Israel is determined to continue its war against Hamas. And this, despite growing international pressure, notably from the United Nations, in favor of a ceasefire. 18,600 Palestinian civilians have been killed since the start of the conflict on October 7.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is determined to carry out his war against Hamas “to the end”, the Israeli army increased air raids in the Gaza Strip this Thursday despite numerous calls from the international community for a ceasefire, and despite signs of impatience from its American ally who is sending his national security advisor to Jerusalem.
Early Thursday, the Hamas administration’s Health Ministry announced the deaths of a total of 19 more Palestinians in Israeli strikes in Gaza City (north), Nuseirat (center) and Rafah (south) after a day air raids and intense street fighting.
An Israeli raid left two people dead and others injured in Jenin, a stronghold of armed factions in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry said.
The Israeli army announced the death of ten of its soldiers on Tuesday in the Chajaya sector (north), its heaviest death toll in a single day since the start of its ground offensive in Gaza which cost the lives of 115 of its soldiers. members.
“Any arrangement in Gaza or regarding the Palestinian cause without Hamas or the resistance movements is an illusion,” said Ismaïl Haniyeh, head of Hamas, based in Qatar, in a televised speech, saying he was ready for discussions on “a path policy which will ensure the right of the Palestinians to an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.
According to a poll published Wednesday by the Palestinian Policy and Polling Research Center (PCPSR), an independent institute in Ramallah, Ismaïl Haniyeh received 78% of voting intentions, compared to 58% before the war, in the Palestinian Territories. And nearly two-thirds of respondents (64%) believe that Hamas will retain control of Gaza after the fighting ends.
Conversely, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to continue the fight against Hamas “until victory”. “Nothing will stop us. We will go to the end” and this, despite “the great suffering” caused by military losses and the “pressure” for a ceasefire, he declared.
Israel promised to “destroy” Hamas after an unprecedented attack carried out on October 7 by commandos of the Islamist movement infiltrated from Gaza into southern Israel, which left around 1,200 dead, mostly civilians, according to the authorities. Some 240 people were also kidnapped and taken to Gaza by Hamas and other allied groups.
US calls for ‘more precise’ strikes –
Without calling into question its support for the Israeli operation, the United States is beginning to become exasperated by the death toll in the Gaza Strip, with President Joe Biden referring to “indiscriminate bombings” and a possible “erosion” of Western support. to Israel.
“We want the end of this conflict (…) but we also do not think that it would be appropriate to stop the operation now (…) because the terrorist attacks against Israel would continue which, in the long run term, is not in the security interests of anyone in the region,” declared Matthew Miller, the spokesperson for American diplomacy.
Without stopping the strikes in Gaza, Israel must find a way to reduce the intensity of the strikes, suggested Jake Sullivan, White House national security adviser expected in Jerusalem Thursday and Friday for talks with Prime Minister Netanyahu.
“It just means we have to move towards a different phase than the type of high intensity that we have today,” he said this week at a forum organized by the Wall Street Journal.
According to a report from the office which coordinates all American intelligence agencies (ODNI), approximately 40 to 45% of the 29,000 air-to-ground munitions used by the Israeli army since the start of the strikes in Gaza are “unguided”, therefore less precise, which increases the risk for civilians, underlines CNN on the basis of three sources who had access to this confidential document.
“The discussions (in Jerusalem, editor’s note) are extremely serious,” declared John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, specifying that Mr. Sullivan would discuss the need to carry out “more surgical and more accurate in order to reduce civilian casualties.
Deplorable living conditions
In the Gaza Strip, subject to an Israeli blockade for 16 years and a total siege since October 9, living conditions are worsening for the civilian population.
Around 85% of the territory’s 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced numerous times since the start of the Israeli offensive, and entire neighborhoods have been destroyed by Israeli bombing.
“Faced with bombings, deprivations and diseases, in an ever more cramped space, (the Palestinians) are confronted with the darkest chapter of their history since 1948,” insisted the head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, in allusion to the creation of the State of Israel and the exodus of the Palestinians.
In the very south of the Gaza Strip, the town of Rafah has become a gigantic makeshift camp with fragile, hastily erected shelters, many of which have been swept away by the rain trucks that have fallen in recent days.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, nearly 18,600 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the conflict, the majority of them women and children.