Hamas: “nothing will stop us” on the path to “victory”, assures Netanyahu – L’Express

2023-12-13 20:26:08

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International pressure is mounting against Israel, with the overwhelming majority of the United Nations General Assembly calling for a “humanitarian ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip, which has become “hell on earth” according to the UN due to incessant bombings and humanitarian conditions that are more terrible every day. While at the same time Joe Biden warned Israel against the erosion of international support.

⇒ A “humanitarian ceasefire” adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.

⇒ Biden denounces “indiscriminate” bombing of Israel.

⇒ One hundred and fifteen Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza since the start of the war.

“Nothing will stop us,” says Netanyahu

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“Nothing will stop us” on the path to “victory” in the war against Hamas, neither the death of soldiers nor “international pressure” in favor of a cease-fire, the Prime Minister declared on Wednesday. Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We will continue until the end. There is no doubt about it. I also say this in light of the great suffering” caused by military losses but “also in view of international pressure”, affirmed Benjamin Netanyahu visiting a military base in southern Israel. “Nothing will stop us. We will go to the end, until victory, nothing less,” he added.

Ceasefire: the head of Israeli diplomacy rules it out at this stage

“Israel will continue the war against Hamas, with or without international support,” Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said in a statement, quoted by Reuters. He also ruled out any “ceasefire”, which “at this stage would be a gift to the terrorist organization Hamas and would allow it to return to threaten the inhabitants of Israel”.

A senior American adviser to Israel

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan will travel to Israel on Thursday and Friday, after differences between the two allies came to light. He will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli “war cabinet” as well as President Isaac Herzog. The latter warned Israel against the erosion of international support due to its “indiscriminate” bombings on the Gaza Strip, carried out since the bloody attack on October 7 by Hamas.

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For the first time since the start of the war, Joe Biden, who presents himself as Israel’s strongest supporter, publicly discussed his differences with the Israeli government over the long-term outlook for the Palestinians. He considered that Israel had to “change” its line and deplored the opposition of the current executive to a two-state solution, the scenario supported by Washington.

Hospital patients targeted?

According to the spokesperson for the Hamas Ministry of Health, this Wednesday, December 13, the Israeli army fired on the rooms of patients at the Kamal Adwan hospital, the headquarters of which was reinforced in the north of the Gaza Strip. “The occupying forces reinforced the siege and targeting of Kamal Adwan Hospital, firing on patient rooms and courtyards […] We fear the death of 12 children in pediatric care because they are deprived of milk and survival equipment,” he said.

This information is not verified by AFP or other reliable sources, and the Israeli army has not reacted yet. On Tuesday, the Hamas Ministry of Health already accused the Israeli army of having launched an assault on the Kamal Adwan hospital, ensuring that it had been “besieged and bombed” for several days. According to Hamas, more than 18,600 people have already been killed in Israeli strikes since October 7.

Von der Leyen wants sanctions against settlers

“The rise in extremist settler violence is inflicting immense suffering on Palestinians. It undermines prospects for lasting peace and could further aggravate regional instability. That is why I support sanctioning those involved in the attacks in the West Bank,” Ursula von der Leyen, speaking in French, declared in Strasbourg.

Gaza is experiencing “hell on earth” according to the UN

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Taking over from a paralyzed Security Council, the UN General Assembly on Tuesday called for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, in a resolution adopted by 153 votes for, 10 against, and 23 abstentions. But the text, non-binding, does not condemn Hamas, an absence castigated by Israel and the United States who voted against.

The population in the Gaza Strip, where 85% of the 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced and entire neighborhoods destroyed by bombings, is experiencing “hell on earth” and has “no more time, no more “options” launched the director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini. “Faced with bombings, deprivations and diseases, in an ever more cramped space, (the Palestinians) are confronted with the darkest chapter of their history since 1948 and yet it was a painful story,” added the head of the UNRWA, during the Global Refugee Forum.

The “continuing suffering” of the Palestinians

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In a joint statement, the Prime Ministers of Australia Antony Albanese, Canada Justin Trudeau and New Zealand Christopher Luxon defended the right of their Israeli ally to fight the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, in retaliation for the bloody attack of October 7 which 1,200 dead on Israeli territory. But they were also alarmed by the continued shelling of the Gaza Strip by Israel, where more than 18,000 people have died, according to Hamas, and where the humanitarian situation is catastrophic. “We are alarmed by the diminishing security space for civilians in Gaza,” they said. “The price of defeating Hamas cannot be the continued suffering of all Palestinian civilians,” the three leaders added.

Biden’s warning to Israel

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“There is no doubt about the need to eliminate Hamas,” the US president said at a reception in Washington to raise funds for his re-election campaign. But, he warned, while Israel currently has the support of “Europe” and “most of the world,” “they are losing that support with the indiscriminate bombing which take place”. Until now, Mr. Biden had refrained from talking about “indiscriminate bombings”. Earlier in the day, the American president had already taken the liberty of criticizing the “most conservative government in history”, urging his Israeli counterpart to change it.

115 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza

The Israeli army announced on Wednesday the deaths of 115 soldiers in the Gaza Strip since the start of the offensive against Palestinian Hamas. Ten soldiers died during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the deadliest day for the Israeli army since the start of its ground operations on October 27 in the Palestinian territory.

Six Palestinians killed in occupied West Bank

Six Palestinians were killed Tuesday in Jenin by Israeli forces, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said, with the Israeli army reporting an operation against an explosives factory in this town in the occupied West Bank. Requested by AFP, the Israeli army indicated that it had carried out an operation in Jenin which made it possible to discover “explosive devices placed to attack the security forces”. She claims to have seized weapons, ammunition and other explosives.

Stocks of children’s vaccines ‘exhausted’ in Gaza

The Hamas Ministry of Health affirmed this Wednesday that “stocks of vaccines for children are completely exhausted”, and warned of “catastrophic health repercussions” in the Gaza Strip. International humanitarian aid organizations have been concerned for weeks about the increasingly terrible humanitarian conditions in the small territory that the Israeli army has been shelling since the Hamas attack on October 7. “Vaccines are one of the priority products that we are trying to bring (into the Gaza Strip) so that we can continue the vaccination campaign,” said the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian Territories.

Biden meets families of American hostages

Joe Biden meets on Wednesday at the White House with families of American hostages held in Gaza, according to a senior American executive official. This is the first in-person meeting of the American president with the families of hostages captured during the unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 on Israeli soil from the Gaza Strip.