As of: February 18, 2024, 8:38 a.m
By: Nail Akkoyun, Jens Kiffmeier, Stefan Krieger
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Press
Split
Fighting breaks out again in Khan Yunis.
Netanyahu wants to stick to the Rafah offensive.
The news ticker about the war in Israel.
Despite
criticism
: Netanyahu is sticking to the planned Rafah offensive
Negotiations
on
hostage deal
: Israeli President Herzog for talks in Munich
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 18, 8:28 a.m.:
The Israeli army says it killed dozens of Hamas terrorists over the course of Saturday.
Major fighting broke out when the IDF searched a large hospital.
Special forces also stormed several Hamas positions in the southern Gaza Strip, in Khan Yunis, killing gunmen.
According to the Israeli military, there were also tank shelling and air strikes on terrorist militia facilities.
Israeli soldiers in Khan Yunis (archive photo).
© Ohad Zwigenberg/AP
Despite criticism: Netanyahu is sticking to the planned Rafah offensive
Update from February 17th, 10:05 p.m.:
Despite international warnings, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is sticking to the planned military offensive in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Anyone who calls on Israel to renounce the offensive is essentially asking to "lose the war" against the radical Islamic Hamas, Netanyahu said on Saturday evening at a televised press conference.
Netanyahu added that the offensive would also take place in the event of an agreement with Hamas to release the Israeli hostages.
Even if such an agreement is reached, “we will move into Rafah,” said the head of government.
Netanyahu also stressed that an agreement “can only be reached through direct negotiations between the parties without preconditions.”
He dismissed Hamas' demands as "ridiculous."
“Israel, under my leadership, will continue to strongly oppose the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state,” he added.
Meanwhile, thousands of people again protested against Netanyahu's government in Tel Aviv.
They called on Netanyahu to do more to free the hostages and to negotiate seriously.
“I find it sad that the head of government believes that it is not necessary to send representatives to the negotiations in Cairo, where all parties and mediators are except Israel,” said protester Jair Mozes, whose father Gadi Moses is from the Hamas is being held in the Gaza Strip.
Amid threats to Israel: Iran unveils new air defense system
Update from February 17th, 5:55 p.m.:
Amid the tense situation in the Middle East, Iran has presented two new air defense systems, according to media reports.
“This morning the Arman missile defense system and the Azarakhsh low-altitude air defense system built by the Ministry of Defense were unveiled,” state news agency Irna reported on Saturday.
With these systems, “the air defense capability of the Islamic Republic of Iran will significantly increase,” it said.
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According to Iranian Defense Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, the Arman system can “identify targets at a distance of 180 kilometers and attack and destroy them at a distance of 120 kilometers.”
According to Iranian sources, the Asarakh system can be mounted on multiple types of vehicles and uses “radars, electro-optical systems and thermal seekers” to detect and track its target.
The presentation of the new defense systems comes at a time of high regional tensions and a war between Iran's arch-enemy Israel and the radical Islamic Hamas, which is supported by Tehran.
Update from February 17, 2:55 p.m.:
Hamas boss Ismail Haniya has renewed his call for a comprehensive ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
The radical Islamic Palestinian organization will not agree to anything other than a ceasefire, "the withdrawal of the occupying army, the lifting of the oppressive blockade and the provision of safe accommodation for the displaced," said Haniya, who lives in Cairo, on Saturday.
He also called for the release of other Hamas members imprisoned in Israel and for the return of Palestinians expelled from the north of the Gaza Strip.
So far, talks on an agreement between Israel and Hamas taking place in the Egyptian capital Cairo have failed to produce any results.
War in Israel: Hamas authorities report further deaths
Update from February 17th, 1:43 p.m.:
According to the health authority controlled by the Islamist Hamas, dozens of Palestinian people were killed again within 24 hours in fighting and Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip.
During the period, 83 people were killed and 125 others were injured, the authority said on Saturday.
This brings the number of Palestinian people killed since the war began on October 7th to 28,858.
Around 68,700 others were injured.
The information could not initially be independently verified.
According to UN estimates, the majority of those killed were women and minors.
Israel's chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, recently said that the army had "eliminated more than 10,000 terrorists in the Gaza Strip so far, including many commanders."
Update from February 17th, 10:42 a.m.:
There was another rocket alarm in the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon on Saturday.
The warning sirens also wailed in another town north of the Gaza Strip, as the Israeli Aree announced.
There was initially no information about possible victims or property damage.
Israel's army announces further arrests after operation at Nasser Hospital
Update from February 17, 9:07 a.m.:
The Israeli army has so far arrested around 100 people during its operation at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip.
The military said on Saturday that these were “people suspected of being involved in terrorist activities.”
