Fighting rages Saturday in the Gaza Strip where displaced Palestinians are “exhausted” by the Israeli army’s relentless offensive against Hamas in the besieged territory, a war entering its 13th week with no end in sight .
Khan Younes, the main town in the south of the Gaza Strip, was targeted by artillery fire during the night, according to an AFP correspondent. Further south, in Rafah, a border town close to Egypt, many Gazans sought shelter from the incessant bombings of the Israeli army which is tracking down Hamas fighters.
Triggered on October 7 by the unprecedented attack of the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil from the Gaza Strip, the war shows no sign of respite despite civilian losses which increase every day and international calls for a cease. fire.
“The war is enough!” We are totally exhausted,” cried Oum Louay Abou Khater, a 49-year-old woman who fled her home in Khan Younes to take refuge in Rafah, at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip.
“Heavy fighting”
The Israeli army continues its offensive despite growing international opposition, reporting “fierce fighting” and airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.
According to a new report published Saturday by the Health Ministry of Hamas, in power since 2007 in the Gaza Strip, 21,672 people, mostly women, adolescents and children, have been killed since the start of the war.
In Israel, the attack on October 7 left around 1,140 dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on the latest official Israeli data. Around 250 people were kidnapped, of whom 129 are still held hostage in Gaza.
After swearing to destroy Hamas, Israel shelled the small territory and launched a ground offensive there on October 27 which has so far cost the lives of 168 soldiers, according to the army.
The approximately 2.4 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, 85% of whom have had to flee their homes, according to the UN, continue to face a disastrous humanitarian situation.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday reiterated his call for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, while the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of the growing threat of spread of infectious diseases among the population in Gaza.
“The worst of my life”
“2023 was the worst year of my life. It was a year of destruction and devastation, we experienced a tragedy that even our grandparents did not experience,” said Ahmed al-Baz, a 33-year-old Palestinian displaced from Gaza City.
After Israeli strikes in Zawayda, in the center of the Gaza Strip, rescuers extracted the bodies of nine people “members of a very peaceful family”, said the director of Civil Protection, Rami al-Aidi, adding that two adjacent houses had been targeted.
At the funeral of journalist Jabr Abou Hadrous, in the town of Deir al-Balah, his colleague Islah al-Madhoon attacked the Israeli army: “At any moment, we will probably be martyrs because the occupation (Israel , editor’s note) no longer respects international law […] and continues to target journalists.”
International mediators, who negotiated a week-long truce which at the end of November allowed the release of more than 100 hostages and the entry of limited aid into Gaza, are continuing their efforts to obtain a new pause in the fighting. .
According to the American media site Axios and the Israeli site Ynet, citing anonymous Israeli sources, Qatari mediators indicated to Israel that Hamas had “agreed in principle” to resume discussions to allow the release of more than 40 held hostages to Gaza in exchange for a ceasefire.
And a delegation from Hamas – classified as a terrorist organization by the European Union, the United States and Israel in particular – which arrived in Cairo on Friday to discuss an Egyptian peace plan, was to transmit “the response of the Palestinian factions” to this plan. ultimately aiming to end hostilities, sources close to the Islamist movement indicated.
Islamic Jihad, another armed group fighting alongside Hamas, said on Saturday that Palestinian factions were “in the process” of evaluating the Egyptian proposal. A response will be given “in the coming days,” Muhammad al-Hindi, deputy secretary general of Islamic Jihad, said in a statement.
American military equipment
Israel has so far not responded to the Egyptian peace plan, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told hostage families on Thursday that Israel was “in contact” with Egyptian mediators.
The conflict has also reignited tensions across the Middle East, particularly on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, the almost daily scene of exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah.
The United States, a close ally of Israel, announced Friday that it had “urgently” approved the sale to Israel of 155 mm shells and other materials taken from its army’s stocks, for 147.5 million dollars.