Two influential far-right Israeli ministers on Thursday (February 15) strongly rejected the possibility of a peace plan that Washington and its allies are considering, according to some media outlets, to release hostages held in Gaza and advance the creation of a Palestinian state. According to the Washington Post, the Biden administration and a small group of its Arab allies are working on a comprehensive plan to establish lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Follow our live stream.
Netanyahu remains. Despite international warnings, Israel is sticking to its plan to launch a military operation in Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians are hiding in terrible conditions. “We will fight until complete victory, which requires strong action in Rafah, and only after civilians are allowed to leave the combat areas,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stormed on his Telegram account
Conversations are ongoing. Ceasefire negotiations, including new releases of Hamas hostages and Palestinians detained by Israel, continue in Cairo under the mediation of Qatar and Egypt. After a meeting on Tuesday attended by the head of the Mossad, Israeli intelligence, the CIA director, the prime minister of Qatar and Egyptian officials, those negotiations were expected to continue until Friday.
Hospitals flooded. The WHO has once again denounced the situation of hospitals in Gaza, which are “totally flooded, overwhelmed and inadequately supplied”. Staff have to carry out amputations because there is a lack of resources to treat patients, the local WHO representative from Gaza said. “One of my colleagues described the situation in Rafah as a 'pressure pot of despair'. If it 'explodes', the consequences could be catastrophic,” the director of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs lamented to franceinfo.