(Jerusalem) The Israeli army continues its operations in the Gaza Strip on Monday, affirming that the unprecedented Iranian attack over the weekend will not deviate from its objectives against Hamas.
“Even when we were attacked by Iran, we did not lose sight, not for a single moment, of our essential mission in Gaza, which is to save our hostages from the hands of Hamas, Iran’s proxy,” he said. said Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, spokesperson for the Israeli army, on Sunday evening.
He announced the dispatch in the coming days of two additional reserve brigades to fight in the besieged Palestinian territory.
According to the army, the hostages kidnapped by Hamas during its attack on Israel on October 7 are being held in Rafah, in the far south of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was determined to launch a ground offensive against this city, which he presents as the last major bastion of Hamas, the Islamist movement in power since 2007 in the Gaza Strip. And this despite warnings from Washington and other international capitals, which fear a bloodbath among displaced Palestinians.
PHOTO AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
An Israeli Air Force helicopter launches flares during a flyover over the Gaza Strip on April 14.
According to the UN, around 1.5 million Gazans displaced by the fighting are massing in Rafah, most often in makeshift camps.
On Sunday, unable to hold it any longer, thousands of them set off on the path along the sea, towards the north, following a false rumor according to which the Israeli army was authorizing the displaced to return to this area.
“We can’t breathe”
“I couldn’t stay in the south any longer, there are too many people. You can’t breathe there. It was terrible,” says one of them, Basma Salman.
But the Israeli army denied this. “The north of the Gaza Strip remains a combat zone,” insisted a spokesperson for the armed forces. And Gazans interviewed by AFP claimed to have come under fire during their journey north.
Nour, a man in his thirties, preferred to turn back. “They were shooting at the men, I had to turn around. We don’t want to die.”
The war was triggered by an unprecedented attack carried out on October 7 in southern Israel by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza, which resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to a report established by the AFP based on official Israeli data. More than 250 people have been kidnapped and 129 remain held in Gaza, 34 of whom have died, according to Israeli officials.
The Israeli response left 33,729 people dead, the majority of them civilians, according to the Hamas health ministry.
Reopening of schools
Hamas and Israel accuse each other of sabotaging truce talks. However, “diplomacy is not dead,” said John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, on Sunday.
In Israel, the army announced the reopening on Monday, in most of the country, of schools which had been closed since Saturday due to the threat of imminent attack from Iran.
PHOTO RONALDO SCHEMIDT, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A man walks on a deserted street in Jerusalem, the day after a drone and missile attack launched by Iran.
This unprecedented attack, called “Honest Promise”, was launched on the night of Saturday to Sunday in response to a strike attributed to Israel against the Iranian consulate in Damascus on 1er april.
Israel claimed to have “foiled” the nighttime operation by shooting down, with the help of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and other countries, 99% of the more than 350 projectiles – drones, ballistic missiles and missiles. cruise ship – which was heading towards its territory.
“Iran’s unprecedented attack was countered by an unprecedented defense,” said Rear Admiral Hagari.
According to him, only a few ballistic missiles entered Israeli airspace and “lightly hit” a military base, which remains active. He reported several minor injuries as well as a 7-year-old girl placed in intensive care.
Iran, for its part, said it had “achieved all its objectives” and caused “serious damage in the most important air base in the Negev”, in southern Israel.
The UN “failed in its duty to maintain international peace and security” by failing to condemn the strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, said during a a Security Council convened urgently on Sunday evening.
“Under these conditions, the Islamic Republic of Iran had no choice but to exercise its right to self-defense,” he said.
He assured that Tehran did not want an escalation, but would respond to “any threat or aggression”.
The Israeli ambassador, Gilad Erdan, for his part called on the Security Council to “impose all possible sanctions against Iran before it is too late”.
“On the edge of the precipice”
Speaking at the Security Council, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that “the Middle East is on the brink of a precipice.” He condemned both the Iranian attack and the strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, emphasizing the “principle of inviolability” of diplomatic establishments.
This strike cost the lives of seven members of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army. Tehran accused Israel, which neither confirmed nor denied.
Israel has been the sworn enemy of Iran since the 1979 Iranian revolution, which calls for its destruction. But until now, Tehran had refrained from attacking Israel head-on, and the two countries were used to confronting each other through third parties, such as Hezbollah.
Several analysts consider a response from Israel almost inevitable.
“The big question is not only whether Israel will act, but also what it will choose to do,” an American official told AFP, assuring that the United States will not participate “in any action potential on their part.
Iran, for its part, seems to have wanted to avoid an escalation, underlined Nick Heras, analyst at the American research group New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy. This attack “was intended to be seen around the world, but not to degenerate the situation into an all-out regional war,” he told AFP.