'We will reach Rafah' says Israeli defense minister; 'initial confirmation' from Hamas on truce deal: Day 118 of Hamas-Israel war

Thank you for following our LIVE coverage from day 118 of the Hamas-Israel war.

We'll be back tomorrow with more news updates and analysis, right here at L'Orient Today.

Hamas received the Paris truce proposal for a cease-fire and release of hostages in Gaza but did not give a response to any of the parties, the media adviser to the head of Hamas' political bureau told Reuters.

"We cannot say that the current stage of negotiation is zero and at the same time we cannot say that we have reached an agreement," Taher al-Nono says.

👉 Read here what we know about the three-stage proposal.

👉 Read here about the build up in negotiations.

(Credit: Said Khatib/AFP)

Palestinians released today and currently receiving treatment at the Rafah hospital in southern Gaza have reported experiencing violence and deprivation during their detention by the Israeli army, AFP reports. The detentions occurred amid Israel's ground offensive that began after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack.

At Rafah's Najjar Hospital, one Palestinian who was detained by the Israeli army described the treatment as "relentless torture," saying he was handcuffed and blindfolded for seven days.

According to Gaza authorities, 114 individuals, including four women, were returned to the Kerem Shalom crossing near Rafah earlier today. Among those released was Mohammed al-Ran, Head of Surgery at the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, who was arrested during an Israeli military incursion two months ago.

👉 Read the full report here.

Displaced Palestinians take shelter in an encampment on the beach in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on Feb. 1, 2024. (Credit: Mohammed Abed/AFP)

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant says that Israeli forces have dismantled the Hamas brigade in Gaza's southern Khan Younis as part of an almost four-month-old war in which 10,000 Palestinian fighters have been killed, the army claims, and the same number wounded, according to a Reuters report.

"We are achieving our missions in Khan Younis, and we will also reach Rafah and eliminate terror elements that threaten us," he said in a statement, referring to a city on Gaza's border with Egypt that has been packed with displaced civilians who have fled Israeli aggression elsewhere in the besieged enclave. At least 85 percent of the population in Gaza has been displaced during the Israeli offensive.

In mid-January, Gallant told Israeli media that there is no "complete solution" to the pockets of Hamas resistance that had so far withstood the Israeli offensive in northern Gaza. His comments followed reports that Israeli troops returned to areas they had previously withdrawn from and fighting had intensified again to levels not seen since before the new year.

Mohammad Assad Sammar, 56, whose 13-year-old son Ahmad died in mid-December after reaching the hospital too late due to an Israeli army raid in the nearby Jenin camp, poses for a portrait at his home in the town of al-Yamun, about nine kilometers west of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, on Jan. 23, 2024.

First responders in the occupied West Bank say that Palestinians are denied life-saving medical attention due to stricter movement restrictions imposed by Israel since the start of its war with Hamas in October 2023. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and its troops regularly carry out incursions into Palestinian communities, but the raids have escalated, increasingly lasting several days and accompanied by air strikes.

(Credit: Marco Longari/AFP)

Israel described the vast majority of West Bank settlers as "law-abiding" on Thursday and said it tackles those who are not, signaling dissatisfaction as Washington stepped up sanctions against settlers accused of having attacked Palestinians, Reuters reports.

"Israel takes action against all law-breakers everywhere, and therefore there is no need for unusual measures on the issue," a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.

Biden and other senior US officials have warned repeatedly that Israel must act to stop violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank. Attacks there have surged in recent months as Jewish settlements have expanded, and then spiked again since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

👉 Read about the sanctions here.

🔴 BREAKING: Hamas has given "initial positive confirmation" to a proposal for the cessation of fighting in Gaza and the release of hostages, says Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman, according to an AFP report.

"The meeting in Paris succeeded in consolidating the proposals ... That proposal has been approved by the Israeli side and now we have an initial positive confirmation from the Hamas side," Majed al-Ansari said referring to meetings between Qatari, US, Israeli and Egyptian officials in the French capital on Sunday.

Hezbollah's parliamentary wing declares that it has adopted "appropriate deterrent measures," in an announcement that follows an earlier one declaring it has "intensified its qualitative operations" against Israel, amid ongoing cross-border fighting.

In a statement issued at the end of its regular meeting, led by MP Mohammed Raad, the parliamentary group observed that the escalation of tensions between Israel and the "Islamic Resistance" at the border is "the result of the enemy's insistence on dictating new ground realities to impose its conditions on Lebanon in a way that violates its sovereignty and the security of its people." But in the face of "the enemy, the Resistance adopts appropriate deterrent measures," Raad said.

👉 Read the full report here.

Here's what happened at the Lebanese-Israeli borders during the past 45 minutes:

• Israeli warplanes raided an area between Halta and Kfarchouba, Hasbaya district, according to a security source, relayed by L'Orient Today's correspondent in the south.

