SVE NEWS & FRANCE24.COM Sharing Series — UN chief Guterres says world cannot allow Lebanon to become ‘another Gaza’

It is Israel’s responsibility – as the occupying power in the Gaza Strip – to restore public order and safety in the Palestinian territory so humanitarian aid can be delivered, the United Nations said on Friday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said there is as “total lawlessness” in Gaza, where the UN has warned a famine looms for the population of 2.3 million after more than eight months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas.

“Most of the trucks with humanitarian aid inside Gaza are now looted,” Guterres told reporters on Friday, adding that Israel prevented the UN from using Palestinian civil police for aid security. “There is total chaos in Gaza and there is no authority in most of the territory.”

Qatar said Friday it was pursuing efforts to “bridge the gap” between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and release Israeli hostages held there.

The Gulf emirate, the United States and Egypt, have been engaged in months of negotiations for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war that erupted on October 7.

There has been one seven-day pause in November which led to the release of more than 100 hostages. Efforts since have been deadlocked.

“We have continued our efforts without interruption over the last few days,” Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani told a news conference in Madrid with Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares.

“There have been several meetings with the Hamas leadership to try to bridge the gap between the two parties and reach an agreement that will lead to a ceasefire and the release of the Israeli hostages,” he added.

Israeli forces shelled tent camps for displaced Palestinians north of Rafah on Friday, killing at least 25 people and wounding another 50 according to Gaza’s Heath Ministry and emergency workers, in the latest deadly attack in the tiny Palestinian territory where hundreds of thousands have fled fighting between Israel and Hamas.

According to Ahmed Radwan, a spokesperson for the Civil Defense first responders in Rafah, witnesses told rescue workers about the shelling at two locations in a coastal area that has become filled with tents. The Health Ministry reported the number of people killed and wounded in the attacks.

The locations of the attacks provided by Civil Defense were just outside an Israeli-designated safe zone. The Israeli military said they were looking into the strikes at the reported coordinates. Israel has previously bombed locations in the vicinity of the “humanitarian zone” in Muwasi, a rural area on the Mediterranean coast that has filled with sprawling tent camps in recent months.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday he is profoundly concerned by escalating tensions between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah and that UN peacekeepers are working to calm the situation and prevent miscalculation.

“One rash move – one miscalculation – could trigger a catastrophe that goes far beyond the border, and frankly, beyond imagination,” he told reporters. “Let’s be clear: The people of the region and the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.”

Israeli forces pounded Rafah in southern Gaza on Friday, as well as other areas across the enclave, killing at least 32 Palestinians as troops engaged in close-quarter combat with Hamas militants, residents and Israel’s military said.

Residents said the Israelis appeared to be trying to complete their capture of Rafah, which borders Egypt and has been the focus of an Israeli assault since early May.

Tanks were forcing their way into the western and northern parts of the city, having already captured the east, south and centre. Israeli forces fired from planes, tanks and ships off the coast, forcing a new wave of displacement from the city, which had been sheltering more than a million displaced people, most of whom have been forced to flee again.

Later on Friday, Palestinian health officials said at least 12 Palestinians were killed in Mawasi in western Rafah in what Palestinians said was a tank shelling that hit a tent housing displaced families. Palestinian health officials said at least 32 Palestinians had been killed in separate Israeli military strikes on Friday.

Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinian gunmen in an exchange of fire during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank on Friday, Israel police said.

The two men belonged to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group and opened fire at the Israeli forces during an attempt to arrest them in the town of Qalqilia, the police statement said.

“Handguns were found on the two terrorists. One of the neutralised terrorists was planning to carry out an attack in the area,” the statement said.

Islamic Jihad did not immediately claim the two men as members.

The head of one of the largest hospitals in north Gaza says his staff has recently registered some 250 children suffering from malnutrition and the numbers are raising daily due to acute food shortages.

Dr. Husam Abu Safyia, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, urged the international community to pressure Israel to allow an increased flow of food and other products into the Gaza Strip, warning that conditions are dire in the coastal territory.

