Khan Younes remains at the center of fighting between the Israeli army and Palestinian Hamas on Thursday the day after deadly and strongly condemned shootings against a UN shelter housing people displaced by the war in this town in the south of the Gaza Strip.
During the night, witnesses reported airstrikes towards Rafah and fighting in Khan Younes, with the Islamist movement’s Ministry of Health reporting in the morning numerous deaths and injuries across this territory ravaged by months of war.
Tank fire against a building of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNWRA) in Khan Younes left at least “nine dead and 75 injured” on Wednesday, said Thomas White, head of the organization in Gaza, where medical and UN sources fear that the toll will rise.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNWRA, said the reception center was “clearly” identified and that its contact details had been “shared with the Israeli authorities”. He denounced “a flagrant violation of the fundamental rules of war”.
The Israeli army said it had “surrounded” Khan Younes and called on the local population to leave for Rafah, further south, on the border with Egypt. But the fighting makes transport to this region dangerous, where the majority of the 1.7 million Palestinians already displaced by the war are concentrated.
After the deadly shooting at the UN site, the Israeli army told AFP that a “review” of the operations was underway, but that it had “ruled out […] an air or artillery strike”, also evoking “the possibility” of a Hamas shot.
The United States, Israel’s first ally, said it “deplored” these shots and called for UN sites in Gaza to be “protected”.
A State Department spokesperson called the incident “terribly concerning” while the White House stressed its “serious concern.”
” That’s enough ! »
The war was sparked by the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israeli soil on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.
Some 250 people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza, around 100 of whom were released at the end of November during a truce in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. According to the same count, 132 hostages are still in the territory, of whom 28 are believed to have died.
Israel vowed to “annihilate” Hamas and launched a vast military operation that killed 25,700 Palestinians, the vast majority women, children and adolescents, according to the Islamist movement’s health ministry.
At 111e day of the war, the humanitarian situation continues to worsen in the besieged territory.
At the same time, Israeli demonstrators blocked a key artery in the Israeli metropolis of Tel Aviv on Wednesday evening to urge the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a pause in the fighting, or even a cease-fire.
” That’s enough ! […] We do not want the hostages to return to us as corpses, we are tired of the bombings in Gaza, we are tired of seeing dead children, we want to send a clear message: the people in Israel are demanding an agreement, demanding peace. peace,” said Sapir Sluzker Amran, a protester.
Dispute between Netanyahu and Qatar
Qatar, Egypt and the United States are currently trying to mediate to reach a new, longer truce in Gaza including the release of hostages and prisoners.
But in a recording obtained by Israeli channel 12, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deemed the mediator role of Qatar, the country where the political leadership of Hamas is established, “problematic”.
“I have no illusions about them. They have the means to put pressure (on Hamas, Editor’s note). And why ? Because they finance them,” Mr. Netanyahu said in Hebrew according to this recording.
Qatar said it was “dismayed” by these statements attributed to the leader, accusing them of “obstructing and undermining the mediation process, for reasons which seem to serve his political career more” than the “Israeli hostages”, underlined in at night the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The conflict is also exacerbating regional tensions, particularly off the coast of Yemen where Houthi rebels, close to Iran, fired missiles against two American ships on Wednesday, forcing them to turn back.
In France, the number of anti-Semitic acts has “exploded” since October 7, which served as a “catalyst for hatred,” according to a report from the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF). In three months, their number “equaled that of the previous three years combined”.