• Israeli artillery shelling targeted the western outskirts of Tayr Harfa, Sour district, residents told our correspondent.

• Missiles were fired from southern Lebanon towards Israeli positions in the Western Galilee, according to a security source.

Palestinians fly a kite on a sandy hill in a makeshift camp set up on the beach for people who fled to Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on Feb. 1, 2024. (Credit: Mohammed Abed/AFP)

Britain will not send ground troops into combat against Houthi militants in Yemen, Reuters reports, quoting Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden, who added that air strikes had weakened the Iran-backed group.

The United States and Britain have, since January, hit Houthi targets in Yemen with air strikes following months of Houthi attacks on commercial and naval ships in the Red Sea. The Houthis say the attacks, which have disrupted global trade, are a response to Israel's assault on Gaza.

“Let’s be absolutely clear from the start. We have no plans whatsoever to put boots on the ground,” Dowden said in an interview at the British ambassador's residence in Abu Dhabi.

👉 Read the full report here.

US President Joe Biden is expected to issue an executive order targeting Jewish settlers who attack Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Politico reported, citing documents, a US official and a congressional aide.

The order was set to be released later Thursday, according to the documents and the US official, and is expected to include sanctions against the settlers, the news outlet reported.

👉 Read the full report here.

During a meeting with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, Lebanese Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri reiterated "Lebanon's commitment to 1701," according to a statement issued by the Ain al-Tineh press office.

Berri, whose party the Amal Movement is Hezbollah's closest ally, made a point of reminding the senior British official that by attacking civilians and residential areas in Lebanese border villages, Israel is violating the rules of engagement and breaching 1701 — the resolution that put an end to the war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.

Here's the latest update on the security situation in southern Lebanon:

• Hezbollah announced that it targeted the Israeli Ramtha site in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms at 4:12 p.m., and that it targeted the Israeli Samaka site in the occupied Shebaa Farms in southern Lebanon with rocket fire at 3:55 p.m.

• Machine gun sweeps and artillery shelling targeted the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Kila, Marjayoun district, according to our correspondent in the south.

• Israeli artillery shelling targeted the outskirts of Rashaya al-Foukhar, Hasbaya district, with six strikes, according to local residents.

• The Israeli army targeted the outskirts of Tyr Harfa, Sour district, as reported by local residents to our correspondent.

• Israeli artillery shelling targeted the outskirts of Majdal Zun, Sour district, and the Hassan valley, next to Majdal Zun, local residents told L'Orient Today.

• Israeli artillery targeted al-Ruwaisah on the outskirts of the town of Hula with several shells, local residents reported.

Update continued:

• Israeli artillery targeted the plain of Khiam, Marjayoun district, as reported by local residents. The shelling has been intermittent, with seven shells reported so far today, falling on agricultural lands between the Khiam plain and the town of Burj al-Muluk, Nabatieh district.

• The sounds of Takbir (praising God) resonate from the minarets of some mosques in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh in the city of Saida after the news of the withdrawal of Israeli forces from some streets in the city of Gaza, as reported by our correspondent in the south.

Here are the security updates from southern Lebanon in the last hour:

• Israeli artillery, accompanied by machine-gun fire, targeted the upper town of Dhaira, Sour district, from an Israeli position located opposite the border. Local sources report that four shells have been fired so far.

• Farmer Hussein al-Ahmad from the town of Wazzani, Hasbaya district, sustained leg injuries due to gunfire from an Israeli site on the border. The head of the municipality of the town informed L’Orient Today’s correspondent in the south that al-Ahmad was in his field with his livestock when he came under fire. He has been transported to a local hospital for treatment.

• Israeli warplanes bombed an area between Tyr Harfa and Jibbin, both located in Sour district, specifically targeting the supermarket of Bilal Ghayth. According to locals, this supermarket had been targeted in a previous attack. Residents report significant damage to houses, shops, and businesses.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told Reuters he is "reasonably optimistic" some countries that had paused funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) would resume payments.

UNRWA says its entire operations in the Middle East, not only in Gaza, will most likely be forced to shut down by the end of February if its funding remains suspended.

"I am reasonably optimistic that we will get funding back on track," Barth Eide said in an interview. He says "many countries" are realizing that the current situation could not last very long. He declined to name specific countries.

UNRWA’s biggest donors in 2023 were the US and EU countries, accounting for roughly $865 million or about 75 percent of the agency’s $1.16 billion budget.

According to UN Watch, 17 countries plus the EU have suspended their funding to UNRWA, pending the results of an investigation. Among the most significant losses are: US ($343.9 million), Germany ($202.1 million), EU ($114.1 million), Sweden ($61 million), Japan ($30.2 million), France ($28.9 million), Switzerland ($25.5 million), Canada ($23.7 million), UK ($21.2 million), Australia ($13.8 million), and Italy ($18 million).

