The essentials in brief:
UNHCR appeals to Security Council
USA: “Ceasefire is not the right answer”
Palestinian human rights activists are calling for international arrest warrants
Putin exploits anti-Israel violence
Relatives of German hostages: “The clock is ticking”
Against the backdrop of heavy fighting, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has called on the divided Security Council to unite and support a ceasefire. “A humanitarian ceasefire can at least stop this death spiral, and I hope that you will overcome your differences and use your authority to call for such a ceasefire,” Grandi told the UN Security Council in New York.
The Security Council has so far not adopted a resolution on the three weeks of fighting between the Israeli military and the terrorist Hamas in the Middle East. Some draft texts are blocked by the US because they do not mention Israel’s right to self-defense. Another draft is rejected in particular by Russia and China because it does not clearly call for a ceasefire.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was also extremely concerned about intensified fighting in the Gaza Strip. “The civilian population has borne the brunt of the current fighting from the beginning,” Guterres said in a statement.
Smoke rises over damaged buildings in Gaza City after Israeli military strikesImage: Abed Khaled/AP/dpa/picture alliance
US “does not support ceasefire at this time”
“We do not believe that a ceasefire is the right answer at the moment,” said White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, referring to Israel’s fight against the militant Islamist Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip. “We do not support a ceasefire at this time,” he made it clear in Washington. Instead, consideration should be given to “pauses” to bring aid to the Gaza Strip for civilians. At the same time, Kirby was convinced that “in the coming days” it would be possible to send “a hundred trucks a day” to the Palestinian territory. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, a total of 144 trucks have arrived in the sealed-off coastal area since the war between Israel and Hamas began.
John Kirby at his press conference in the White HouseImage: Bonnie Cash/UPI Photo/newscom/picture alliance
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously rejected a ceasefire. “Just as the United States would not agree to a ceasefire after the bombing of Pearl Harbor or the terrorist attacks of September 11th, Israel will not agree to a halt to fighting with Hamas after the terrible attacks of October 7th,” Netanyahu stressed. “Calls for Israel to agree to a ceasefire are calls to capitulate to Hamas, to terrorism, to barbarism. That will not happen.”
Netanyahu compared the fight against Hamas to the Allies’ fight against the Nazis. Despite civilian casualties, the Allies were not told in World War II not to “eradicate National Socialism,” said Israel’s prime minister. A journalist had previously asked him whether Israel was collectively punishing the people in the Gaza Strip for Hamas’ terror with the air strikes.
An Israeli tank during an operation in the north of the Gaza StripImage: Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu/picture alliance
As an example, Netanyahu cited an attack by British pilots on the Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen during World War II. At that time, the pilots “blundered”, missed the target and ultimately killed dozens of children. “This is nothing to blame Britain for. This was a legitimate act of war with tragic consequences that accompany such legitimate acts.” The Allies fought the war to the end despite the tragic consequences. They knew that the future of civilization was at stake, said Netanyahu. “Well, I’m telling you now that the future of our civilization is at stake.”
According to a military spokesman, Israel’s army continued its fight against Hamas with ground troops this Tuesday. Israeli troops are “in various parts of the northern Gaza Strip,” explained Jonathan Conricus. Tanks, armored fighting vehicles and bulldozers were moved into the Gaza Strip. According to the military, a leading commander of the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7th was also killed in the latest air and ground attacks.
Major attack on October 7th
Hundreds of Hamas terrorists breached Israeli border fortifications on October 7th, killing soldiers and defenseless civilians. A number of victims were tortured. Hundreds of people were kidnapped into the Gaza Strip. Hamas fired thousands of rockets into Israel.
According to the latest information from the Israeli military, more than 1,400 people were killed in the attack on its own territory and at least 240 people were kidnapped as hostages. According to figures from the Hamas authorities, more than 8,500 people were killed in the Gaza Strip in subsequent Israeli attacks. This information cannot be independently verified. In addition to Israel, Hamas is also classified as a terrorist organization by the USA, the EU, Germany and other countries.
The situation in the Gaza Strip is getting worse
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Palestinians: “Gaza is hell on earth”
The head of the UN Palestinian Relief Agency (UNRWA) is urging an expansion of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. A handful of convoys as before are not enough for more than two million people in need, said UNWRA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. “The existing system that allows aid to be delivered to Gaza is doomed to fail unless there is the political will to make the flow of aid meaningful and meet the unprecedented humanitarian needs.” The people in the Gaza Strip have the feeling that they are “not treated like other civilians.” Most of them felt trapped in a war that they had nothing to do with, Lazzarini explained in New York.
