LAST UPDATE: 16:06
We told the mediators that this carnage must stop, Hamas politburo leader Ismail Haniyeh said at midday on Wednesday.
Referring to the statements of the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Haniyeh said that what Netanyahu is saying “are false promises, which we will not let him fulfill.”
Haniyeh then stated that the hostages captured by Hamas were subject to the same destruction and death scene “to which our people are subjected”.
Among others, he sent the message: “Tell the US to stop supporting Israel, through military means, and to stop obstructing international efforts to end the violence in Gaza.” At the same time, he called on Arab and Muslim countries to continue their demonstrations and support for the Palestinian struggle.
He then said regarding Rafa that it is important for humanitarian operations to continue from both sides of the border
Second Israeli attack in Jambaliya
The Hamas government in Gaza says Israeli airstrikes hit apartment buildings in Jabaliya for the second day in a row, causing many deaths and injuries.
In Jabaliya there is a refugee camp, which was already hit yesterday, on the other hand the Israelis say it is a stronghold of the terrorist organization on the outskirts of Gaza City
The toll from those strikes was not immediately known, and the figures released by the Palestinians have yet to be verified.
On Tuesday, several buildings in the neighborhood collapsed after an Israeli strike. The Israeli military said they fell when Hamas terrorist tunnels collapsed beneath them following airstrikes targeting the battalion chief and terrorist infrastructure.
Hamas: 7 hostages killed by Israel’s strike in Jambaliya
Hamas’s armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said on Wednesday that seven civilian hostages it had taken in Israel during its bloody October 7 attack were killed in Israel’s shelling of the Jabaliya refugee camp on Tuesday.
Three of the hostages who lost their lives had foreign passports.
The Palestinian Islamist group, which has controlled power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, has so far released four hostages out of a total of 239 believed to be being held.
War corvettes in the Red Sea
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) say they have reinforced the Red Sea region with naval vessels carrying missiles, following several missile and drone attacks by Yemen’s pro-Iranian Houthi rebels, who control about half of it. country and its capital, Sanaa, since 2015.
The IDF said the vessels were deployed on Tuesday “according to the assessment of the situation and as part of increased defense efforts in the area”.
On Tuesday, the military intercepted a missile and two drones fired from Yemen against Israel. A new strike attempt was foiled early Wednesday morning near Israel’s southernmost city of Eilat.
The military said it has several layers of air defenses in the area to protect against Houthi attacks.
US armed forces have also been deployed in the Red Sea region and have intercepted a number of Houthi missiles and drones heading towards Israel.
Israel: 326 dead soldiers since October 7
The Israeli military said today that nine of its members were killed on Tuesday in fighting in the Gaza Strip against Hamas, releasing their names. Casualties in Chahal’s ranks since October 7 now stand at 326, according to official figures.
Telecommunications “blackout” in Gaza
The main telecommunications provider in the Gaza Strip announced in the early hours via X (formerly Twitter) that it had “completely” disrupted fixed and mobile networks and internet access in the enclave, which has been under siege by the Israeli army since on the 9th of October.
The Palestine Telecommunication Company (Paltel) explained that international connections that had been restored were cut again. “We have the sad obligation to announce the complete disruption of all telecommunications and internet services in the Gaza Strip,” the company said in a post addressed to “the beloved people of our homeland.” An AFP journalist in Gaza confirmed the outage, clarifying that he only has access to telecommunications networks through his international SIM card.
Telecommunications and internet access had already been cut in the Gaza Strip on Friday, when the Israeli army intensified its shelling of the Palestinian enclave, cutting off all access to its 2.4 million residents. They began to gradually recover from Sunday. The Palestinian Red Crescent announced when access to telecommunications networks and the internet was first cut that it had “lost all contact with the operations center and all (its) teams in the Gaza Strip”. Likewise the World Health Organization (WHO). The non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) had expressed its concern that the shutdown risked “being used as a cover for the commission of mass atrocities and contributing to impunity”.
Rafa border crossing opened
Dozens of foreigners and dual nationals left the Gaza Strip for Egypt today through the Rafah border crossing, which was opened to people for the first time in the 26th day of the war between Israel and Hamas, according to a journalist. of the AFP located there.
They were allowed to enter the terminal at around 09:45 GMT after Egyptian authorities announced that the border crossing would be opened on an emergency basis to allow the passage of nearly 90 wounded Palestinians and around 545 dual nationals and foreigners.
According to an initial announcement issued last night, Tuesday, the border crossing would only be opened to remove the injured, but Egyptian and Palestinian officials at the terminal said this morning that nearly 545 foreigners and dual nationals would also be allowed through. to leave the Gaza Strip.
According to an Egyptian security source, up to 500 foreign passport holders will be allowed to pass through the Rafah border crossing today, after an agreement was reached to open the border crossing. A second source familiar with the deal and the removals said there was a list of up to 500 foreign passport holders to leave the Gaza Strip, but added that not all were expected to do so today.
About 200 people were waiting on the Palestinian side of the border this morning, the source added to Reuters.
A list of their names, nationality and passport number had been shared by the administration on the Palestinian side of the crossing.
Meanwhile, according to a Palestinian official at the terminal, a total of 88 wounded, including 40 children, women and the elderly, were expected to be evacuated today via Rafah to Egyptian hospitals.
“Children and some elderly people will have chaperones with them,” the official clarified.
The spokesman for the Hamas government’s health ministry in Gaza, Ashraf al-Kudra, told AFP that his services had submitted to Egypt a list of 4,000 wounded in need of treatment, which cannot be provided in the Gaza Strip. “We hope they will be able to leave within the next few days because they need surgery, which cannot be done in Gaza. We will have to save their lives,” he added.
Egypt built a hospital
The first images of a newly constructed hospital facility opened by the Egyptians near the Rafah crossing in Sheikh Zuweid have been released.
The hospital is intended to treat wounded people passing through Gaza.
Mediation Qatar
Qatar has brokered a deal between Egypt, Israel and Hamas, in coordination with the US, that will allow limited removals of foreign passport holders and critically injured people from the besieged Gaza Strip, it said earlier today in Reuters source, who had been briefed on the deal. She noted that no timetable has been announced for the period of time during which the border crossing will remain open for their removal. He also clarified that this agreement is not linked to other issues under negotiation, such as the issue of hostages held by Hamas, or pauses in hostilities aimed at easing the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave, which suffers from a lack of water, food , fuel and medical materials.
According to the Reuters news agency, there is no agreement on how long the crossing will remain open.
The Palestinian Authority calls for a general strike in the West Bank and North Jerusalem
A general strike is called today in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to denounce Israeli “aggression” in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
The strike, called by the Fatah party that controls the Palestinian Authority, is affecting businesses, banks and universities and is accompanied by calls to “escalate the confrontation with the occupation”.
