The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is calling for Israel to open an investigation into “the possible commission of a war crime” by its armed forces in Gaza. In a statement dated Wednesday, this UN agency said it had received “disturbing information” regarding the deaths of “11 unarmed Palestinian men” in Gaza City.
They died Tuesday evening during an intervention by the Israeli army in a residential building in the city where several families were sheltering. Israeli soldiers “allegedly separated men from women and children, then shot and killed at least 11 men (…) in front of their family members”, according to testimonies released by the EuroMed Human Rights Observatory. the man.
The UN agency confirmed the deaths of the 11 Palestinians, but said that “the circumstances of the murders are being verified.” “Israeli authorities must immediately conduct an independent, thorough and effective investigation into these allegations,” she said.
No comment could immediately be obtained from Israeli authorities. After more than two months of war in Gaza, the action of the Israeli army is increasingly criticized and international pressure for a truce is increasing.
Last weekend, the death of a mother and her daughter, killed by an Israeli soldier in front of the only Catholic church in Gaza, and that of three Israeli hostages killed by mistake while waving a white flag, caused controversy.
The main information:
– The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights calls for the opening of an investigation by Israel into “the possible commission of a war crime” by its armed forces in Gaza.
– This UN agency says it has received “disturbing information” regarding the death of “11 unarmed Palestinian men” in Gaza City.
– The Israeli army ordered Wednesday on social networks the “immediate evacuation” of an area “covering approximately 20%” of the city of Khan Younes.
– The Hamas government announced Wednesday that Israeli military operations had left 20,000 dead in Gaza since the start of the war.
David Cameron calls for ‘lasting ceasefire’ in Gaza from Egypt
The head of British diplomacy, David Cameron, called Thursday from Cairo for “a lasting ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip, on the second day of a visit to the region against a backdrop of war in this neighboring territory from Egypt. “We must do everything possible to bring aid to Gaza where the population is in a desperate situation,” warned the minister during a press conference in Cairo with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Choukri. “This conflict must end,” he added in front of an audience of journalists.
“We need … a lasting ceasefire where Hamas is no longer able to threaten Israel with rockets and acts of terrorism, where the fighting can stop and where we can talk about a long-term solution”, insisted the British Foreign Minister, while multiple actors are hard at work to negotiate a new truce between the belligerents.
Complaint from an Israeli organization against the ICRC
An Israeli organization announced Thursday that it had filed a legal complaint against the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), accused of inaction and bias in the case of hostages held in the Gaza Strip since October 7. The right-wing organization Shurat Hadin, which campaigns for the rights of families of victims of attacks, filed a complaint in Jerusalem on behalf of 24 hostage families, criticizing the ICRC for “failing to fulfill its mission and duty moral to visit Israelis held in Gaza, ensure their well-being and fight for their release.
Some 250 people were taken hostage during the bloody Hamas attack on Israeli soil on October 7, which left around 1,140 dead, according to an AFP count based on the latest official figures. To date, 129 are still being held in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
Immediate evacuation of the area
The Israeli army on Wednesday ordered on social networks the “immediate evacuation” of an area “covering approximately 20%” of the city of Khan Younes, according to a report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( Ocha).
“The extent of the displacements resulting from the evacuation order is not clear,” notes the Ocha. The Gaza Strip is deprived of electricity due to the total blockade exercised by Israel and many residents only have the radio and word of mouth to obtain information.
According to Ocha, the area to be evacuated housed more than 111,000 inhabitants before the start of the Israeli offensive two months ago, and now has some 141,000 Palestinians taking refuge in 32 camps fleeing the fighting. On Monday, the Israeli army indicated that it was intensifying its operations in Khan Younes.
Israel has promised to destroy Hamas in retaliation for the unprecedented attack carried out on October 7 by the Islamist movement on its soil, which left around 1,140 dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on the latest official Israeli figures. Around 250 people were also taken hostage, of whom 129 are still detained in Gaza, according to Israel. The Hamas government announced Wednesday that Israeli military operations had left 20,000 dead in Gaza since the start of the war, including at least 8,000 children and 6,200 women.
