Israel has warned that the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip will continue “throughout” 2024 after a New Year’s Eve marked by incessant strikes on the besieged Palestinian territory and rocket attacks targeting Tel -Aviv.
Nearly three months after the start of the war, triggered by a bloody attack perpetrated on October 7 by the Palestinian Islamist movement in Israel, army spokesperson Daniel Hagari announced Sunday that the reservists would take a break from war, in order to prepare for “prolonged combat”.
The army “must plan ahead because we will be called upon for additional tasks and combat throughout this year,” he detailed.
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after the attack carried out on its soil on October 7 from Gaza by commandos from this organization classified as “terrorist” by the United States, Israel and the European Union. This attack left around 1,140 dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on the latest official Israeli figures.
In Israeli military retaliatory operations in Gaza, a total of 21,978 people, mostly women, adolescents and children, have been killed since the start of the war, the Hamas Health Ministry announced on Monday.
On the ground, artillery fire and airstrikes targeting the towns of Rafah and Khan Younes (south) on New Year’s Eve were reported by an AFP correspondent.
At least 24 people were killed in the strikes, according to the Hamas health ministry. Also according to this source, 15 bodies from the same family were recovered Monday from the rubble of a house bombed Sunday evening in Jabaliya, in the north of Gaza.
“This is the worst year of our lives. They killed our sons,” Sami Hamouda, 64, told AFP.
The start of the new year was also punctuated by warning sirens in several parts of Israel. AFP journalists in Tel Aviv witnessed the rockets being intercepted by Israeli missile defense systems at precisely midnight.
“Terrified”
“I was terrified, it was the first time I saw missiles, it’s terrifying, this is the life we live, it’s crazy,” Gabriel Zemelman, 26, told AFP in front of a bar in Tel Aviv where he had gathered with his friends for New Year’s Eve.
The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas in power in Gaza, claimed responsibility for this attack in a video posted on their social networks, claiming to have fired M90 rockets in “response to the massacres of civilians”.
On Monday, warning sirens sounded again in northern Israel.
In the besieged Gaza Strip, where 85% of the population has been displaced and the humanitarian situation is desperate, the bombing continues unabated. The war will continue for “many months,” warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, despite pressing calls for a ceasefire.
The day before, at least 48 Palestinians were killed in strikes on Gaza City, and another strike on the campus of Al-Aqsa University in Gaza left at least 20 dead, according to the Hamas Health Ministry. .
The Israeli army said it had killed more than a dozen enemy fighters in ground clashes, airstrikes and tank fire, adding that it had located Hamas tunnels and explosives at a kindergarten.
The war has caused immense destruction and a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip, placed by Israel under total siege since October 9, where famine threatens and most hospitals are out of service.
On Sunday, around 120 humanitarian trucks entered the narrow strip of land.
Ahmed al-Baz, 33, had to leave his home in Gaza City for a makeshift camp in Rafah, in the south of the territory. “We experienced a tragedy that even our grandparents did not know,” he told AFP. “We experienced hell and brushed shoulders with death itself. »
Regional tensions
International mediators, led by Qatar and Egypt, have been negotiating a pause in the fighting for several weeks, after a one-week truce at the end of November which allowed the release of more than 100 hostages and the entry into Gaza of a limited help.
A Hamas delegation traveled to Cairo on Friday to convey “the response of the Palestinian factions” to an Egyptian plan providing for the release of hostages and a pause in hostilities.
The war in Gaza, which raises fears of a regional conflagration, has also reignited tensions on the border between Lebanon and Israel, an almost daily scene of exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Lebanese Hezbollah, an Islamist movement close to Iran and which supports Hamas.
The Israeli army said it had identified and intercepted several “hostile objects” heading towards its territory on Monday.
In the Red Sea, where attacks by Houthi rebels have increased in recent weeks, British Defense Minister Grant Shapps said he was ready on Monday to take “direct action” against these rebels.
The day before, the American army announced that it had sunk three boats of Yemeni Houthi rebels allied with Iran, accused of having attacked a container ship. Ten of them were killed in this attack.
Since the start of the war on October 7, the Houthis have shown their support for the Palestinians in Gaza by threatening traffic on this strategic sea route.