The cessation of fighting only lasted a week. The Israeli army bombarded the Gaza Strip for a second consecutive day, Saturday December 2, for the second consecutive day since the expiration of the truce with Hamas. On Saturday morning, Israeli forces said they had struck “more than 400 targets” in the enclave since Friday morning, including 50 in the region of Khan Younes, the largest city in southern Gaza. The Hamas Ministry of Health announced in the morning a toll of nearly 240 dead and 650 injured in just over a day.
“We have three goals in this war: to eliminate Hamas, to return all of our abductees, and to ensure that Gaza does not become a threat to Israel again.”, warned the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on November 26. The pursuit of these objectives in the south of the Gaza Strip, where two million Palestinians have found refuge, however presents multiple military and humanitarian risks.
Home region of Hamas leaders
Israel now believes that senior leaders of the Islamist movement are hiding in the south of the enclave. “Hamas headquarters is in Khan Younes, not at al-Chifa hospital”said Ehud Olmert, former Israeli Prime Minister, in an interview given on November 18 on Euronews. “It is in this neighborhood that Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, the architects of the October 7 massacres, were born, and there is a good chance that they hid there”also estimated with The cross Michael Milshtein, former head of the Palestinian Affairs Department of Israeli military intelligence.
Before the truce, Israeli Major General Tamir Hayman, director general of the Institute for National Security Studies, assured that the Israeli army had dismantled “a large part of the 13 battalions of the al-Qassam brigades in northern Gaza”and “two commands of these brigades had been killed”quoted The cross. But according to Michael Milshtein, Hamas, which has 15,000 fighters, is far from being wiped out and still holds a substantial stock of weapons and rockets.
“A third campaign awaits us in the South: ground operations, focused on the dismantling of long-range firing equipment and the elimination of Hamas cadres.”
Tamir Hayman, Major General of the Israeli Armyat “The Cross”
To this end, the Israeli army reported on Saturday that it had “hit Hamas terrorists and infrastructure” in the region of Khan Younes. According to the Jewish state, it is also in this area that bunkers, rocket launch pads, and even Israeli hostages are hidden in the basements.
Leaflets calling to evacuate
But the resumption of offensives in Gaza, particularly in the South, faces major risks for the Palestinian population. After the Israeli army ordered the northern Gaza Strip to be evacuated at the start of the war, the population of Khan Yunis tripled. Assuring that it wanted to limit civilian casualties, the Israeli army sent SMS messages to residents of several areas, notably the northern neighborhoods of Khan Younes, ordering them to “leave immediately”.
“To the residents of al-Qarara, Khuza’a, Abasan and Bani Suhaila. You must evacuate immediately and head to the places of refuge in Rafah. The town of Khan Younes is a dangerous combat zone. You are warned.”
Israeli Defense Forcesin a leaflet aimed at Gazans
On December 1, it dropped leaflets with QR codes on the south of Gaza, supposed to allow residents to move to different areas, reports France 24. This QR code gives access to a map, where the Israelis have cut the strip of Gaza into several hundred numbered cantons. “They say they will notify residents in due time to move from one area to another,” Clothilde Mraffko, France 24 correspondent in Jerusalem, explains to franceinfo. An initiative ill-suited to the situation, recalls the journalist: “The electricity has been cut off in the enclave for two months, many simply do not have access to the internet to read this map.”
Furthermore, the humanitarian situation in the southern Gaza Strip is already “disastrous”, Doctors Without Borders alert. Due to refugee movements, “a million people are crammed into a relatively small space”. Israel’s blockade of the enclavedeprives the entire population of Gaza of essential supplies such as food, water, shelter and medical care” and the ““some functioning medical facilities are overwhelmed.” At the Martyrs clinic in Khan Younès, the number of consultations per day increased from around 250 to nearly 1,000.
Israeli military operations more than risky
In addition to humanitarian risks, the Israeli army faces several military obstacles. It is complicated to send armored vehicles to this part of the enclave, where the population density is even greater than in the North, explains The Economisttranslated by International mail. The Israeli army could, otherwise, proceed step by step, starting by targeting Khan Younes and pushing the Gazans back into a “humanitarian zone” near the coast. For several weeks, the Israeli military has been “proposing” that Palestinian civilians settle in a secure strip of land along the Mediterranean, measuring 14 kilometers long and one kilometer wide.
This enclave, called al-Mawasi, is located a few kilometers from the Egyptian border, next to the area in which the former Israeli colonies were located before their evacuation in 2005. “There is no sign of civilization, that is to say, there are no clinics, no hospitals, no pharmacies, no stores, no bakeries. It is only a land empty”described Khaled, a Gazan refugee in Rafah, to franceinfo.
Under these conditions, the Gazan population risks not leaving Khan Younes. “The population density will be such that the possibilities of a calculation error during a bombing will be multiplied. Which also increases the risk of having a major incident likely to set the region ablaze“, estimates Amnon Aran, professor of international relations at the City University of London, to France 24.
“The Israelis will have to fight while being surrounded by civilians. There will be a lot of Palestinian, but also Israeli, victims”considers from franceinfo Ahron Bregman, professor of war studies at King’s College London. “The Israeli army will also have to use more men and weapons,” continues the researcher.
The United States embarrassed
Faced with this situation, the United States is playing a balancing act. Since the start of the war, Washington has firmly supported its Israeli ally. But faced with accusations of war crimes in Gaza, and a lasting conflict, the White House has asked Tel Aviv for more targeted actions in order to limit civilian casualties, summarizes The world.
According to New York Times, American officials also warned Israel that repeating in the South bombings of the magnitude of those that have targeted the North since October 7 would provoke a crisis that no humanitarian aid network could handle.. On Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron estimated that a “total destruction of Hamas” risked generating “ten years” of war, and that the objective of the Israeli military operation must be “precise”.
“The Israelis put a thorn in their side by encouraging the Palestinians to move south”analyzes Ahron Bregman, according to which Israel has no chance of destroying Hamas. “It will always be able to destroy weapons, buildings, but Hamas is more than that. It represents an idea, which cannot be killed with a bomb.”