Iran Press/ West Asia: From October 7, 2023, to February 7, 2024, after 124 days close to 27,807 people were killed in nonstop Israeli attacks in Gaza and 67,147 wounded.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued an alarm for Israeli plans to attack Rafah, where 1.9 million Palestinians are sheltering, most the people of Gaza who are internally displaced.
Guterres said he is “especially alarmed” over reports that Israel is pledging an assault on Rafah, in the far south of the Gaza Strip near its border with Egypt, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians displaced by Israel’s campaign are hemmed in with nowhere to flee.
“Such an action would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences,” Guterres told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.
About 1.9 million people are sheltering in Rafah after being ordered there by Israeli forces, which previously described the area as a “safe zone”. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday that an Israeli assault could lead to “large-scale loss of civilian lives”.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army published a statement on its website announcing that service for Israeli men and women in combat positions will now last 36 months. Previously, men were required to serve 32 months and women 24.
On Wednesday, one civilian was killed and two injured in an Israeli attack on the town of Khiam in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.
Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that Israeli planes launched attacks over Al-Qulayaa and Burj Al-Moulouk and conducted mock raids over Tyre and Nabatieh.
The US secretary of state, who is on a visit to Israel where he briefed leaders on the Qatari-brokered proposal, has said more work is needed to reach a deal.
“There’s a lot of work to be done, but we are very much focused on doing that work, and hopefully being able to resume the release of hostages that was interrupted,” he said.
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