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France calls for 'immediate and durable' truce in Israel-Gaza war
France’s foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, arrived in Israel where she pressed for an “immediate and durable” truce in the war with Hamas.
“Too many civilians are being killed,” Colonna was quoted by AFP as having said during remarks in Tel Aviv with her Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen.
Colonna, who is due to meet the families of French hostages still held in Gaza, is also quoted as saying that Paris is “deeply concerned” over the situation in the territory.
She also stressed that the victims of Hamas’s attacks must not be forgotten, including those subjected to sexual violence.
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Amid the escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, there have been reports of dozens of Palestinians surrounding aid trucks after they drove in through the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
People were seen climbing onboard the trucks, pulling down boxes and carrying them off.
Other trucks appeared to be guarded by masked people carrying sticks, the Associated Press reports.
A source in the Egyptian Red Crescent has told Reuters that 79 aid trucks have entered the Kerem Shalom crossing on their way into Gaza [see post at 12.20]. The crossing had been closed after the 7 October attack by Hamas and aid was being delivered solely through Gaza’s Rafah crossing with Egypt, which Israel said could only accommodate the entry of 100 trucks a day.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, read out a letter at his weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday that he said was written by relatives of dead soldiers.
“You have a mandate to fight. You do not have a mandate to stop in the middle,” he quoted them as saying, responding: “We will fight to the end.”
Aid enters Gaza through Kerem Shalom border crossing for first time since war began, says Israel
The Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza opened on Sunday for the first time for aid trucks since the outbreak of the war, a spokesperson from the prime minister’s office said, according to Reuters.
The crossing – which Israel had agreed to reopen to aid trucks last week – had been closed to aid trucks since the 7 October attacks by Hamas.
The Kerem Shalom crossing was used to carry more than 60% of the truckloads going into Gaza before the current conflict.
The Associated Press has full quotes from France’s foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, given at the news conference held with her Israeli counterpart in Tel Aviv (see earlier post at 10.18).
She said:
An immediate truce is necessary, allowing progress to be made toward a ceasefire to obtain the release of the hostages, to allow access and the delivery of more humanitarian aid to the suffering civilian population of Gaza, and in fact to move toward a humanitarian ceasefire and the beginning of a political solution.
Summary of the day so far...
France’s foreign ministry has said one of its workers died as a result of injuries sustained from an Israeli attack in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. In a statement, the ministry said the man had sought refuge in a colleague’s house, alongside two other colleagues and a number of their family members.
The emergency department at the al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza is “a bloodbath” and the facility is “in need of resuscitation”, the World Health Organization warned. The WHO said “tens of thousands of displaced people are using the hospital building and grounds for shelter”, and that there is “a severe shortage” of drinking water and food.
Israel’s military said two more Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip, bringing the total number of soldiers who have died since Israel launched its ground offensive in Gaza to 121.
Al Jazeera is preparing a legal file to send to the international criminal court over what it called “the assassination” of one of its cameramen in Gaza, the network said. The cameraman, Samer Abu Daqqa, was killed by a drone strike on Friday while reporting on the earlier bombing of a school used as a shelter for displaced people in the southern Gaza Strip, according to the Qatar-based broadcaster.
The UK’s foreign minister, David Cameron, and his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, published a joint article calling for a “sustainable” ceasefire, saying the goal must be peace lasting “generations”. France’s foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, later pressed for an “immediate and durable” truce in the Gaza war while visiting Israel. She was quoted as saying that Paris is “deeply concerned” over the situation in the Palestinian territory, and that too many civilians were being killed.
A British MP has said there is a sniper shooting at people in the church compound where her family are sheltering in Gaza City.
Layla Moran’s relatives have been trapped alongside hundreds of other civilians in a Catholic church in Gaza City since almost the start of the conflict.
The Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford and Abingdon said her family’s situation had worsened over the past week but that things had escalated again “in the last 48 hours”.