Diplomatic efforts
Diplomatic efforts are currently taking place on several fronts to try to achieve a new truce and deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. An initial one-week break between November 24 and December 1 allowed the release of 105 hostages and 240 Palestinians detained by Israel. On the one hand, Hamas is talking with Egypt: Hamas leader Ismaïl Haniyeh went to Cairo on Wednesday to discuss a new “temporary one-week truce in exchange for the release by Hamas of 40 Israeli prisoners, women, children and men,” a source close to Hamas told AFP.
But these negotiations have so far produced no results, sources close to the matter told the BBC and the Wall Street Journal. According to a source from Islamic Jihad, another Islamist movement that fights alongside Hamas and holds hostages, its leader Ziad al-Nakhala will also go to Cairo early next week.
On the other hand, Israel is maintaining a dialogue with Qatar and the United States to try to reach a truce allowing the release of hostages. The positions of the two camps, however, still remain very far apart.
Hamas demands a complete cessation of fighting as a prerequisite for any negotiations on the fate of the hostages. Israel is open to the idea of a truce but rules out any ceasefire before the “elimination” of Hamas, in power since 2007 in Gaza and classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel .
The war “will continue until the elimination of Hamas, until victory. Those who think that we are going to stop are out of touch with reality,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated on Wednesday.
US President Joe Biden, whose country is Israel’s main ally, acknowledged that there was still a long way to go before reaching a possible truce. “We are not expecting an agreement at this stage, but we are keeping up the pressure,” he said on Wednesday.
“Where are we safe?”
Tough negotiations must also continue on Thursday at the UN Security Council, which has postponed since the beginning of the week a vote on a resolution intended to accelerate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, but likely to be a new American veto if it uses too strong terms. This veto power was denounced by Hamas on Thursday. “The Biden administration is killing our people twice, once with its bombs, once by depriving them of food and medicine,” the movement said in a statement.
The United Nations services continue to warn of the deep humanitarian crisis shaking Gaza. Half of the population there suffers from extreme or severe hunger, and 90% are regularly deprived of food for an entire day, according to Ocha.
The World Health Organization is organizing a press briefing on Thursday in Geneva, devoted to health conditions in Gaza. The war has caused immense destruction in this territory, most hospitals are out of service and 1.9 million people, or 85% of the population, according to the UN, have fled their homes.
“The assault by the Israeli occupying forces against the health system in Gaza is taking the most sadistic forms,” said Francesca Albanese, the United Nations rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, on X busy.
“Hospitals and medical staff are sacred,” she added, denouncing a “senseless war against the population of Gaza.” On site, Israeli strikes continue, to the great despair of residents.
“Where are we safe? Where should we go?” a Palestinian who fled northern Gaza for Rafah asked AFP on Wednesday after a strike near the school where he was taking refuge. in this southern city.
“They said it was a safe area. (…) There is no other place to go, we are trapped in a square of only 5 km on a side,” he said. complained this man, who refused to give his name.
Tensions on the Lebanese border
The Israeli army announced Thursday that it had lost three more soldiers, bringing to 137 the number of soldiers killed since the start of the ground offensive on October 27. She claimed Wednesday to have discovered a network of tunnels used by “senior leaders” of Hamas in Gaza City (north) and located “in direct proximity to shops, government buildings, residences and a school”.
According to the Palestinian Wafa agency, the army also carried out operations in the West Bank on Wednesday evening, which led to the arrest of several people. Beyond the war in Gaza, the conflict continues to fuel tensions in the Middle East.
On Thursday Hezbollah, Hamas’ Islamist ally in Lebanon, announced that it had fired rockets into northern Israel. Earlier, the Israeli army explained that it had struck a Hezbollah “operational command center” and fired on fighters heading towards the border near Metula.
Hezbollah confirmed the death of a fighter, killed while “on his way to Jerusalem”.