👉 Read the full report here.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah is scheduled to deliver his sixth speech since the beginning of the war "on the occasion of Hezbollah's Wounded Day" on Tuesday, Feb. 13, at 3:00 pm. The total number of Hezbollah members killed in Lebanon and Syria since Oct. 8 is 177.

UNRWA warned that the suspension of international funding could force the UN agency to shut down its operations throughout the region by the end of February, AFP reports.

"If the funding remains suspended, we will most likely be forced to shut down our operations by end of February not only in Gaza but also across the region," UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said.

This announcement comes as around a dozen countries announced that they were suspending funding to the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees following an accusation by Israel that 12 of its over 10,000 members participated in Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

UNRWA said that it is investigating the accusations.

Alarm sirens were activated in and around Kiryat Shmona, in northern Israel, reports Haaretz. The Israeli army says it has identified three rocket attacks, including an anti-tank missile.

According to our correspondent, rockets were fired from southern Lebanon towards the Israeli town of Metula, located opposite the Lebanese village of Khiam (Marjayoun).

The Palestinian Red Crescent said it has still not received news from the team of ambulances that were sent 66 hours ago to rescue a six-year-old girl called Hind in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Hind was trapped in a car with the bodies of her family members, one of whom was killed while on the phone asking the Red Crescent for help.

The Israeli army said ten of its soldiers were injured in the past 24 hours in the Gaza Strip.

It also said three of them are in critical condition, according to Haaretz.

Israeli artillery fire targeted the southern outskirts of Jibbayn, Yarine and Umm al-Tout (Sour), residents of the region told our correspondent in southern Lebanon.

Hazmat suits that are left over from the coronavirus pandemic, are worn by displaced Palestinian children to keep warm, as they gather at a makeshift camp set up on the beach in Rafah in the Gaza Strip on Jan. 31, 2024. (Credit: Mohammad Abed/AFP)

The Gazan Ministry of Health announced Thursday a toll of 27,019 people killed, mostly women, children and adolescents, in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, reports AFP.

The ministry also reports that 66,139 people have been injured since the start of the conflict on Oct. 7.

The Israeli Defense Ministry on Thursday announced that 427 houses of northern residents have had structural damage by Hezbollah rockets and anti-tank missiles since October, Jerusalem Post reported.

Around 80,000 northern residents evacuated their homes in October under fire by Hezbollah once the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza started.

Nine petitioners, among them former Israeli army chiefs Moshe Ya'alon and Dan Halutz, have submitted an appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court calling to declare Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unfit for office, Haaretz reported.

The Israeli Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, stated that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the Israeli military to examine a plan for distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza, Haaretz reported. According to Smotrich, the military could directly distribute aid and food to the residents of the Palestinian enclave, potentially replacing UNRWA, he said cited by Haaretz.

Photo provided by the Prime Minister's Office

British Foreign Minister David Cameron has arrived at the Grand Serail in Beirut where he will meet with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

Hezbollah said that its fighters had targeted, at 9 a.m., Israeli surveillance equipment at the site of the Israeli Radar site in the Shebaa Farms, on the border with Lebanon.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have reduced the deployment of their senior officers to Syria due to a series of deadly Israeli strikes and will rely more on allied Shiite militias to preserve their influence there, five sources said informed to the Reuters agency.

The Revolutionary Guards have endured one of their most difficult periods in Syria since arriving a decade ago to support President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian war.

Since December, Israeli strikes have killed more than half a dozen of their members, including one of the group's top intelligence generals.

Read the full report here.

Sheikh Nabil Qaouq, member of Hezbollah's executive council, delivering a speech in South Lebanon, Feb. 1, 2024. Photo provided by our correspondent Muntasser Abdallah

"The decision to cut funding for UNRWA means that the Americans and Westerners are responsible for the famine, genocide and crime against humanity perpetrated against the Palestinian people," said Sheikh Nabil Qaouq, a member of Hezbollah's executive council, at a memorial event for one of the Hezbollah fighters killed in Rechknanay (Sour).

This decision "aims to break the will of the Palestinian people, who have shown legendary resistance," added the dignitary, according to remarks reported by our correspondent Muntasser Abdallah.

Two anti-tank missiles were fired from Lebanon towards northern Israel, without causing any casualties, the Israeli army announced, according to Haaretz.

Hezbollah has not yet commented on the attack.

About an hour ago, Israeli artillery fired three shells at Saddena mountain, between Shebaa and the town of Hebbarieh (Hasbaya), according to reports from local residents gathered by our correspondent in southern Lebanon.

During his visit to the United States, the Prime Minister of Qatar spoke of his country's role in mediating a possible agreement between Israel and Hamas.

"I think we should all unite to stop this war, save these lives, prevent these children and women from being killed, pursued and bombed," Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said, according to reports by the Al-Jazeera channel.

