Middle East crisis live: ‘Military operations in Rafah could lead to slaughter in Gaza,’ says UN | Middle East and north Africa

Lisa O’Carroll

Ireland and Spanish prime ministers have written and implored EU chiefs to take action over the “deteriorating” situation in Gaza a day after the taoiseach claimed Israel had become “blinded by rage”.

In a highly unusual move, Leo Varadkar and Pedro Sanchz have written to the European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen

“We are deeply concerned at the deteriorating situation in Israel and in Gaza, especially the impact the ongoing conflict is having on innocent Palestinians, especially children and women.”

“The expanded Israeli military operation in the Rafah area poses a grave and imminent threat that the international community must urgently confront.”

In a three page letter they list a litany of urgent measures they want to see including an immediate ceasefire and access to humanitarian aid.

It then asked the commission to do an immediate assessment “of whether Israel is complying with its obligations, including under the EU/Israel Association Agreement, which makes respect for human rights and democratic principles an essential element of the relationship; and if it considers that it is in breach, that it proposes appropriate measures to the Council to consider.”

This it says is “against the background of the risk of an even greater humanitarian catastrophe posed by the imminent threat of Israeli military operations in Rafah, and given what has occurred, and continues to occur in Gaza since October 2023, including widespread concern about possible breaches of IHL and international human rights law by Israel”.

Martin Griffiths, the UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said the scenario “we have long dreaded is unraveling at alarming speed”.

In a post to X, Griffiths wrote that military operations in Rafah could lead to a “slaughter in Gaza”. He said:

“Today, I’m sounding the alarm once again: Military operations in Rafah could lead to a slaughter in Gaza. They could also leave an already fragile humanitarian operation at death’s door.”

In a statement, Griffiths said “no amount of dedication and goodwill is enough to keep millions of people alive, fed and protected – while the bombs are falling and the aid is choked off”. He finished by saying “our humanitarian response is in tatters”.

Ireland and Spain have requested the EU commission to “urgently review whether Israel is complying with its obligations to respect human rights”.

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez announced the update on X. He added: “We also recall the horror of 7 October, and call for the release of all hostages and an immediate ceasefire that can facilitate access for urgently needed humanitarian supplies.”

It comes after taoiseach Leo Varadkar said on Tuesday that Israel is not listening to “any country in the world”, including the US, and has become “blinded by rage”.

According to the Irish Times, Varadkar told the Dáil during Leaders’ Questions, that Israel was going to make the situation “much worse for their own security” in the long-term by “going down the path they’re going”. He also warned of a “serious risk of a massacre” occurring in Rafah if a ground assault were to occur.

Palestinians have begun evacuating the main hospital in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, according to videos shared by medics on Wednesday reports AP. Weeks of heavy fighting had isolated the medical facility and claimed the lives of several people inside it.

The war between Israel and Hamas, now in its fifth month, has devastated Gaza’s health sector, with less than half of its hospitals even partially functioning as scores of people are killed and wounded in daily bombardments. Israel accuses the militants of using hospitals and other civilian buildings as cover.

Videos seen by AP showed dozens of Palestinians carrying sacks of their belongings and making their way out of the Nasser hospital complex, while a doctor wearing green hospital scrubs walked ahead of the crowd, some of whom were carrying white flags.

The Israeli military ordered the evacuation of the hospital and surrounding areas last month. But as in previous instances, medics said patients were unable to safely leave or be relocated, and thousands of people displaced by fighting elsewhere remained there. Palestinians say nowhere is safe in the besieged territory, as Israel continues to carry out strikes in all parts of it.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said last week that Israeli snipers on surrounding buildings were preventing people from entering or leaving the hospital. It said 10 people had been killed inside the complex over the past week, including three shot and killed on Tuesday.

