2023-12-06 23:30:32
Fighting intensified on Wednesday in the south of the Gaza Strip between Hamas and the Israeli army, which reached the heart of the large city of Khan Younes, with residents and displaced Palestinians trying to shelter from deadly bombings.
International calls have been raised to urge better protection of civilians, notably from the UN and the G7, the latter recalling its support for a “two-state” solution, Palestinian and Israeli as part of a settlement of the old conflict. of several decades.
As night fell, thick clouds of black smoke and flames continued to rise from Gaza. During the day, trails drawn by rockets fired from the small Palestinian territory towards Israel also dotted the sky.
Engaged since October 27 in a ground offensive against Hamas in the north of Gaza, in parallel with its campaign of devastating air strikes, the Israeli army has extended its ground operations to the entire small, overpopulated Palestinian territory.
In the past 24 hours, the bodies of more than 200 Palestinians killed in the bombings have been taken to hospitals, according to the Hamas health ministry and hospital sources.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, 16,248 people, more than 70% women, children and adolescents, have been killed since October 27 in the Gaza Strip by Israeli bombings.
These were launched in retaliation for an unprecedented attack carried out by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza which left 1,200 dead, mostly civilians, in Israel, according to the authorities.
Israel has promised to destroy the Palestinian Islamist movement in power in Gaza since 2007, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel.
“Breaked defensive lines”
In Khan Younes, the largest city in the south of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army claimed in the evening to have “pierced the defensive lines” of Hamas and reached the city center, “eliminated a certain number of terrorists” and destroyed approximately “30 tunnel entrances”.
The Israeli army also announced the discovery in the north of the territory, “at the heart of the civilian population”, near a clinic and a school, “a very important weapons depot”, seeing it as a “additional evidence” of Hamas’s use of “human shields.”
She also claimed to have killed “half of the commanders” of Hamas to date.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a video released by his office, said Israeli forces were “surrounding the house of (Yahya) Sinouar”, leader of Hamas in Gaza, in Khan Younes.
“Sinouar is hiding underground,” said Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the army, referring to the tunnels built by Hamas under Gaza.
The Israeli government has reported 11,500 rockets fired from Gaza towards Israel since the start of the conflict, most of them intercepted by the Israeli defense system.
“Total collapse”
Faced with the rising toll, the lack of food and the thousands of displaced people finding themselves completely destitute, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned of a “total collapse of public order soon” in Gaza.
Mr. Guterres invoked for the first time in his mandate a rare procedure, Article 99 of the United Nations Charter, which allows him to “draw the attention” of the Security Council to a file which “could put into question endangers the maintenance of international peace and security.
“Guterres’ mandate is a danger for world peace,” the head of Israeli diplomacy Eli Cohen responded on X (ex-Twitter), estimating that such activation “constitutes support for the terrorist organization Hamas “.
The Israeli government, however, approved on Wednesday a “minimum delivery of fuel – necessary to avoid a humanitarian collapse and the emergence of epidemics – in the south of the Gaza Strip”, the Prime Minister’s office announced on X. The quantity delivered will be “determined gradually” depending on the humanitarian situation, he added.
The rich countries of the G7, meeting by videoconference, for their part said they were in favor of a two-state solution which would allow Israelis and Palestinians to live in just peace.
“Where do you want us to go?”
The UN, which has calculated that 28% of Gaza’s territory now falls under daily Israeli evacuation orders, considers it “impossible” to set up secure zones for civilians.
In Rafah, even as displaced people from the north continue to arrive, a strike on a residential neighborhood left 17 dead and dozens injured, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
Palestinians who fled Khan Younes, less than 10 kilometers away, set up a makeshift camp in Rafah – tents with canvas, plastic sheeting and wooden slats. For their survival: branches collected here and there to make a fire, semolina in bowls for their only food.
The town of Rafah is the only place in Palestinian territory, placed since October 9 by Israel under total siege, where humanitarian aid is still distributed, in limited quantities, according to the UN.
“Where the hell do you want us to go?!” Khamis Al-Dalou loses his temper. “We left Khan Younes and now we are in tents in Rafah, without a roof, without a wall.”
According to the UN, 1.9 million people, or around 85% of the population, have been displaced by the war in the Gaza Strip where more than half of the homes are destroyed or damaged by Israeli bombings.
According to the Israeli government, 138 hostages among the approximately 240 people kidnapped in Israel on October 7 are still being held in Gaza, after the release at the end of November as part of a seven-day truce of 105 hostages, including 80 in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
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