“Now they are without water, without food and there is a sniper inside the compound,” she told the BBC.
Al Jazeera has further details on the French foreign ministry worker who died as a result of injuries sustained from an Israeli attack in Rafah (see earlier post at 09.44).
The outlet says that he had stayed in the strip to report on what was happening on the ground.
“France always kept cultural diplomatic antennas in Gaza through a French centre,” Renaud Girard, the chief foreign affairs correspondent for Le Figaro, told Al Jazeera.
Girard said the employee worked for that centre, while his family had left Gaza.
“France is very concerned by the humanitarian situation in Gaza that’s why it was useful for France to have a reliable witness to tell the French embassy what was happening there,” Girard added.
The UK’s deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, has said that Hamas needs to be removed as a “threat” from Israel in order for a ceasefire to be sustainable (in reference to Lord Cameron’s comments).
He told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg:
In order for a ceasefire to be sustainable, we have to ensure we remove the threat of Hamas from Israel, and indeed the wider Middle East.
You saw what happened on that terrible day on 7 October when Hamas were able to penetrate the border of Israel and indiscriminately murder 1,400 men, women and children, and until we deal with that any ceasefire will not ultimately be sustainable.
So, that’s why we continue to support Israel in its right to self-defence, to remove the threat of Hamas, and at the same time to get those hostages back. Those are the two things that ensure we have a sustainable ceasefire …
The difference between those calling for a ceasefire now and the position of the UK government is that a ceasefire can’t be sustainable until we’ve dealt with Hamas.
Asked if the change of tone was because the UK government believes Israel has gone too far, Dowden replied: “I wouldn’t characterise it as Israel going too far. Israel is dealing with a very difficult situation.”
Dowden added: “If you’re going after an enemy that literally hides underneath hospitals, hides amongst the civilian population, you are going to sustain high levels of civilian casualties.” He said the UK has urged Israel to exercise restraint.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa has said that 35 people have been killed in strikes on several houses in the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza, BBC News reports.
The largest of the Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza, Jabalia is home to more than 100,000 people, who live in a dense network of lanes and streets occupying 1.4 square kilometres. It is the closest of Gaza’s refugee camps to the Israeli border.
France calls for 'immediate and durable' truce in Israel-Gaza war
France’s foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, arrived in Israel where she pressed for an “immediate and durable” truce in the war with Hamas.
“Too many civilians are being killed,” Colonna was quoted by AFP as having said during remarks in Tel Aviv with her Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen.
Colonna, who is due to meet the families of French hostages still held in Gaza, is also quoted as saying that Paris is “deeply concerned” over the situation in the territory.
She also stressed that the victims of Hamas’s attacks must not be forgotten, including those subjected to sexual violence.
Gaza has remained under a communications blackout for a fourth straight day – the longest of several outages over the course of the war.
Aid groups say this hampers rescue efforts after bombings, can impede life-saving operations and makes it even more difficult to monitor the war’s toll on civilians.
France's foreign ministry says worker killed by an Israeli attack in Rafah
France’s foreign ministry has said one of its workers died as a result of injuries sustained from an Israeli attack in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
In a statement, the ministry said the man had found refuge in a colleague’s house, alongside two other colleagues and a number of their family members.
“The house was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday evening, which seriously hurt our agent and killed about 10 others,” it said, adding he had later died of his injuries.
“We demand that the Israeli authorities shed full light on the circumstances of this bombing, as soon as possible.”
The World Health Organization said it would “strengthen” the al-Shifa hospital “in the coming weeks” in order for it to resume basic services.
“Up to 20 operating theatres in the hospital, as well as post-operative care services, can be activated if provided with regular supplies of fuel, oxygen, medicines, food, and water,” the WHO said, along with the necessary staff.
Al-Ahli Arab is the only hospital “partially functioning” in the entire north of the Gaza Strip, while three hospitals – al-Shifa, al Awda and al Sahaba medical complex – are functioning at a minimum, according to AFP.
