Israeli forces carried out new deadly raids in the Gaza Strip, and Lebanese Hezbollah launched rocket salvos towards the Israeli North, amid fears of an Iranian attack against Israel on Saturday.
Lebanese Hezbollah, supported by Iran, announced Friday that it had launched “dozens of rockets” at Israeli positions, in response, according to it, to Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli army indicated for its part that “around 40 shots were detected coming from Lebanese territory, some of which were intercepted”. “No injuries were reported,” the army said, adding that it had earlier intercepted two “Hezbollah explosive drones”.
In Washington, American President Joe Biden immediately said that he expected Iran to take action “soon”, in response to a question about threats against Israel, accused by the Islamic Republic for being behind the strike against its consulate in Damascus on 1er april.
After Joe Biden’s announcement on Wednesday that Iran “threatens to launch a significant attack against Israel”, an American general in charge of the Middle East, Michael Erik Kurilla, traveled to Israel.
Another sign of tensions, the German airline Lufthansa and its Austrian subsidiary Austrian Airlines announced on Friday that they would suspend their flights to and from Tehran until Thursday April 18, and would no longer use Iranian airspace.
The United States announced Friday it was sending reinforcements to the Middle East as Israel is on alert for a possible Iranian attack.
Tehran has promised a response to the strike attributed to Israel against the Iranian consulate in Damascus which, according to an NGO, left 16 dead, including two generals of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army.
At the stroke of midnight on Saturday, the Israeli army indicated that alerts sounded around the Gaza Strip while Islamic Jihad, the second Palestinian Islamist group after Hamas, simultaneously claimed responsibility for shooting towards the Israeli town of Sderot in “response” to the strikes in Gaza.
Mediation
While the mediators – Qatar, Egypt, United States – await responses from Israel and Hamas to their latest truce proposal, the Israeli offensive knows no respite in the Palestinian territory.
According to the Hamas press office, Israeli forces carried out dozens of air raids on Friday on several areas of the center of the small strip of land, including Nusseirat.
PHOTO DOAA ROUQA, REUTERS
Journalist Sami Shehada, injured during an Israeli strike, lies on the ground of Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah on April 12.
At least 25 members of the Al-Tabatibi family were killed in a pre-dawn strike on a six-story building in the Al-Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City in the north, according to a relative.
“Bombings hit Nousseirat all night. It was all fire and destruction, with martyrs lying in the streets. We fled in the morning and have nowhere to go. This is the sixth time we have been displaced. Gaza has become unlivable,” Mohammad Al-Rayes, 61, told AFP.
Negotiations for a truce of several weeks associated in particular with the release of hostages are stalling, with Israel and Hamas accusing each other of blocking them.
On October 7, commandos from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas infiltrated from the neighboring Gaza Strip carried out an attack in southern Israel, resulting in the death of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to a report established by the AFP based on official Israeli data.
More than 250 people have been kidnapped and 129 remain detained in Gaza, including 34 who have died, according to Israeli officials.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to “annihilate” Hamas – which it considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union – and launched a vast military operation which left 33,634 people dead, the majority civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
“Not tangible”
And that’s without taking into account the massive destruction and the risk of famine in the microterritory of 2.4 million inhabitants. In recent days, Israeli authorities have reported a record number of aid trucks being allowed into the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army also announced on Friday that a new crossing point had opened with the North. According to local media, it is near the Israeli town of Zikim, not far from Erez, a crossing point currently closed.
For months, humanitarian organizations and foreign chancelleries, including the United States, Israel’s main ally, have urged the country to open direct supply routes to the northern Gaza Strip, where the humanitarian crisis is the most acute.
“The increase in aid is not yet tangible,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), declared on X.
“Aid must be able to reach everyone in need safely,” he added, calling on Israel to “lift” restrictions on its agency staff to allow them to access northern Gaza. , on the verge of famine, according to the UN.
Pope Francis expressed his “great” suffering due to the war between Israel and Hamas in a message Friday to mark the end of Ramadan. “I suffer greatly because of the conflict in Palestine and Israel,” the 87-year-old pope wrote in a message sent to the Al Arabiya channel made public by the Vatican.