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‘It should stop now’: France’s UN envoy calls for immediate ceasefire
Nicolas de Riviere, France’s ambassador to the UN, says his country is “extremely concerned” about the situation in Rafah and in Gaza overall.
“As President [Emmanuel] Macron said a couple of days ago, there is no safe zone in Gaza right now. So we want a ceasefire. We want no operation in Rafah. We want full humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip,” he told Al Jazeera. “It’s not the case now.”
De Riviere said France supports an Algerian draft resolution at the UN Security Council that he said proposes “a cessation of hostilities, no operation in Rafah and basically endorsing what the International Court of Justice has been asking for, … which is urging Israel not to do an operation in Rafah and Hamas to release all the hostages”.
He added that while Hamas is a threat to Israel and the security of Israel is “not negotiable”, international humanitarian law must be respected.
“What we are witnessing now in Gaza as a whole and in Rafah in particular is an absolutely unacceptable number of civilian victims, and it should stop now.”
Captives in Gaza ‘doomed’, family member quotes security adviser as saying
A group supporting the captives in Gaza accused the government of making a “conscious and deliberate decision to sacrifice” them, forgoing the Israeli principle it will never leave anyone behind.
Gil Dickmann, whose cousin Carmel is being held in Gaza, said during a face-to-face meeting with government security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and several families on Thursday they were told the government isn’t prepared to end the war to bring their relatives back.
“I said, ‘Does that mean that we’re doomed, we’re lost?’ He said, ‘Yes’,” said Dickmann.
It was the harshest and most difficult meeting with Israeli officials since the war began because it left families hopeless, he added. Israel has refused to end the war on Gaza and withdrawal its troops, a key demand by Hamas to release more captives.
‘Save us’: Hamas releases audio of female Israeli captive
Hamas released a recording to pressure Israeli authorities on reaching a ceasefire agreement, this time with the voice of a female Israeli captive. “Time is running out, we don’t want to die here,” the unnamed woman, who has been identified by Israeli media as Noa Argamani, 26, can be heard saying.
“Don’t put our fate in the hands of Netanyahu and the war council.”
It’s the third recording of Israeli captives released by armed groups in Gaza this week, with Palestinian Islamic Jihad putting out two videos showing another captive Alexander Trufanov, 30.
