France seeks cease-fire and Palestinian Authority in Gaza: Day 121 of the Hamas-Israel war

Thank you for following our LIVE coverage from day 121 day of the Hamas-Israel war.

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

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told ABC News in an interview that the States sees a hostage deal as being "critical to generate a sustained pause in hostilities" to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid and "alleviate the suffering in Gaza."

Sullivan told George Stephanopoulos of "This Week" that the US is in "constant contact" with their Israeli counterparts but that "ultimately, it comes down to Hamas."

When asked if the deal was imminent, Sullivan responded saying it's not, and that "these kinds of negotiations unfold somewhat slowly until they unfold very quickly."

"It's difficult to put a precise timetable on when something might come together or frankly if something might come together."

Canada will impose sanctions on Israeli settlers who incite violence in the West Bank and introduce new sanctions on Hamas leaders, says Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, after the United States took similar actions last week, Reuters reports.

On Thursday, the United States sanctioned four Israeli men accused of being involved in violence in the occupied territory.

In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC) on Sunday, Joly said some settlers "will be sanctioned" and "we will also bring new sanctions on Hamas leaders."

👉 Read the full report here.

The situation in southern Lebanon appears to have remained relatively calm over the last two hours.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an attack carried out at 4:55 p.m. on an Israeli position in the occupied Shebaa Farms, claiming to have caused "direct casualties."

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a visit to the Tel Nof Air Base that "every airstrike in Gaza brings us closer to achieving our goals and returning the hostages," Haaretz reports.

The pressure on Hamas is working, they are in a bad condition, and we are hitting them." Gallant claims. "In the north, the reality is similar — as we deepen our military achievements, the chance of not having to go to war grows."

Referring to the ongoing cross-border fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, Gallant is also quoted as saying: "I instructed the air force to turn to the north, and be ready for anything to happen there."

On Thursday, Gallant declared that Israeli forces had dismantled the Hamas brigade in Gaza's southern Khan Younis, and had, since the start of the war, killed 10,000 Palestinian fighters and wounded another 10,000. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Israel believes Hamas had 30,000 fighters leading up to Oct. 7.

(Credit: Khaled Desouki/AFP)

France's top diplomat Stephane Sejourne says he rejects the "forced displacement" of Palestinians into Egypt from the Gaza Strip, where Israeli bombardment has pushed hundreds of thousands against the border, AFP reports.

"We perfectly understand these concerns, and on this point, France's position remains the same: we condemn and will reject any action taken in this direction," he continued.

According to the French foreign minister, Paris is wishes for a cease-fire, the implementation of a two-state solution, and "also to prepare for the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza."

👉 Read the full report here.

Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam says continued US-British aggression in Yemen will not achieve any goal for the aggressors and will not affect Yemen’s decision to show its support for Gaza, in a statement cited by Reuters.

Abdulsalam also said that it will not be easy to destroy Yemeni military capabilities, which have been rebuilt during years of tough conflict.

In the last 30 minutes:

• Hezbollah announces that they targeted two Israeli positions at the occupied Shebaa Farms and said they "directly hit" the target.

• The Israeli army shelled areas around the southern Lebanese border village of Hula, Marjayoun district, residents of the village told L'Orient Today.

The United States intends to make additional strikes against Iran-backed groups in the Middle East, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told NBC News, according to a Reuters report.

White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby separately told "Fox News Sunday" that Friday night's US strikes against Iran-backed groups were the beginning of a string of attacks, with more action will follow. "What you saw on Friday night was just the first round."

On Friday, the US launched airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against more than 85 targets linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and militias it backs, reportedly killing nearly 40 people, in retaliation for the attack on a small US military outpost in Jordan last Sunday that killed three Army Reserve soldiers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit back at a powerful far-right minister in his cabinet who said Washington has not fully backed Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, AFP reports.

Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir told the Wall Street Journal that US President Joe Biden had not given Israel sufficient support.

"Instead of giving us his full backing, Biden is busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel [to Gaza], which goes to Hamas," Ben-Gvir told the newspaper in an article published on Sunday. "If [former US president Donald] Trump was in power, the US conduct would be completely different."

👉 Read the full report here.

In the last hour:

• The Israeli army shelled the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of Rashaya Fawqar, Kfar Hammam and Kfar Shuba in Hasbaya district, residents of the villages and a security source told L'Orient Today.

• A security source told L'Orient Today that the Israeli army shelled areas in the southern Lebanese border village of Khiam and opened fire on an area in Kfar Kila in the Marjayoun district.

• The Israeli army shelled the outskirts of the southern Lebanese border villages of Tayr Harfa and Jibbayn in Sour district, according to residents of the village.

• Hezbollah announced attacks against three Israeli targets, one of which it said was in retaliation to the attacks on civilian houses in Blida and Mais al-Jabal in Marjayoun district. Hezbollah's attacks targeted two buildings facing the south Lebanon border village of Houla in Marjeyoun. The party said it "directly hit" the targets.

