Israel launches ground operation, Gaza City 40% occupied. Fear for hostages

An initial death toll reported by Al-Jazeera speaks of at least 41 dead. The Wafa news agency, citing medical sources from the al-Shifa hospital, reports that eight people were killed in an attack, most of them children and women, and 40 were injured. Two more children were killed after Israeli forces targeted the neighbourhood of Daraj, east of Gaza City. Four people were also killed in an attack in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City, reports al-Jazeera. Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, reports that three people were killed and several others were injured when an Israeli fighter jet bombed a flat in a refugee camp in Deir el-Balah. The Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat reports that seven people were killed and 20 injured when Israeli forces shelled Palestinians at a humanitarian aid distribution point in the central Gaza Strip.

Hostage families: "This could be their last night".

Ahead of the Israeli operation to take over Gaza City, Hamas has reportedly moved hostages above ground, into houses and tents, to prevent the army from operating in certain areas, Palestinian sources in Gaza told Israel's public broadcaster Kan. Yesterday, the mother of hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal said she had been informed that her son was being held above ground in Gaza City, after the terrorist group released a video last week showing him in the back seat of a car.

The Hostages Families Forum of Israel has launched a 'desperate appeal' to protect their loved ones, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of sacrificing them. It is reported in the Times of Israel. "The 710th night in Gaza," the group states, "could be the last night in the lives of the barely surviving hostages, and the last night when it will be possible to locate and return the slain hostages for a dignified burial. The Forum claims, the Israeli newspaper further writes, that a significant number of the 22 hostages considered alive by Israel are being held in Gaza City. "The prime minister is consciously choosing to sacrifice them on the altar of political considerations," the group adds, accusing him of ignoring the advice of the IDF Chief of Staff, who reportedly warned against the operation.

UN investigators said they had determined that Israel had been committing "genocide" in Gaza since October 2023, with the "intent to destroy Palestinians" in the territory. "We have come to the conclusion that genocide is taking place in Gaza and that the responsibility lies with the State of Israel," said Navi Pillay, head of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Israeli reaction to UN pronouncement. "Three individuals acting as Hamas representatives, known for their openly anti-Semitic positions - and whose horrific statements about Jews have been condemned around the world - today published another false 'report' on Gaza," the Israeli Foreign Ministry writes on X after the report of the Navi Pillay-led Commission of Inquiry. "It is based entirely on Hamas falsehoods, recycled and repeated. These fabrications have already been thoroughly debunked. Israel categorically rejects this distorted and false report and demands the immediate abolition of this Commission of Inquiry."

Last Tuesday morning the Israeli PM Netanyahu had informed Trump Israel had planned to attack Hamas leaders in Qatar, some 50 minutes before the attack, three Israeli officials with direct knowledge of the matter told Axios. The White House claimed it was warned when the missiles were already in the air, which would have given Trump no chance to oppose the attack. Israeli officials, on the other hand, told Axios that the White House knew about it beforehand, even though the timeframe to stop the raid would have been tight.

The Qatar called on the international community to sanction Israel for its 'crimes' and for sabotaging the negotiations. And the rest of the Arab leaders squared off, with Egypt sending its own planes to monitor the meeting and also involving Turkey. "On the economic front, Israel should be cornered," said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "As Turkey, over the past year and a half we have stopped any transaction with Israel," the Turkish leader recalled, after Ankara had also announced in recent weeks that it had closed its airspace to Israel and would prevent ships linked to the Jewish state from docking in Turkish ports.

The Arab-Islamic leaders attending the Doha summit "threaten everything on the path to normalising relations with Israel, including existing and future agreements". This is stated in a draft of the final document of the Doha Arab-Islamic summit circulated to the media, referring to the Abraham Agreements, which the Jewish state has signed with some Arab countries and would like to extend to other partners in the region. "The continuation of Israel's aggressive practices, in particular its crimes of genocide, ethnic cleansing, siege causing famine, as well as its colonisation and expansion activities, undermine the prospects for peace and peaceful coexistence in the region," the draft reads.

Yesterday, meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Sudani, speaking in Doha, Qatar, at the Arab-Islamic summit following the Israeli attack on a Hamas headquarters in the Qatari capital, told Al Jazeera that 'an enemy attack is tantamount to an aggression against all of us... we need a collective security response in the Nato manner'.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will express US support for "Qatari sovereignty and security" during his visit to Doha following last week's Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in the country. This was stated by US State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott in a note.

The US and Israel are engaged in confidential discussions, with the indirect involvement of several third countries including Iran, on a potential plan to transfer Hamas' top leaders from Gaza to Tunisia. This was reported by security analyst Matthias Inbar of i24News, an Israeli television channel. The proposal would allow some of the most intransigent Hamas figures to voluntarily leave the enclave, a measure reminiscent of the precedent in the 1980s when Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) were exiled.

However, the hypothesis of relocating Hamas officials in Tunisia raises perplexities, recalls the same Israeli media: although Tunis has long supported the Palestinian cause, both public opinion and some sectors of the political class are much less supportive of Hamas, raising concerns about the appropriateness of hosting the group's most radical members.

Making the political climate fiery in recent hours have been the words of the Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, of the extreme right, who speaking at a police ceremony announced his intention to create a luxurious neighbourhood for the police overlooking the sea in Gaza City. 'The settlements provide security,' he explained, 'and the time has come to create Jewish settlements in Gaza. It will not just be housing, but a symbol of our faith and our vision'. Local media reported this.

Mattarella: inhuman condition of children in Gaza, unbearable incivility

"The condition of children in the world is a constant reminder to consciences. Children's rights are continually at risk and are often violated not only in war zones, where we are in the presence of a real humanitarian emergency that affects children in particular. I think of the heartbreaking memory of children in desperate conditions of malnutrition and neglect as in Sudan. Of children abducted and taken from their families as in Ukraine. Of children, even infants, killed or kidnapped by terrorism as in the vile day of 7 October two years ago. Of children dying of starvation when hospitalised due to malnutrition in hospitals that have no means to help them and are often destroyed by bombing, as in the inhuman, stubborn condition of Gaza. This state of affairs represents an unbearable burden of incivility for the international community. These are the tragic consequences, truly tragic, as we all feel, of the brutal violence of wars'. So said the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, at the Quirinale, receiving the Burgio 'Dalla parte dei bambini' award.