UN says ‘safe zones’ in Gaza impossible
- A UNICEF spokesperson says safe zones in Gaza “are not scientific, they are not rational, they are not possible”.
- Israel ramps up attacks across the Gaza Strip, including near hospitals and in the south of the besieged enclave where ground operations are intensifying.
Qatari spokesperson says GCC declaration shows ‘united position’
Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majid al Ansari tells Al Jazeera that Doha’s declaration at the GCC summit showed “very clearly the united position between all GCC states in calling for an end to this war and supporting the efforts regionally and internationally.”
On the chances of a return to the negotiation table with Israel and Hamas, Ansari said Qatar is “relentless in its efforts to continue the mediation between both sides”.
“We have been successful in reaching a pause for seven days within this conflict,” he said. “While we face challenges that made us unable to continue for an eighth day, we continue our mediation through the communication channels we have right now.”
“We are hopeful, as his highness said today, that through the international community pressure on Israel to return to the negotiation table we will be able to get back to talking about mediation in even a more robust form and a more sustainable peace.”
No matter how hard he tries, Abdulatheem Wadi is unable to hide the devastating pain written all over his face.
With his eyes fixed on the distance, the 50-year-old chokes up as he recalls how Israeli setters murdered his 63-year-old brother Ibrahim and his 24-year-old nephew Ahmad, on October 12, while they were attending a memorial service for a group of Palestinians also killed by settlers the previous night. What was a funeral for four became a funeral for six.
“It was a massacre in a small village,” says Abdulatheem.
That village is Qusra, home to some 7,000 Palestinians living just south of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank.
UK considering sending military support vessel to help aid efforts
British Defence Minister Grant Shapps says the country is considering sending military support vessel RFA Lyme Bay to provide medical and humanitarian aid in the Middle East.
Addressing UK military deployments to the Middle East, Shapps also told legislators, “I’ll move heaven and earth to bring our hostages home, and the UK Ministry of Defence will conduct the surveillance flights over the eastern Mediterranean, including operating in airspace over Israel and Gaza.”
He added that the British surveillance aircraft would be “unmanned”.
Families of captives meeting Israeli war cabinet
If Israeli media is to be believed, then Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t want this meeting to take place at all. It was postponed three times. But it eventually happened because Netanyahu knows he’s very unpopular.
The families of the captives want their relatives to come back and they want to understand exactly what is being done to make that happen.
There are few bargaining chips that the Israelis have: One of them is allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza. The Americans have put tremendous amounts of pressure on the Israelis to make that happen. They discussed it in the war cabinet just before this meeting, and they said they weren’t going to do that.
That’s going to be a disappointment to the families of the captives because if they can get a bargain going, if they can get some sort of real negotiation with Hamas, then they’re much more hopeful that there may well be a ceasefire.
