Two months of war. More than seventeen thousand dead on the Palestinian side. One thousand two hundred on the Israeli side. Hostages still being held. And a population called to evacuate to ever more cramped areas. “It’s totally inhumane what the population of Gaza is experiencing,” denounces the head of mission of Doctors Without Borders, contacted in Jerusalem.
What there is to know
- The war between Israel and Hamas entered its third month on Thursday.
- Fighting continued to rage in and around the largest cities in the Gaza Strip, including Khan Yunis, the largest city in the south of the territory.
- A report on Thursday showed 17,177 dead in the Gaza Strip, 70% of whom are women and children, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health. A total of 89 Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting, according to the army.
- Negotiations are underway to open a second humanitarian aid crossing point in Israel, at Kerem Shalom, but a full reopening is ruled out.
The war between Israel and Hamas entered its third month on Thursday. A week after a fragile truce which allowed the population to breathe, the intensity of the fighting and strikes in the Palestinian enclave increased a notch.
More dead than injured have arrived at Al-Aqsa hospital in the central Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, says Léo Cans, head of mission for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). , in interview with The Press. “In the last days, 750 injured people arrived with serious injuries. We have children with torn limbs, for example,” he adds.
It describes doctors being forced to operate on their patients on the floor. Unable to follow up as the needs are great. Not to mention all the people left without care: pregnant women, infants, people with serious illnesses.
PHOTO MAHMUD HAMS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A man walks among debris after a bombing in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip.
“In the north of the Gaza Strip, medical infrastructures are destroyed, and those in the south are not able to meet the needs of the population,” maintains Mr. Cans. “Humanitarian actors can no longer respond to the situation, which continues to deteriorate every day. »
Violent fighting
Fighting raged again on Thursday in and around the largest towns in the Gaza Strip, bringing the death toll to 17,177 by evening. And early Friday, the Hamas health ministry reported 40 dead in strikes near Gaza City, and “dozens” more in Jabaliya, in the north, and Khan Younes, the largest city. from southern Gaza where the Israeli army announced Thursday that it had “killed Hamas terrorists and struck dozens of terrorist targets”. This city became the epicenter of the war.
However, for the civilian population who were initially called to evacuate the north of the Gaza Strip to take refuge in the South, there is no longer anywhere to go.
PHOTO FATIMA SHBAIR, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Palestinians inspect house destroyed in Israeli bombing in Rafah
“The crude answer is that the population [de Gaza] cannot be protected, or at least not completely,” estimates Thomas Juneau, professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa.
Israel’s strategy is to separate the territory into different zones, send out leaflets and make online announcements urging people to flee the combat zones. “But to think that people can quickly change districts in such an unstable, violent context, under bombings… It’s impossible,” maintains Mr. Juneau.
“That’s what’s criminal,” adds Léo Cans.
The army is issuing evacuation orders, but there is nowhere for these people to go.
Léo Cans, head of mission of Médecins sans frontières
“All the houses are full,” he describes. More and more people are sleeping on the streets, in tents. There is physically not enough room to accommodate everyone. »
Among the wounded and dead flooding into hospitals, the number of women and children shows that Israel is striking the civilian population in an “indiscriminate” manner, also denounces the MSF head of mission.
“We had to wake up a child after an operation and explain to him that his entire family was dead. That he was an orphan. These are the kinds of things we have to do. »
Glimmer of hope: the head of UN humanitarian operations, Martin Griffiths, said Thursday he saw “promising signs” of the “soon” opening of the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza which would provide a second access to the ‘humanitarian aid. But Israel later ruled out the idea of a full reopening.
INFOGRAPHICS THE PRESS
Hostages still held
On the Israeli side, the country traumatized since the bloody Hamas attack on October 7 prepared Thursday to celebrate Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of Lights. In Tel Aviv, relatives of hostages held a vigil in the evening, singing and carrying their portraits and candles.
PHOTO CLODAGH KILCOYNE, REUTERS
Rally in Tel Aviv to demand the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas
Around 138 hostages are still being held in the Gaza Strip, out of around 240 kidnapped on the day of the attack, according to Israeli authorities.
What can we expect for the rest of the war? For Thomas Juneau, it is certain that civilian losses will continue to increase, whether due to bombings or fighting, or due to the humanitarian crisis. The losses, dead and wounded, already represent 2.5% of the population of Gaza.
This will lead to apocalyptic numbers, much worse than what we are seeing right now.
Thomas Juneau, professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa
Moreover, it was clear that Israel was going to expand its ground operation to the south of the Gaza Strip, he said.
“We know that there is a lot of Hamas infrastructure concentrated there,” he explains, “so there was no possible scenario where Israel was going to abandon its operations in the South. »
Israel is prepared to carry out an attack of this intensity for an indefinite period, the professor continues. And only one interlocutor has the power to influence it: Washington. “How quickly will US pressure on Israel increase? How long will this continue? Is it calculated in weeks? Month ? This is the debate that we must follow,” believes Thomas Juneau.
With Agence France-Presse
RSF calls for Rafah border post to be opened to journalists
The NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on Thursday for the Rafah border crossing, between the south of the Gaza Strip and Egypt, to be opened to journalists. This crossing point is controlled by Palestinians and Egyptians. However, underlines the RSF press release, “Israel monitors all activities on the southern border and bombed this border gate four times at the start of the war”.