(Rafah) Israeli bombings left dozens dead overnight and Monday in the besieged Gaza Strip, which is awaiting a “continuous flow” of humanitarian aid, vital for civilians trapped in the war unleashed by the bloody attack by the Palestinian movement Hamas against Israel.
WHAT THERE IS TO KNOW
- A third aid convoy entered the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing on Monday;
- The Israeli army announced that it had struck more than 320 Hamas and Islamic Jihad military targets in Gaza overnight;
- At least 70 Palestinians were killed in air raids carried out overnight and Monday morning by the Israeli army;
- More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel to date and in the Gaza Strip, more than 4,600 Palestinians.
- Destroy Hamas and after? Israel in the blur of post-war scenarios
The Israeli army, which has been relentlessly bombing the Gaza Strip since October 7 in response to this unprecedented attack and promising to “annihilate” Hamas, intensified its bombings on Sunday as a prelude to a probable ground intervention.
The risk of an escalation of the conflict worries the international community, while Iran, ally of Hamas, has warned that the situation risks getting out of control in the Middle East, which has become a “powder keg”.
In the Gaza Strip, a small poor territory where 2.4 million Palestinians are crowded together, international aid has started to arrive in dribs and drabs since Saturday via Egypt, its only outlet not controlled by Israel. , but in very insufficient quantity according to the UN.
The head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, called on Monday for “more aid, more quickly” as well as a “humanitarian pause” to allow its distribution.
On Sunday evening, American President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “affirmed that there would henceforth be a continuous flow of this crucial assistance into Gaza” during a telephone conversation.
PHOTO MOHAMMED ABED, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, after an Israeli strike on October 23
Knock on a house
On Monday, the Israeli army announced that it had struck “more than 320 military targets” overnight, infrastructure of the Islamist movement Hamas, in power in Gaza, and its ally Islamic Jihad. These two groups are classified as terrorist organizations by the United States, the European Union and Israel.
These raids overnight and Monday morning left more than 70 dead, according to the Hamas government, including 17 people killed by a strike on a house in Jabaliya, in the north, and 25 others in the center of the territory.
The army spoke of “tunnels where Hamas terrorists were”, “dozens of operational command centers as well as military camps and observation posts”.
On October 7, in the middle of Shabbat, the weekly Jewish rest, hundreds of Hamas fighters infiltrated Israel from the Gaza Strip, spreading terror in an attack unprecedented since Israel’s creation in 1948.
More than 1,400 people were killed in Israel, most civilians shot, burned alive or mutilated on the day of the attack, according to authorities.
Hamas kidnapped 212 hostages, Israelis and foreigners, according to the Israeli army.
The presence of the hostages in the Gaza Strip would make an Israeli ground intervention even more dangerous, in this overpopulated territory, riddled with tunnels, where Hamas hides its fighters and its weapons.
In the Gaza Strip, more than 4,600 Palestinians, the majority civilians including nearly 1,900 children, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, were killed in Israeli retaliatory bombings which destroyed entire neighborhoods.
Since October 15, the Israeli army has called on civilians in the north of this territory, where the bombings are the most intense, to flee to the south.
But the strikes also continue to affect the south, close to the Egyptian border, where the displaced have gathered by the hundreds of thousands.
“Catastrophic situation”
Subject to an Israeli land, air and sea blockade since Hamas took power there in 2007, the Gaza Strip has been placed in a state of “complete siege” since October 9 by Israel, which has cut off water, electricity and food supply.
The UN spoke of a “catastrophic situation” and reported at least 1.4 million Palestinians displaced within this 362 square kilometer territory.
After a first convoy on Saturday, around fifteen aid trucks crossed the Rafah border post on Sunday, from Egypt to the Gaza Strip, according to an AFP journalist and the head of emergency situations for the Gaza Strip. UN, Martin Griffiths.
But according to the UN, at least 100 trucks per day would be needed to meet the needs of the population.
The UN insists on the need to transport fuel, essential in particular for the operation of generators in hospitals.
No help for the “enemy”
Israel had announced that it would not prevent the entry of humanitarian aid from Egypt “as long as it concerns food, water and medicine for the civilian population in the southern Strip.” Gaza.”
However, “I don’t think we should be obligated to provide food to the enemy who is firing rockets at our civilians,” Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus told ABC Australia on Sunday evening.
Since October 7, the Israeli army has massed tens of thousands of soldiers on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip and on its northern border with Lebanon.
On Sunday, an Israeli soldier was killed and three others injured by anti-tank missile fire during a ground incursion in Gaza, according to the army.
On the Lebanese border, deadly exchanges of fire have increased between the army and Hezbollah based in southern Lebanon, supported by Iran and ally of Hamas, while residents evacuate the border area on both sides. other.
Benjamin Netanyahu, who assembled his war cabinet on Sunday evening, warned that Hezbollah would make “the mistake of its life” by going to war against Israel.
Faced with the risk of a regional conflagration, Joe Biden spoke with the leaders of Canada, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, as well as with French President Emmanuel Macron, expected in Israel on Tuesday.
“The leaders reiterated their support for Israel and its right to defend itself against terrorism and called for respect for international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians,” the White House said.
Violence has also increased in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, where 93 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since October 7, according to the Palestinian Authority.