A meeting of the Israeli security cabinet, fighting intensifying throughout the Gaza Strip... Your newspaper
Le Figaro
takes stock of the situation this Sunday March 17.
An organized safety meeting
This Sunday, a meeting of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet is due to take place.
It will focus on negotiations for a possible truce in Gaza.
Despite international pressure for a ceasefire, the Israeli Prime Minister, who has vowed to destroy Hamas, is determined to continue the war and his army continues to bombard the cramped Palestinian territory it is besieging.
The raids were intense in Deir al-Balah, Gaza City in the north and in the towns of Khan Younes and Rafah in the south, according to witnesses.
Fierce fighting pitted Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters in Khan Younes and Gaza City.
New death toll
The Hamas Health Ministry announced on Sunday a new toll of 31,645 people killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement.
Among them, 92 were killed in the last 24 hours, the ministry said in a statement, reporting a total of 73,676 wounded since the start of the war on October 7.
Rafah operation maintained
Benjamin Netanyahu approved
“action plans”
for a ground offensive in Rafah, involving an
“evacuation of the population
,” his office said without further details.
“In the name of humanity, we call on Israel not to move forward”
with its operation against Rafah, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization.
Insufficient aid
Considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, Hamas said it was ready, in a new proposal, for a six-week truce, during which 42 hostages - women, children, elderly and sick people - could be released in exchange for 20 to 50 Palestinian prisoners for each hostage released.
The movement also demands the
“withdrawal of the army from all towns and populated areas”
, the
“return of the displaced”
and the entry of at least 500 aid trucks per day into Gaza, said one of its executives. .
Israel controls the entry of land aid into the Gaza Strip, which remains very insufficient given the needs of the 2.4 million inhabitants, the vast majority of whom are threatened with famine according to the UN.
Departing from Cyprus, a boat from the Spanish NGO Open Arms carrying 200 tonnes of food from the organization World Kitchen Central unloaded its cargo in Gaza.
Aid must be delivered to the north of the Palestinian territory, where the humanitarian situation is particularly catastrophic.
A second aid boat is ready to leave, according to Cyprus.
In addition, several Arab and Western countries continued to airdrop food into Gaza.
But for the UN, aid by land is vital.