Dozens of Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes Thursday in the Gaza Strip, where the army announced an advance of its soldiers in the southern town of Khan Younes and violent fighting against Hamas.
At the same time, the army intensified its raids in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, where a 27-year-old man was shot and killed, according to the Palestinian Authority.
While the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas raises fears of a regional conflagration, the United States has once again bombed the Houthi rebels in Yemen and these insurgents, who say they are in solidarity with the Palestinians, have claimed responsibility for a new attack against a “ American ship” in the Gulf of Aden.
In the Gaza Strip, “93 people died in Israeli attacks, including 16 in a strike against a house in Rafah”, in the far south of the besieged territory where some 1.3 million Palestinians fleeing the fighting have found refuge , indicated the Hamas government.
Oum Walid al-Zamli lost her children in the strike in Rafah, a few kilometers south of Khan Younes. “They are very small. What did they do wrong? »
The war, which devastated Gaza and displaced more than 80% of the population, was sparked by an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 in southern Israel that killed 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to one count. from AFP based on official figures.
Some 250 people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza during the attack, around 100 of whom were released during a truce at the end of November. According to Israel, 132 remain detained, of whom 27 are believed to have died.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to annihilate Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007. According to Hamas’s health ministry, 24,620 people, the vast majority women, children and adolescents, were killed and 61,830 injured in Israeli operations.
“Hand-to-Hand Combat”
After carrying out incessant bombardments by land, sea and air against the 362 km2 territory where some 2.4 million inhabitants are crowded, the Israeli army launched a ground offensive there on October 27 in which it deplored the death of 193 soldiers.
The latter, who entered the north of the neighboring Gaza Strip from southern Israel, advanced towards the south of the Palestinian territory, under air cover, after fierce clashes with Hamas fighters.
Khan Younes is now the epicenter of the fighting. According to Israel, officials from Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, are hiding in the city’s Nasser hospital.
In a statement, the army said its soldiers had reached “the southernmost sector of the Gaza Strip since the start of the ground operation.” In Khan Younes, “soldiers supported by artillery and aircraft eliminated dozens of terrorists (in hand-to-hand combat).
Symbolic anniversary
Israeli bombings have razed entire neighborhoods in Gaza, caused a major humanitarian crisis and knocked out more than half of the hospitals in the Palestinian territory, on which Israel has imposed a total siege since October 9 after a land, air and sea blockade dating back from 2007.
The UN has said it fears a “risk of famine” and “deadly epidemics”, and the World Health Organization has said patients are “awaiting death” in hospitals.
Before dawn on Thursday, convoys of medicine for the hostages and humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians entered Gaza, according to Israeli and Palestinian sources, as part of an agreement negotiated by the Qatari mediator.
In Tel Aviv, hundreds of Israelis released orange balloons into the sky to symbolically mark the birthday of the youngest hostage, Kfir Bibas, kidnapped on October 7 when he was nearly nine months old.
In November, Hamas announced the death of the baby, his brother and his mother, in an Israeli bombardment. Israel has not confirmed.
“Long months”
The Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu is under great pressure to return the hostages home and remains inflexible in the face of calls for a ceasefire.
“Victory will take many months but we are determined to obtain it,” Benjamin Netanyahu repeated Thursday.
“We will not be satisfied with anything less than total victory, which means the elimination of terrorist leaders, the destruction of Hamas’ operational and military capabilities, the return of our hostages home, the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip with total Israeli security control over everything that enters” Palestinian territory, he said.
The international community fears an spillover of the conflict with daily exchanges of fire on the Israeli-Lebanese border between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, the increase in Houthi attacks against merchant ships in the Red Sea and in the Gulf of ‘Aden, and the intensification of American strikes in Yemen.
The United States has designated the Houthis a “terrorist” entity and President Joe Biden has said strikes against them will continue.
In the process, the White House announced a fifth series of strikes in less than a week against the Houthis in Yemen, targeting “missiles ready to be launched into the Red Sea”.