as a buffer between Gaza and Egypt, but since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, there were fears it was being used to channel weapons to armed groups in the Palestinian territory.
Its seizure comes weeks after Israeli forces took the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, which alleged Wednesday Israel was using claims of cross-border tunnels as cover for its Rafah offensive.
“Israel is using these allegations to justify continuing the operation on the Palestinian city of Rafah and prolonging the war for political purposes,” a high-level Egyptian source was quoted as saying by state-linked Al-Qahera News.
In besieged Rafah, witnesses reported escalated fighting with helicopters intensifying attacks, supported by artillery and smoke grenades.
Hamas’s military wing said it was firing rockets at Israeli troops.
AFPTV footage showed Palestinians with bloodied midriffs and bandaged limbs after being wounded in strikes near Khan Yunis, close to Rafah, being taken to the European Hospital on makeshift gurneys.
“The rockets fell directly on us. I was hurled three meters (yards)... I don’t know how I managed to get up on my feet,” said one who did not give his name.
Gaza’s civil defense said three bodies were recovered from a Khan Yunis house after it was shelled.
The United States has been among the countries urging Israel to refrain from a full-scale offensive into Rafah, the last Gaza city to see ground fighting, because of the risk to civilians.
However, the White House said Tuesday that so far it had not seen Israel cross President Joe Biden’s “red lines,” with National Security Council spokesman John Kirby saying: “We have not seen them smash into Rafah.”
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Israel to quickly devise a post-war strategy for Gaza, stressing: “In the absence of a plan for the day after, there won’t be a day after.”
A steady stream of civilians has been fleeing Rafah, the new hotspot in the gruelling war, many carrying belongings on their shoulders, in cars or on donkey-drawn carts.
Before the Rafah offensive began on May 7, the United Nations had warned that up to 1.4 million people were sheltering there. Since then, one million have fled the area, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Sunday’s strike and ensuing fire a “tragic accident.” The army said it had targeted a Hamas compound and killed two senior members of the group.
Israel’s military said it was investigating the strike, and its spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday that “our munition alone could not have ignited a fire of this size.”
Gaza civil defense agency official Mohammad Al-Mughayyir said 21 more people were killed in a similar strike Tuesday “targeting the tents of displaced people” in western Rafah.
The army denied this, saying it “did not strike in the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi,” an area it had designated for displaced people from Rafah to shelter.
New fighting also hit other areas of the besieged Palestinian territory of 2.4 million people.
In the north, Israeli military vehicles unleashed intense gunfire east of Gaza City, an AFP reporter said, and residents reported strikes on Jabalia.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,189 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 36,171 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Nearly eight months into the deadliest Gaza war, Israel has faced ever louder opposition and cases before two Netherlands-based international courts.
At the UN Security Council, Algeria has presented a draft resolution that “demands an immediate ceasefire respected by all parties” and the release of all hostages.
Algeria’s UN ambassador Amar Bendjama has not specified when he hopes to put the draft to a vote.
Chinese ambassador Fu Cong expressed hope for a vote this week as President Xi Jinping told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Beijing he was “deeply pained” by the situation in Gaza.
French UN ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said “it’s high time for this council to take action. This is a matter of life and death. This is a matter of emergency.”
US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, when asked about the draft resolution, said: “We’re waiting to see it and then we’ll react to it.”
Brazil, whose ties with Israel have soured over the war, on Wednesday recalled its ambassador, further raising tensions between the two.
Meanwhile, the World Central Kitchen nonprofit organization said it was stopping its operations in Rafah because of “ongoing attacks” in the southern city.
Israel says it seizes key Gaza-Egypt corridor
https://arab.news/2bqw4
Israel says it seizes key Gaza-Egypt corridor
- “Israel is using these allegations to justify continuing the operation on the Palestinian city of Rafah and prolonging the war for political purposes,” Egyptian source said
- Israel’s National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said, however, that the war could go on until the year’s end
Outrage as Israel cuts off Gaza aid to pressure Hamas to accept new ceasefire proposal
- The International Criminal Court said there was reason to believe Israel had used “starvation as a method of warfare” when it issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu last year
- UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher called Israel’s decision “alarming,” noting that international humanitarian law makes clear that aid access must be allowed
TEL AVIV, Israel: Israel faced sharp criticism as it stopped the entry of all food and other supplies into Gaza on Sunday and warned of “additional consequences” for Hamas if a fragile ceasefire wasn’t extended.
Mediators Egypt and Qatar accused Israel of violating humanitarian law by using starvation as a weapon.
