Middle East crisis: CIA boss meets Israeli spy chief for truce talks
The heads of the CIA and Israeli intelligence have met Qatar’s prime minister in Egypt to discuss truce talks in Gaza.
William Burns, the CIA director, and David Barnea, the head of Israel’s Mossad, met Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, the Qatari prime minister, and Egyptian officials.
The Israeli spy agency said it was evaluating Hamas’s response to a proposed deal to halt fighting in the Gaza Strip.
Al-Qahera News, which has links to Egyptian intelligence, reported the “quartet meeting”.
“Hamas and the (other militant) factions are awaiting the outcome of the Cairo meetings, and Hamas is open to discussing any initiative that achieves an end to aggression and war,” a Hamas official told AFP on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the media.
On Monday, Joe Biden declared that “the key elements of the deal are on the table” but admitted there are “gaps that remain”.
04:07 PM GMT
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04:05 PM GMT
Israel must 'stop and think' before launching more attacks in Rafah, says Cameron
Lord Cameron has said that Israel should “stop and think” before launching more attacks in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.
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’ll 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 don’t want to see.
“And that is why it’s so important that the Israelis must stop and think before going ahead with any operations in Rafah.”
His comments came as Liberal Democrat peer Lord Purvis of Tweed argued Israel’s actions constitute a war crime.
He said: “Any belligerent in the conflict that advises children and civilians to relocate on the pretext of their safety, but relocate to an area where there is no shelter, where there is no water, where there is no medicine and where there is no security guarantees - is a war crime.”
03:42 PM GMT
Cameron: Cameron: ‘We want to see an end to this killing’
Lord Cameron has said the best way to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza is to end the fighting “as soon as possible”.
When asked about the fate of the six-year-old girl Hind Rajab [see post at 10:03 ] he said: “what is happening in Gaza is tragic.
“We want to see an end to this fighting, an end to this killing.
“The pause we are calling for we want to turn into a ceasefire by making sure the conditions are right for getting a stop in the fighting to mean a permanent ceasefire.
“The way you do that is while fulfilling a number of conditions. You’ve got to get, in our view, the Hamas leaders out of Gaza. Otherwise any ceasefire won’t last because the problem will still be there”.
He added: “Crucially you have to release all of the hostages.”
He insisted that the UK challenges Israel over individual episodes and said he had done it personally.
03:21 PM GMT
UNRWA ‘not informed’ of any Israeli evacuation plan for Rafah
Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, said it had not been informed of any Israeli evacuation plan for Rafah and was not part of it.
“Where are you going to evacuate people to as no place is safe across the Gaza Strip, the north is shattered, riddled with unexploded weapons, it’s pretty much unlivable,” she said, adding that UNRWA would not participate in a forced evacuation.
“Enough is enough. Any further escalation would be absolutely apocalyptic.”
02:30 PM GMT
Calls for closure of UNRWA ‘short-sighted’, says head of relief agency
The head of UNRWA said calls for it to be dismantled were short-sighted and that terminating the mandate of the agency that provides essential services to Palestinian refugees would deepen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Israel has said UNRWA, which has helped Palestinians for over 70 years, is not fit for purpose and major donors have suspended funding after allegations that 12 of UNRWA’s thousands of Palestinian employees were suspected of involvement in the Oct 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
After meeting member states at the United Nations in Geneva, Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA chief, said: “I have talked to the member states about all these calls to have UNRWA dismantled, to be terminated. I have warned about the impact, I have said that these calls are short-sighted.”
02:15 PM GMT
Israeli assault on Gaza ‘disproportionate’, says Italy
An Italian foreign minister has called the Israeli attacks on Gaza in response to the Oct 7 attacks “disproportionate” as he said there were “too many victims”.
In an interview on RAI radio, Antonio Tajani strongly condemned the “savage” terror attacks by Hamas and said Israel had the right to defend itself.
He said “at this point Israel’s reaction against the Palestinian civilian population is disproportionate... there are too many victims who have nothing to do with Hamas”.
Mr Tajani distanced himself from comments made last week by Francesca Albanese, an Italian who is United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, who denied the Hamas attacks were “anti-Semitic”.
Israel Katz, Israel’s foreign minister, and Moshe Arbel, the interior minister, called her online remark “outrageous” and said in a statement Monday that she was now “denied entry to the State of Israel”.
02:11 PM GMT
South Africa asks World Court to weigh Israel’s plan to extend offensive into Rafah
South Africa said it had asked the World Court to consider whether Israel’s plan to extend its offensive in Gaza into the city of Rafah requires additional emergency measures to protect Palestinians’ rights.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) last month ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent its troops from committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, in a case brought by South Africa.
