It has begun in Ramallah, West Bank, the meeting between Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Palestinian President Abu Mazen. Palestinian Foreign Minister al-Malki is also present at the meeting. Tajani is the first EU foreign minister to meet the leader of the Palestinian Authority following the Hamas attacks on the Jewish state on October 7.
“The goal is to pursue a political path to achieve a genuine Palestinian state that can live in peace with the Israeli state while respecting Israel's security needs,” Tajani said at the meeting with Abu Mazen. “My visit here,” he added, “is a mission of closeness and solidarity with the Palestinian Authority.” Abu Mazen called, as far as is known, on Italy and the EU to prepare to be close to the PNA in the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip , where 70% of the buildings have been destroyed and services to the population and infrastructure are not functioning. “As the negotiations and the political process continue,” Abu Mazen added, according to the same sources, “it will be necessary to take care of the Palestinian population living in the strip.” With Italy – he concluded – we will also work to to rebuild the churches and buildings of the Christian community. Abu Mazen recalled that Hamas has nothing in common with the PNA and stressed that the Palestinian Authority is carrying out and will carry out reforms in the government. At the end of the war – he continued – the PNA will carry out a renewal of its administration. It is necessary for the Palestinian President to quickly achieve peace and create the State of Palestine within the 1967 borders.
The Foreign Minister Antonio Tajaniwho was visiting the region, met the Israeli President in Jerusalem this morning Isaac Duke. According to the findings, the meeting lasted 35 minutes and discussed the war in Gaza and the resulting international situation. Tajani will then meet with Foreign Minister Israel Katz and War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz. The head of Farnesina is also scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem today. This was learned from official sources. “We strongly support the Israeli government’s actions against terrorist organizations and at the same time want to discuss with our Israeli friends the preparations for a return to political and diplomatic confrontation.” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said this at a meeting with President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem. “Following the military operations in Gaza,” he added, “it will be necessary to immediately find a political path to prevent the current clashes from recurring and spreading in the region.” We must “take a political path that leads inevitably to the formula of the two-state solution.”
During the meeting Tajani – who also met some family members of the hostages held by Hamas in Israel – “repeated its outrage at the October 7 attack by Hamas on the Israeli civilian population around Gaza” and confirmed the Italian government’s call for the Israeli government to “protect in every way the lives of the Palestinian civilian population during military operations.” Among the topics discussed with the Israeli head of state, Minister Tajani referred to “the need to protect Christians, both the few remaining in Gaza and the Christian Arab citizens present in the West Bank.”
The Foreign Minister also reiterated that “in southern Lebanon it is important to maintain a safe distance between the Israeli army and Hezbollah military formations.” And he announced that he would speak to Israel's leadership today in Jerusalem about these issues and the “inquiries he received yesterday during his visit to the Land of the Cedars.” “Negotiations,” he added, “must continue despite this phase of the war in Gaza. We would like to send a message to all parties involved in this scenario: there is no alternative to a path to peace, which must be initiated immediately.”
USA and Great Britain impose new sanctions against the Houthis
The US and UK impose new sanctions against the Houthis. The Foreign Ministry announced this and emphasized that four soldiers from the group were in the crosshairs.
“Houthi terrorist attacks against merchant vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Adem have destroyed international supplies and violated shipping rights and freedoms. “The United States is committed to protecting international trade and working with partners and allies to take action to protect these important waterways,” the State Department said.
In Kerem Shalom, trucks carrying relief supplies were blocked for the second day
For the second day in a row, groups of protesters, including family members of Israeli Hamas prisoners, blocked the passage of trucks carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip at the Israeli border crossing at Kerem Shalom. This was reported by the media, after which they made the transition conditional on the immediate release of over 130 prisoners by Hamas. “This humanitarian aid – said one of the relatives of the hostages – benefits the local population, but not our relatives.” Meanwhile, Israel is still waiting to see whether a shipment of medicine sent to Gaza about ten days ago at the initiative of Qatar and France will actually reach around forty was distributed to sick Israeli hostages. A political source quoted by Kan public television yesterday noted that “despite assurances” on the eve of the expedition, Israel had not received any evidence that the distribution of medicine to the hostages had taken place.