Mourners attend the funeral of two members of the Amal Movement, who were killed in Israeli bombardment yesterday in Blida, Marjeyoun district, earlier today. (Credit: Amal press office)

The Amal Movement, Hezbollah's Shi'ite political ally, denied alleged statements claiming they attacked Israeli positions after two of their members were killed in an Israeli bombing yesterday.

"News that doesn't come from our central media office does not concern us. We have no further comment," the head of Amal's central media office, Rami Najem, told L'Orient Today.

A strike in Mais al-Jabal has completely destroyed one house and damaged five nearby houses, residents of the village tell L'Orient-Le Jour.

In the last hour:

• The Israeli army bombed the outskirts of the south Lebanon border villages of Tayr Harfa, Chihine, and Majdal Zoun in the Sour district, residents of the villages told L'Orient-Le Jour.

• A security source told L'Orient-Le Jour that the Israeli army shelled the outskirts of the south Lebanon border villages of Taybeh and Houla in the Marjayoun district.

Image: Children gesture as they stand near a water distribution tank in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 4, 2024, as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas. (Credit: Mohammed Abed/AFP)

Hamas has condemned yesterday's strikes by the USA and the UK against Houthi targets in Yemen, denouncing an "escalation" threatening stability in the region.

"We strongly condemn the US-British bombardment of Yemen and consider it a blatant attack on the sovereignty of a brotherly Arab country, and an escalation that will drag the region into further unrest and instability," Hamas said in a statement.

"Washington and the Zionist occupation bear full responsibility for the repercussions" of these attacks, Hamas said.

The United States and the United Kingdom announced that they bombed dozens of targets in Yemen on Saturday, in response to repeated attacks by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels against ships in the Red Sea.

France's Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne has begun his first Middle East trip as foreign minister, aimed at pushing for a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of hostages held by the Palestinian Hamas movement since Oct. 7, 2023, a ministry spokesman said.

Sejourne meanwhile tweeted, "For my first visit to the Middle East, I wanted to first go to Egypt, France's strategic partner," adding that he reiterated to Egypt's president France's "commitment to a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza and a relaunch of the two-state political solution."

Image: France's Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne meets with his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo on Feb. 4, 2024.  (Credit: Khaled Desouki/AFP)

According to Haaretz, the Israeli army has said the anti-missile sirens that sounded "in the north of the country" were triggered by a "false alarm."

Update on the situation on the border between south Lebanon and Israel over the last hour:

*According to reports from local residents, Israeli soldiers launched machine-gun fire from the site of Bayad Blida, opposite the Lebanese town of Blida, in the Marjayoun district, during the funeral of a member of the Amal Movement, a Hezbollah ally.

*A security source reported that several missiles were fired from Lebanon into the Upper Galilee. At the same time, Haaretz reported that alarm sirens had sounded in the Israeli town of Yiftah. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

*According to reports from local residents, Israeli fighter jets are flying over several parts of the country and have been heard as far from the border as Saida.

An influential pro-Iran alliance of ex-paramilitaries, the Hachd al-Shaabi, has called for the departure of international anti-jihadist coalition troops from Iraq, at a funeral for its fighters killed in US strikes.

On Friday, the United States carried out strikes in Syria and Iraq against targets connected to elite Iranian forces and pro-Iranian armed groups in retaliation for a Jan. 28 attack that killed three American soldiers in Jordan, near the Iraqi and Syrian borders.

Lebanon's Foreign Affairs Ministry has expressed its "deep concern" over the recent US bombings in Syria and Iraq, condemning "the number of dead and wounded, as well as the violation of the security and sovereignty of two countries."

Washington conducted strikes against pro-Iranian groups in Syria and Iraq in retaliation for an attack on an American military base in Jordan on Jan. 28, which claimed the lives of three American soldiers.

The ministry stressed that it had already expressed similar support for Jordan following this latest attack. It called for "restraint" and respect for the sovereignty and security of all countries.

Lastly, the ministry called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, a vital first step, in its view, to avoid a regional conflagration.

⚡ Gaza casualty toll update: A total of 27,365 Palestinians have been killed and 66,630 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the latest figures from the Gaza Health Ministry, Reuters reports.

In a statement, it adds that 127 people have died in the past 24 hours.

Hezbollah has announced the killing of two more of the group's fighters: Mohamad Yehya and Abbas Mobarak from the village of Taybeh (Marjayoun). As is typical, the party did not specify the date and time of the fighters' deaths.

Yesterday, Israel bombed a house in Taybeh and residents of the area told L'Orient-Le Jour that the strike resulted in casualties.

This latest announcement raises Hezbollah's death toll to 178 on the Lebanese and Syrian front, with 162 of those killed slain in Lebanon.

