BEIJING, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continued to advance military operations in the Gaza Strip on Feb. 13 against targets of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), resulting in a large number of people, including civilians**.
People inspect the wreckage of a building in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah on February 12. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Rizek Abduljawad).
On the same day, representatives of Egypt, Qatar, the United States and Israel resumed negotiations in Cairo, the capital of Egypt, on the promotion of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. After the meeting, it was reported that "progress" had been made in the talks, but there was no "breakthrough" in the meeting that day.
It's hard to find a safe place.
According to the Palestinian News Agency, the Israeli army attacked several areas in the central and northern Gaza Strip intensively on the same day, killing at least 20 people. A number of ** also reported that Israeli forces continue to fight in the southern Gaza Strip cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.
On 13 February, people affected by attacks by the Israeli army fled their homes in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Yasser Cudi).
According to data released by the health department of the Gaza Strip on the 13th, 133 people were killed and 162 injured in the attacks of the Israeli army in the past 24 hours. Since the outbreak of a new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict on October 7 last year, Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip have caused more than 2840,000 people died, more than 680,000 people were injured.
After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the military and security services to submit a plan to advance ground operations in Rafah to the wartime cabinet on the 9th, many parties, including Israel's main ally, the United States, expressed serious concern that the Israeli army's actions could lead to more civilians** and exacerbate the humanitarian crisis.
Rafah is the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip and shares a border with Egypt. More than 1 million people have taken refuge there. At the beginning of the current round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Israeli army demanded that residents of the northern Gaza Strip withdraw to the south. Local residents told reporters on the 13th that Israeli tanks shelled the eastern part of Rafah overnight. Nahra Jalwan said that she fled from a refugee camp in central Gaza to Rafah at the beginning of the current round of the conflict and is now going back, "no matter where we go, there is no safety at all".
A woman stands on the rubble following an Israeli attack in Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip, on 12 February. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Khalid Omar).
Martin Griffiths, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said in a statement on the 13th that Palestinians in Rafah are "facing death", and if Israel conducts a ground operation, humanitarian assistance will become almost impossible, and may also lead to "**."
Although Israel claims to provide "safe passage" for civilians to evacuate before launching a ground operation in Rafah, it has not announced any evacuation plans.
A spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said on the 13th that the agency has so far not received any plans for the evacuation of civilians from Rafah, and there is no safe place in the Gaza Strip.
Seek to "bridge the divide".
While the Israeli army continues to attack the Gaza Strip, negotiations between the parties are also in full swing. Abbas Kamal, director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Agency, William Burns, director of the US ** intelligence agency, Mohammed bin Abdelrahman Al-Thani, Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and David Barneya, director of the Israeli Intelligence and Secret Service (Mossad), met in Cairo on the 13th to discuss the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of detainees.
This is a photograph of Israeli troops on the Israeli side of the Gaza border on January 21. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Jill Cohen Magen).
The negotiations are expected to last three days. A number of ** reported on the 13th, citing sources, that the first day of negotiations made "positive progress", focusing on reaching a six-week ceasefire plan, while assuring that the parties will continue to negotiate around a permanent ceasefire.
Joseph Biden of the United States told King Abdullah II of Jordan after meeting with visiting King Abdullah II of Jordan in Washington on the 12th that the United States is pushing for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip for at least six weeks. A Western diplomat revealed on the 13th that the six-week ceasefire plan "is on the table", but more work needs to be done to reach an agreement, and the negotiations on the 13th are particularly critical to bridging the differences between the parties.
According to a statement issued by the Egyptian government on the 13th, Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt met with CIA Director Burns and Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed in Cairo on the same day, urging all parties to work hard to reach a ceasefire and protect civilians in the Gaza Strip. The statement said the parties were willing to "continue consultations and coordination" on key issues in the negotiations, but it did not mention Israel. Reuters and others infer from this that this means that there is no "breakthrough" in the current negotiations. A Reuters reporter said the Israeli delegation had left Cairo and returned to Israel. (Zheng Haoning).