Prime Minister Netanyahu said a date was set for a ground attack on Rafah after Israeli forces withdrew from nearby Khan Yunis.
Here's what happened on Tuesday, April 9, 2024:
Combat and humanitarian crisis
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that a date had been set for a ground assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where some 1.4 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering.
- Israeli forces withdrew from another city in the southern Gaza Strip, Khan Yunis, on Sunday, ending a key phase of the war. Defense officials said they were rebuilding their posture before entering Rafah.
- In response, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zafri told Al Jazeera that the threat of invasion “raises questions about the purpose of resuming negotiations.””.
- In its latest update on Gaza, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest update on Gaza that Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital remained “completely dysfunctional” after weeks of deadly Israeli siege. reported.
- Gaza's Health Ministry said on Monday that the war had killed more than 33,200 Palestinians and left nearly 76,000 injured. Two-thirds of the deaths were women and children.
Diplomacy and geopolitical tensions
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France needs to pressure Israel to open its borders, and possibly impose sanctions, to get humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, France's foreign minister said on Tuesday.
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Stéphane Séjourne told RFI radio and France 24 television: “To get humanitarian aid through checkpoints, we need the means of influence, and there are multiple methods, up to and including sanctions.” Ta.
- Turkey has restricted the export of 54 products to Israel after Israel rejected Turkey's request for military cargo planes to participate in humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza.
- On October 7, Pope Francis held an hour-long audience with relatives of prisoners held by Hamas to commemorate the six-month anniversary of the attack in southern Israel.
- Germany has been indicted by the United Nations Supreme Court on charges of “facilitating the commission of genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by providing military and political aid to its ally Israel.
- In Syria, Israeli warplanes targeted military positions and infrastructure in the Mahaja area on Monday.
- Qatar's embassy in Washington rejects statement by US House Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairman James Comer making “inaccurate claims” that Doha has been paying Hamas “$30 million per month since 2018” did.
- And in the United States, former President Donald Trump said that Jews who will vote for incumbent Joe Biden in November's presidential election “do not love Israel and frankly should be talked to.”
- Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke to Israel's Yoav about what the Israeli military is doing to investigate the “tragic attack” that killed seven aid workers in the Gaza Strip last week, according to a Pentagon statement.・I asked Defense Minister Gallant a question.
- In a post on X, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said disinformation was exacerbating the crisis in Gaza and called for international journalists to be allowed access to the enclave.
Information warfare has deepened the trauma of the Gaza war by obscuring facts and shifting blame.
Denying international journalists entry into Gaza has allowed disinformation and false reporting to flourish.
— Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) April 8, 2024
Violence in the occupied West Bank
- The Israeli military said on Monday that its troops shot and killed a Palestinian woman who tried to stab a soldier at a checkpoint in the northern West Bank. According to the military, the incident took place at the Tayasil checkpoint near Tubas.
- Israeli forces arrested 10 Palestinians in raids across the occupied West Bank on Monday night, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
- Wafa said three young men were arrested and one was wounded in Israeli gunfire at the Aqabat Jabr camp east of Jericho. Wafa also added that seven people were arrested during Israel's large-scale raid in and around Tulkarem.