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Global leaders have called on Israel to exercise restraint in Rafah as the Netanyahu government pressures Hamas to reach a ceasefire deal before Ramadan.
AFP
The raging Gaza war is now in its 138th day. In the greater Middle East, tensions have reached unprecedented highs after the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said Iranian-backed Houthis attacked a ship that carried humanitarian aid for the Yemeni people.
In the tensed Israel-Lebanon border, Hezbollah has stepped up its attacks toward northern Israel. The Iranian-backed terror group, which is also a Hamas ally but has a much larger weapons arsenal than the Palestinian militant group, targeted what it said was a “gathering at the Birkat Risha site” of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Back in war-torn Gaza, protests against Hamas in northern Gaza started early Wednesday local time. Palestinians held demonstrations chanting “down with Hamas.”
The U.S. has vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza but did not condemn Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre of more than a thousand people in Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office late on Tuesday said it working to confirm the “credibility” of Qatar’s statement that Hamas had confirmed medicine meant for hostages in Gaza was being delivered.
The Netanyahu government has refused to soften up to international pressure for a ceasefire and the recognition of a Palestinian state, which President Joe Biden and other Western leaders have said could bring lasting peace and end the violent history of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Meanwhile, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said it has halted aid shipments to northern Gaza, citing attacks by civilians on its aid distribution convoys.
The international community continues urging Israel to refrain from pursuing a ground invasion of Rafah, an overcrowded city in the southern Gaza Strip believed to currently have more than a million people.