Israel has denied all allegations of genocide in connection with its war against Hamas and asked the court to reject the case outright, saying it respects international law and has a right to defend itself.
02:00 PM GMT
Iran fires first ship-based long-range ballistic missiles
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Tuesday it has launched long-range ballistic missiles from a warship for the first time.
The launch from the Shahid Mahdavi during naval manoeuvres involved firing two ballistic missiles capable of striking targets up to 1,700 kilometres (1,050 miles) away.
“The IRGC for the first time has fired ballistic missiles in the Gulf of Oman,” state television reported.
Hossein Salami, the IRGC commander in chief, said “The firing of a long-range ballistic missile from the warship was successfully carried out.”
01:35 PM GMT
France to impose travel bans on violent Israeli settlers
France will ban 28 Israeli settlers from entering the country, accusing them of attacking Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, its foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
The ministry said in a statement: “These measures come as violence perpetrated by settlers against the Palestinian population has increased in recent months. France reaffirms its firm condemnation of this unacceptable violence.”
It did not name the individuals.
UN figures show that daily settler attacks have more than doubled since Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
12:51 PM GMT
Pictured: Israeli soldiers cross the border from inside Gaza Strip in to southern Israel
12:46 PM GMT
Two journalists severely wounded in Gaza strike
Two journalists working for Al Jazeera have been severely wounded in an Israeli strike in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.
Ismail Abu Omar and his cameraman, Ahmad Matar, were reportedly struck by a missile fired by a drone in what Al Jazeera say was a “direct target”.
The pair were transferred to Gaza’s European hospital. Omar underwent a “life-saving” amputation to his leg as a result of shrapnel wounds and Matar suffered multiple wounds and severe bleeding, the Qatar-based broadcaster said quoting an emergency physician.
12:11 PM GMT
Gaza truce talks take place in Egypt
William Burns, the CIA director; David Barnea, the director of Mossad; and Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, the Qatari Prime Minister have met Egyptian officials in Cairo “to discuss a truce in Gaza”, Egyptian media reported.
Al-Qahera News, which has links to Egyptian intelligence, reported the “quartet meeting” as international pressure grows for a truce between Israel and Hamas.
Mossad, the Israeli spy agency, said it was evaluating Hamas’s response to a proposed deal to halt fighting in the Gaza Strip.
11:58 AM GMT
Israel must provide ‘safe corridors’ in Rafah, says Germany
Israel has a duty to guarantee “safe corridors” for civilians in Rafah before conducting any incursion against Hamas in the southern Gaza city, Germany’s foreign minister said Wednesday.
Hundreds of thousands of people had fled from the north of Gaza to Rafah on Israel’s advice previously, said Annalena Baerbock.
Following talks with Riad al-Malki, the Palestinian foreign minister, in Berlin, Ms Baerbock said: “If action is to be taken now against the terror organisation in Rafah, then it is ... the responsibility of the Israeli army to provide safe corridors for the people who have sought protection there.
“These parents, these children, these families can’t just vanish into thin air. They have nowhere to go to – not further south in any case,” she added.
The border to Egypt is located to the south of Rafah, and the crossing remains closed to Gazans.
11:35 AM GMT
Pictured: A shelter centre in Gaza City in the aftermath of Israeli attacks
11:11 AM GMT
Germany worried about Israeli plans for assault on Rafah
The German foreign minister has said she is very concerned about Israel’s announcement that it is planning a large military offensive in Rafah.
Annalena Baerbock said at a news conference with the Palestinian foreign minister in the German capital: “I am especially concerned about the announcement by the Israeli government of a large ground military operation in Rafah.
“Of course, it is completely clear that also in Rafah, there is an unbelievably large net of [the] Hamas terrorist organisation,” she said, adding Israel has a right to defend itself from terrorism.
10:59 AM GMT
IDF release new footage of hostage rescue
10:35 AM GMT
More and more difficult to deliver aid to civilians in Gaza, says UNRWA
Despite panic and lack of resources, @UNRWA colleagues in #Rafah continue to deliver urgent humanitarian supplies to displaced families in our shelters.
The ongoing attacks in Rafah mean it is becoming more and more difficult to operate and deliver aid to people in📍#Gaza pic.twitter.com/tWN8izDGJd— UNRWA (@UNRWA) February 13, 2024
10:03 AM GMT
US urges Israel to investigate death of six-year-old Palestinian girl who pleaded to be rescued
Israel must investigate the “heartbreaking” death of a six-year-old Gazan girl whose body was recovered Saturday along with a number of her relatives and two Red Crescent workers who went to find her, the US State Department has said.
