The Israeli army carried out new deadly strikes on the Gaza Strip on Sunday, with prospects for a truce with the Palestinian movement Hamas fading more than four months after the start of the war.
The United States, Israel’s main ally, threatened to block a new draft resolution at the UN Security Council demanding “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” as Israeli bombings left 28,985 dead the vast majority of civilians in the Palestinian territory since October 7, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
That day, commandos of the Palestinian Islamist movement infiltrated from Gaza carried out an attack of unprecedented violence against Israel, during which more than 1,160 people were killed, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count carried out in from official Israeli data.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel subjugated the 362 km territory in response2 where 2.4 million Palestinians are crowded, to a deluge of fire before launching a ground offensive on October 27 which allowed its soldiers to advance from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip. In addition to the heavy human toll, the destruction is colossal and the humanitarian crisis is catastrophic according to the UN.
Despite calls for a humanitarian ceasefire and to spare the civilian population, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains determined to continue the war against Hamas, which he classifies as terrorist, like the United States and of the European Union.
PHOTO GIL COHEN-MAGEN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Next objective: the city of Rafah, backed by Egypt’s closed border, which is home to nearly 1.5 million people, most of them displaced, living in very harsh conditions.
“Anyone who wants to stop us from carrying out an operation in Rafah is effectively telling us to lose the war. I’m not going to give in to that,” he said Saturday evening.
Towards an American veto on Tuesday?
In the last 24 hours, Rafah and the town of Khan Yunis, located in the south of the Gaza Strip and a few kilometers apart, as well as other areas of Palestinian territory have been the target of Israeli bombardments which left 127 dead, the Hamas Ministry of Health said on Sunday.
Supported by the air force, Israeli soldiers have for weeks concentrated their ground operations in Khan Younes, hometown of Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahia Sinouar, alleged mastermind of the October 7 attack.
At the Nasser hospital in the city transformed into a field of ruins, seven patients including a child have died since Friday due to power cuts, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health. “70 members of medical staff including intensive care doctors” were arrested, he added.
Soldiers entered the hospital on Thursday based on intelligence that hostages were being held there and arrested around 100 people.
On Sunday, the army said its soldiers had found “boxes of medicines” [envoyés par Israël] with the names of Israeli hostages. The medicine boxes were closed and were not given to the hostages.”
“We are doing everything we can to ensure that the hospital continues to operate,” army spokesman Richard Hecht said, adding that “fuel and oxygen supplies had been delivered there.”
Faced with this devastating war which has displaced 1.7 million inhabitants, Algeria requested a vote on Tuesday on a draft Security Council resolution. The text calls for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, “refuses the forced displacement of the Palestinian civilian population” and calls for the release of all hostages.
During the October 7 attack, around 250 people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza. According to Israel, 130 hostages are still being held there, 30 of whom are believed to have died. At the end of November, a one-week truce allowed the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinians detained by Israel.
The United States has threatened to veto the Algerian text, repeating that a vote could “go against” negotiations involving Egyptian, American and Qatari mediators for a truce and a release of hostages.
But Qatar Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdelrahman al-Thani said Saturday that the talks had “not been very promising in recent days.”
PHOTO MOHAMMED ABED, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
One man comforts another as he views the destruction caused by overnight Israeli airstrikes in Rafah on February 18.
War of words
“What is happening in the Gaza Strip is not a war, it is a genocide,” accused Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, comparing the Israeli offensive to the extermination of Jews by the Nazis. .
Benjamin Netanyahu denounced “shameful and serious” comments and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant accused Brazil of “supporting” Hamas.
Mr. Lula also reiterated his call for a settlement of the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of two states, Israeli and Palestinian, as advocated by much of the international community.
But on Sunday, Netanyahu’s government unanimously adopted a statement saying Israel “rejects international dictates about a final agreement with the Palestinians” and said “recognition of a Palestinian state after the massacre of October 7 would constitute an immense reward for terrorism.”
As humanitarian aid trickles into the besieged Gaza Strip, Israeli protesters have attempted to block aid trucks coming from Egypt en route to Rafah via Israeli territory.
Separated from the Gaza Strip by Israeli territory, the West Bank occupied by Israel was the scene of new violence with the death of two Palestinians killed in a raid by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian Authority.