As of: February 12, 2024, 5:06 a.m
By: Jens Kiffmeier, Felix Busjaeger, Tadhg Nagel, Felix Durach, Nail Akkoyun
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According to Israel, a tunnel was found under the UNRWA headquarters.
Hamas does not want to release any more hostages if Israel attacks Rafah.
News ticker about the war in Israel.
UN relief agency pilloried
: According to Israel, Hamas is said to have hidden a tunnel under its headquarters
Israel
prepares
offensive
on
Rafah
: Netanyahu calls for plan to evacuate civilians
Hezbollah
attacks
: Terrorist militia announces further attacks on Israel
The information processed here about the war in Israel and the fight against Hamas in the Gaza Strip
comes from local and international media as well as news agencies.
Much of the information cannot be independently verified.
Update from February 12th, 4:30 a.m.:
The Israeli military says it managed to free two hostages during a nighttime operation in Rafah in the Gaza Strip who had been kidnapped by Hamas fighters in the attack on October 7th.
In the joint operation by the Israeli army, the Shin Bet intelligence service and the Israeli police, “two Israeli hostages were rescued, Fernando Simon Marman (60) and Louis Har (70),” it said in a statement on Monday (February 12). of the military.
The men are in good health.
The Israeli army previously said it had “carried out a series of attacks on terrorist targets in the Shabura area of the southern Gaza Strip.”
AFP journalists and eyewitnesses reported the shelling of the city on the border with Egypt.
The radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas reported 52 deaths as a result of the attacks.
More than 20 people are said to have been killed in aerial attacks on two houses in Rafah on Saturday (February 10, 2024).
© Fatima Shbair/dpa
Update from February 11th, 7:02 p.m.:
Saudi Arabia says it has made an aid payment of $250 million (around 231.8 million euros) to the internationally recognized government in Yemen.
This is reported by the AFP news agency.
The transfer to the Yemeni Central Bank was intended to support the payment of state salaries and other expenses, said the Saudi ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed al-Jaber, on Sunday in online networks.
Attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon: At least two fighters killed
Update from February 11th, 5:37 p.m.:
As the German Press Agency reports, Israeli warplanes again attacked targets of the Shiite militia Hezbollah in southern Lebanon on Sunday.
Among other things, a rocket site in Marwahin and military installations near the towns of Ramieh and Jarun were hit, the Israeli military said.
Two Hezbollah fighters are said to have been killed in the attack.
Since the beginning of the Gaza war after the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7th, there have been repeated confrontations between Israel's army and militant groups such as Hezbollah in the Israeli-Lebanese border region.
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Relations with the USA shaken because of the Israel war: Netanyahu considers comments “exaggerated”
Update from February 11th, 4:18 p.m.:
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will probably travel to the Middle East next week.
A spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry confirmed the trip to Israel, but did not provide any further details.
Meanwhile, relations between Israel and the US appear to be further hardening.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told
Fox News
that he has not spoken to Joe Biden since the US president made comments that Israel's war in Gaza was "exaggerated."
“As you know, I believe the response in Gaza was overblown,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Thursday.
Possible offensive in Rafah: Hamas threatens to break off hostage negotiations
Update from February 11, 12:28 p.m.:
According to Hamas, a possible Israeli ground offensive in Rafah would destroy any negotiations regarding the release of hostages who are still being held in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas broadcast this statement on the
Aksa
TV station it operates .
A high-ranking representative of the terrorist organization is quoted.
Update from February 11th, 12:15 p.m.:
According to Palestinian information, 112 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours.
The local health authority said 173 people were injured.
In total, 28,176 Palestinians have died and 67,784 have been injured since the beginning of the war.
Hamas tunnel under UN headquarters: Israel calls for UNRWA chief to resign
Update from February 11, 8:05 a.m.:
There were apparently several servers in the Hamas tunnel that was found under the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza.
The Israeli military therefore assumes that Hamas' secret service operated a data center in the tunnel, the army said on Saturday.
Large quantities of weapons and explosives have also been found in the abandoned headquarters of the UN Palestinian Relief Agency in the past two weeks.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini defended himself in the face of the find: the building had already been evacuated in the early stages of the war and there was no knowledge of a tunnel underneath.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz rejected this as “absurd” and called for the UNRWA chief to be replaced.
“His immediate resignation is essential,” Katz wrote on the platform X (formerly Twitter).
War in Israel: Netanyahu promises civilians in Rafah “safe corridor”
Update from February 11th, 6:30 a.m.:
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has assured that the Israeli army will set up a safe corridor for the civilians waiting in the city of Rafah before an attack.
“We will (...) give the civilian population a safe way out of the city,” Netanyahu said in an interview broadcast on US broadcaster
ABC News
.
“We are working out a detailed plan for this.
“We are not taking this matter lightly,” Netanyahu stressed.
Areas north of Rafah have already been cleared and can be used as safe zones for the civilian population, Netanyahu said.
At the same time, he emphasized that victory was “within reach”: “We will do it.
We will take the remaining Hamas terror battalions and the last bastion of Rafah.”
