Israel and Hamas at war, day 100 | One hundred days later, the war still rages in Gaza

The war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas passed the 100-day mark on Sunday, with more civilians killed in Gaza and relatives of Israeli hostages still in anguish over their fate.

The Israeli army again bombarded the Gaza Strip on Sunday, whose population is experiencing a major humanitarian crisis, while the continuation of the conflict exacerbates regional tensions.

Israelis expressed solidarity on Sunday with the hostages held in the Palestinian territory by Hamas and its allies to mark 100 days of their detention and support the mobilization of their families.

But the spokesperson for the military branch of Hamas, Abou Obeida, affirmed in the evening that many of the hostages were “probably killed recently”, the others being “in great danger”, which he rejected as “full responsibility” on Israel.

Hamas’ military wing then released a video showing three living Israeli hostages, two men and a woman. This video gives no indication of when it was filmed. The three hostages ask the Israeli authorities in Hebrew to act for their release.

The return of the hostages is one of the objectives of the war waged by Israel after the unprecedented attack by Hamas on its soil on October 7, which left around 1,140 dead, mainly civilians, according to an AFP count from Israeli assessment.

Some 250 people were taken hostage during this attack, and 132 are still in Gaza, of whom at least 25 were killed, according to Israeli authorities. About a hundred were released under a truce at the end of November.

In retaliation, Israel vowed to annihilate Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007, which it classifies as a terrorist group like the United States and the European Union. In the Gaza Strip, the conflict has left at least 23,968 dead, mainly women and minors, according to the latest report from the Hamas Ministry of Health.

“We don’t abandon anyone”

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis observed a 100-minute strike in the morning, as many as the days of detention of the hostages, announced the major trade union center Histadrut.

In rainy Tel Aviv, hundreds of people took part in a series of events, including a concert by Artifex, the last DJ to play at the Tribe of Nova festival – where 364 participants were killed by the Hamas according to Israeli figures.

“A hundred days and they are still abandoned there… A hundred days and there is no sign of return,” laments Amit Zach, a graphic designer, in the crowd.

Bashir al-Zayadna, 27, whose uncle and cousin, Youssef and Hamza al-Zayadna, 53 and 22, are hostages, says he only hopes for one thing: to be able to hug them and “tell them that all is finished “.

“We are not abandoning anyone. We are doing everything to bring them all home,” assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhyahu on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting.

The “hardest” war

According to Hamas, more than 100 people were killed in nightly Israeli bombardments on the Gaza Strip, particularly in Khan Younes.

The Israeli army says it is now focusing its operations on this town, in the south of the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced by the fighting are massed.

She announced the death of a soldier on Sunday, bringing to 188 the number of soldiers killed since the start of ground operations in Gaza on October 27.

In the besieged territory, the 2.4 million inhabitants lack everything: food, medicine and fuel. The UN estimates that 1.9 million people have had to leave their homes.

In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, Liga Jabr, a teenager in 1948, says she remembers the “Nakba”, the “catastrophe” that was for the Palestinians the displacement and expulsion of around 760,000 people. between them from their lands to the creation of the State of Israel.

But “this war is harder than all the displacements” of population she has experienced, she told AFP.

A 28-year-old Palestinian video journalist from the Arab television channel Al-Ghad, based in Cairo, was killed on Sunday “in the north of Gaza”, this media also announced, attributing his death to an Israeli strike.

Regional tensions

The conflict also fuels regional violence with armed groups supporting Hamas.

The Israeli army announced that it had killed three armed men infiltrated on its territory on Sunday, in the border region with Lebanon, where two Israeli civilians, a mother and her son, also died in a missile attack from the neighboring country.

The pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah said it had carried out six attacks on Israeli soil, including one on the village of the two victims.

Exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been daily since October 7.

The leader of the powerful Lebanese Islamist movement, Hassan Nasrallah, said on Sunday that Israel had “won no real or semblance of victory” in Gaza.

Tensions have also increased in the Red Sea where Yemeni Houthi rebels supported by Iran are attacking ships believed to be linked to Israel, in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza. The United States and the United Kingdom carried out strikes against Houthi sites on Friday and Saturday in response.

Houthi media reported new Anglo-American strikes on Hodeida (west) on Sunday evening, but Washington immediately denied this.

In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army reported the arrest, for “incitement to terrorism”, of two sisters of Hamas number two Saleh al-Arouri, killed on January 2 in Lebanon in a drone attack attributed to Israeli army.

Five Palestinians died there on Sunday after incidents and clashes with the Israeli army, including a 16-year-old boy killed near Jericho, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

Israeli forces, for their part, indicated that they had “neutralized two terrorists” near Hebron and “two attackers” who had thrown an explosive at a military base near Ramallah.