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SvennoJ on 07 March 2024
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UN official condemns new Israeli settlement plans

UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Tor Wennesland, says all settlements are “illegal under international law” and they were a “driver of conflict” in the occupied West Bank, he said in a statement.

“I urge Israel to cease all settlement activity [and] refrain from provocative actions.”




Israel not agreeing to main demands: Hamas official

Earlier we reported Hamas’s delegation team had left Cairo where discussions on a new truce deal with Israel were ongoing. Husam Badran, a member of Hamas’s political bureau has just spoken to Al Jazeera on the future of the ceasefire talks.

Here are his translated comments:

  •  The Hamas delegation has left Cairo to meet with the leaders of Hamas for more consultations. It is clear that Netanyahu and the Israeli government were insisting on playing with all the parties.
  • They are not responding to the main demands not only of Hamas but also of the Palestinian people, which include reaching a ceasefire, allowing displaced people to go back to northern Gaza to their homes, allowing humanitarian aid to go freely without conditions and the reconstruction of Gaza after the war.
  • The US government is not an impartial and fair mediator. The US is supporting Netanyahu politically, militarily, and financially.
  • What is said by the US is all mere statements without a real will to stop the war or to reach an agreement, even a temporary agreement. The US must put pressure on the Israelis.

US says Gaza talks not ‘broken down’, differences narrowing

Jack Lew, the US ambassador to Israel, has commented on the talks for a truce in Gaza saying they have not yet “broken down”. “The differences are being narrowed. It’s not yet an agreement. Everyone’s looking towards Ramadan, which is coming close,” he said at a conference in Tel Aviv, referring to the Muslim holy month starting next week.

“I can’t tell you that it will be successful, but it is not yet the case that it is broken down,” Lew added.

As we reported earlier, Hamas said its delegation had left Egypt but talks on a truce will continue next week. The Palestinian group also said Israel has “thwarted” mediators’ attempts to broker a deal before Ramadan.



Food at Gaza markets ‘depleted’ as prices surge: UN

The latest report by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) details “critical food shortages” in markets across the Gaza Strip, some of which have resorted to reselling humanitarian assistance. “Due to the insufficient flow of goods, more than half of shops surveyed between February 7 and 15 in Deir el-Balah and Rafah reported a decrease in food stocks, and a notable portion indicated a complete depletion of their stocks,” it said.

Food staples such as eggs, dairy products, vegetable oil, vegetables and rice are in shortage, and prices are surging at an exponential rate after the start of the war, with the annual rate of food inflation in Gaza reaching 118 percent in January 2024. “In addition, the [consumer price index] for food has risen by nearly 105 percent since the onset of hostilities, significantly diminishing people’s purchasing power,” the UN said.

If you kill all the civil police (cause they're 'Hamas') the void will be filled

People’s Protection Force patrols Gaza market

Groups of masked and armed men, called the People’s Protection Committee, are patrolling Rafah, on the lookout for black market pricing.