The Palestinian representative to the United Nations chose drastic words for the suffering of the population in the Gaza Strip. Riad Mansur began by quoting former UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld as saying: “The United Nations was not founded to take us to heaven, but to save us from hell.” Then Mansur added: “Gaza is now hell on earth.” Saving humanity from hell means nothing other than saving the Palestinians in Gaza, said Mansur.
Palestinians leave their homes after an air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza StripImage: Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa/picture alliance/dpa
According to the UN, acute fuel shortages in the Gaza Strip are already affecting the population’s water supply. “Only one desalination plant is operating at just five percent capacity, while all six water treatment plants in the Gaza Strip are currently out of operation due to lack of fuel or electricity,” UNICEF Children’s Fund Director Catherine Russell reported at the emergency meeting. She is imploring the UN Security Council to immediately adopt a resolution that reminds the parties to the conflict of their obligations under international law, said Russell.
Israel once again rejected demands to deliver fuel to the Gaza Strip. Hamas has enough fuel and Israel will not allow any transports, emphasized the Israeli ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Meirav Eilon Shahar.
Putin exploits anti-Israel violence
Meanwhile, the Kremlin chief has used the anti-Jewish riots in the Russian republic of Dagestan to make accusations against the West. The events in Dagestan’s capital Makhachkala were inspired not least from Ukrainian territory – “at the hands of Western secret services,” Putin said at a meeting on Russia’s security situation, excerpts of which were broadcast on state television. He did not provide any evidence for the claim that events in the Muslim-dominated North Caucasus were allegedly controlled by foreign countries.
Against the backdrop of the Gaza war, anti-Semitic violence occurred in Makhachkala on Sunday evening, in which around 20 people were injured. An angry crowd stormed the city’s airport as a plane from Israel arrived there. Passengers reported being pelted with stones. The police fired warning shots. The USA and Israel’s President Isaac Herzog compared the riots to a “pogrom”.
Hostage relatives: “The clock is ticking”
Relatives of German hostages have appealed to the federal government to do more to ensure their release from captivity in the Gaza Strip. Liri Romann, brother of the kidnapped 36-year-old German Yarden Romann, told the Berlin “Tagesspiegel” after the news of the death of the German-Israeli Shani Louk: “This shows us all that we only have a short time to get everyone else alive to free.” His family was in contact with several German government representatives and was treated with a lot of compassion. After many “warm words,” action must now follow. “It is now time for the German government to use all possible means of pressure to demand that Hamas release all German nationals immediately,” emphasized Romann.
Kidnapped Shani Louk dead
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Shaked Haran, who lost her father and whose mother, German citizen Shoshan Haran, and other relatives were abducted, also told the newspaper that Shani Louk’s death should “make everyone aware that the clock is ticking.” She also continued: “The German government must use all available channels to ensure that the German hostages and their relatives are released.”
Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) told Welt-TV that the federal government was doing everything possible to ensure that no hostages were killed. They are in constant contact with Israel and the authorities there to help free the hostages. “And the announcement is very clear: all hostages – those with German passports, but also everyone else – must be released unconditionally by Hamas as quickly as possible.”
Photos of people abducted to the Gaza Strip in front of a synagogue in CologneImage: Federico Gambarini/dpa/picture alliance
Neubauer “disappointed” with Thunberg
Germany’s best-known climate activist Luisa Neubauer has criticized Fridays for Future International’s stance on the Middle East war. With regard to controversial postings by founder Greta Thunberg, Neubauer told “ZEITmagazin”: “The fact that Greta Thunberg has not yet said anything concrete about the Jewish victims of the massacre on October 7th disappoints me.” In the past she had found the Swede to be “extraordinarily reflective and far-sighted”. The experiences of the past few days are all the more painful.
Greta Thunberg (l.) and Luisa Neubauer (early 2023 in the brown coal town of Lützerath)Image: Federico Gambarini/dpa/picture alliance
The background to the criticism is recent posts on the Instagram account of the international Fridays for Future movement. There was talk of a “genocide” against Palestinians and an “apartheid system” in Israel. Western media were also accused of “brainwashing” to get people to side with Israel. Thunberg also shared a photo on her Instagram profile that showed her holding a sign that read “Stand with Gaza.” Several voices accused Thunberg and her movement of anti-Semitism. The German branch of Fridays for Future distanced itself.
wa/gri/djo/uh/qu/mm (dpa, afp, rtr, kna)
This article will be continually updated on the day it is published. Reports from combat zones cannot be independently verified.