Israel persists and signs. One month to the day after the Hamas attack in Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu said he ruled out “any ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip, as long as the 240 hostages held by Hamas were not released.
What there is to know
The Israeli army reportedly entered the heart of Gaza City.
The Israeli prime minister refuses any ceasefire, and plans to occupy Gaza once the war is over, a scenario that Washington opposes.
Evacuations continued Tuesday at the Rafah terminal on the Egyptian border.
The Israeli prime minister made the statement on Tuesday, as Israeli troops entered Gaza City, according to official sources. An incursion which could be prolonged in the event of a military victory, the head of the Hebrew state saying he envisages a long-term occupation of the Palestinian territory once the war is over.
PHOTO ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES, PROVIDED BY REUTERS
Israeli soldier standing guard in Gaza, in a photo released by the army on Tuesday
At a press conference in Tel Aviv, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced that the Israeli army was finally “in the heart of Gaza City” on Tuesday, in order to “destroy Hamas” there.
“Our forces are ready on all fronts,” he said, adding that Gaza was “the largest terrorist base ever built.”
This advance suggests fierce fighting in the ruins of the Gazan capital, heavily bombarded for weeks by the Israeli army, and where there are probably militiamen from the Islamist militant organization, hidden in the kilometers of tunnels which run under the city.
PHOTO ARIS MESSINIS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Smoke rising into the sky over the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday after a bombardment by Israeli forces
Although the outcome of the fighting is still uncertain, Benjamin Netanyahu declared Monday evening that Israel would indefinitely assume “overall responsibility for security” in Gaza after the war, officially to avoid a return of Hamas. It is the clearest indication that Israel plans to retain control of the coastal enclave of 2 million people, which was under its thumb from 1967 to 2005.
Washington against the occupation
According to Rex Brynen, professor of political science at McGill University, these remarks are not very surprising. “We have been moving in this direction since October 7,” he said.
PHOTO STRINGER, REUTERS
Carrying their personal belongings, Palestinians flee Gaza City on Tuesday.
The real question, he said, is whether the Israeli army will attack southern Gaza after securing the northern part, and what kind of occupation it intends to carry out. Mr. Brynen, for his part, fears a “very draconian” operation, where the Israeli army “will do what it wants for an extended period”, whether through repression on the ground or the “bulldozing” elimination of kilometers of territory around the borders of the Gaza Strip, mainly arable land.
It will not only be an occupation, but an occupation even more brutal than that of 1967 to 2005.
Rex Brynen, professor of political science at McGill University
Washington said for its part on Tuesday that it was opposed to such a scenario. “In our view, the Palestinians must be at the center of these decisions, Gaza is Palestinian territory and will remain Palestinian territory,” US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters.
PHOTO FATIMA SHBAIR, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Scene of destruction in Khan Younes, southern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday
“In general, we do not support a reoccupation of Gaza and Israel does not support it either,” he added.
A predictable reaction, says Rex Brynen, because any Israeli occupation of Gaza would only fuel an already inextricable conflict and crystallize a “Palestinian issue” for which the United States will be blamed “for generations to come”.
Later, on Tuesday evening, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer seemed to back down slightly in an interview on the American channel MSNBC. “Israel will not reoccupy the Gaza Strip,” he assured. But “Israel must have a general security responsibility for an indefinite period,” also insisted Mr. Dermer, who sits as an observer in the Israeli war cabinet.
Evacuations in Rafah
While fighting continued in the north, evacuations continued in the southern Gaza Strip.
Hundreds of people holding foreign passports were waiting at the Rafah border post on Tuesday to be evacuated to Egypt. A first contingent of 75 Canadians was able to leave the Gaza Strip (see other text).
PHOTO EYAD BABA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Palestinians walk away from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
“The Rafah border crossing opened this morning and arrangements are being made for departures,” Wael Abou Omer, a spokesperson for the administration of the Palestinian part of the terminal, confirmed to AFP.
While the crossings were due to begin in the early afternoon, the first arrivals on the Egyptian side were observed by Agence France-Presse, including an injured Palestinian woman transferred on a stretcher to an Egyptian ambulance.
The terminal’s spokesperson mentioned a list of 500 people authorized to enter Egypt on Tuesday.
In front of the terminal, Farid Nawasra, a Gazan father with a Russian passport, says he has been waiting for days to be included on this list.
“My children saw horrible things, we suffered a lot […] and we hope today that they will allow us to pass,” he declared.
Doctors Without Borders sounds the alarm
The organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) also called on Tuesday for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, a “sine qua non condition” for organizing the humanitarian response and a matter of “vital emergency” for the population of the Gaza Strip. Palestinian territory under Israeli fire.
As the war sparked by Hamas’s bloody attack on Israel enters its second month, MSF has described a “catastrophic humanitarian situation” in the territory in the grip of “total war”, according to the organization’s director, Claire Magone.
“The population is bloodless and the rescuers are practically powerless,” she declared at a press conference. Faced with the massacre, a ceasefire is a vital emergency. »
With Agence France-Presse