The city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians threatened by the war in Gaza have sought refuge, is the scene of fierce Israeli attacks on Saturday, at a time when diplomacy is trying to impose a new ceasefire amid regional conflagration.
Shortly after midnight, an AFP journalist heard heavy attacks in this town on the border with Egypt, at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas' health ministry said at least 100 civilians were killed that evening and night, including 14 early Saturday in attacks on two apartment buildings in Rafah.
In recent weeks, Israeli operations have focused on the neighboring town of Khan Younes, the second largest in the area where the Israeli army says the local command of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas is hidden.
In the rain, thousands of residents continued to flee Israeli fighting and bombing by car, on foot, by bicycle or on donkey carts.
The displaced are trying to shelter in Rafah, where, according to the United Nations, more than 1.3 million of the microterritory's roughly 2.4 million residents are now crowded together and at risk of famine and epidemics in the middle of winter.
While the war knows no respite, diplomacy is trying to negotiate a second ceasefire, which will last longer than a week, negotiated under the auspices of Qatar, Egypt and the United States and which, at the end of November, allowed the release of around a hundred Israelis Hostages in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Towards a second ceasefire?
Qatar-based Hamas leader Ismaïl Haniyeh is still expected in Egypt to discuss a proposal developed at a meeting in late January in Paris between CIA chief William Burns and Egyptian officials, Israelis and Qataris.
According to a Hamas source, the proposal includes three phases, the first of which calls for a six-week ceasefire in which Israel must release 200 to 300 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 35 to 40 hostages held in Gaza, and 200 to 300 aid trucks can enter that daily Enter area.
In recent days, Qatar reported “early” signs of Hamas support for the ceasefire, but the Palestinian Islamist movement then claimed it had not yet made a decision on the proposal and wanted a ceasefire, not another breach.
The proposed pause in fighting was “approved by the Israeli side,” Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said this week.
But Israel continues to reiterate that it will only finally end its offensive in Gaza once the Islamist movement is “eliminated,” the hostages are freed and after obtaining guarantees for the future security of its territory.
The war was sparked by an unprecedented attack on Israeli soil by Hamas commandos from the neighboring Gaza Strip that killed more than 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count, according to official Israeli figures.
In response to the attack, Israel vowed to “destroy” Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007, and launched a military offensive that left 27,131 dead, the vast majority civilians, according to a recent report. Assessment by the Hamas Ministry of Health.
Blinken and Séjourné tours
The ceasefire project must also be the focus of a new Middle East trip by American Secretary of State Antony Blinken, which begins on Sunday and will take him to Qatar, Egypt, Israel and the occupied West Bank, as well as Saudi Arabia.
On the night, Mr. Blinken said he wanted to “work for lasting peace in the region, including lasting security for Israelis and Palestinians alike” during this tour.
New French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné begins his first trip to the region on Saturday, which will take him to Egypt, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.
The aim of this tour is to “advocate for a ceasefire and the release of hostages” and “to persuade to reopen a political perspective” based on the two-state solution, a viable state of Palestine alongside Israel, said the ministry's spokesman, Christophe Lemoine.
MM. Blinken and Séjourné will end up in a Middle East in great distress as the Gaza war expands into a broader conflict between Israel and its allies on the one hand and the Israeli-led “Axis of Resistance” on the other. Iran and allied movements such as the Palestinian Hamas, the Lebanese Hezbollah, Iraqi militias and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The United States carried out attacks overnight against elite Iranian forces and pro-Iranian groups in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for an attack on Sunday in Jordan that killed three American soldiers and that Washington attributed to groups backed by Iran .
According to Washington, a total of 85 targets were attacked in seven different locations (three in Iraq and four in Syria). According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), at least 18 pro-Iranian fighters were killed in eastern Syria alone.
From Yemen, Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for firing ballistic missiles into southern Israel. For its part, the Israeli army claimed to have intercepted a missile that was approaching its territory in the Red Sea.