Paris urges Iran “and its cronies” to stop their “destabilizing actions” – L’Express

As promised, Hezbollah is fighting back. After the assassination of Hamas number 2 on Wednesday January 3 in a Hezbollah base in Beirut, Lebanon, the pro-Iranian Islamist movement fired more than 40 rockets into northern Israel this Saturday January 6. The UN has denounced a Gaza Strip that has become entirely “uninhabitable”, while strikes continue to cause deaths in the center and in Rafah, where civilians are massing.

Information to remember

⇒ Hezbollah says it bombed a military base in northern Israel in retaliation for the elimination of Hamas number 2 on its territory, while Europe calls not to generalize the conflict

⇒ The Hamas health ministry announced a new death toll of 22,722 in Gaza

⇒ The leader of Hamas called on the United States this Saturday to put an end to Israeli “aggression”

Paris urges Iran “and its cronies” to “immediately” stop their “destabilizing actions”

The French Minister of Foreign Affairs called her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian this Saturday to urge “Iran and its cronies” to “immediately” stop their “destabilizing actions”. Catherine Colonna claims to have “sent a very clear message: the risk of regional conflagration has never been so significant; Iran and its cronies must immediately stop their destabilizing actions. No one would gain from an escalation”, according to a message posted on the social network

Hamas leader calls on US to stop war

Hamas leader Ismaïl Haniyeh called on the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken, touring the Middle East for the fourth time since October 7, to act for “the end” of the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip. “We hope that this time he will focus on ending the aggression, with a view to ending the occupation of all Palestinian land,” he said in this video published Friday 5 January evening by his office.

READ ALSO: Massacre of October 7: “The Hamas attack could have been avoided, there was enough information”

“The blood shed in the massacres and horrific destruction cannot lead to security and stability until the Palestinian people obtain their freedom and their independent and sovereign state with Jerusalem as its capital,” the leader further warned. of Hamas. The American Secretary of State has started a new regional tour in Turkey during which he intends to plead for increased aid for Gaza and ways to avoid conflagration in a tense regional context.

Hamas counts 22,722 dead in Gaza

The Palestinian Hamas Ministry of Health announced this Saturday that Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip had left 22,722 dead since the start of the war on October 7. This count, unverifiable from an independent source, includes 122 people killed in the last 24 hours, specifies a press release from the ministry, also reporting 58,166 people injured since October 7.

Base in northern Israel bombed by Lebanese Hezbollah

Lebanese Hezbollah claimed to have fired dozens of rockets this Saturday, January 6, towards a military base in northern Israel. According to the Lebanese Islamist organization, this attack is its first response to the January 3 elimination of Hamas number two, Saleh al-Arouri, and six other Hamas officials and executives, in the stronghold of the southern suburbs of Beirut of Hezbollah.

READ ALSO: Death of Hamas number 2 in Lebanon: “The risk of a regional escalation is very real”

According to the Israeli army, around forty rockets were fired this Saturday morning towards the Meron region from neighboring Lebanon. Israeli forces responded by striking a cell responsible for some of these shootings in Lebanon. Since October 8, Hezbollah has launched daily attacks — often against Israeli military positions near the border — from southern Lebanon, in support of Hamas, its ally. And Israel responds by bombing targets in southern Lebanon.

READ ALSO: Gilles Kepel: “After the failure of Gaza, Israel redirects its offensive against the ‘axis of evil'”

Friday January 5, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah affirmed that Tuesday’s strike on his stronghold “is serious and would not go unanswered.” “The response is inevitable” and the movement will “respond” on “the battlefield”, he warned. The violence left 175 dead in Lebanon, including 129 Hezbollah fighters but also more than 20 civilians, according to an AFP count.

Josep Borrell calls not to drag Lebanon into conflict

“It is imperative to avoid a regional escalation in the Middle East, it is absolutely necessary to prevent Lebanon from being drawn into a regional conflict,” argued this Saturday the head of diplomacy of the European Union Josep Borrell , during a press conference in Beirut with the head of Lebanese diplomacy Abdallah Bouhabib. “I also address Israel: no one will win from a regional conflict,” he added following the escalation of bombings on the border this Saturday morning.

READ ALSO: Jerusalem: aboard the tram, journey to the heart of a fragmented city

“I think that war can be avoided, that it must be avoided and that diplomacy can prevail,” said Josep Borrell. Earlier in the day, he met with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, the commander of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), General Aroldo Lazaro Saenz, and the head of Parliament, Nabih Berri. “Diplomatic channels must be open to signal that war is not the only option, but that it is the worst,” he insisted. Israel has proclaimed its goal of eradicating Hamas. There must be another way to eradicate Hamas that would not cause so many deaths,” he now calls.

New strikes in Rafah, Gaza becomes “uninhabitable”

The Gaza Strip has become “uninhabitable”, the UN warned once again on Friday January 5, three months after the start of a war whose outcome everyone is struggling to envisage. Its inhabitants “face daily threats before the eyes of the world”, declared its humanitarian coordinator, Martin Griffiths, in a press release.

Israeli strikes also sounded early this Saturday in Rafah, a town at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have taken refuge in recent weeks trying to escape the clashes. On Friday, hospital sources reported 35 deaths in Deir al-Balah (center), where the Israeli army announced the “elimination” of “terrorists”. In the north of Gaza the bombings also continue.

A post-war plan in the middle of a war?

READ ALSO: Gaza: what the Israeli Defense Minister’s post-war plan contains

Despite the absence of prospects for a cessation of hostilities, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant unveiled ideas for the post-war period on Thursday, on the eve of the start of a regional tour by the head of diplomacy. American Antony Blinken. The plan presented by the minister must still receive the approval of a divided government. It provides for the continuation of operations in Gaza until “the return of the hostages”, the “dismantling of Hamas’ military and governance capabilities” and the “elimination of military threats”.

France and Jordan drop 7 tonnes of aid on Gaza

France and Jordan have dropped seven tonnes of humanitarian and health aid on the Gaza Strip, where the approximately 2.4 million inhabitants lack all the essential foodstuffs to live, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Friday. According to the Elysée, the drop operation was carried out during the night from Thursday to Friday by two C-130s, military transport planes, one French and the other Jordanian, “with mixed teams both Jordanian and French in both aircraft. The aid was “successfully” dropped near the Jordanian field hospital on the strip.

The humanitarian situation remains critical in Gaza. In a difficult context, France and Jordan delivered aid by air to the population and those who help them. pic.twitter.com/jNXGiZieCh

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) January 5, 2024

The war has caused immense destruction and a humanitarian disaster in the Palestinian territory, where famine threatens and most hospitals are out of service. Residents of the Gaza Strip – 85% of whom have been displaced according to the UN – face severe shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine. Despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding the delivery of humanitarian aid, aid trucks are still only arriving in trickles.