The ceasefire’s first phase saw a surge in humanitarian aid after months of growing hunger. Hamas accused Israel of trying to derail the next phase Sunday hours after its first phase had ended and called Israel’s decision to cut off aid “a war crime and a blatant attack” on a truce that took a year of negotiations before taking hold in January.
In the second phase, Hamas could release dozens of remaining hostages in return for an Israeli pullout from Gaza and a lasting ceasefire. Negotiations on the second phase were meant to start a month ago but haven’t begun.
Israel said Sunday that a new US proposal calls for extending the ceasefire’s first phase through Ramadan — the Muslim holy month that began over the weekend — and the Jewish Passover holiday, which ends on April 20.
Under that proposal, Hamas would release half the hostages on the first day and the rest when an agreement is reached on a permanent ceasefire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. The militants currently hold 59 hostages, 35 of them believed to be dead.
The US had no immediate comment. Netanyahu said Israel is fully coordinated with the Trump administration and the ceasefire will only continue as long as Hamas keeps releasing hostages.
Saying the ceasefire has saved countless lives, the International Committee of the Red Cross said that “any unraveling of the forward momentum created over the last six weeks risks plunging people back into despair.”
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher called Israel’s decision “alarming,” noting that international humanitarian law makes clear that aid access must be allowed. Medical charity MSF accused Israel of using aid as a bargaining chip, calling that “unacceptable” and “outrageous.”
Five non-governmental groups asked Israel’s Supreme Court for an interim order barring the state from preventing aid from entering Gaza, claiming the move violates Israel’s obligations under international law: “These obligations cannot be condition on political considerations.”
The war has left most of Gaza’s population of over 2 million dependent on international aid. About 600 aid trucks had entered daily since the ceasefire began on Jan. 19, easing fears of famine raised by international experts.
But residents said prices shot up as word of the closure spread.
From the heavily destroyed Jabaliya urban refugee camp, Fayza Nassar said the closure would worsen dire conditions.
“There will be famine and chaos,” she said.
Hamas warned that any attempt to delay or cancel the ceasefire agreement would have “humanitarian consequences” for the hostages. The only way to free them is through the existing deal, the group said.
Families of hostages again pressed Israel’s government.
“Postponing the negotiation on the deal for everyone’s (release) can’t happen,” Lishay Miran-Lavi, wife of hostage Omri Miran, said in Tel Aviv. “Hostages don’t have time to wait for an ideal deal.”
Israel was accused of blocking aid throughout the war
Israel imposed a siege on Gaza in the war’s opening days and only eased it under US pressure. UN agencies and aid groups accused Israel of not facilitating enough aid during 15 months of war.
The International Criminal Court said there was reason to believe Israel had used “starvation as a method of warfare” when it issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu last year. The allegation is also central to South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide.
Israel has denied the accusations. It says it has allowed in enough aid and blamed shortages on what it called the UN’s inability to distribute it. It also accused Hamas of siphoning off aid — an allegation that Netanyahu repeated Sunday.
Kenneth Roth, former head of Human Rights Watch, said Israel as an occupying power has an “absolute duty” to facilitate humanitarian aid under the Geneva Conventions, and called Israel’s decision “a resumption of the war-crime starvation strategy” that led to the ICC warrant.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostage.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It says more than half of those killed were women and children. It does not specify how many of the dead were combatants.
Israeli bombardment pounded large areas of Gaza to rubble and displaced some 90 percent of the population.
Egyptian foreign minister stresses importance of maintaining Gaza ceasefire
- Reconstruction plan for Gaza will be presented at upcoming Arab emergency summit in Cairo
- EU is ‘investing in multilateral programs to empower Palestinians and keep Gaza on the map’
LONDON: Egypt’s Foreign Affairs Minister Badr Abdelatty on Sunday stressed the importance of fully implementing the ceasefire agreement in Gaza after a meeting with Dubravka Suica, the European commissioner for the Mediterranean.
Abdelatty emphasized during a joint press conference in Cairo with Suica the urgent need to immediately begin negotiations for the second phase of the agreement between Israel and Hamas.
He highlighted the need to maintain the ceasefire, release all Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners according to the deal’s terms, and ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid.
The minister said: “Egypt, Qatar, and the US are playing an active role, and we want to emphasize the importance of implementing (the ceasefire). We must begin discussions on the second phase.”
Israel blocked aid trucks from entering Gaza on Sunday, escalating a standoff over the six-week ceasefire, prompting Hamas to seek intervention from Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
A proposed US temporary ceasefire would pause fighting until the end of Ramadan, around March 31, and the Jewish Passover holiday, around April 20. However, this ceasefire would be contingent upon Hamas releasing half of the hostages, both living and deceased, on the first day. The remainder would be released at the end of the ceasefire period.