Matthew Miller, a spokesman, said: “We have asked the Israeli authorities to investigate this incident on an urgent basis. We understand that they’re doing so.
“We expect to see those results in a timely fashion and they should include accountability measures as appropriate.”
Her family’s car came under fire while trying to flee an Israeli advance in Gaza City. She was last heard from in a desperate phone call to the Red Crescent, telling them she was “so scared”.
“We are devastated about reports of the death of Hind Rajab. I will tell you that I have a little girl that’s about to turn six myself, and so it’s just a devastating account, a heartbreaking account for this child,” Miller added.
Read: Body of six-year-old Palestinian girl who pleaded to be rescued found in Gaza
09:51 AM GMT
China urges Israel to stop military operation in Rafah ‘as soon as possible’
China urged Israel to stop its military operation in the Gazan city of Rafah “as soon as possible”, warning of a “serious humanitarian disaster” there if fighting did not stop.
A foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement: “China follows closely the developments in the Rafah area, opposes and condemns actions that harm civilians and violate international law.”
Beijing urged Israel to “to stop its military operation as soon as possible, (and) make every effort to avoid innocent civilian casualties, in order to prevent a more serious humanitarian disaster in the Rafah area”.
09:35 AM GMT
Israeli troops in pictures:
09:24 AM GMT
UN will not be party to ‘forced displacement of people’
There is currently no safe place in Gaza, a United Nations spokesperson has said.
When asked about an evacuation mission, Stephane Dujarric said the UN would “not be party to forced displacement of people”.
Volker Turk, the UN’s human rights chief, warned that “an extremely high number of civilians” would likely be killed or injured in a full Israeli incursion into Rafah, which could also spell the end of the “meagre” humanitarian aid entering Gaza.
08:50 AM GMT
Israeli spy chief travels to Cairo for Gaza talks
Israel’s spy chief will travel to Cairo for talks with his Egyptian and US counterparts on a Gaza truce proposal, Israeli officials have said.
David Barnea, the head of Mossad, will meet William Burns, the CIA chief, Israeli officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the discussions.
They will be joined in the Egyptian capital by Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, the Qatari prime minister, who also serves as the country’s top diplomat and has brokered previous Gaza ceasefires.
Washington sources familiar with developments confirmed on Monday that William Burns, the CIA chief, is expected in Cairo for talks on a Qatari-brokered truce proposal, after Israel rejected the initial response last week from Gaza rulers Hamas.
08:36 AM GMT
IDF ‘has not shown plans to evacuate Rafah to government’
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not yet shown its government plans to evacuate Rafah, a spokesman has said.
Lt Col Peter Lerner, an IDF spokesman, told CNN: “The government has instructed the IDF to devise a plan to achieve our goals, our war goals, in the area of Rafah.
“The plan that you’re asking for has still yet to be presented, of course, to the government.”
There are great humanitarian concerns about the potential assault on the southern Gazan city where 1.4 million Palestinians are understood to be sheltering
Lt Col Lerner insisted it was possible to differentiate between innocent civilians and terrorists, admitting that it was “not without challenge”.
“It can be done,” he said. “We have confidence in our ability to differentiate and distinguish.”
08:30 AM GMT
Pictured: A protest outside the White House calling for a ceasefire in Gaza
08:29 AM GMT
Joe Biden considers going public with frustration over ‘a--hole’ Benjamin Netanyahu
Joe Biden is growing increasingly irritated with Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he is understood to have called an “a--hole” several times in private.
Amid mounting frustration with the Israeli leader, the US president is believed to be edging closer to a public breach with Mr Netanyahu in a bid to distance himself from the unpopular prime minister.
Mr Netanyahu has infuriated the Biden administration in recent days by announcing, despite US opposition, plans for a military operation in Rafah, where around 1.4 million Palestinians are believed to be sheltering.
Read more here
08:28 AM GMT
Israel could face war crimes charges if it goes ahead with Rafah invasion
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court warned Israel it could face war crimes charges if it pushes ahead with an invasion of Rafah.
Karim Khan, a British lawyer, said he was “deeply concerned” about the potential assault on the southern Gazan city where 1.4 million Palestinians are understood to be sheltering, and reiterated that those who commit war crimes “will be held accountable”.
International pressure was mounting on Monday against the planned attack on the last remaining Gazan enclave, with Lord Cameron urging Israel to “stop and think seriously” before taking any further action.
Read more here