About 300 medical staff were treating 450 patients, including people wounded in strikes, said the ministry. It said 10,000 displaced people were sheltering in the facility and that Israel had ordered the evacuation of the displaced people but said the medics and patients could stay.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

An Israeli woman was killed and eight others were injured in a suspected Hezbollah attack, Israeli military and medical officials said.

The Times of Israel cites the Israel Defense Forces as saying that some of the rockets had hit the northern command headquarters base in the city of Safed, which is about 13 kilometers (8 miles) from the Lebanese border.

There has been no immediate claim for the attack but the Times of Israel say it was “it was believed to have been carried out by the Hezbollah terror group”.

“Numerous launches were identified crossing from Lebanon into the areas of Netua, Menara, and into an IDF base in northern Israel,” Israeli military said, adding that it was striking the launch sites.

Safed’s municipality also said rockets hit the base, as well as the city’s industrial zone and an area near Ziv hospital.

According to the Times of Israel, medics found the body of the woman who was killed as they scanned buildings that were hit by the rocket fire. Ziv hospital said eight injured people were brought to the emergency room after the rocket attacks on the city, including one person in a serious condition and another in a moderate condition. Six others were being treated for light injuries.

At least 18 Palestinians were arrested overnight in the occupied West Bank, including two women from Jericho, reports Al Jazeera.

It cites the Palestinian Prisoners Society and the Palestinian commission of detainees and ex-detainees affairs which said detentions also took place in Hebron, Qalqilya, Nablus, East Jerusalem and Ramallah. It put the total number of arrests after 7 October at 7,020.

Arrests are “one of the most prominent tools of collective punishment”, the groups said in a statement on Telegram, reports Al Jazeera.

Militants from the Islamic State (IS) group attacked military barracks in central Syria this week, killing nine soldiers, an opposition war monitor said. The Syrian army and officials have not confirmed the attack, reports news agency The Associated Press (AP).

IS claimed responsibility for the attack on Monday near the town of Al-Sukhna, saying its fighters also seized weapons abandoned by fleeing soldiers and set fire to the barracks. The militants’ statement claiming responsibility was posted late on Tuesday, according to AP.

The attack was the latest in intensifying clashes in the desert in eastern Syria between the militants and the Syrian army, supported by Iran-backed militias. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group, says IS has carried out 41 attacks so far this year there.

The Observatory said three Syrian troops were wounded in addition to the nine killed in Al-Sukhna.

IS militants have found refuge in the desert in remote areas in Syria and along the Iraqi-Syrian border, where they continue to stage attacks nearly five years after the group was defeated in Syria in 2019.

US troops in north-eastern Syria and US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have conducted numerous operations against the remaining IS militants. According to AP, the US has approximately 900 troops in Syria focused on countering the group’s remnants.

Since war erupted in Gaza on 7 October after Hamas’ surprise attack and incursion into southern Israel, US bases in eastern Syria and Iraq have come under regular attack by an umbrella group of Iran-backed Iraqi militias called the Iraqi Islamic Resistance.

The militias say the attacks are in response to Washington’s support for Israel.

The latest figures from the Gaza health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said 103 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes and 145 were injured in the past 24 hours.

According to the statement, at least 28,576 Palestinians have been killed and 68,291 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October.

The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.

The situation in Nasser hospital is becoming “more and more risky” for medical staff and hundreds of displaced people sheltering there, reports Al Jazeera journalist Hani Mahmoud in Rafah, southern Gaza.

In an update for the news organisation, Mahmoud writes:

The situation in the hospital is becoming more and more risky for the medical staff and for the hundreds of displaced people sheltering there with no safe place to go.

The Israeli military issued sharp evacuation orders. It has already destroyed the northern gate of the hospital and blocked it with a pile of debris and sand. The hospital area has turned into a battle zone with the vast majority of buildings and roads in the vicinity destroyed.”

Soldiers are shooting at everything in sight – including a doctor and a nurse. There are bodies in the courtyard. Those people were killed after being told to evacuate. This situation is extremely overwhelming for people inside the facility right now.