Hamas: “Shots on the crowd waiting for help, twenty dead”
The spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza denounces a Attack on people queuing to receive humanitarian aid in Gaza. “The Israeli occupation has committed a new massacre of thousands of hungry people waiting for help,” Ashraf al-Qudra said in a statement on Telegram, Al Jazeera reported. The attack occurred at the Kuwait roundabout in Gaza City, killing at least 20 people and wounding 150 others, he said.
The death toll from the attack on the UN sanctuary rises to 12
The death toll from yesterday's attack on the refuge Unrwa To Khan Yunis In Gaza, it rose to 12, according to a statement from Thomas White, deputy humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, reported by the Guardian. White said a number of missions to reach the dead and wounded had been rejected, without directly saying the attempts had been blocked by Israel. He said UN teams only managed to reach the site in the evening. Another 75 people were injured, 15 of whom were in critical condition. Israel denied responsibility for the attack, in which two tank shells hit a UNRWA training center.
A new ceasefire proposal from Qatar, but the Israeli right blames Doha
Qatar has sent Israel and Hamas a new proposal for a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, Bloomberg reports, citing sources close to the negotiations. The plan calls for the release of all hostages held by the Islamist movement in exchange for the release of a certain number of Palestinian prisoners. The document also states that the amount of humanitarian aid delivered to the enclave should be increased.
“Qatar supports and finances terrorism, protects Hamas and is largely responsible for the massacre of Israeli citizens committed by the Palestinian Islamist movement,” said the right-wing extremist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. In a post about his Doha would be “problematic”.
American warning to Israel after massacre at refugee center in Gaza
The United States “strongly supports the right to defend itself against Hamas terrorists hiding among the civilian population, but Israel retains the responsibility to protect civilians and humanitarian sites,” said US National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson . “We are seriously concerned by reports of attacks on a UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) facility, which led to reports of fires at the building in a southern Gaza Strip neighborhood where more than 30,000 Palestinians have been displaced,” it said in a statement from the White House.
“While we do not yet have all the details of what happened and we will continue to seek more information about today’s events,” it continued, “the loss of every innocent life is a tragedy. This conflict has already resulted in devastating deaths and injuries to tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, and we mourn every single civilian life that has been lost. It is heartbreaking to see children killed, injured and orphaned.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is investigating the attack on the UNRWA shelter in Khan Yunis, which left nine people dead and 75 injured. However, they suspect that the massacre was caused by a rocket fired by Hamas. Times of Israel writes it. According to Thomas White, director of the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the building housing 800 people was hit by “two anti-tank shells.” Instead, after a thorough investigation into the activities of ground forces, the IDF “has now ruled out that the incident was caused by one.”
“Israeli airstrike or artillery fire” and is therefore “examining the possibility that it was Hamas fire that struck.” Times of Israel recalls that Israeli soldiers were exposed to rocket and mortar fire in the area.
Media: The Israeli army is investigating the supply of anti-tank missiles to settlers
The Israeli military is checking the possibility of distributing anti-tank missiles to Jewish settlements They are more isolated in the West Bank and near Palestinian sites amid an increase in armed incidents and fears that they could fall victim to attacks similar to those carried out by Hamas on October 7. This was reported by Haaretz, according to which the anti-tank missiles were entrusted to the commanders of the emergency teams organized in each settlement and made up of locals. Commanders would only have the authority to use it “in the face of “mass vehicle-borne attacks” against their settlements. The newspaper states that no final decision has been made on the matter and recalls that in recent months the settlers living in… Vulnerable settlements have already received thousands of weapons, including heavy machine guns.
Palestinian killed in clashes with army in West Bank
A Palestinian was killed in the area today Jenin (West Bank) during an Israeli army operation. This was reported by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa. Local sources indicate that it is Wissam al-Hashan, a Palestinian who was imprisoned in Israel for a time in the past. It had previously become known that military units had besieged a building in the town of Bir el-Basha (Jenin) and made numerous arrests. The Army has not yet provided its own version of the episode.
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