As of: March 25, 2024, 3:49 p.m
Comments
Press
Split
The UN Security Council voted in New York on the call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
© John Minchillo/AP/dpa
The UN Security Council has voted and called for a ceasefire in Gaza for the first time.
The events at a glance.
Gaza - Almost six months after the start of the war, the UN Security Council called for an “immediate ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip for the first time.
The veto power, the USA, abstained from the vote of the most powerful body in the United Nations, thereby enabling the adoption of the resolution, which is binding under international law.
USA does not rule out consequences of Rafah offensive
The US government is not ruling out consequences if Israel's army actually invades the city of Rafah on the border with Egypt, which is currently overcrowded with hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees, as part of a ground offensive.
“I’m not ruling anything out,” US Vice President Kamala Harris replied to a question in a TV interview.
“We have made it clear in several conversations and in every respect that any major military operation in Rafah would be a big mistake.” She did not give details about possible consequences.
Meanwhile, Israel's Defense Minister Joav Galant is heading to the USA, where he wants to meet, among other things, his counterpart Lloyd Austin.
At the same time, another Israeli delegation is expected in Washington.
The US government wants to show visitors ways in which Hamas can be defeated without a Rafah offensive.
Release of prisoners?
According to media reports, during indirect negotiations in Qatar, Israel agreed to approach Hamas and release hundreds more Palestinian prisoners than had previously been agreed to in exchange for 40 Israeli hostages.
We are now talking about 700 and even up to 800 prisoners.
Report: Israel faces endless guerrilla war
Meanwhile, Israel's army is in danger of being drawn into an endless guerrilla war by Hamas due to a lack of a clear strategy, as the Wall Street Journal writes.
The Israeli armed forces are fighting in more and more places in the Gaza Strip that they had previously taken and from which they had withdrawn, the US newspaper reported.
This shows how hard Israel is fighting to eliminate Hamas and bring the Palestinian coastal area under its control.
My news
Unusual event: 25,000 people wait in St. Peter's Square - Pope foregoes reading sermons
Seriously injured ski jumping ace with devastating bedside diagnosis
Putin wants an “empire” – also with the help of Soviet material: “Losses are an acceptable price” read
On Princess Victoria's name day: Prince Oscar steals the show
Skoda's novelty with a combustion engine impresses fans - read “It's sustainable”.
Motorcyclist from Munich has to return on foot - and takes out anger on construction yard employees
The Israeli army said it began a new military operation in Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip on Sunday.
An Israeli soldier was killed during another operation at Shifa Hospital in the northern city of Gaza.
The army had already been involved in fighting in these locations in recent months and had said that the Hamas formations in these areas had been defeated and disbanded.
According to a media report, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also warned Israel not to continue the war without a clear strategy.
Israel needs a coherent plan, otherwise it will get tangled up in an uprising that it will not be able to get under control, Blinken said last week at a meeting with Netanyahu and his war cabinet, the news portal “Axios” reported.
If the war continues as before, Hamas would remain in control of the Gaza Strip or anarchy would break out, resulting in even more terror.
Netanyahu responded that “we will have our hands full for decades,” the news portal reported.
UNRWA reports: Too little help for people in Gaza
Despite urgent warnings of famine in the Gaza Strip, according to the United Nations, aid deliveries are no longer arriving in the embattled coastal strip.
The UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA said that an average of 157 trucks carrying aid supplies had driven into the Gaza Strip every day this month - up to and including March 23.
“This is still far below the operational capabilities of both border crossings and the goal of 500 a day,” said the statement from the organization, against which Israel recently raised terrorism allegations.
Israeli authorities did not allow urgent food deliveries to the north of the Gaza Strip.
UNRWA's corresponding requests were all rejected.
Aid organizations have repeatedly warned that hunger in the Gaza Strip has reached catastrophic proportions.
According to the head of UNRWA, Israel no longer allows the aid agency to send humanitarian convoys to the north of the Gaza Strip.
UNRWA is being prevented from bringing life-saving aid to northern Gaza, wrote Philippe Lazzarini on the platform X, formerly Twitter.
Guterres advocates a two-state solution
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has once again spoken out in favor of a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict.
"Israelis must see their legitimate security needs realized and Palestinians must see their legitimate aspirations for a fully independent, viable and sovereign state realized," he said in Jordan's capital Amman.
This is the only way to permanently end the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
Given the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, Guterres called on the Israeli government to open more border crossings for aid deliveries.
“But we have to face the facts.
“In a war as bloody as this one, there will be no sustainable humanitarian solution,” Guterres said in a meeting with Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi.
This requires a humanitarian ceasefire.
He acknowledged that nothing justifies the “heinous October 7 attacks and Hamas hostage-taking.”
At the same time, he said: “Nothing justifies the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.” dpa