Israel’s allies have further increased pressure for a ceasefire in the besieged and war-torn Gaza Strip, where bombings and ground fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas have raged during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday.
The Israeli army experienced its deadliest day on Tuesday since the start of its ground operations on October 27 in the Palestinian territory, with ten soldiers killed. A total of 115 soldiers died in ground fighting in Gaza, the army announced on Wednesday.
Taking over from a Security Council paralyzed by the American veto, the UN General Assembly demanded Tuesday evening, in a non-binding resolution, “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza, where the war has plunged hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into a desperate humanitarian situation.
Despite the vote, Israeli airstrikes and ground fighting continued overnight across the Gaza Strip, particularly in Khan Yunis and Rafah in the south and Gaza City in the north, according to AFP correspondents on site.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, the raids left more than 50 dead in Gaza City, Khan Younes and Rafah, as well as in Nusseirat and Deir al-Balah in the center of the territory.
Israel declared war on Hamas and promised to destroy it after an attack of unprecedented violence and scale carried out on October 7 on Israeli soil by its commandos infiltrated from the Gaza Strip, which left around 1,200 dead. , mostly civilians, according to the authorities.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, 18,412 people were killed, the vast majority women and children and young people under the age of 18, by Israeli bombardments on the Gaza Strip.
Many people remain missing under the rubble, according to the UN Office for Humanitarian Coordination (OCHA).
In parallel with its campaign of devastating airstrikes, the army is carrying out a ground offensive against Hamas, initially concentrated in the north of the Gaza Strip where it took control of several sectors, then extended to the whole of the territory.
A seven-day truce at the end of November made it possible to free 105 people kidnapped in Israel on October 7, while 135 hostages, according to the army, remain detained in Gaza.
“Continuing suffering”
On Tuesday, Israel and the United States voted against the resolution adopted at the UN by 153 votes in favor, 10 against, and 23 abstentions, which does not condemn Hamas.
The Palestinian Islamist movement, which took power in Gaza in 2007, is classified as terrorist by the United States, the European Union and Israel in particular.
A fervent supporter of Israel, US President Joe Biden, however, criticized in an unprecedented manner the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for its opposition to a “two-state” solution with the Palestinians, and warned against an erosion of international support for his war.
“There is no doubt about the need to eliminate Hamas,” Joe Biden said. But, he warned, while Israel currently has the support of “most of the world,” “they are losing that support with the indiscriminate bombing that is taking place.”
In a joint statement, the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand prime ministers for their part declared on Wednesday “alarmed by the diminishing security space for civilians in Gaza”. “The price of defeating Hamas cannot be the continued suffering of all Palestinian civilians,” they added.
In the Gaza Strip, subject to an Israeli blockade since 2007 and a total siege since October 9, 85% of the 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced, many of them several times since the start of the war, and entire neighborhoods destroyed by bombing.
The Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing “hell on earth”, said Tuesday the director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini.
Overpopulation and disease
After fleeing their homes in the north and then their shelters in the large city of Khan Younes, tens of thousands of Palestinians are now sheltering in Rafah, further south, on the Egyptian border, which has become a gigantic camp with hundreds of tents. DIYed using pieces of wood or sheets.
According to OCHA, overpopulation and malnutrition fuel the spread of diseases like diarrhea, influenza and smallpox, putting additional pressure on an already overwhelmed health system.
Added to this is the rain falling in Rafah, where the displaced are sheltering as best they can under plastic sheeting.
“All the tents are flooded. We don’t know what to do,” says Ihab Abu Jof, a 23-year-old Palestinian, who protected the hearth of his homemade stove with a sheet of metal and a tarpaulin. “I swear to you that the conditions here are extremely difficult. »
Despite the presence of these displaced people, the Israeli army continues to target Rafah, where strikes on two houses left 24 dead on Tuesday, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
“Where is the security in Rafah? »
“They (the Israeli military) themselves said that the south is safe, Rafah is safe. Where is the security in Rafah? Every day there are strikes in Rafah,” said Tawfiq Abou Brik, a survivor in the middle of the ruins.
The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reported an Israeli raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, where 65 patients and 45 caregivers are located, after several days of siege . “I am extremely worried,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Hamas claimed on Telegram that the hospital director had been taken prisoner. The Israeli army has not confirmed, but it regularly accuses Hamas of using hospitals, schools and mosques to house military installations, which the Palestinian movement denies.
According to OCHA, 100 trucks carrying aid have entered since Monday evening via Rafah, as well as 120,000 liters of fuel, assistance which it says remains well below needs.
Israel controls the entry of international aid into Gaza through the only open Rafah crossing point, along with Egypt. Due to the fighting, this aid is very difficult to transport beyond Rafah.
The war also reignited the front with Lebanese Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border and caused violence to flare up in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, where Israeli forces killed six Palestinians on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Authority.