The Israeli army launched an operation on Monday on the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, where thousands of civilians are sheltering, while the mediating countries are still trying to negotiate a truce in the war between Israel and Hamas.
The head of Israeli intelligence, the prime minister of Qatar and Egyptian officials are expected to meet on Monday in Doha to discuss a possible truce agreement in Gaza, a source close to the negotiations told AFP.
Alongside mediation efforts, Israel is continuing its preparations for an offensive on the overpopulated town of Rafah, the final objective of its offensive launched on October 7 against Hamas.
The fighting which extended to the gates of Rafah, in the far south of the Palestinian territory, is also raging in the North where the army launched an operation on Monday near the al-Chifa hospital in the city. of Gaza, a vast complex that has become a refuge for “tens of thousands” of displaced people, according to Hamas.
Evacuation order
This operation “is based on information indicating the use of the hospital by high-ranking terrorists” from the Palestinian Islamist movement, said the army, which asked the population to “immediately” evacuate the area.
Fighting began shortly before dawn around and within the al-Chifa hospital, which the army had stormed on November 15 before withdrawing.
“For your safety, you must immediately evacuate the area to the west” and take the road along the coast “south to the humanitarian area of al-Mawasi”, located in the south of the Gaza Strip, nearly 30 kilometers away, an army spokesperson wrote in Arabic. Leaflets with this same message were dropped in the area.
In the besieged territory and on the verge of famine, hospitals are often targeted by the army which accuses Hamas of using them as military installations and of using civilians as human shields.
Witnesses confirmed to AFP “air operations” in the al-Rimal district where the hospital is located. According to residents, “more than 45 Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers” entered al-Rimal.
“Soldiers identified terrorists shooting at them from several hospital buildings. The soldiers responded and hit several of them,” the army said.
The hospital is no longer operating at a minimum and with a reduced team. Less than a third of Gaza’s hospitals are now partially operational, according to the UN.
The Rafah offensive “will take place”
In the south of the territory, the city of Rafah, which is home to nearly a million and a half Palestinians, according to the UN, trapped against the closed border with Egypt, still lives under the threat of an Israeli ground offensive.
“No international pressure will prevent us from achieving all the objectives of our war […]. We will act in Rafah, it will take a few weeks but it will happen,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated on Sunday, despite multiple warnings from the international community.
Mr. Netanyahu assured that such an operation would not be carried out “by leaving the population locked in place”.
The war was sparked on October 7 by an unprecedented attack carried out by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza in southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of at least 1,160 people, most of them civilians, according to a count of AFP established from official Israeli sources.
According to Israel, around 250 people have been kidnapped and 130 of them are still hostages in Gaza, of whom 33 are believed to have died.
In retaliation, Israel promised to annihilate the Islamist movement, in power in Gaza since 2007, which it considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union.
His army launched a massive air campaign, followed on October 27 by a ground offensive that saw his soldiers advance from the north to the south of the small coastal territory. Israeli military operations have so far left 31,726 dead in Gaza, mostly civilians, including 81 in 24 hours, according to the Hamas Health Ministry.
Humanitarian aid under threat
Faced with the intransigence of both camps, the three mediating countries — United States, Qatar, Egypt — have still not managed to impose a ceasefire.
Hamas said it was ready on Friday for a six-week truce, during which 42 hostages — women, children, elderly and sick people — would be released in exchange for 20 to 50 Palestinian prisoners.
It also calls for “the withdrawal of the army from towns and populated areas”, the “return of the displaced” and the entry of 500 aid trucks per day into Gaza, according to one of its executives.
Mr. Netanyahu said he would not accept a deal “that leaves Israel weak and unable to defend itself.”
Israel has imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip since the start of the war and controls the entry of humanitarian aid.
This aid arrives mainly from Egypt via Rafah, but remains very insufficient given the immense needs of the territory’s 2.4 million inhabitants and reaches with great difficulty to the North, where more than 300,000 people currently live according to the UN .
The NGO Oxfam affirmed Monday that Israel was “deliberately” preventing the entry of aid, in violation of international humanitarian law, and denounced inspection protocols of “unjustifiable inefficiency” as well as “attacks against humanitarian personnel, aid structures and humanitarian convoys.
Faced with the humanitarian emergency, several countries have set up airdrops and a maritime corridor from Cyprus, but all emphasize that these supply routes cannot replace land routes.