Israel and Hamas at war, day 86 | Israel and Gaza begin 2024 under bombs and rockets

Israel and the Gaza Strip entered 2024 without a break in fighting, with the Israeli army continuing its intensive shelling of Palestinian territory and Hamas firing rockets at Tel Aviv and southern Israel at the time. exact New Year’s Eve.

Air warning sirens sounded in several parts of Israel, and AFP journalists in Tel Aviv witnessed the rockets being intercepted by Israeli missile defense systems at precisely midnight. People celebrating the New Year on a festive street ran for cover, while others continued to party.

“I was terrified, it was the first time I saw missiles, it’s terrifying, this is the life we ​​live, it’s crazy,” Gabriel Zemelman, 26, told AFP in front of a bar in Tel Aviv where he had gathered with his friends for New Year’s Eve.

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in power in Gaza, claimed responsibility for the two attacks in a video posted on their social networks, claiming to have fired M90 rockets in “response to the massacres of civilians” perpetrated by Israel .

The Israeli army confirmed the attack, without initially reporting any casualties or damage.

New Year’s celebrations were more restrained than usual in Israel, even in Tel Aviv, the holiday capital, almost three months after the bloody Hamas attack on Israeli territory on October 7 which sparked the war, and while many hostages are still prisoners in the Gaza Strip.

Among the young people met in the streets of Tel Aviv shortly before the rocket attack, Ran Stahl, 24, did not have the heart “to dance” and have fun. “Because the minute I start dancing, sadness and mourning return,” says the young man, whose friend died in the attack on the Tribe of Nova music festival on October 7.

In the Gaza Strip, under siege and in a desperate humanitarian situation for the Palestinians, the bombings continue unabated. The war will continue for “many months,” warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Martyrs everywhere”

At least 48 Palestinians were killed in strikes on Gaza City overnight from Saturday to Sunday, the Hamas health ministry said. Eighteen bodies have been found so far. Another strike on the campus of Al-Aqsa University in Gaza left at least 20 people dead, according to the same source.

“After the explosion, we arrived at the scene and we saw martyrs everywhere,” testified Mohamed Btihan, a resident of Gaza.

The Israeli army said it had killed more than a dozen enemy fighters in ground clashes, airstrikes and tank fire, adding that it had located Hamas tunnels and explosives at a kindergarten.

“The year 2023 was the worst of my life,” Ahmed al-Baz, 33, who had to leave his home in Gaza City for a makeshift camp in Rafah, in the south, told AFP. territory. “We experienced a tragedy that even our grandparents did not experience,” he continues. “We experienced hell and brushed shoulders with death itself. »

“Enough of this war! We are totally exhausted. We are constantly moved from one place to another, in the cold,” complains Oum Louay Abou Khater, 49, in the same camp.

The Hamas attack on October 7 left around 1,140 dead in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data. In response, Israel vowed to “destroy” the Palestinian movement, and relentlessly shelled the Gaza Strip where 129 people out of the approximately 250 kidnapped on October 7 in Israel are still held hostage.

Nearly 22,000 dead

According to a new report announced Sunday by the Hamas Ministry of Health, 21,822 people, mostly women, adolescents and children, have been killed in the small, overpopulated Palestinian territory since the start of the war, and 56,451 injured. .

In recent weeks, the Israeli army has deployed in the north of the Gaza Strip, then towards Khan Younes (south) and recently in the camps in the center of this territory where 1.9 million inhabitants (85% of population) had to flee their homes due to the fighting.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of the growing threat of the spread of infectious diseases and the UN has warned of famine.

International mediators, led by Qatar and Egypt, managed to negotiate a one-week truce at the end of November which allowed the release of more than 100 hostages and the entry of limited aid into Gaza. They are currently continuing their efforts towards a new pause in the fighting.

A delegation from Hamas, a movement classified as a terrorist organization by the EU, the United States and Israel in particular, went to Cairo on Friday to convey “the response of the Palestinian factions” to an Egyptian plan providing for the release of hostages and a pause in hostilities.

This response will be given “in the coming days,” said Muhammad al-Hindi, deputy secretary general of Islamic Jihad, an armed group fighting alongside Hamas, in a statement.

“Hostile aircraft”

The war in Gaza has reignited tensions on the border between Lebanon and Israel, an almost daily scene of exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Lebanese Hezbollah, an Islamist movement close to Iran and which supports Hamas.

The Israeli army also announced Sunday evening that it had identified and intercepted a “hostile air target” coming from Syria, according to it. She said she also intercepted a “hostile plane” which was heading towards its territory.

In the Red Sea, the American army announced on Sunday that it had sunk three boats of Yemeni Houthi rebels allied with Iran, accused of having attacked a container ship. Ten of them were killed by this attack by the “American enemy,” rebel spokesperson Yahya Saree confirmed on X (ex-Twitter).

Since the start of the war on October 7, the Houthis have shown their support for the Palestinians in Gaza by threatening traffic on this strategic sea route.