New deadly Israeli strikes targeted the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, despite insistent calls to spare civilians in the besieged Palestinian territory and the risks of an escalation of the conflict in the Red Sea.
The United Nations Security Council is expected to decide on a new text calling for an “urgent and lasting cessation of hostilities” in Gaza, triggered by the bloody attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas on Israeli soil.
The United States, Israel’s historic ally, had vetoed previous attempts but also criticized “indiscriminate” Israeli strikes.
The international community is also concerned about a risk of extension of the conflict, in particular because of the attacks carried out by the Houthi rebels of Yemen, allies of Hamas, against international maritime traffic in the Red Sea in solidarity with the Palestinians of Gaza .
These attacks pose a “threat” to international trade, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Tuesday.
The Houthis said on Tuesday they were determined to continue their attacks despite the announcement the day before by the United States of the formation of an international coalition to confront them, which notably includes France and the United Kingdom.
Many maritime transport giants have already announced to suspend all transit in the Red Sea, because of these attacks concentrated on the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait, which separates the Arabian Peninsula from Africa.
“A living hell”
Israel promised to destroy Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007, after the October 7 attack which left around 1,140 dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on the latest official Israeli figures.
Some 250 people were taken hostage, 129 of whom are still being held in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
The Israeli army has announced the deaths of 131 soldiers since the start of its ground operations on October 27, in addition to its airstrikes campaign.
In the Gaza Strip, 19,667 people, mostly women, children and adolescents, were killed by Israeli bombardments, the Hamas Health Ministry announced on Tuesday.
During the night, strikes again targeted Rafah and Khan Younes, in the south, as well as central Gaza, according to AFP correspondents.
On Tuesday, 20 Palestinians were killed in a bombing in Rafah, according to Hamas. Among them were four children as well as a journalist, Adel Zorob, and his family.
In this border town with Egypt, which shelters tens of thousands of refugees who fled the fighting further north, survivors were searching the rubble of a collapsed building in the morning.
“There is no safe place. None. We are displaced people from Gaza City. We came here, our houses were destroyed but everywhere in Gaza there are bombings,” Jihad Zorob told AFP, his little daughter on his lap.
“Today, Palestinians are forced to take refuge in increasingly smaller areas […] while military operations continue to come ever closer,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.
“They are trapped in a living hell,” he said, adding that there is “no place left to go in Gaza.”
The army also announced on Tuesday that it had discovered explosives placed in a medical center in Choujaiya, in the suburbs of Gaza City, destroyed Hamas tunnels and killed senior members of the movement during recent operations.
In Israel, sirens sounded in Tel Aviv, signaling Hamas rocket fire from Gaza, which fell on the center of the country.
The war has plunged the Gaza Strip, subjected by Israel to a total siege since October 9, into a deep humanitarian crisis, put most hospitals out of service, led to considerable destruction and the displacement of 85% of the population, i.e. 1.9 million people according to the UN.
Many residents have had to flee several times, surviving the arrival of winter in makeshift camps, without electricity, where water, food, medicine and fuel are lacking, and where epidemics threaten.
“Life is sad, sadder than you can imagine, there is no warmth, when you are away from the fire and enter the tent which is covered with dew drops, without blankets, without mattress” , told AFP a man installed in a camp in Rafah, where hundreds of white tents are lined up.
“A lasting ceasefire”
Faced with the heavy human toll, calls for appeasement are increasing.
British Foreign Minister David Cameron is due to meet his French and Italian counterparts on Tuesday to once again call for “a lasting ceasefire”, his services announced.
Visiting Tel Aviv on Monday, the American Secretary of Defense announced that the United States would continue to provide the military “equipment” necessary for the Israeli army and that Washington did not wish to “impose a timetable” on its ally.
Initially scheduled for Monday, the Security Council vote was postponed until Tuesday to allow further negotiations around the draft resolution prepared by the United Arab Emirates, and to avoid a new impasse.
At the same time, negotiations are continuing for the implementation of a new truce. The previous one, from November 24 to 1er December, allowed the release of 105 hostages in Gaza, including 80 in exchange for 240 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons.
“Hamas is ready for an exchange of prisoners, but after a ceasefire,” said an official of the Islamist movement on Tuesday.
Israel is opposed to an immediate ceasefire which, according to it, would leave control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel in particular.