(Jerusalem) The head of Israeli military intelligence resigned Monday, assuming his “responsibility” for the bloody attack by Hamas, at the origin of the war in the Gaza Strip where Israel promised to deal new “hard blows” to the Islamist movement.
In the midst of an offensive in the Palestinian territory, Israel celebrates on Monday the start of the Jewish Passover, the Passover holiday, among the most important in the Hebrew calendar, marked by the absence of the 129 hostages held in Gaza since October 7.
At the request of the families, a chair will be left empty around the table during the ritual Seder meal Monday evening, so as not to forget the hostages.
On the eve of this holiday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised on Sunday to deal “new hard blows” to Hamas. “In the coming days, we will increase military and political pressure on Hamas, because this is the only way to free our hostages and achieve our victory,” he said in a video message.
The first political or military figure to resign since the attack carried out on October 7 against Israel by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza, the head of Israeli military intelligence, General Aharon Haliva, assumed “his responsibility” in the failure to prevent this incursion which took the country by surprise.
General Haliva “has requested that his functions be terminated,” the army announced, after 38 years of military career.
“200 days of captivity”
The October 7 attack, the deadliest since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, resulted in the death of 1,170 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli data.
In response, Israel promised to destroy Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007, and launched an offensive which has so far left 34,151 dead, according to the Hamas health ministry.
After six and a half months of bombing and fighting in the besieged Gaza Strip, in the grip of a major humanitarian crisis, Israeli Chief of Staff General Herzi Halevi on Sunday approved “the next stages of the war” , announced army spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.
Mr. Netanyahu continues to proclaim his determination to launch a ground offensive in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, which he considers to be the last major bastion of Hamas.
But humanitarian organizations and many foreign capitals are opposed to this operation, fearing a bloodbath in the border town with Egypt, where a million and a half Gazans, residents or displaced people, are crowded together.
The army maintains that some of the hostages kidnapped on October 7 are being held in Rafah. More than 250 people were kidnapped that day and 129 remain captive in Gaza, 34 of whom died according to Israeli officials.
“At Passover, it will be 200 days of captivity for the hostages […]. We will fight until you return to us,” assured the army spokesperson.
50 bodies exhumed
On Monday, the Israeli army bombed the Palestinian camps of Nusseirat and Maghazi, as well as the coastline in Deir el-Balah, in the center of the Gaza Strip, and the towns of Rafah and Khan Younes, in the south, according to an AFP correspondent.
Bombings also targeted the Zaïtoune neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, and drones struck the playground of a school in the al-Bureij camp, in the center of the territory.
In the same camp, at least three people were injured in the bombing of a mosque, according to medical sources.
In Khan Younes, Civil Defense announced on Sunday that it had exhumed at least 50 bodies of Palestinians buried in the courtyard of the Nasser hospital, one of the largest in the territory.
These corpses “were stripped of their clothes, which certainly indicates that they were arrested, tortured and subjected to ill-treatment by the occupying army,” Mahmoud Bassal, a doorman, told AFP. -spokesperson for Civil Defense.
AFP journalists saw members of the Civil Defense exhuming human remains in the hospital courtyard and Gazans gathered in the same place, looking for missing relatives.
Among them, Oum Mohammed al-Harazeen, whose husband has been missing for about a month. “He only came out to bring us food and water. He disappeared when the Israeli army entered Khan Yunis,” she said.
Questioned by AFP, the army, which withdrew from Khan Younes on April 7, said it verified these assertions.
American aid
This macabre discovery comes as the United States approved $13 billion in military aid for its Israeli ally.
For Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union in particular, Washington gave Israel the “green light” to continue to “aggress” the Palestinians.
During a conversation on Sunday with Benny Gantz, member of the Israeli war cabinet, the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken insisted on the need for “an immediate ceasefire that guarantees the release of the hostages”.
But the negotiations are at a standstill, with both camps accusing each other of blocking them.
Violence is also increasing in the occupied West Bank where Israeli forces carry out almost daily raids, saying they want to fight against Palestinian armed groups.
“Israeli soldiers have killed so many people here over the years that I have lost count,” Ibrahim Ghanim, a 20-year-old law student who was attending a funeral after a deadly raid on the Israeli camp, testified on Sunday. Nour Shams near Tulkarem, in the northern West Bank.