Fierce fighting took place on Saturday between the Israeli army and Hamas fighters in the north of the Gaza Strip, where living conditions for residents are “dire” according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
The war, triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Islamist movement in Israel on October 7, has not let up across the Palestinian territory, and has raised fears of a conflagration in Lebanon.
Israeli troops launched a ground offensive on May 7 in the city of Rafah, then presented by Israel as the last major Hamas stronghold. But fighting has since intensified in several other regions, particularly in the north.
Since Thursday, the Israeli army has been carrying out an operation in Choujaiya, an eastern neighborhood of Gaza City, where it says there are “terrorist infrastructures”.
It said Saturday it had eliminated “dozens” of fighters in 48 hours, reporting “close combat with terrorists.” In a statement, it added that it had discovered observation posts, weapons, drones and a rocket launch pad near schools and tunnel entrances.
The armed wings of Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad said they were engaged in fighting with Israeli forces in the area.
The Palestinian Civil Defense reported on Friday “numerous deaths” and the flight of “tens of thousands of civilians”, after a call from the army to evacuate the neighborhood.
“Terrified”
“People were panicking in the streets, they were terrified. […] Everyone left Choujaiya,” says Samah Hajaj. ” We do not know why [les soldats israéliens] entered Shujaiya since they had already destroyed the houses there.”
During the night and on Saturday morning, AFP journalists heard explosions, air strikes and gunfire coming from this area.
Also in Gaza City, the Civil Defense said four bodies and six wounded were recovered from the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli strike in the al-Sedra area.
In central Palestinian territory, residents cleared rubble in the Maghazi refugee camp after an overnight strike on a house hit a medical center.
“The pharmacy, ophthalmology department and emergency department were completely destroyed. All that remains is debris,” said Tarek Qandeel, director of the center.
Further south, five bodies were discovered after a bombing on tents for displaced people in the al-Mawasi area, near Rafah, according to medics.
The army is continuing operations in the latter city, which borders Egypt, saying it has eliminated “numerous terrorists” there.
Witnesses reported deaths and injuries among the displaced in the Shakush camp, west of Rafah, after a new incursion by the Israeli army and shooting. A source at the Nasser Medical Center in Khan Younis said they received four bodies from west of Rafah.
The Hamas attack on October 7 in Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
32 hospitals damaged
During the attack, 251 people were kidnapped, 116 of whom are still being held in Gaza, of whom 42 died, according to the army.
Israel has promised to destroy Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007 and which it considers a terrorist organization, as do the United States and the European Union.
Its offensive on the Gaza Strip has so far left 37,834 dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.
The war has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in the small, besieged Palestinian territory of 2.4 million people, more than half of whom have been displaced: water and food are in short supply and the health system is on its knees.
A total of 32 of the 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip have been damaged since October 7, and 20 of them are now out of service, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
A UNRWA mission officer, Louise Wateridge, described living conditions in the Palestinian territory as “dire” on Friday, where humanitarian aid is arriving in dribs and drabs.
Residents are living in ruins of buildings or tents around a gigantic pile of rubbish, she told reporters in Geneva, via video link from the centre of the Gaza Strip.
“No water, no food”
“There is no water, no sanitation, no food,” she added of Khan Younis in the south.
Fears of seeing the conflict spread to Lebanon have recently increased with a verbal escalation between Israel and Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.
Since October 7, the two camps have exchanged fire almost daily in the border area, deadly violence having pushed thousands of residents on both sides of the border to flee.
Tehran, an ally of Hezbollah, warned Israel on Saturday that the “axis of resistance”, which includes Iran and its regional allies, could mobilize if it launched a “large-scale” offensive in Lebanon.
On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel did not want war with Hezbollah, but warned that his country had “the capacity to return Lebanon to the Stone Age.”