According to the army, Israeli special forces “continued their operation against the terrorist organization Hamas within the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis.”
This is based on intelligence information that Hamas operated from the clinic.
Terrorists were also killed in the area around the clinic.
According to the Hamas-controlled health authority in the Gaza Strip, five patients in the intensive care unit have died so far due to a power outage during the Israeli operation.
Her oxygen supply was interrupted.
The authority had previously warned that other patients and babies in incubators were at risk.
Israel is preventing the transport of seriously ill patients to other hospitals and blocking a UN aid convoy on the way to Nasser Hospital.
The information could not initially be independently verified.
Further arms deliveries to Israel: However, the USA is pushing for more precise strikes against Hamas
Update from February 17, 7:40 a.m.:
According to a media report, the USA is preparing to deliver more bombs and weapons to Israel in the Gaza war, despite pressure for a ceasefire.
As the
Wall Street Journal
newspaper reports, citing current and former US officials, the plans are currently being reviewed within US President Joe Biden's administration and could change in detail before they are submitted to the US Congress for approval.
The Israeli government has asked for “rapid procurement of these items to defend Israel against ongoing and new regional threats.”
Israel is planning a ground offensive in the southern Gaza Strip on the city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians are seeking shelter.
However, the US is now urging Israel to shift from massive bombings to more precise strikes against Hamas.
According to the Wall Street Journal,
the newly proposed arms delivery
also includes precision weapons.
Biden calls on Israel to reduce the risk of civilian casualties and accept a ceasefire.
Hostage deal in sight?
Secret negotiations in Munich
Update from February 17th, 6:33 a.m.:
According to a media report, Israeli President Izchak Herzog secretly met with Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
As the news site
Axios
reported on Saturday night, citing informed sources, both wanted to discuss the difficult negotiations regarding the release of the hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip.
The unusual meeting between the leaders of Israel and Qatar came at a critical time in the hostage negotiations, it was reported.
The mediators tried to move the talks forward despite major differences.
Herzog brought some hostages released during a ceasefire in November and relatives of the abductees still held in the Gaza Strip to Munich,
Axios
reported, citing a source.
Israel and the Islamist Hamas, led by mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the USA, are negotiating a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza war that has been going on for more than four months.
The ceasefire is intended to result in the more than 130 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas being exchanged in phases for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjanmin Netanyahu did not send a delegation to the last round of talks in Cairo on Thursday because of what he saw as Hamas' excessive demands.
But the delays are not necessarily due to a lack of progress, wrote the Israeli newspaper
Haaretz
.
Hamas is also currently slowing down.
After Israel's military operation in Nasser Clinic: 20 suspects arrested so far
Update from February 16, 10:49 p.m
.: The Israeli army's operation at Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip continued for the second day in a row on Friday.
Soldiers have so far arrested 20 suspects who were involved in the Hamas massacre on October 7, the military said on Friday.
Special units took action against the terrorist organization in the clinic.
Dozens of people were reportedly arrested for questioning.
Israeli soldiers also found Hamas weapons in the hospital and Hamas grenades in the area of the clinic, it said.
New allegations from Israel: 30 UN employees are said to have been involved in massacres
Update from February 16, 8:53 p.m
.: Israel has made further allegations against the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees in the Middle East, UNRWA.
There is significant intelligence information that more than 30 aid agency employees may have been involved in the Hamas massacre in Israel, Israel's Defense Minister Joav Galant said on Friday.
For example, they facilitated hostage-taking and looted Israeli communities.
Expulsion from Rafah: Egypt builds camps for refugees from the Israel war
Update from February 16, 7:35 p.m.:
Possible escape corridor for Palestinians:
Before Israel's planned offensive in the southern Gaza Strip, Egypt is setting up a buffer zone near its border with the area to accommodate up to 100,000 refugees.
A wall would be built around the area in order to maintain control over Palestinian refugees if necessary, reports the dpa news agency, citing Egyptian security circles.
Work began about two months ago to accommodate refugees there in buildings and tents.
There was initially no official confirmation of this.
Thousands of people are currently holding out in the city of Rafah.
But gradually there is hardly any place to retreat in the Gaza Strip - and the fighting is getting closer and closer.
The government in Cairo is therefore worried about a mass exodus across the border.
Update from February 16, 5:02
p.m
.: According to Defense Minister Joav Galant, Israel's army has destroyed the majority of Hamas's military divisions in the Gaza war.
“There were 24 regional battalions in Gaza – we disbanded 18 of them,” Galant said on Friday.
According to its own information, the military assumes that each of these battalions has around 1,000 members.