Israel reports discovery of Hamas tunnel under UNRWA headquarters
Update from February 10th, 9:29 p.m.:
That's it again
UN Palestinian Relief Agency UNRWA in the pillory: The Israeli military has apparently discovered a Hamas militia tunnel that is said to run under the international organization's headquarters in the city of Gaza.
The underground passage was 700 meters long, 18 meters deep and served as an important facility for Hamas's military intelligence service, the military said on Saturday evening.
In the past two weeks, the military also claims to have found large quantities of weapons and explosives in the headquarters, which was abandoned by UNRWA in the early stages of the war.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said he had no knowledge of this.
The aid organization has recently come under heavy criticism.
There have been repeated accusations from Israel that it is working with Hamas.
Specifically, some employees were accused of being involved in the terrorist acts carried out by the Islamist Hamas on October 7th in Israel.
Several Western countries temporarily suspended payments to UNRWA because of the allegations, including the two largest donors, the United States and Germany.
UN Secretary General António Guterres promised comprehensive information.
The collaboration with several employees has been terminated.
Air strikes on Rafah: Israel's military kills two Hamas officials
Update from February 10, 7:01 p.m.:
Hamas officials are believed to have been killed in the air strikes on Rafah.
As the
Tagesschau
reports, one of those killed was responsible for the security of the Hamas leaders, the other worked as a senior investigator for the militant Islamist group.
This emerges from information from the Israeli military.
A Rafah-based investigator was also killed in the attacks on the city in the Gaza Strip.
Medical sources said more than 20 people were killed in aerial attacks on two houses in Rafah on Saturday.
The mayor of the city in the south of the coastal area, Ahmed al-Sufi, also confirmed the number of victims to the German Press Agency.
In addition, Israeli soldiers are said to have bombed a Hamas vehicle.
Three people, including the head of the Islamist organization's police intelligence service and his deputy, were killed.
According to Israel, the army adheres to international law in its operations and takes precautions to minimize damage to the civilian population.
Medic found dead in Gaza Strip – offensive in Rafah is looming
Update from February 10th, 5:58 p.m.:
Two paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent were found dead in the city of Gaza.
Both were reported missing twelve days ago.
This is reported by
ZDF
.
It is said that the paramedics were on their way to rescue a six-year-old girl.
Update from February 10, 5:30 p.m.:
Faced with a possible offensive on Rafah in the Gaza Strip, Hamas warned on Saturday that there could be “tens of thousands” of dead and injured if Israel's military continued the attack.
In a statement, Hamas said any military action would have catastrophic consequences.
AFP said witnesses reported new attacks on Rafah early Saturday, raising fears among Palestinians of an impending ground invasion.
Criticism of the offensive in Rafah: Israel is expanding fighting in the Gaza Strip
Update from February 10th, 2 p.m.:
International criticism of the Israeli offensive in the south of the Gaza Strip continues.
Saudi Arabia has also now expressed criticism about the attacks on the city of Rafah.
The kingdom noted the serious consequences of military action in Rafah and stressed its categorical rejection of the forced relocation of hundreds of thousands of civilians, according to a Foreign Ministry statement on Saturday.
Riyadh called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to “prevent Israel from causing an impending humanitarian catastrophe.”
War against Hamas: Israel launches attacks on Rafah
Update from February 10th, 12:14 p.m.:
Despite concerns and warnings expressed internationally, the Israeli military has launched attacks on the city of Rafah.
Medical sources said more than 20 people were killed in aerial attacks on two houses on Saturday.
The mayor of the city in the south of the coastal area, Mohammed al-Sufi, also confirmed the number of victims to the dpa.
Israeli soldiers also bombed a Hamas vehicle, killing three people, including the Islamist organization's head of police intelligence and his deputy, according to police sources and eyewitnesses on Saturday.
None of the information could initially be independently verified.
Israel's military initially did not comment when asked.
There are currently no Israeli ground troops deployed in the city.
Rafah's mayor Al-Sufi warned of an army advance into the town.
“Any military action in the city, home to more than 1.4 million Palestinians, will result in a massacre and a bloodbath.”
“Catastrophic consequences” threaten – Israel targets Rafah
Update from February 10, 7:00 a.m.:
The Israeli army continued to bomb targets in the region of the city in the south of the Gaza Strip following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's order to develop a plan to evacuate the civilian population from Rafah.
Eyewitnesses reported attacks on Saturday morning in the area around the city, which is now home to around 1.3 million Palestinians.
More than a million Palestinian internally displaced people have sought refuge from the fighting in the city on the border with Egypt since the start of the war.
The human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) sharply criticized Netanyahu's announcement.
“Forcing the more than one million Palestinian refugees in Rafah to undergo a new evacuation without there being a safe place for them to go would be illegal and would have catastrophic consequences,” said HRW representative Nadia Hardman on the night Saturday.
There are no safe places left in the Gaza Strip.
“The international community should act to prevent further atrocities,” Hardman said.
Soldiers “disguised as seemingly harmless, protected medical personnel and civilians.”