Hamas has reaffirmed its commitment to the original ceasefire, intended to lead to negotiations for a permanent end to the conflict in Gaza.
Abdelatty stressed that goodwill and commitment from all parties would ensure the success of these discussions for a permanent ceasefire, the Emirates News Agency reported.
He stressed that a political process should follow the ceasefire to establish a Palestinian state and called on all parties to ensure effective humanitarian aid delivery to Gaza, rejecting its use as a collective punishment against Palestinians.
Abdelatty said that the reconstruction plan for Gaza would be presented at the upcoming Arab emergency summit this week in Cairo, and that discussions with the EU and other countries to secure international support would take place.
Suica said the EU was “investing in multilateral programs to empower Palestinians and keep Gaza on the map.” She added that she hoped a ceasefire agreement would help in “paving the way for a two-state solution, which the EU supports and believes should come without preconditions.”
Turkiye’s Kurds say PKK militants heeding jailed leader’s peace call is the right move
- The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Turkiye and its Western allies
DIYARBAKIR, Turkiye: Residents in Diyarbakir, Turkiye’s largest Kurdish-majority city, said on Sunday that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party’s (PKK) decision to heed its jailed leader’s call for peace was correct and prosperity would follow if the decades-old conflict ended.
On Saturday, the PKK declared an immediate ceasefire, a news agency close to it said, heeding jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan’s disarmament call, in what could be a major step toward ending a 40-year insurgency that has killed more than 40,000 people.
President Tayyip Erdogan’s government, its nationalist ally, and the pro-Kurdish DEM Party have voiced support for the peace call. However, Erdogan also warned that Ankara would resume military operations against the militant group if promises are not kept.
Zihni Capin, a teacher, said in Diyarbakir that people were “exhausted both mentally and physically” by the conflict, and added he hoped the process would conclude in a way that contributes to “prosperity, peace and happiness” in the region.
“I think it is a very correct and appropriate decision. Hopefully, the process will meet the expectations of all the people in Turkiye and the Middle East,” he said.
The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Turkiye and its Western allies. It called on Saturday for greater freedoms for Ocalan, who has been kept in near total isolation since 1999, to advance the disarmament process, but Ankara has said there would be no negotiations.
Tuncer Bakirhan, co-chair of DEM, said on Sunday that political and legal adjustments were now “inevitable” after the peace call, and added that Turkiye’s parliament had a “historic role” to play.
“This process is not one that should be squandered. It must not remain on paper only,” Bakirhan told DEM members in Ankara. “The call is not one for winning and losing... There is no winner, no loser,” he added.
The ceasefire could have wide-ranging implications for the region if it succeeds in ending the conflict between the PKK — now based in the mountains of northern Iraq — and the Turkish state.
It could also give Erdogan a domestic boost and a historic opportunity to bring peace and development to southeast Turkiye, where the conflict has killed thousands and severely damaged the economy.
Zulkuf Kacar, who works as a purchasing manager outside Turkiye, said those who lay down arms need to be given amnesty.
“Enough is enough, this suffering. This suffering needs to end,” Kacar said in Diyarbakir.
Paramilitary shelling kills six in Sudan’s North Darfur: rescuers
- In December, a United Nations-backed assessment said famine had taken hold in Abu Shouk and two other camps in the El-Fasher area, Al-Salam and Zamzam, and was projected to expand to five more areas including the city itself by May
PORT SUDAN: Paramilitary artillery shelling of a crowded market and nearby displaced people’s camp in Sudan’s Darfur region killed six people on Sunday, local health volunteers said.
The camp, Abu Shouk, is on the edge of the North Darfur state capital, El-Fasher, which paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have besieged since last May as part of the nearly two-year-old war against Sudan’s army.
The shelling “resulted in the deaths of six unarmed civilians so far, with other injuries yet to be counted,” said the local Emergency Response Room, one of hundreds of volunteer groups across war-torn Sudan helping to evacuate wounded, staff soup kitchens and maintain health services.
“This attack... struck the crowded market while civilians were shopping for Ramadan necessities,” the committee added, blaming the RSF.
The Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, which started on Saturday in Sudan, comes as the northeast African country continues to grapple with war, starvation and displacement.
In December, a United Nations-backed assessment said famine had taken hold in Abu Shouk and two other camps in the El-Fasher area, Al-Salam and Zamzam, and was projected to expand to five more areas including the city itself by May.
