Story highlights

• At least 28,858 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes since Oct 7 Hamas attack
• Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says will enter Rafah
• Qatar says Gaza truce not promising
• Egypt rejects reports of a contingency plan on Rafah crossing

The UN Security Council could hold a vote next week, sought by Algeria, on a resolution seeking an “immediate” ceasefire in Gaza, diplomatic sources told AFP Saturday, although Washington again appeared set to block it.

Algeria launched discussions on a new draft after the International Court of Justice ruled in late January that Israel must do all it can to prevent genocidal acts in its war in Gaza, which it says is targeting Hamas militants.

The latest version of the text, seen by AFP Saturday, “demands an immediate humanitarian ceasefire that must be respected by all parties.”

It also “rejects forced displacement of the Palestinian civilian population,” and it “demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”

The Gaza war began with Hamas’s October 7 attack which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel responded by launching a relentless assault on Gaza that has killed at least 28,858 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Algeria has requested a UN Security Council vote on Tuesday, but Washington signalled it is likely to veto the measure.

US President Joe Biden is working with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar on a hostage deal that would bring about six weeks of a “prolonged pause in fighting,” US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in a statement on Algeria’s proposed draft.

“The resolution put forward in the Security Council, in contrast, would not achieve these outcomes, and indeed, may run counter to them,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

“The United States does not support action on this draft resolution,” she added. “Should it come up for a vote as drafted, it will not be adopted.”

Like previous texts opposed by Israel and the United States, the new text does not condemn the unprecedented attack by Hamas.

Earlier this month, Thomas-Greenfield said that Algeria’s latest initiative risked derailing the negotiations.

“We believe that it is high time now for the Security Council to decide on a humanitarian ceasefire resolution,” Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour said recently, adding there is “massive support” for the text’s elements among council members.

In October and December, despite international pressure over Gaza’s growing humanitarian crisis, Washington vetoed texts calling for a ceasefire.

The Security Council has adopted just two resolutions on Gaza since October 7, including one calling for large-scale delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory.

Netanyahu says not entering Rafah means ‘losing war’

Netanyahu said Saturday that critics calling for Israel not to mount military action in Rafah were effectively telling the country to “lose the war” against Hamas.

“Even if we achieve it, we will enter Rafah,” he told a televised news conference.

Israel has faced increasing calls, including from its closest ally the United States, to hold off sending troops into the southern Gazan city, where some 1.4 million people have fled.

The military maintains that it is working to move civilians from the area to minimise casualties, but has not revealed exact details of its evacuation plan.

Netanyahu said any settlement “will be reached only through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions”, dismissing Hamas’s demands as “ludicrous”.

“Israel under my leadership will continue to strongly oppose the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state,” he added.

“After the terrible massacre of October 7, there can be no greater reward for terrorism than that and it will prevent any future peace settlement.”

He was speaking as thousands of Israelis protested in Tel Aviv, accusing Netanyahu’s government of abandoning hostages kidnapped in the October 7 attack and still held in Gaza.

Mediator says Gaza truce ‘not promising’

Mediator Qatar acknowledged on Saturday that prospects for a new pause in Israel’s war with Hamas were “not really promising” as Israel rejected appeals to hold off on a threatened assault on the Gaza city of Rafah.

Truce efforts intensified this week as Qatar and fellow mediators Egypt and the United States scrambled to secure a ceasefire before Israeli troops enter Rafah, the last major population centre in Gaza untouched by Israeli ground troops.

Despite a direct appeal from US President Joe Biden earlier this week, Netanyahu insisted the operation would go ahead regardless of whether a hostage release deal was agreed with Hamas.

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who met with negotiators from both Israel and Hamas this week, said efforts for a ceasefire had been complicated by the insistence of “a lot of countries” that any new truce involve further releases of hostages.

“The pattern in the last few days is not really very promising,” he said at the Munich Security Conference.

“Negotiations cannot be held while hunger is ravaging the Palestinian people,” a senior source in the Palestinian militant group told AFP, asking not to be identified as he is not authorised to speak on the issue.

Fears for patients after raid

Israel said Saturday it detained 100 people at one of Gaza’s main hospitals after troops raided the complex, with fears mounting for patients and staff trapped inside.

At least 120 patients and five medical teams are stuck without water, food and electricity in Nasser Hospital in Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Yunis, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The Guardian reported that witnesses said explosions were heard at dawn in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, where about 1.4 million displaced civilians are sheltering. Israel told Palestinians to seek shelter in the south at the beginning of the war, but many have now been displaced multiple times as they seek to keep up with Israeli evacuation orders.

ICJ hearings on Israeli occupation of Palestine to begin on Monday

The International Court of Justice will begin public hearings on Israel’s occupation of Palestine on Monday, Al Jazeera reported.

The case pre-dates South Africa’s ICJ filing under the genocide convention and requests the court’s opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s actions in the occupied Palestinian territories more broadly.

El-Sisi rejects displacement of Palestinians to Egypt

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi rejected reports of the displacement of Palestinians to Egypt.

El-Sisi made the remarks during a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday, according to a statement by the Egyptian presidency.

During their conversation, the two leaders also agreed on the need to “stop the bloodshed” in the Gaza Strip and discussed advancing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, the statement said.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has rejected reports of a contingency plan on Rafah crossing and erecting walls on the border.

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“There seems to be an exaggeration in terms of all of this,” he said in an interview with Yalda Hakim of Sky News. “We are not preparing on our side of the border. Whatever is happening is the ordinary maintenance of our border and border fortifications.”

He clarified that the country was providing shelter to Palestinians.

When asked if the idea of an influx of Palestinian refugees into Egypt is a red line for the country, he replied in the affirmative. “We have indicated that at the highest level. This is not an acceptable circumstance. We will not accept the liquidation of the Palestinian cause by removing Palestinians from their land and creating new conditions of displacement.”

He rejected the impression the government was planning to reject the aid trucks.