As of: March 26, 2024, 5:25 a.m
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Rafah is in ruins.
Federal Foreign Minister Baerbock is now urgently warning against the planned ground offensive in the city.
© Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
The UN Security Council calls for an “immediate ceasefire” for the first time, but the Gaza war continues.
The USA and Baerbock warn of an offensive on Rafah.
The news at a glance.
Washington/Gaza - The fronts in the Gaza war have continued to harden even after the UN Security Council called for an “immediate ceasefire” in a resolution.
While UN Secretary-General António Guterres strongly called for the resolution to be implemented, the Islamist Hamas reiterated its call for a permanent ceasefire - and blamed Israel for the lack of an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of more hostages.
In turn, major disagreements arose between Israel and its important ally the USA: Out of anger that the Americans had helped the resolution succeed, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a delegation trip to Washington at the last minute.
The US government reacted irritably and at the same time tried to appease the Israelis and downplay the importance of the Security Council resolution.
USA: Resolution is not binding
“It is a non-binding resolution that has no impact on Israel and its ability to continue to act against Hamas,” said US National Security Council communications director John Kirby.
Resolutions of the World Security Council are indeed binding under international law.
Secretary General Guterres also demanded that the resolution be implemented.
“Failure would be unforgivable,” he warned on the platform X, formerly Twitter.
On Monday, Kirby dismissed various questions about whether the relationship between Israel and the USA - and specifically between Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden - had reached a low point.
That is not the case.
“Israel remains a close ally and a friend,” the communications director emphasized, but added: “That doesn’t mean we agree on everything, and my goodness, we don’t.”
Baerbock praises Palestinian contribution
Meanwhile, after a conversation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock praised the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Abbas personally for their contribution to the UN resolution.
With its clear condemnation of Hamas's violent crimes against civilians in Israel on October 7, the PA led by Abbas made "an important contribution" to the decision in New York, said Baerbock in Ramallah.
She can only join the call for Hamas to lay down its weapons.
Hamas is stubborn in negotiations
However, Hamas said the mediators had been told that it was sticking to its original position.
In addition to a “comprehensive ceasefire”, this also provides for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip, the return of the displaced and a “real” prisoner exchange.
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The reason is that Israel “has not responded to any of the fundamental demands of our people and our resistance.”
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu “and his extremist government bear full responsibility for thwarting all negotiation efforts and preventing an agreement so far,” it said.
Israel has always rejected calls for a complete withdrawal of troops and a permanent ceasefire.
Hamas, in turn, makes any further release of hostages dependent on an Israeli commitment to ending the war.
Netanyahu has repeatedly described this demand as illusory and has insisted that the war to destroy Hamas will resume once a hostage rescue agreement is implemented.
Several media reports said that during negotiations between the mediating states of Qatar, Egypt and the USA, Israel had agreed to approach Hamas and, in exchange for 40 Israeli hostages, release a few hundred more Palestinian prisoners than had previously been agreed.
Baerbock warns of Rafah offensive
Before her return visit to Israel, Federal Foreign Minister Baerbock urgently warned Israel against the planned ground offensive in Rafah in view of the humanitarian situation.
“There cannot be a major offensive on Rafah,” she said, referring to the fate of the many civilians in the city, where many war refugees have sought protection.
“People cannot disappear into thin air.”
The US government also once again warned Israel against a large-scale ground offensive in the city in the south of the sealed-off Gaza Strip, which borders Egypt.
The US State Department announced after a meeting between department head Antony Blinken and Israeli Defense Minister Joav Galant that Blinken had again spoken out against a major ground offensive in Rafah during the consultations, which would further endanger the well-being of the more than 1.4 million Palestinians there .
USA: Rafah offensive still seems far away
Israel's Minister for Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, and National Security Advisor Zachi Hanegbi were supposed to have flown to the USA to be shown alternatives to the planned ground offensive.
U.S. National Security Council communications director Kirby said there were no signs “that the Israelis are immediately preparing to conduct a ground operation in Rafah” or that this could happen in the coming days.
“It seems that they are still a long way from entering Rafah.” According to Netanyahu, Israel's army has drawn up plans to bring civilians to safety.
Israel rejects UN expert's report as disgrace
Meanwhile, Israel's diplomatic mission to the United Nations in Geneva has described a UN human rights expert's report on the Gaza war as a disgrace to the Human Rights Council.
“The report is therefore an obscene reversal of reality, where a so-called expert can make outrageous accusations, the more extreme the better,” wrote the representation on the platform X (formerly Twitter).
According to media reports, the UN human rights expert Francesca Albanese had previously accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip in a still preliminary version and described the founding of the Jewish state as a “settlement-colonialist project”.
The Italian lawyer is the UN Human Rights Council's rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, but does not speak for the UN.
dpa