The war in the Gaza Strip has already left more than 30,000 dead, Hamas announced Thursday, at a time when the mediating countries hope to achieve a truce before Ramadan in the besieged Palestinian territory, bombarded relentlessly by the Israeli army and threatened with famine.
The war, which in almost five months has transformed Gaza into a “death zone”, according to the UN, is already, by far, the deadliest of the five conflicts which pitted Israel against the Islamist movement, which took power in this territory in 2007.
“The death toll in Gaza has exceeded 30,000, the vast majority of them women and children. More than 70,000 Palestinians were injured. This appalling violence and suffering must end. Ceasefire,” launched the Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on the social network X.
The Hamas health ministry announced that bombings killed 79 people overnight, bringing the number of people killed in Israeli military operations in Gaza to “more than 30,000” since the war began on October 7.
The main mediating countries, the United States and Qatar, nevertheless hope to obtain a truce allowing the release of hostages held in Gaza before the start of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting which begins on the evening of March 10 or 11.
” No bread ”
Across the Gaza Strip, civilians are caught up in daily fighting and bombardments, which have spared no area, devastated entire neighborhoods and forced thousands of families to flee.
The UN estimates that 2.2 million people, the vast majority of the population, are threatened with famine, particularly in the north where destruction, fighting and looting make the delivery of aid almost impossible. humanitarian.
“We haven’t eaten bread for two months. Our children are starving,” Muhammad Yassin, a 35-year-old man from Zeitun in the north, told AFP who went out early in the morning to buy flour and found “thousands of people waiting for long hours to get one or two kilos of flour.”
“It is a crime and a disaster. Such an unfair world,” he added.
According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), humanitarian needs are “unlimited”. “Famine is looming. Hospitals have turned into battlefields. One million children face daily trauma,” UNRWA said.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, seven children died of “dehydration and malnutrition” at Al-Chifa hospital in Gaza City and seven others at Kamal Adwan hospital, also in the north.
The war was sparked on October 7 by an unprecedented attack launched by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza in southern Israel, which caused the deaths of at least 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to a count of AFP produced from official Israeli data.
During the attack, some 250 people were kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip. According to Israel, 130 hostages are still being held there, 31 of whom are believed to have died, after the release of 105 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel during a first truce in November.
In retaliation, Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas, which it considers, along with the United States and the European Union, to be a terrorist organization. His army relentlessly shelled the Gaza Strip and launched a ground offensive on October 27 in the north of the territory, which gradually extended to the south.
A truce before Ramadan?
In the north, fighting continues to rage in Zeitun, a district of Gaza City, where the army announced on Wednesday that it had “killed terrorists, destroyed tunnels and discovered numerous weapons”.
Several Hamas fighters were also killed in the center of the territory, according to the army, as well as in Khan Younes, in the south, a town transformed into a field of ruins where fierce fighting is taking place.
Pushed ever further south as the fighting spread, hundreds of thousands of displaced people reached Rafah, a town stuck against the closed border with Egypt.
Nearly a million and a half Palestinians, according to the UN, are now massed, with no escape, in this daily bombarded city, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to launch an offensive to defeat Hamas in its “last bastion”.
Despite multiple international warnings, Mr. Netanyahu affirmed that a truce would only “delay” such an offensive, while ensuring that civilians would be evacuated from combat zones.
Rafah is the main entry point for humanitarian aid into Gaza, subject to the green light from Israel and which arrives in very limited quantities from Egypt.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) said it was discussing with Israeli officials the opening of “many more crossing points”.
“It’s a matter of life and death,” his administrator, Samantha Power, told X.
Qatar, the United States and Egypt are meanwhile trying to reach an agreement on a six-week truce, during which one hostage, among women, minors and sick elderly people, would be exchanged every day for ten Palestinians detained by Israel, according to a Hamas source.
On Monday, US President Joe Biden spoke of “an agreement by the Israelis that they would not engage in operations during Ramadan”, in order to “get all the hostages out”.