Hezbollah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan has told a meeting with local government representatives in Baalbeck, Bekaa Valley, that Israel is facing a dilemma after failing to achieve its objectives in Gaza and not being able to stop the war, while Israeli leaders are currently blaming each other for this failure.

⚡ Iran has "strongly condemned" the new strikes by the US and the UK in Yemen, which it says were in "contradiction" with their stated wish to "not want an expansion of the conflict" in the Middle East.

These attacks are "a repeated violation of Yemen's sovereignty and territorial integrity and a flagrant violation of international law," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani said in a statement.

The Houthis have vowed to retaliate against US and British strikes that hit dozens of targets in Yemen in response to attacks on ships by the Iranian-backed Yemeni rebels, AFP reports.

Yahya Saree, the Houthis' military spokesman, said today that the new strikes "will not undermine" their "support for the resisting Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and will not go unanswered and unpunished."

Following Saturday's strikes, another Houthi spokesman, Nasr al-Din Amer, said "either there is peace for us, Palestine and Gaza, or there is no peace and no security for you in our region."

"We will respond to escalation with escalation," he wrote on social networks.

Hezbollah MP Ali Fayad says that Hezbollah's military intervention in the war on Gaza has not only benefited Gaza but also Lebanon.

During a commemoration of the death of one of the Hezbollah fighters in Harouf in Nabatieh, Fayad said that his party's daily exchanges of fire with Israel in south Lebanon have "decreased the chance of a full-scale [Israeli] attack and contributed to exhausting and draining the enemy's forces."

Fayad also said that this intervention "opened the file of occupied Lebanese territories and Israeli violation of Lebanese sovereignty and international decisions," matters that are currently under discussion in a cease-fire negotiations.

US President Joe Biden is hindering Israel's war effort, and if Donald Trump were in office, it would enable Israel to eliminate Hamas much more efficiently, the Wall Street Journal cites far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir as saying in an interview.

“Instead of giving us his full backing, Biden is busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel [to Gaza], which goes to Hamas,” the newspaper quotes Ben-Gvir as saying. “If Trump was in power, the US conduct would be completely different.”

In what the WSJ says is his first interview with a foreign news organization since joining Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government, the paper adds that Ben-Gvir warned he would oppose any deal with Hamas that would free thousands of Palestinians held for terrorism or end the war before Hamas was fully defeated.

Netanyahu “is at a crossroads,” Ben-Gvir reportedly said. “And he has to choose in what direction he’ll go."

Image: Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Sept. 10, 2023 (Credit: Ohad Zwigenberg/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

No incidents have been reported so far this morning on the border between south Lebanon and Israel.

In the US, House Speaker Mike Johnson has said that elected Republicans will introduce a bill next week in the House of Representatives that would provide $17.6 billion in emergency funding for Israel, according to several US, British and Israeli media outlets.

Johnson's announcement comes amid tense negotiations between Senate Democrats and Republicans over a border security compromise that would pave the way for Joe Biden's $106 billion national security supplemental budget, which includes more than $14 billion in aid to Israel.

The White House called the bill "the latest cynical political maneuver" by Republicans, adding that "Israel's security should be sacred, not a political game," the Iraeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

The White House press secretary said the administration had been working with a bipartisan group of senators for months and urged House Republicans to do the same.

Wrap-up of the night in south Lebanon, according to a security source:

* The Israeli army shelled areas between the villages of Yater and Beit Lif (Bint Jbeil) and between Alma al-Shaab (Sour) and Rmaish (Bint Jbeil) at around 9 p.m.

* First responders continued searching under the rubble of a house that was bombed yesterday in Taybeh (Marjayoun) until 10 p.m. It was not clear whether there were casualties inside the house.

* Hezbollah announced at 9:50 p.m. that it had attacked an Israeli position facing the south Lebanon border village of Rmaish and said it had "directly hit the target."

* The Israeli army shelled an area between Tayr Harfa and Jibbayn (Sour) after 12 a.m.

The United States and Britain struck "36 Houthi targets across 13 locations in Yemen in response to the Houthis' continued attacks against international and commercial shipping as well as naval vessels transiting the Red Sea," the US and UK said in a statement issued alongside other countries that provided support for the operation, AFP reports.

The joint air raids in Yemen come a day after a separate wave of unilateral American strikes against Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria that were carried out in response to the killing of three US soldiers in Jordan on Jan. 28.

It is the third time that British and American forces have jointly targeted the Houthis. The US has also carried out a series of air raids against the group on its own. Click here for more.

Gaza's Health Ministry said early today that at least 92 people were killed overnight in the enclave, including in what Hamas's media office said was an Israeli bombardment of a kindergarten in Rafah where displaced people were sheltering, AFP reports. More details here.

Image: A woman looks out from the window of a damaged house following Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 3, 2024. (Credit: Mohammed Abed/AFP)

Good morning, 

We're here with live updates from Gaza, Israel, south Lebanon and the wider region on day 121 of the Israel-Hamas war.