“By masquerading as seemingly harmless, protected medical personnel and civilians, the Israel Defense Forces also prima facie committed the war crime of perfidy, which is prohibited under all circumstances,” they added, calling on Israel to investigate.
According to the Israeli military, one of the men killed in the hospital was a member of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, while the others worked for the Jenin Brigade and the armed wing of Islamic Jihad.
Israel prepares offensive on Rafah
Update from February 9th, 7 p.m.:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the country's army to prepare an offensive on the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
"It is impossible to achieve the war goal of eliminating Hamas if four Hamas battalions remain in Rafah," he said through the prime minister's office on Friday.
The plans that the military leadership should present to the government must also include the evacuation of civilians in Rafah, the statement said.
A military offensive in Rafah, which lies in the very south of the Gaza Strip and borders Egypt, is considered highly problematic.
The town, which had around 300,000 inhabitants before the war, is now said to be home to 1.3 million people.
Most of them fled there from other parts of the Gaza Strip before the war, partly on orders from the Israeli military.
“Combined Plan” for Evacuation and Destruction - Warnings of Humanitarian Disaster
“It is clear that intense (military) activity in Rafah requires civilians to clear the combat zone,” Netanyahu said on Friday.
He therefore instructed the military leadership to present the government with a “combined plan” for the evacuation of the population and the destruction of the Hamas battalions.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres had previously warned of a humanitarian catastrophe and consequences for the entire region.
Half of the Gaza Strip's population is crammed into Rafah and has nowhere else to go, he wrote on the news platform X, formerly Twitter.
The US government and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock have also spoken out clearly against military action in Rafah in recent days.
Israeli soldiers storm hospital in Khan Yunis
Update from February 9th, 5:45 p.m.:
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, Israeli soldiers stormed a hospital in the city of Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip.
This is reported by the
AFP news agency.
The Israeli armed forces stormed the Al-Amal hospital and began a search, the organization said on Friday.
The Israeli military did not initially respond to a request from the news agency.
At the beginning of the week, the Red Crescent announced that around 8,000 people who had sought protection in the hospital had been evacuated.
Around 40 displaced people, 80 patients and 100 employees remained in the hospital after the evacuation.
Israel has recently focused its military action on Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip.
The army suspects that high-ranking officials of the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas are hiding in the city, as well as hostages kidnapped by them.
Netanyahu has Rafah evacuated
Update from February 9th, 4:32 p.m.:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his armed forces to draw up plans for the evacuation of the civilian population in the city of Rafah.
The military should present the government with a “combined plan to evacuate the population and destroy the battalions” of the radical Islamic group Hamas in Rafah, the prime minister's office said on Friday.
Update from February 9th, 3:40 p.m.:
The Syrian state news agency SANA has reported the shooting down of two Israeli drones near the capital Damascus.
The drones entered Syrian airspace from the Golan Heights.
The report cannot currently be independently verified.
Israel's armed forces have not yet commented on the allegations.
War in Israel: Hezbollah announces attacks – “Sirens will sound”
Update from February 9th, 7:48 a.m.:
In response to an Israeli drone attack on the vehicle of a high-ranking Hezbollah member, the Lebanese terrorist militia has launched a new series of attacks against northern Israel.
The Israeli army had not previously claimed responsibility for the attack in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatea.
However, both Arab and Israeli media reported the incident and identified the Hezbollah member as Abbas al-Debs.
A Hezbollah spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the target's identity, telling
Newsweek
that "Debs' name was mentioned by Israel, not us."
He further claimed that no one was killed and there were “only injured people.”
He then threatened that sirens would sound in “a number of settlements” in Israel.
Biden criticizes Israel: “Action in the Gaza Strip is excessive”
First report:
Tel Aviv/Gaza - While things remained relatively quiet in Israel and the Gaza Strip on Friday night (February 9th), US President Joe Biden tightened his tone towards Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the action against the terrorist militia Hamas described as disproportionate.
“I believe the response in Gaza has been excessive,” Biden said.
There are many innocent people who are starving, in need or even dying.
“This has to stop.” During his appearance in front of the press, the Democrat actually spoke about a domestic political issue, but at the end he answered a question about the crisis in the Middle East.
The USA has long been urging Israel to increase protection of the civilian population and provide more aid to the population in Gaza.
However, the US government's recent statements indicate increasing discontent with the resonance of its appeals with the Israeli leadership.
Air strikes on Rafah: Apparently several people killed
According to media reports, Israeli air strikes took place overnight on Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip.
According to the Qatari-operated broadcaster
Al Jazeera,
several people were killed in the attack on residential areas.
Israel has stepped up airstrikes on Rafah in recent days after Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed to expand the military offensive on the city to advance the war against Hamas.
In this case, too, the United States warned urgently of catastrophic consequences for the civilian population if the operation were extended to the city.
It was only on Wednesday (February 7th) that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken struck a strikingly clear note during a visit to Israel and warned the military leadership to do more to protect civilians in the Gaza war.
The dehumanization that Israel experienced in the Hamas massacre in October “cannot be a license” to dehumanize others, Blinken said in Tel Aviv.
(talk to agencies)