GAZA: World leaders warn of chaos in Gaza and call for urgent movement to phase two of the ceasefire, as Qatar’s prime minister says truce is at a “critical moment.”
Israeli air raids have hit the Maghazi camp in central Gaza. Earlier, Israel’s army killed seven Palestinians in northern Gaza, including a 70-year-old woman and her son. Attacks also wounded a child in Gaza City.
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa has accused Israel of stoking regional tensions to divert attention from the “horrifying massacres” it has committed in Gaza.
Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed at least 70,360 Palestinians and wounded 171,047 since October 2023. A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023 attacks and about 200 were taken captive.
Six killed in Gaza over past day: Health Ministry
Gaza’s Health Ministry says the hospitals in the enclave also received 17 wounded Palestinians in the last 24-hour reporting period.
As we previously reported, at least 373 people have been killed and 970 wounded by Israeli attacks since the start of the ceasefire in October, according to the Health Ministry.
Israel army chief says withdrawal line in Gaza is ‘new border’
Israel’s army chief, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, says the demarcation line that Israeli troops have withdrawn behind in Gaza is a “new border,” according to a military statement.
“We have operational control over extensive parts of the Gaza Strip and we will remain on those defence lines. The yellow line is a new borderline—serving as a forward defensive line for our communities and a line of operational activity,” the army quoted Zamir as saying to reserve soldiers in Gaza.
Under the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Israeli forces have withdrawn to positions behind the so-called yellow line.
Meanwhile, an international campaign to free popular Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, who has been jailed in Israel since 2002, is gathering pace, with more than 200 A-listers, from author Margaret Atwood to actor Javier Bardem, lending their support.
“We express our grave concern at the continuing imprisonment of Marwan Barghouti, his violent mistreatment and denial of legal rights whilst imprisoned,” said an open letter published on Wednesday, calling on the United Nations and governments to take action.
Barghouti, a senior leader of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah group, who is viewed by many as Palestine’s Nelson Mandela, is serving five life sentences in Israeli prisons on alleged charges related to attacks during the second Intifada, which lasted from 2000 to 2005.
On the other hand, Israeli army says it destroyed Hezbollah tunnel, arms depot in Lebanon
The inactive structures were destroyed in recent raids in southern Lebanon, according to an army update.
“The shaft and the weapons depot that were destroyed were once part of Hezbollah’s entrenchment infrastructure in southern Lebanon,” the statement claimed.
“These are old infrastructures that are currently inactive, but their destruction was carried out with the aim of preventing the possibility of future exploitation,” it added.
Lebanon is bracing for a new Israeli offensive as it continues to endure daily air attacks.
