Enter theWorld Health Organization raise the alarm againstmilitary offensive israeliana a Rafah (it would be “one humanitarian catastrophe beyond imagination”), the government Netanyahu attacks, in no uncertain terms, the announced plan of the United States and the Arab countries for the birth of one Palestinian state. All this a few hours after the prime minister’s decision to withdraw his delegates from the negotiations underway in Cairo to find an agreement on the hostages con Hamas and while the special forces Israelis entered theNasser hospital in Khan Younis. Doctors Without Borders reports deaths and injuries: “We were forced to leave the facility”, underlines the NGO. But the prime minister’s spokesperson makes it clear that no step backwards is expected from the executive: “Now is not the time to talk about gifts for the Palestinian people, at a time when the Palestinian Authority itself has yet to condemn the massacre of October 7,” he said, referring to the birth of a Palestinian state. Tension also in the north, with the back and forth between Hamas and Israel. Defense Minister Gallant: “We can also hit Beirut.”
Plan – As anticipated by Washington Postthe US and many Arab countries are working on a detailed plan for a pace understanding between Israelis and Palestinians that includes “one fixed chronology” for the birth of the Palestinian state. The official announcement could take place in the next few weeks. The central point of the Plan would be to achieve a cease-fire initial between Israel and Hamas of six weeks during which the United States would announce the plan and formation of a Palestinian government ad interim. But waiting to know the details of the plan and the official position of Israel, the Minister of National Security and leader of Jewish power, Itamar Ben Gviranticipates everyone and harshly criticizes the project by stating that “the intention of the USA together with the Arab countries to establish a terrorist state alongside Israel is disappointing and part of the misconception that there is a partner for peace on the other side.” Position relaunched by the other colleague, also a representative of a right-wing party, Bezalel Smotrich: finance minister and leader of Religious ZionismSmotrich attacked by asking the Cabinet to ensure that “a clear decision is made with theopposition to the Plan“.
WHO warning about the offensive in Rafah – Thus – while on the international front Spain and Ireland are asking to verify whether Israel has violated the human rights in Gaza and Macron asks Netanyahu to stop the war – Israel is preparing to start the announced military offensive against Rafah, a city in the southernmost tip of the Gaza Strip, on the border with Egypt. An operation for the World Health Organization would cause “a humanitarian catastrophe beyond imagination”. An alarm, raised by the WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territories, Rich Peepercornwhich comes at a time when hospitals are “completely overloaded and onbrink of collapse“. Peeperkorn pointed out that 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza they are now crammed into makeshift tents and shelters “everywhere.” Furthermore, the UN health agency’s ability to deliver medical aid to Gaza is severely limited, as many requests for the delivery of supplies they were rejected by Israel. Only 40% of WHO missions in the northern Gaza Strip were authorized in November, and that number has dropped significantly since January. “Even in the absence of a ceasefire, they should exist humanitarian corridors for the WHO and the United Nations to do their work,” Peeperkorn said.
Special forces in Nasser hospital – Meanwhile, as the UN reports, the ground operations and the heavy ones fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups, in particular a Khan Younis and Rafah. “The airstrikes on Rafah have increased fears of an escalation in the southernmost area of Gaza, which already hosts more than half of Gaza’s population,” the United Nations reports. “Nasser it is the backbone of the healthcare system in southern Gaza. It must be protected. Humanitarian access must be allowed. Hospitals must be protected so that they can carry out their life-saving function”, insists the WHO, underlining that health infrastructures “must not be militarized or attacked”. All this while theIsraeli army confirms that his special forces they entered right into theNasser hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, claiming to have credible information that bodies of the hostages captured on October 7 by Hamas are in the facility. “We carry out targeted recovery operations, as we have done in the past, where our intelligence indicates that there may be hostage bodies,” reads an IDF statement. Al Jazeera had reported the news of the raid by Israeli forces on the hospital, explaining that they had given themselves until seven in the morning to evacuate the building. The broadcaster’s correspondent spoke of the “presence of soldiers” and with “heavy tanks and artillery that they opened fire” in different departments. “Dozens were injured in the attacks – he continues al Jazeera – this is the largest health facility in southern Gaza which is now completely out of service, the entire medical staff has been surrounded, with his hands tied behind his back“.
MSF: “Doctors forced to abandon hospital” – “Following the bombings this morning, the Doctors Without Borders team in action at the Nasser hospital” in Khan Yunis “reports a chaotic situationwith an unknown number of dead and injured. After the attack, one MSF staff member remains untraceable“. The NGO made this known in a note. “MSF medical staff were forced to leave the hospital, and above all the patients within it. Israeli forces set up a checkpoint to control the exit from the hospital complex; a member of MSF staff was detained.” The Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, “has been under attack since the early hours of this morning, despite Israeli forces having told medical staff and patients that they could remain in the facility. Thousands of displaced people who had found refuge in the hospital were ordered to abandon it on February 13th”, continues Doctors Without Borders in the note. Finally, MSF asks the Israeli forces to “stop this attack immediatelyas it endangers the medical staff and patients who are still stuck inside the facility.”
The front with Lebanon – And while concern for the southern area of the Strip is growing, the northern external front is increasingly tense. A few hours after the news of the killing of 13 people – including civilians, including women and children – in the south of Lebanon due to Israeli bombings, in response to rocket launches by the Hezbollahthe Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Miqatisaid his government will present formal complaint to the UN for “Israeli aggression”, as reported by the Beirut media. Also from the Lebanese press are the words of Sheikh Nabil Qawuqmember of the Central Council of Hezbollah: “We respond to Israel’s escalation with escalation, if they force our civilians to abandon their homes, we force their civilians to leave their homes, if they destroy our homes, we destroy their homes,” Qawuq threatened. Israel responded with another threat: that of Israel, the defense minister said Yoav Gallantit’s only “one step in 10, we can’t attack just 20 kilometers inside Lebanon but also 50. A Beirut and elsewhere.”
Tel Aviv made it known that in “an operation aimed at Nabatieh” killed Ali Muhammad al-Dabsa commander of the Forza RedwanHezbollah’s elite unit, as well as his deputy Ibrahim Issa and to an operational third. Al-Dabs, they explain, “was among those who directed the terrorist attack on Megiddo to Israel in March 2023. He conducted, planned and carried out terrorist activity against Israel, especially during this war.”