Mahmoud reports a lack of fuel, medical supplies and oxygen at the hospital. He says this means there are no surgeries taking place. “There’s also a sewage flood as the facility is without electricity,” he adds.

About 100 representatives of hostages flew to The Hague on Wednesday to file a “crimes against humanity” complaint at the international criminal court (ICC) against Hamas, reports AFP.

Hamas abducted about 250 hostages during their attack on Israel on 7 October, of which 130 are still held captive in Gaza, according to Israeli officials. Twenty-nine of them are believed to be dead.

Haim Rubinstein from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the campaign group will file a case against Hamas leaders at the ICC. The ICC is the world’s only independent court set up to probe the gravest offences including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“We are the families of the hostages who have gone through and are still going through this terrible hell,” Rubinstein said in a televised briefing from Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv. “We will file charges against Hamas members and their collaborators and ensure that they pay the heaviest price for the crimes against humanity that they continue to commit.”

“This is not just our story. If we don’t stop this, tomorrow it will be the story of the entire world,” said Ofri Bibas, whose brother is one of the captives held in Gaza. “The entire human race must stand together against a global terror army, of which Hamas is just one unit on its mission,” she said before boarding a flight for The Hague.

The Hamas attack that launched the war resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. At least 28,473 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel’s response, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.

Families of hostages have kept up pressure on Israeli authorities to secure the release of the remaining captives.

Their latest attempt comes as Israeli intelligence chief David Barnea met CIA director William Burns in Cairo on Tuesday for talks on a Qatari-brokered plan to halt fighting in Gaza.

The negotiations, which also involved Qatar’s prime minister and Egyptian officials, are part of an intensifying effort to secure a ceasefire before Israel proceeds with a ground incursion into the southern city of Rafah, where more than half of the territory’s population has fled.

A Hamas source has told news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) that a delegation is heading to Cairo to meet Egyptian and Qatari mediators, after Israeli negotiators held talks with the mediators on Tuesday.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, an outspoken critic of Israel’s conduct of the Gaza war, was also due in Cairo on Wednesday for talks with president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, says AFP.

CIA director William Burns had joined Tuesday’s talks with David Barnea, head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, which Egyptian media said had been mostly “positive”. US national security council spokesperson John Kirby described the negotiations as “constructive and moving in the right direction”.

Mediators are racing to secure a pause to the fighting before Israel proceeds with a full-scale ground incursion into the Gaza Strip’s far-southern city of Rafah, where more than 1.4 million Palestinians are trapped.

The potential for mass civilian casualties has triggered urgent appeals, even from close allies, for Israel to hold off sending troops into the last large population centre they have yet to enter in the four-month war.

Key ally the US has said it will not back any ground operation in Rafah without a “credible plan” for protecting civilians.

Rafah is the main entry point for desperately needed relief supplies and UN agencies have warned of a humanitarian disaster if an assault goes ahead. Martin Griffiths, the UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said any military operation “could lead to a slaughter”.

Patrick Wintour

My colleague, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour has written the following article on UK foreign secretary David Cameron’s stark warning that Israel would be in breach of international law if it denies Gaza food and water:

Israel is in breach of international law as the occupying power if it fails to provide food and water to the people of Gaza, the UK foreign secretary, Lord Cameron, told peers on Tuesday in his clearest warning yet over Israel’s conduct.

He also said it was simply not possible for people in Rafah to leave as proposed by the Israeli Defense Forces, remarks that suggest the UK would not endorse any Israeli plan to mount a full-scale attack on the area containing more than 1 million people in crowded refugee camps. He also argued the US was beginning to shift on when Palestine might be recognised so Israel was no longer given a veto.

