The Israeli army continued its strikes in the besieged Gaza Strip on Wednesday, after warning that the war against Hamas could last for “many more months”, despite the civilian losses which continue to increase in the Palestinian territory.
More than two and a half months after the start of the war, triggered by the bloody attack launched on October 7 by the Palestinian Islamist movement against Israel, the Hamas Ministry of Health announced Wednesday that 21,110 people, the majority of whom were civilians, , had been killed in Gaza by Israeli military operations.
In Israel, the attack left around 1,140 dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on the latest official Israeli figures. Around 250 people have been kidnapped by Hamas, of whom 129 remain detained in Gaza, according to Israel.
On the ground, the fighting knows no respite.
Witnesses reported Israeli strikes and ground fighting in Khan Younes, the large city in southern Gaza considered by Israel to be an important Hamas stronghold, but also intense bombardments on the refugee camps of al-Maghazi and of al-Boureij, in the center.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, in power since 2007 in the Gaza Strip, in retaliation for the October 7 attack, and is shelling the small territory where its army launched a ground offensive on October 27. According to the army, 164 soldiers died in combat in Gaza.
The war has caused immense destruction and a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip, placed by Israel under total siege since October 9, where famine threatens and most hospitals are out of service. Around 1.9 million people, or 85% of the population, have fled their homes, according to the UN.
Despite the adoption, on December 22, by the UN Security Council of a resolution demanding the “large-scale” delivery of humanitarian aid, the quantity of aid entering the territory, controlled by Israel, did not increase significantly.
“A ceasefire”
“Our people have not experienced such a war, even during the ‘Nakba’ of 1948,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday, referring to the “catastrophe” that Palestinians associate with the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, after which 760,000 of them were forced into exodus.
“What is happening on Palestinian soil these days goes beyond a catastrophe and a genocide,” he added on the Egyptian television channel ON, affirming that “the plan” of the Prime Israeli Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is to get rid of the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority”.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, 195 people were killed in 24 hours in Gaza by Israeli forces. The ministry said that the army had notably targeted a house near Al-Amal hospital in Khan Younes, leaving 22 dead and 34 injured.
The army is “increasingly targeting the surroundings of the Nasser hospital” in Khan Younès, the most important in the south of the territory, declared the spokesperson for the ministry, Ashraf al-Qudra, saying “we fear that there will be a repeat of the same scenario as at the al-Chifa hospital” in Gaza City, which was stormed by Israeli soldiers despite the presence of thousands of civilians, sick, staff and displaced people.
Several hospitals in Gaza have been bombed, besieged or stormed by the army since the start of the war. Israel claims that Hamas has set up bases in these hospitals, as in other civilian facilities including schools and mosques, using the population as “human shields”, which the Islamist movement denies.
On Wednesday, Palestinians who had taken refuge in a UN school in the Nuseirat camp, in central Gaza, once again fled south to escape incessant bombings.
They loaded mattresses, blankets, luggage and shopping bags onto carts or onto the roofs of cars, according to AFP images.
“Even the UN schools are no longer safe”, “first we were moved to Nuseirat, then to Rafah. People no longer know where to go”, said one man, without giving his name. “Our message to the world: establish a ceasefire.”
Diplomatic efforts
The conflict “will last for many more months”, army chief of staff Herzi Halevi warned on Tuesday, stressing that its objectives were “not easy to achieve” against Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the States. -United States, the European Union and Israel.
Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer spoke Tuesday evening with White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan about the release of hostages, as well as a “different phase” of the war, more targeted against Hamas leaders, and the deployment of aid to Gaza.
For his part, the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, whose country had led mediation which allowed a truce at the end of November, spoke with American President Joe Biden.
ADVERTISEMENTThis truce allowed the release of 105 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, as well as the entry into Gaza of a large volume of humanitarian aid.
The two leaders discussed the necessary efforts to “achieve a permanent ceasefire,” said Qatari diplomacy.
But the efforts of mediators, especially Egyptian and Qatari, have so far failed to achieve a new humanitarian pause.
Beyond Gaza, the war has reignited tensions across the Middle East.
In the occupied West Bank, an Israeli raid left six people dead in the Tulkarem sector on Wednesday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
ADVERTISEMENTIsrael is also confronted with groups close to Iran, which supports Hamas, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
On Wednesday, Iran threatened Israel with “direct actions and others carried out by the resistance front”, after the death on Monday in a strike in Syria, which it blames on Israel, of Razi Moussavi, one of its high-ranking officers.
The Israeli army has not confirmed the information.
It also indicated on Wednesday that it had struck, during the night, a Hezbollah military site in Lebanon and intercepted several rockets fired from this country after warning sirens sounded in the Rosh Hanikra kibbutz, in northern Israel.
The United States, which patrols the Red Sea to protect maritime traffic from Houthi attacks, announced on Tuesday that it had destroyed twelve drones and five missiles fired by these rebels who say they are acting in “solidarity” with the Palestinians in Gaza.
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