EXPLAINER
Israel and Hamas are making progress in the direction of one other ceasefire as strain mounts in opposition to deliberate Israeli offensive in Rafah.
Right here’s how issues stand on Wednesday, February 14, 2024:
Humanitarian disaster in Gaza
- Israel and Hamas are making progress in the direction of one other truce and captive launch deal, an Egyptian and a Western official have advised the AP information company as negotiations proceed in Cairo amid an impending Israeli offensive in Rafah.
- Releasing Palestinian prisoners is now the “major hole” as truce negotiations proceed, in accordance with Israeli and US officers who spoke to Israel’s Walla information outlet.
- On Tuesday Israeli tanks shelled components of Rafah for the second evening in a row, inflicting waves of panic, residents mentioned.
- Dozens had been killed in in a single day assaults on Monday. On Tuesday, two journalists, together with an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent, had been focused by an Israeli drone. Al Jazeera’s Ismail Abu Omar’s proper leg needed to be amputated after the strike. A photojournalist working with him was additionally wounded within the assault.
- Amid threats of an Israeli floor assault, tons of of displaced households have began to go away the realm – now residence to about 1.4 million individuals.
- “Greater than half of Gaza’s inhabitants – properly over 1 million individuals – are crammed in Rafah, staring dying within the face: They’ve little to eat, hardly any entry to medical care, nowhere to sleep, nowhere secure to go,” UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths mentioned.
Regional tensions and diplomacy
- South Africa’s authorities mentioned on Tuesday that it had filed an pressing request with the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ) to think about whether or not Israel’s army operations focusing on Rafah in southern Gaza are a breach of the provisional measures the courtroom handed down final month within the genocide case in opposition to Israel.
- The US Senate has handed an emergency spending bundle that would offer $60bn in army help to Ukraine and $14.1bn to Israel, replenish US weapons techniques and supply meals, water and different humanitarian help to civilians in Gaza.
- The Church of England has mentioned in an announcement that the way wherein Israel is conducting its warfare on Gaza “can’t be morally justified”.
- Individually, a bunch of 9 impartial UN human rights specialists have issued a assertion calling on governments to guard the proper to peaceable protests in solidarity with individuals in Gaza.
- And protesters in Providencia, in Chile’s Santiago province, demanded an finish to Israeli aggression on Gaza and the severing of relations with Israel, in accordance with native media.
Occupied West Financial institution
- The Israeli army has arrested three males throughout raids on town of Qalqilya within the occupied West Financial institution, the Wafa information company reported. A person has additionally been arrested within the city of Ni’lin, west of Ramallah, in accordance with native media.
- In response to the publication round 7,000 Palestinians have been detained within the West Financial institution for the reason that begin of Israel’s warfare on Gaza.
- Israeli forces have additionally raided town of Ramallah and stationed their autos within the neighborhood of the Palestine Medical Advanced, Wafa mentioned.