The Israeli army continues its massive bombardments in the south of the Gaza Strip, grappling with a disastrous humanitarian situation according to the UN, at a time when a delegation from Palestinian Hamas is expected in Cairo to discuss an Egyptian plan to cease -fire.
During the night from Thursday to Friday, Israeli forces increased strikes in the Gaza Strip, particularly on Rafah in the south, where residents rushed into piles of rubble in search of survivors.
“We were sitting quietly [à la maison] and suddenly we heard a loud explosion and debris started falling on us,” Tayseer Abou Al-Eish told AFP. “The apartment was completely destroyed and my daughters were screaming. There were several victims […]we are trying to get the neighbors out of the rubble,” he added.
On an AFPTV video, we can see residents rushing to a Rafah hospital with injured men, women and children in their arms, sometimes surrounded by crying relatives. Others are transported on stretchers, then taken care of on the ground by nurses at the hospital door.
The war between Israel and Hamas, which took power in 2007 in the Gaza Strip, was triggered by the attack of unprecedented scale launched on October 7 by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil.
This attack led to the death of around 1,140 people in Israel, the majority civilians killed on October 7, according to an AFP count based on the latest official Israeli figures available. Around 250 people were also kidnapped that day, 129 of whom are still detained in Gaza, according to the Israeli army.
In retaliation, Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and is shelling Palestinian territory. It has also been carrying out land operations there since the end of October.
At least 21,320 people have been killed since October 7 in the Gaza Strip, the majority of them women and minors, according to the latest report Friday from the Hamas Ministry of Health.
Glimmer of hope in Cairo?
If Israeli military operations continue, at 84e day of the war, a Hamas delegation is expected in Cairo to discuss an Egyptian plan.
With three stages, it provides for renewable truces, staggered releases of Palestinian hostages and prisoners and, ultimately, a cessation of hostilities.
In Cairo, the delegation of Hamas, a movement classified as terrorist by the European Union, the United States and Israel, must transmit to the Egyptian mediators “the response of the Palestinian factions”.
It “contains several observations” relating in particular “to the modalities of the planned exchanges and the number of Palestinian prisoners who will be released, and to obtaining guarantees for a total Israeli military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip”, affirmed to the AFP an official of the Islamist movement who requested anonymity.
” We are in touch [avec les médiateurs égyptiens] at this moment. I cannot provide further details. We are working to bring them all back,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a meeting Thursday in Tel Aviv with relatives of hostages.
Biden “devastated”
On Thursday, Israeli-American Judith Weinstein Haggai, 70, presented as the oldest woman held hostage in Gaza, was announced dead by her kibbutz, Nir Oz.
In a statement, US President Joe Biden said he was “devastated” by the death of this mother of four, grandmother of seven and English teacher for children with special educational needs, who owned also Canadian citizenship.
Earlier this week, her kibbutz announced the death of her husband, Gadi Haggai, 73, also held hostage in Gaza, where the remains are still believed to be.
“I renew my promise to the families of the hostages: we will work tirelessly to bring them home,” added Joe Biden.
“Monstrosity”
While awaiting possible progress in the talks, the approximately 2.4 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, 85% of whom have had to flee their homes according to the UN, continue to face a disastrous humanitarian situation.
Gazans are in “great danger”, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Wednesday.
“What Israel is doing to the Palestinians, and mainly to Gaza, is the monstrosity of our century. Western complacency becomes complicity,” Francesca Albanese, the UN rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, declared on X.
“The fighting must absolutely stop,” the head of UN humanitarian operations, Martin Griffiths, insisted on Friday on the social network X.
Many Gazans have fled several times, pushed onto the roads by the advance of the fighting and the evacuation orders from the Israeli army, without however escaping the bombings.
In recent days, with the intensification of operations in Khan Yunis and central Gaza, “at least 100,000 people” have been displaced towards Rafah, at the southern end of the territory, according to OCHA, the office of coordination of humanitarian aid of the United Nations.
The war between Israel and Hamas is exacerbating tensions across the region.
During the night, south of Jerusalem, a Palestinian injured two Israelis in a stabbing attack before being shot dead, according to police and rescuers. Hamas hailed a “heroic” act.
In the occupied West Bank, at least 315 Palestinians have been killed by soldiers, and in some cases by Israeli settlers, since October 7, according to a tally by the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry.
Friday morning, the Israeli army again bombed positions of Hezbollah, a Shiite movement close to Iran and which supports Hamas, in southern Lebanon, near the border. The day before, she had reported numerous shots towards northern Israel from southern Lebanon.
In Syria, late Thursday evening, the Ministry of Defense spoke of Israeli strikes near Damascus and in the south of the country. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, they particularly targeted the area around Damascus airport.
In recent days, Iran has threatened Israel, its sworn enemy, with “direct actions” following the death on Monday, in a missile attack in Syria blamed on Israel, of Razi Mousavi, a general of the Revolutionary Guards.
Another front, Yemen, from where the Houthi rebels, allies of Tehran, are increasing their firing towards the Red Sea to slow down international maritime traffic.
The US Navy said it shot down a drone and a missile fired by the Houthis on Thursday evening, citing “22e attempted attack of this kind by these Yemeni rebels since mid-October.