The Israeli armed forces have asked for the evacuation of the eastern neighborhoods of Rafah in view of the announced ground offensive, which appears increasingly closer in the face of the new stalemate in negotiations to Cairo for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. During the night, 16 people were killed in an air raid on the city, where hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the devastation in the north of the Palestinian enclave are massed.
Today the mediators of the USA, Egypt and Qatar are attempting a new emergency meeting in Doha, while the conflict that began with the Hamas attack on October 7 is about to enter its eighth month. The closure of the two parties, who accuse each other of being responsible for the failure of the negotiations, has once again made an agreement impossible which instead had seemed closer in recent days in Egypt. According to an Israeli source quoted by the New York Times and quoted by the Times of Israel, the prime minister’s statements Benjamin Netanyahu who returned yesterday to announce the attack on Rafah were decisive for Hamas’s “no” to the latest truce proposals. Meanwhile, it emerges with even more force Washington’s intolerance for the attitude of the Israeli government: the US press reports that in recent days the flow of American arms supplies to Israel has been interrupted for the first time.
The live broadcast
09:25 – Crosetto: civilian casualties in Gaza no longer acceptable
“Italy has been at Israel’s side from the beginning. But now we have reached the point where Netanyahu’s government must understand that all these civilian victims in Gaza are no longer acceptable. Many are realizing that it is It’s time to fight Hamas another way.” Thus the Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, in an interview with Il Messaggero.
09:16 – The sirens sound, Israel stops for the victims of the Holocaust
Sirens sounded for two minutes across Israel at 10am local time, 9am in Italy, for the day dedicated to commemorating the 6 million victims of the Holocaust. Everyone in the country stops their activities for those two minutes and even those who are walking or moving by car or with any means of transport stop, as well as lessons at school and work in offices and factories. Meanwhile, the official ceremony began at the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem, in the presence of the main officials of the Jewish State. This year, Remembrance Day is further saddened by the ongoing conflict.
09:08 – Today the head of the CIA will meet Netanyahu
This afternoon a meeting is scheduled in Jerusalem between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of the CIA William Burns; The Times of Israel reports this, citing an Israeli official. Burns left Cairo yesterday for Doha to hold talks with the prime minister of Qatar; from here he will move to Israel.
09:04 – Attacks continue in central Gaza
The Israeli army continues to attack the center of the Gaza Strip. The IDF wrote on Telegram: “During the night, IAF fighter planes hit terrorist targets in the Rafah area from which bullets were launched yesterday towards the Kerem Shalom area. Among the targets were a sniper position, a military facility and a terrorist infrastructure.”
08:55 – Dozens of rockets fired at Israeli bases in the Golan Heights by Hezbollah
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it fired “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at an Israeli base in the occupied Golan Heights in retaliation for an attack in eastern Lebanon.
08:27 – Borrell: there is famine in Gaza, a ceasefire is urgently needed
“The much feared scenario has come true: according to the director of the WFP, Cindy McCain, there is a full-blown famine in the north of Gaza, which is moving south. The so far unheard requests of the international community must be listened to: the UN resolution 2728 must be implemented fully and immediately.” The EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, writes this on X. “A ceasefire is urgently needed to free the hostages and bring relief to those dying of hunger. We unequivocally condemn the barrage of rockets launched by Hamas and Islamic Jihad towards the Kerem Shalom area. Israel still has the general obligation to guarantee complete, safe, rapid and unhindered access to large-scale humanitarian aid for those in need. Together with the Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic, we commend the irreplaceable work carried out by UNRWA and all UN agencies.” , adds Borrell.
07:37 – A “temporary and limited” evacuation
The evacuation of Rafah launched this morning by the Israeli army is a “limited scope operation”, an IDF spokesperson said in a press briefing. “This morning … we began a limited operation to temporarily evacuate residents in eastern Rafah,” he said. “This is a limited operation.”
The operation, the spokesperson further explained, concerns approximately 100 thousand people. According to UN estimates, around 1.2 million Palestinians, mostly from areas of the Strip under Israeli attack, are gathered in the city of Rafah, which is located in the southern part of the territory and was the destination of the displaced from the North since the beginning of the conflict on 7 October.
07:17 – IDF appeal: “Residents leave the city”
The Israeli armed forces launch, through “posters, SMS messages, telephone calls and media broadcasts in Arabic”, the appeal to the citizens of Rafah to move from the eastern part of the city to the “expanded humanitarian area of Al-Mawasi”, we read in the IDF social media profiles, in a message reiterating that the army “will continue to pursue Hamas everywhere in Gaza until all the hostages they hold captive have returned home”. It seems like a sign that the Israeli attack on the city in the southern Strip, accused of hosting the headquarters of Hamas, is about to begin.
The Israel Defense Forces explain in the appeal that, following “a wave of humanitarian aid heading to Gaza, IDF has expanded the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi to accommodate the increasing levels of aid flowing into Gaza. This humanitarian area expanded includes field hospitals, tents and increased quantities of food, water, medicine and additional supplies.”
“In accordance with government approval – continues the message from the Armed Forces – a continuous assessment of the situation will guide the gradual movement of civilians in the specified areas, towards the humanitarian area. Appeals to temporarily relocate to the humanitarian area will be transmitted through posters, SMS messages, phone calls and media broadcasts in Arabic”, concludes the message, accompanied by links to maps and graphic indications on the transfer, directed to the “expanded humanitarian area” of Khan Yunis.
01:00 – 16 dead in an Israeli attack in Rafah
Sixteen people were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah. This was reported by health and relief sources in Gaza, specifying that two families were affected (7 deaths in the first and 9 in the second). According to health sources, there were two separate raids, in two different places in Rafah: the Yebna refugee camp and near Al Salam.