Deadly Israeli air raids hit the besieged Gaza Strip on Monday, where ground fighting rages between the army and Hamas, pushing the civilian population into an exodus in desperate humanitarian and health conditions.
New strikes, according to witnesses, targeted the towns of Khan Younes and Rafah, in the south of Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of civilians are massed after fleeing the fighting in the north.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, nearly 18,000 people died in the Palestinian territory, the vast majority women and those under 18, killed by Israeli bombings launched on October 7 by the bloody attack of the Islamist movement. against Israel.
In Israel, this attack left 1,200 dead, mostly civilians, according to the authorities.
The army said Monday that 104 soldiers had died since ground fighting began in Gaza and 582 soldiers had been wounded. Six deaths were announced during Sunday alone.
The Hamas Health Ministry reported on Monday “dozens” of deaths under the bombings, notably in Khan Younes and Rafah, in Gaza City and the neighboring refugee camp of Jabalia, in the north, as well as in the Nuseirat and Maghazi camps.
Rockets fired from Gaza towards Israel caused damage and left one person lightly injured in Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv, police said.
“I say to Hamas terrorists: this is the end,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday to Hamas fighters, calling on them to lay down their arms, affirming that many of them had surrendered these days. last days.
In response to the October 7 attack, Israel promised to destroy Hamas, in power since 2007 in the Gaza Strip, considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel in particular.
In parallel with its campaign of devastating airstrikes, the army has been leading a ground offensive against Hamas since October 27, initially concentrated in northern Gaza and then extended to the entire territory.
A seven-day truce, from November 24 to December 1, resulted in the release of 105 hostages held by Hamas and affiliated groups, 80 of whom were exchanged for 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Hamas warned on Sunday that none of the 137 hostages still held in Gaza would emerge “alive” without “an exchange and negotiation”.
“No safe place”
In the south of the small territory, hundreds of thousands of civilians are now forced into a cramped area near the closed border with Egypt, some of them forced to move several times as the fighting spreads. .
According to the UN, more than half of the homes have been destroyed or damaged by the war in the Gaza Strip, where 1.9 million people have been displaced, or 85% of the population.
The Israeli army has asked civilians to go to “safe areas” to escape the fighting, pushing thousands of Gazans to flee however they can: by car or truck, sometimes by cart or on foot.
Rafah, on the Egyptian border, was transformed into a gigantic camp where hundreds of tents were hastily set up with pieces of wood, plastic sheeting and sheets.
Oum Mohammed al-Jabri, a 56-year-old woman staying with her brother in Rafah, lost seven children in a strike on their house in the middle of the night.
“Everything is gone. I have four children left out of 11. We went from Gaza to Khan Younes then we were moved to Rafah. That night they bombed the house and destroyed it. They said Rafah would be a safe place. There is no safe place,” she told AFP.
According to Abu Tareq Sobh, the 55-year-old owner, the house was hit by two missiles at two in the morning. The bombing left ten people dead and dozens injured, according to the Hamas health ministry.
“There is no truly safe place in the Gaza Strip, even the UN premises […] have been affected,” declared Monday the director of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, before going to the territory where the situation of civilians is desperate, according to him.
“More and more people haven’t eaten for a day, two days, three days… People are lacking everything,” he said.
Risk of diseases
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), tens of thousands of displaced people who have arrived in Rafah since December 3 “are facing dire conditions, in overcrowded places, both internally and outside the shelters.
“Crowds wait for hours around aid distribution centers, people are in desperate need of food, water, shelter, care and protection,” while “the absence of latrines adds to the risks of spreading diseases,” added OCHA.
Since October 9, Israel has imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip. Arrivals from Egypt of food, medicine and fuel remain very insufficient according to the UN, and cannot be transported beyond Rafah.
In the north, thousands of displaced people have also set up tents around UNRWA premises in the Al-Rimal sector, west of Gaza City, fleeing incessant bombardments, according to a correspondent for AFP.
Waste is piling up in this makeshift camp. In the surrounding area, dozens of houses and shops were destroyed, including the buildings of the Islamic University and those of the neighboring Al-Azhar University.
“We fled on Saturday and set up a tent. There is no water. There is no electricity, no bread, no milk or diapers for the children. It’s a calamity,” Rami Al-Dahdouh, a 23-year-old tailor who is now unemployed and came from the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, told AFP.
After the failure of the UN Security Council on Friday to vote for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” due to Washington’s veto, the General Assembly is due to meet on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Gaza.
The draft text seen by AFP on Sunday largely repeats the resolution rejected on Friday. Reporting the “catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip”, the text demands “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” and the “immediate and unconditional” release of all hostages.
The war has increased tensions elsewhere in the region, notably on Israel’s northern border with southern Lebanon where the Shiite Hezbollah movement, an ally of Hamas, is well established. A local official was killed Monday in Lebanon by an Israeli bombardment, according to the official Lebanese news agency.
In Syria, Israeli aircraft carried out overnight strikes in the suburbs of Damascus against Hezbollah sites which left four people dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH).