UN Secretary-General António Guterres denounced the situation in the Gaza Strip, comparing it to a “graveyard for children”, as the Hamas Health Ministry says the toll has crossed the threshold of the 10,000 victims since the start of the conflict, which has lasted for a month now.
What there is to know
Senior UN officials are calling for an immediate ceasefire, while 10,000 Palestinian deaths are recorded, according to Hamas.
After cutting the enclave in two, the Israeli army was preparing to enter Gaza City.
The Rafah terminal was reopened to evacuate wounded and dual nationals to Egypt. Canadian nationals could leave the Gaza Strip this Tuesday.
The Islamist movement claims that 10,022 people, the majority Palestinian civilians – including more than 4,000 children – were killed in Israeli bombings on the Gaza Strip.
Outraged by the “shameful” toll of civilian victims, senior UN officials called on Monday for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in a rare joint statement, notably involving UNICEF, the World Organization for health and the World Food Program.
The nightmare in Gaza is more than a humanitarian crisis, it is a crisis of humanity.
António Guterres, Secretary General of the UN
Mr. Gutteres also described the enclave as “a cemetery for children.”
The “catastrophe” caused by the war “makes the need for a humanitarian ceasefire more urgent with each passing hour,” Mr. Guterres also pleaded, not without condemning Hamas for its barbaric attack of October 7 in Israel, which caused some 1,400 civilian casualties.
The UN Security Council failed to agree on a joint declaration on Monday. Despite more than two hours of closed-door discussions, differences remained. The United States calls for “humanitarian pauses,” while many other Council members demand a “humanitarian ceasefire.”
As for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he once again rejected the idea of a ceasefire without the release of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas. In a television interview with the American channel ABC News on Monday evening, he also affirmed that Israel will take “for an indefinite period general responsibility for security” in the Palestinian territory after the war. Because “when we do not have this responsibility for security, we witness the eruption of Hamas terror,” he added.
The imminent battle for Gaza
According to Israeli media reports, the Israeli army was preparing to enter Gaza City in the coming hours, in order to continue its fight against Hamas militants, who are still holding some 240 hostages.
PHOTO MOHAMMED AL-MASRI, REUTERS
Columns of smoke rise into the sky over Gaza City after Israeli strikes on Monday.
After isolating the northern part of the enclave, the Israeli army declared having completely surrounded the capital, after a week of intense airstrikes (450 targets hit in the night from Sunday to Monday alone). “Today there is northern Gaza and southern Gaza,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters, calling it an “important step” in Israel’s war against the Palestinian militant group that rules the enclave.
This “stage” is to prepare the ground for an expected push into the depths of Gaza City, where Hamas soldiers will likely fight street by street, launching attacks from the vast network of tunnels where they are hiding.
In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Ha’Aretz relayed by the International mail, an Israeli officer summed up the challenge of an urban war against a less equipped opponent, but with perfect command of the terrain: “We barely see the terrorists. They are underground and only come out to ambush you. »
A way out, but not yet for Canadians
A one-way corridor for Gaza residents to flee to the south remained open Monday for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are still in Gaza City and other parts of the north, according to the Israeli military.
PHOTO BASHAR TALEB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Two Palestinians console each other on the remains of a building in a refugee camp near Gaza City.
For its part, Hamas announced the reopening of the Rafah crossing, which connects Gaza to Egypt, to allow the evacuation of wounded and dual nationals stranded in the small Palestinian territory of 365 km2.
But as of Monday morning, the Canadians’ names were not on the evacuation lists approved by the General Authority for the Gaza border crossings, which fit on a simple Google spreadsheet and are widely shared. But according to Agence France-Presse, citing information released by Global Affairs Canada, Canadians were provisionally scheduled to start going out this Tuesday.
According to what CBC reported Monday evening, Global Affairs Canada informed Canadian nationals that they will be able to leave the Gaza Strip this Tuesday morning through the Rafah crossing.
This terminal opened for three days, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, letting out dozens of wounded Palestinians and hundreds of foreign passport holders, before Hamas decided to close it.
No “Vichy” in Gaza
Finally, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas claimed to have fired 16 rockets on Monday into northern Israel from Lebanon.
At a press conference, the leader of the movement in Lebanon took the opportunity to affirm that Hamas would never accept that Gaza be ruled by the Palestinian Authority.
“Our people will not allow the United States to impose its plans to create an administration that suits it and the occupation, and our people will not accept a new Vichy government,” he said. added, in reference to the French collaborationist regime under Nazi occupation during the Second World War.
Tuesday in Congress, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the Palestinian Authority should regain control of the Gaza Strip from Hamas “at some point”, and that international third parties could perhaps play a role. a role during an interim period.
Some 1.5 million Palestinians, or around 70% of Gaza’s population, have fled their homes since the start of the war.