The RSF have seized nearly the entire vast western region of Darfur.
However, they have not managed to claim El-Fasher, where army and allied forces have repeatedly pushed them back.
Sudan’s war has so far killed tens of thousands, uprooted more than 12 million and brought millions to the brink of mass starvation.
On Wednesday the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said intense fighting in Zamzam camp had forced it “to temporarily pause the distribution of life-saving food and nutrition assistance” there.
UN urges Israel to restore Gaza aid as Hamas sees ‘coup’ against truce
- “Since the morning we haven’t seen any trucks entering,” said a resident of Rafah on Gaza’s southern border
- She warned of a “crisis” as the prices of basic commodities surged “as soon as the merchants heard about the closing of the crossing”
JERUSALEM: The United Nations on Sunday called on Israel to immediately allow aid into Gaza, hours after it suspended humanitarian deliveries into the war-battered territory as talks on a truce extension appeared to hit an impasse.
With uncertainty looming over the truce, both Israel and Palestinian sources reported Israeli military strikes in the Gaza Strip which the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said killed at least four people.
The 42-day first phase of the ceasefire drew to a close, and early on Sunday Israel announced a truce extension until mid-April that it said US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff had proposed.
Hamas has repeatedly rejected an extension, instead favoring a transition to the truce deal’s second phase that could bring a permanent end to the war.
The Palestinian group, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the fighting, said the “decision to suspend humanitarian aid is cheap blackmail, a war crime and a blatant coup against the (ceasefire) agreement.”
In a statement posted online, UN chief Antonio Guterres called for “humanitarian aid to flow back into Gaza immediately,” urging “all parties to make every effort to prevent a return to hostilities” and militants to release “all hostages.”
The head of the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA, Thomas Fletcher, said in a post on X that “Israel’s decision to halt aid into Gaza is alarming” and may be in violation of international law.
Following the announcement of the aid suspension, AFP images showed trucks loaded with goods lined up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.
“Since the morning we haven’t seen any trucks entering,” said Umm Mohammad Abu Laia, a resident of Rafah on Gaza’s southern border.
She warned of a “crisis” as the prices of basic commodities surged “as soon as the merchants heard about the closing of the crossing.”
The first phase of the truce, which took effect on January 19, saw an increase of aid into Gaza, where the war destroyed or damaged most buildings, displaced almost the entire population and triggered widespread hunger, according to the UN.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, asked by reporters about the risk of starvation, dismissed such warnings as “a lie.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had “decided that, from this morning, all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will be suspended.”
It said there would be “consequences” for Hamas if it did not accept the temporary truce extension, which would cover the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish holiday of Passover.
On a sandy street in Gaza City, Mays Abu Amer, 21, expressed hope the ceasefire can continue “forever.”
“We have so much destruction, we need a lot of time for reconstruction,” she said.
Mediator Egypt and the International Committee of the Red Cross have appealed for the truce to be maintained.
Militant group Islamic Jihad, a Hamas ally, accused Israel of “sabotaging” the ceasefire.
According to Israel, the truce extension would see half of the hostages still in Gaza freed on the day the deal came into effect, with the rest to be released at the end if an agreement was reached on a permanent ceasefire.
Of the 251 captives taken during Hamas’s October 2023 attack, 58 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.
In Israel, mourners who turned out to farewell Shlomo Mansour, 85, whose body militants had held in Gaza and returned to Israel on Thursday, said more should be done to get the remaining captives home.
“Return all of them immediately,” said Vardit Roiter.
Under the first phase of the truce, Gaza militants handed over 25 living hostages and eight bodies, including Mansour’s, in exchange for the release of about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners.
Israelis in Jerusalem welcomed the decision to block aid, describing it as a way to pressure Hamas into making concessions.
Neria, a 27-year-old teacher who only gave his first name, told AFP it was a “smart move” that could “push forward new things, the release of more hostages and the end of the war.”
In southern Gaza on Sunday, the civil defense agency reported shelling and gunfire “from Israeli tanks,” which the army said it was “unaware of.”
The Palestine Red Crescent said Israeli drone strikes killed one person in the same area and another in a nearby town.
The military said it had conducted an air strike in northern Gaza targeting suspects it said had “planted an explosive device” near its troops.
Including the deaths on Sunday, Gaza’s health ministry has recorded 116 people killed by Israel’s military since the ceasefire took effect on January 19, substantially reducing violence.
The 2023 attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, while Israel’s retaliation in Gaza has killed more than 48,300 people, also mostly civilians, data from both sides show.