Abu Safyia told The Associated Press on Friday that medical authorities have sent teams from his hospital to centres housing displaced people in north Gaza to assess them for malnutrition.

He said flour is the most available foodstuff in north Gaza, and that people need more proteins and fats to keep healthy.

Israel’s army said Friday that two Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in central Gaza. No information was given about the circumstances about the deaths of the two, both of whom were men in their 20s. Three other soldiers were severely injured, the army said.

The news comes as public anger grows in Israel over the trajectory of the eight month conflict and exemptions from military service for young ultra-Orthodox men.

Last week, an explosion in southern Gaza. killed eight Israeli soldiers. In January, 21 Israeli troops were killed in a single attack by Palestinian militants in Gaza.

Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that triggered the war, more than 660 Israeli troops have been killed, about half in the Israeli ground operation in Gaza., according to the latest figures from the military.

The Palestinian Civil Defense organisation says its teams have recovered the bodies of five people who were killed in an airstrike that hit two apartments in Gaza City.

The agency said several people were also injured in Friday’s strike that hit the apartments of two families in the centre of the city.

An earlier airstrike hit a municipal garage in the city and killed five people, raising to 10 the number of people killed Friday.

Israel’s foreign ministry said it summoned Armenia’s ambassador to Israel after the former Soviet republic declared Friday that it recognises of the State of Palestine.

“Following Armenia’s recognition of a Palestinian state, the foreign ministry summoned the Armenian ambassador in Israel for a severe reprimand,” it said in a statement shortly after Armenia’s announcement.

The “pause” that the Israeli military had declared in Gaza to facilitate aid flows has had no impact on deliveries of the badly-needed aid, the UN’s health agency said on Friday.

“So overall, we the UN can say that we did not see an impact on the humanitarian supplies coming in since that, I will say, unilateral announcement of this technical pause”, said Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization representative in the Palestinian territories.

“That is the overall assessment,” he said.

The Israeli military had over the weekend announced a daily humanitarian “pause” in fighting on a key road in eastern Rafah, but a United Nations spokesman said days later that “this has yet to translate into more aid reaching people in need”.

Israeli forces pounded Rafah and other areas across the Gaza Strip and engaged in close-quarter combat with fighters led by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, residents and Israel’s military said.

Residents said the Israelis appeared to by trying to complete their capture of Rafah, the city on the enclave’s southern edge that has been the focus of an Israeli assault since early May.

The Israeli military said on Friday its forces were conducting “precise, intelligence-based” actions in the Rafah area, where troops were involved in close-quarter combat and had located tunnels used by militants. It also reported actions elsewhere in the enclave.

Armenia has officially recognised a Palestinian state, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday, defying Israel which is opposed to such moves.

Armenia supports a UN resolution on an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and is in favour of a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the same statement said.

The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank under Israeli military occupation, welcomed Armenia’s decision.

“This recognition contributes positively to preserving the two-state solution, which faces systematic challenges, and promotes security, peace, and stability for all parties involved,” the Authority’s presidency said in a statement.

Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged near-daily fire since Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered the Gaza war, and the bellicose talk has escalated along with the strikes.

Israel’s main military backer the United States has sought to discourage any expansion of hostilities along the border.

In a meeting with visiting Israeli officials in Washington, Secretary of State Antony Blinken underscored “the importance of avoiding further escalation in Lebanon and reaching a diplomatic resolution that allows Israeli and Lebanese families to return to their homes”, according to a statement.

Israel and Hezbollah traded fresh cross-border fire Thursday, as fears of a regional conflict grew after Israel revealed it had approved plans for a Lebanon offensive and the Iran-backed militants vowed to blanket their foe in rockets.

Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel in retaliation for a deadly air strike in south Lebanon that Israel said killed one of the group’s operatives. Hezbollah also claimed several other attacks on Israeli troops and positions over the course of the day.