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🔴 Live: Netanyahu pledges ‘safe passage’ to Palestinian civilians ahead of Rafah operation
Benjamin Netanyahu says in an interview airing Sunday that the Israeli military will provide “safe passage for the civilian population” ahead of an expected assault on the overcrowded southern Gaza city of Rafah, rejecting fears of a “catastrophe. It remains unclear however, where the large number of people pressed up against the border with Egypt and sheltering in makeshift tents can go. Read our blog to follow the latest events.
Issued on: 11/02/2024 – 08:45
2 min
A man stands amid the destruction in the aftermath of Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on February 9, 2024.
A man stands amid the destruction in the aftermath of Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on February 9, 2024. © Mahmud Hams, AFP
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FRANCE 24
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Summary:
In an interview airing Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reiterated his intention to extend Israel’s military operation against Hamas into Rafah, but he promised “safe passage” to civilians displaced there – without giving any details.
The Israeli military says it has discovered tunnels underneath the main headquarters of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City, alleging that Hamas militants used the space as an electrical supply room.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said the agency had no knowledge of the facility’s underground, but the findings merit an “independent inquiry,” which the agency is unable to perform due to the ongoing war.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 28,064 people have been killed and 67,611 wounded in Israeli strikes on the enclave since October 7, the vast majority women and children. Israeli officials say about 1,140 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks in southern Israel. Militant fighters took some 250 hostages during the attack and 132 are still in Gaza, according to Israeli figures.
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26 minutes ago
26 minutes ago
UNRWA chief denies any knowledge of Hamas tunnels
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said the agency had no knowledge of the facility’s underground, but the findings merit an “independent inquiry,” which the agency is unable to perform due to the ongoing war.
Lazzarini said the agency was unaware what lay beneath it, saying he had visited the facility multiple times and did not recognize the electrical room. In a statement, Lazzarini wrote that UNRWA had conducted a regular quarterly inspection of the facility in September.
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31 minutes ago
Israel unveils tunnels underneath Gaza headquarters of UNRWA
The Israeli military says it has discovered tunnels underneath the main headquarters of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City, alleging that Hamas militants used the space as an electrical supply room.
The army invited journalists to view the tunnel on Thursday.
It did not prove definitively that Hamas militants operated in the tunnels underneath the UNRWA facility, but it did show that at least a portion of the tunnel ran underneath the facility’s courtyard
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35 minutes ago
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an hour ago
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised “safe passage” to civilians displaced in Rafah, ahead of a planned ground assault.
Despite international alarm over the potential for carnage in a place crammed with more than half of the Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people, Netanyahu told ABC News: “We’re going to do it”.
“We’re going to do it while providing safe passage for the civilian population so they can leave,” he said, according to published extracts of the interview.
It remains unclear however, where the large number of people pressed up against the border with Egypt and sheltering in makeshift tents can go.
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Yesterday’s key developments:
Witnesses reported new Israeli air strikes on Rafah early Saturday, after the Israeli military intensified air raids, with fears rising among Palestinians of a coming ground invasion. Fourty four, including ten children, were killed in overnight Israeli strikes.
Iran’s top diplomat warned on Saturday that a full-blown attack on Lebanon would “spell the end” of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during a Beirut trip, as cross-border tensions surge over the Gaza war.
Israeli air strikes hit several sites on the outskirts of Syria’s capital, Damascus, the Syrian military said Saturday. The strikes came from the direction of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Syrian state news agency SANA reported, citing an unnamed military official. Three people were killed in the strikes, according to a war monitor.
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”.
The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.
In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN’s counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies.
For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP, Reuters)