Israel News: Attack claims the lives of two people
Update from February 16, 3:22 p.m.:
According to rescuers, two people were killed in an attack in Israel on Friday.
Four other people were injured, two of them seriously, a spokesman for the Magen David Adom rescue service said.
Among them is a 16-year-old.
Israeli police spoke of a terrorist attack.
The suspected perpetrator opened fire on bystanders at a bus stop near the Israeli port city of Ashdod in the south of the country.
He was “neutralized” by a civilian on site.
According to Israeli media, he was killed.
According to police, security forces were searching the area for possible additional suspects.
The circumstances of the attack and the identity of the suspected perpetrator were initially unclear.
Update from February 16, 12 p.m.:
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) was “very concerned” about the possible consequences of a planned Israeli military offensive in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
“First, the Palestinian civilian population was asked to flee to the south to find safety.
And now there are no good alternatives to escape in Gaza,” Scholz told the
Süddeutsche Zeitung
.
Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas, the Chancellor continued.
However, the country must “adhere to the rules of international law”.
Scholz called for an improvement in the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
The Chancellor continued that he had “repeatedly called on Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to significantly improve the humanitarian situation.”
“But there are still too few aid deliveries.” More than a million people need to be taken care of.
The Chancellor emphasized that in the long term only a two-state solution could bring real peace in the region.
This provides for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state that coexists peacefully alongside Israel.
Israel loses more soldiers in Gaza: Hamas reports deaths of four people in hospital
Update from February 16, 10:54 a.m.:
According to the Israeli army, another soldier was killed in the Gaza Strip.
This brings the number of Israeli soldiers killed in the coastal strip to 233 since the start of the ground offensive against the Islamist Hamas, the Israeli military said on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry said four people had died after a lack of oxygen caused by power outages at a hospital over which the Israeli army had taken control.
The Israeli military said it had indications that there may be “bodies of our hostages” in Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip.
It spoke of a “precise and limited operation” without the need to evacuate patients or staff.
Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals as command centers and civilians as human shields.
Clashes in Gaza: Israeli military eliminates numerous Hamas members
Update from February 16, 9:38 a.m.:
The Israeli military says it has continued its attacks against the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The army announced on Friday morning that numerous terrorist militia fighters had been killed throughout the coastal strip in the past 24 hours.
Among other things, command centers, military facilities and launch pads were attacked.
It was said that a dozen fighters were killed in the southern city of Chan Yunis alone, which has been hotly contested for weeks.
Several fighters were also killed in the center of the coastal strip sealed off by Israel.
All information provided by the Israeli military could not initially be independently verified.
Israel's planned offensive in Rafah continues to be criticized: Biden urged Netanyahu to protect civilians
Update from February 16, 6:45 a.m.:
Israel's planned military offensive on the city of Rafah, which is overcrowded with Palestinians in the south of the sealed-off Gaza Strip, is met with increasing international criticism.
According to a media report, Egypt is now building a massive reception camp in the desert, enclosed by high concrete walls, for tens of thousands of people, out of fear of a mass exodus from the neighboring coastal strip.
In a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Joe Biden once again called for the protection of the more than one million civilians in Rafah.
He reiterated that “a military operation should not take place without a credible and feasible plan to ensure the safety and support of the civilian population in Rafah,” the White House said on Friday night.
Previously, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also called for protective corridors to the north during her visit to Israel.
Baerbock calls for more aid deliveries in the Israel war
First report:
Tel Aviv/Jerusalem/Gaza – Federal Foreign Minister Baerbock spoke out in Israel on Thursday (February 15) in favor of significantly more aid deliveries – specifically 500 trucks a day.
That's how many trucks carrying humanitarian goods drove into the sealed-off coastal area every day before the start of the war.
Baerbock also called for additional border crossings to be opened in Israel.
Israel's army begins operations in a clinic
Israel's army said it began an operation on Thursday (February 15) in a clinic in Khan Yunis, which is in southern Gaza.
Soldiers entered Nasser Hospital to recover bodies of hostages, the military said.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Thursday evening that dozens of suspects had been arrested.
Some were involved in the massacre in Israel.
From interrogations with the suspects and thanks to statements from the released hostages, the army was able to confirm that people kidnapped from Israel were being held on the clinic premises.
There is also information that there are also bodies of hostages there.
The United Nations human rights office made allegations against Israel after the operation.
“The operation appears to be part of a pattern: Israeli forces are attacking vital civilian infrastructure, particularly hospitals,” UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in Geneva on Thursday evening.
Israeli army spokesman Hagari emphasized that the military had acted in accordance with international law in all operations in hospitals in the Gaza Strip and would continue to do so.
“We have no intention of disrupting the operations of the hospital,” he said.
(Talk to agency material)