Asked about the possibility of a new agreement, he said that "everything depends on the two parties". Finally, the prime minister warned that if the war did not end soon, the risks of a wider regional conflict would increase.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said on X this morning that Israeli occupation forces had "stormed its headquarters in Khan Younis for the third time" and opened fire around Al-Amal hospital, before withdrawing.

"Hospital staff treated 18 cases on Wednesday, 12 of them martyrs, including a Palestinian Red Crescent worker and volunteer. Bullets also hit five vehicles, including three ambulances," he also said.

The Israeli army has reported that it struck Hamas targets over the last 24 hours, including military structures and militants in central and northern Gaza. The army also mentioned targeting Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

The British Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, will be in Lebanon on Thursday for a short visit linked to developments on the Lebanese-Israeli border and the daily exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah.

London's policy in this respect is in line with Washington's, which aims to limit escalation and prevent the Gaza war from spreading to other fronts, notably Lebanon.

According to the daily Al Joumhouria, Cameron's visit had been decided at previous meetings between the British Foreign Secretary and the prime minister of the caretaker government, Najib Mikati.

The armed wing of Hamas said in a message posted on the social network X that its forces had targeted Israeli vehicles entering Tubas, a Palestinian town in the north-east of the occupied West Bank, with "explosive devices and suitable weapons".

The UN humanitarian coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in Washington on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, to discuss the current situation of the UNRWA (the Office United Nations Relief and Works Program for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East).

In statements made before the meeting, Blinken said that the United States was still working "closely with Sigrid, Israel, Egypt and other relevant parties to maximize the assistance provided [in Gaza]," but that it was necessary "at the same time ... to examine the terrible allegations which have been made against certain members of UNRWA personnel."

“We also need to continue to talk about a number of issues, namely [creating] safe conditions for the delivery of aid, not only for humanitarian workers but also for those who receive it,” continued Sigrid Kaag.

“We also need to talk about aid diversion, and any potential risk of aid falling into the wrong hands needs to be avoided, and if that happens we need to act very quickly in a very transparent and credible way,” she added.

In southern Lebanon:

The night was also relatively calm with only one incident recorded since the operation on Wednesday at 9:15 p.m. claimed by Hezbollah. The party had targeted the Israeli town of Manara, "in response to Israeli attacks against villages and civilian homes in Beit Lif (Bint Jbeil) and Blida (Marjeyoun).

According to these same sources, an Israeli tank then fired four shells around midnight on the Tal al-Nahas area north of Kfar Kila and on the outskirts of Deir Mimas (Marjayoun).

The situation in the Red Sea:

The American military announced on the night of Wednesday to Thursday a series of military operations against the Houthi rebels in Yemen, claiming to have destroyed more than a dozen attack drones, missiles and a command post.

On the diplomatic level:

The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken will return “in the coming days” to the Middle East, stated an American official without saying to which countries.

On the sidelines of the mediation led by the United States, Qatar and Egypt, Colombian President Gustavo Petro proposed the establishment of a "peace commission made up of different countries" to ensure the release of hostages and the end of the hostilities.

Nearly four months after the start of the war which devastated the besieged Palestinian territory, the population is "starving" and "being pushed to the brink," stated a World Health Organization (WHO) official, Michael Ryan.

According to a report from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), half of all buildings in Gaza are damaged and the territory is "uninhabitable."

Adding to the distress of the civilian population, the operations of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) are under threat after donor countries suspended their contributions amid accusations by Israel against 12 agency employees allegedly involved in the Oct. 7 attack.

The UN reported "intense bombardments" across the Gaza Strip, and in particular in Khan Younis, saying that 184,000 Palestinians had registered to request humanitarian aid after being forced to leave the western part of the city.

“At the moment, what is happening is a massacre,” Leo Cans, head of mission for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in the Palestinian Territories, told AFP .

“It is not possible that today in a war where people are not allowed to leave, where people are under siege, where they have nowhere to go, that we agree to kill 150 women and children per day ... So the first demand is an immediate and total cease-fire,” he added.

The situation in Gaza:

While the leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, is expected in Egypt on Thursday to discuss a new truce, Israeli fighting and strikes continue in the Gaza Strip despite a critical humanitarian situation.

During the night, witnesses reported Israeli strikes near the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis.

Over the past few days, the Israeli army had said that it had "surrounded" the locality, defeated Hamas battalions towards its eastern portion and was now concentrating its actions on the western slope.

The Gazan Health Ministry counted 119 dead in strikes in Gaza from Wednesday evening to Thursday morning, while the Palestinian Wafa agency reported violent clashes in Toubas, in the occupied West Bank.

Make sure that you read the Morning Brief so that you are caught up with what has been happening.

Morning Brief

One killed in southern Lebanon, fuel importer strike, support for displaced southerners: Everything you need to know to start your Thursday

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