The Israeli army and Lebanese Hezbollah exchanged missile fire on the night of Thursday April 25 to Friday April 26, 2024 while an Egyptian delegation is expected in Israel, in the hope of advancing talks for a truce and the release of hostages in Gaza.
The Israeli army reported “two anti-tank missile shots” having hit northern Israel from Lebanon overnight and said to have targeted the “sources of these strikes” with artillery fire.
Military planes struck “infrastructure” Hezbollah in the Kfarchouba sector, the Israeli army said in a brief statement.
For its part, Lebanese Hezbollah, a movement supported by Iran and ally of Palestinian Hamas, claimed responsibility in a press release for the shooting ” touch “ Israeli forces on the border.
Israel presses Hamas
The Israeli army announced Thursday April 25, 2024 that its planes had struck the day before “30 Hamas targets” across the territory and killed several fighters of the Islamist movement. The Hamas Ministry of Health counted 43 deaths in 24 hours.
After six and a half months of bombings and ground fighting, Israel estimates that the Palestinian Islamist movement still has four battalions grouped in Rafah.
Government spokesman David Mencer announced that the war cabinet had met “to discuss ways to destroy the last battalions of Hamas”.
Several Israeli media outlets, citing officials without giving their names, reported that the cabinet had discussed a new truce plan combined with a hostage release, ahead of a planned visit Friday by an Egyptian delegation.
A Hamas political leader, Ghazi Hamad, for his part assured from Qatar that an assault on Rafah would not allow Israel to obtain ” What he wants “, “eliminate Hamas or recover” the hostages.
Hamas warned “Egypt, Qatar”two of the mediating countries in the conflict with the United States, as well as ” other countries “ of “danger posed by an invasion of Rafah”underlined Mr. Hamad.
Combat and airstrikes
Fighting took place north of the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, according to witnesses.
AFP correspondents and witnesses also reported artillery fire and airstrikes on the Zeitoun neighborhood, in the south of Gaza City.
Airstrikes also hit Rafah, where survivors were trying to salvage items from the rubble on Thursday.
According to Egyptian officials, cited by the Wall Street JournalIsrael is preparing to move civilians from Rafah to the nearby town of Khan Younes, in particular, where it plans to set up shelters and food distribution centers.
This evacuation would last two to three weeks and would be carried out in particular in coordination with the United States, Egypt and other Arab countries, according to these officials.
Many capitals and humanitarian organizations fear, in the event of an offensive, a bloodbath in this city in the south of the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt, refuge for nearly a million and a half Palestinians.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, affirms that an offensive on this city is necessary to defeat Hamas and free the hostages held in Gaza, the two main stated objectives of the war launched on October 7 in the Palestinian territory.
Washington builds pier for Gaza
The US military has begun building a pier off the coast of the Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave devastated by more than six months of Israeli military offensive, the Pentagon said Thursday.
This pier will be operational by early May.
“U.S. military ships, including the USNS Benavidez, have begun constructing a temporary pier and submersible causeway”Pentagon spokesperson Patrick Ryder told the press.
American President Joe Biden announced in early March the construction of an artificial port in the face of difficulties in transporting international aid by land from Egypt, due to very strict controls imposed by Israel.
“Just 50 kilometers from the Gaza Strip, vital aid and equipment, including water desalination equipment, first aid kits, oxygen tanks and mobile toilets […] remain waiting in warehouses, banned from entering Gaza on the pretext that they can be used by fighters”said Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, on Thursday.
Macron threatens Israeli settlers
France “consider other measures” sanctions against Israeli settlers “guilty of violence against Palestinian civilians” in the West Bank, the French presidency announced on Thursday, following a telephone call between Emmanuel Macron and the King of Jordan Abdallah II.
“Regarding the West Bank, the two leaders strongly condemned recent Israeli announcements regarding settlements, which were contrary to international law”indicated the presidency in a press release.
Emmanuel Macron “recalled that the first measures had been taken against settlers guilty of violence against Palestinian civilians, and that France was considering other measures, in consultation with its partners”we added from the same Source.
In February, Paris said it had adopted “sanctions” against 28 “extremist Israeli settlers” guilty of “violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank”. These 28 individuals are “targeted by an administrative ban from French territory”according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Complaint against Columbia
Palestine Legal, an organization that seeks to protect the rights of people in the United States to speak on behalf of Palestinians, said Thursday it has filed a federal civil rights complaint against Columbia University after the mass arrest last week of demonstrators protesting against the war in Gaza.
The organization called on the U.S. Department of Education to investigate the university’s actions that it says represent discrimination against people supporting Palestinians.
Columbia University declined to comment.
The university asked the New York police last week to intervene on campus to dislodge demonstrators. More than 100 people were arrested.
Protesters call for an end to the war in Gaza.