He said: “The people who are in Rafah on many occasions have already moved three, four or five times. And it’s not possible to move again, they can’t go north because they’d be going back to homes that have been destroyed. They can’t go south, because that would involve going into Egypt, which none of us want to see and the Egyptians do not want to see.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres told Al Jazeera that he is “deeply troubled” by the number of journalists killed so far in the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Reporting on an Israeli drone attack that allegedly targeted two journalists in Gaza and left both men in critical condition, Al Jazeera said Guterres condemned the attack. He said:

I am deeply troubled by the number of journalists killed in this conflict. Freedom of press is a fundamental condition for people to be able to know what’s really happening.”

His comments were in response to a question from Al Jazeera correspondent Gabriel Elizondo.

Al Jazeera said the drone attack in Muraj, north of Rafah had resulted in its Arabic correspondent Ismail Abu Omar having to have his leg amputated, and had also seriously injured photojournalist Ahmed Matar.

According to the Qatar-based news organisation, Gaza’s media office said it was the fifth time Al Jazeera journalists have been targeted in a “deliberate” attack.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said that as of 13 February 2024, 85 journalists and media workers were confirmed dead, 16 journalists were reported injured, four journalists were reported missing and 25 journalists were reported arrested.

Guardian journalist Peter Beaumont has more on the attack here:

A delegation led by Israeli intelligence chief David Barnea left Cairo on Tuesday, Israeli and US media reported.

Barnea met CIA director William Burns in the Egyptian capital for talks on a Qatari-brokered plan to temporarily halt fighting in Gaza.

The Wall Street Journal citing officials familiar with the talks, reporting that Barnea’s delegation had departed the Egyptian capital “without closing any of the major gaps in the negotiations”.

Egyptian state-owned television channel Al Qahera reported citing a senior Egyptian official that the talks would continue for another three days.

The same official said the talks had been mostly “positive”, the television channel reported.

US national security council spokesperson John Kirby called the negotiations “constructive and moving in the right direction”.

“Nothing is done until it is all done,” he told reporters at the White House.

It has just gone 9am in Gaza and Tel Aviv.

The Israeli delegation has left talks in Cairo that aimed to agree on terms for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza conflict, Israeli and US media reported.

The negotiations, which also involved CIA director William Burns, Qatar’s prime minister and Egyptian officials, were part of an intensifying effort to secure a ceasefire before Israel proceeds with a full-scale ground incursion into the southern city of Rafah, where more than half of the territory’s population has fled.

More on that in a moment, first here’s a summary of the day’s other main news.

• Israel is in breach of international law as the occupying power if it fails to provide food and water to the people of Gaza, the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has said. He also said it was simply not possible for people in Rafah to leave as proposed by the Israel Defense Forces: “The people who are in Rafah on many occasions have already moved three, four or five times … That is why it’s so important, the Israelis stop and think before going ahead with any operations.”

• The US said it was reviewing reports that Israel had harmed civilians in Gaza, under a set of guidelines aimed at ensuring countries receiving US arms conduct military operations in line with international humanitarian law.

• South Africa has made an urgent request to the UN’s international court to consider using its power to intervene in Rafah. The country’s presidency asked the court to consider whether Israel’s decision to extend its military operations in Rafah requires it to use its power to prevent further breach of the rights of Palestinians in Gaza.

• The UN said it would not participate in any forced evacuation of Rafah. Jens Laerke, spokesperson for UN Office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha) said it had not received any Rafah evacuation plans from Israel. “Regardless, the UN does not participate in forced, non-voluntary evacuations. There is no plan at this time to facilitate the evacuation of civilians,” he said.

• Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen have carried out their first attack in the Red Sea in six days, firing at an Iran-bound grain cargo ship, the US military has said, in a strike that raises questions about the group’s targeting.

• The US Senate voted in favour of sending Israel $14bn as part of a wider $95bn aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The package would also provide $9.15bn in humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza and the West Bank and other conflict zones around the globe. US senator Bernie Sanders was among the no votes, calling the bill “unconscionable”. The bill heads to the Republican-controlled House next, where its fate is uncertain.