Dozens of bodies were discovered buried in the courtyard of a hospital in the Gaza Strip that was the subject of an Israeli raid, Gaza Civil Defense said on Sunday, as the Israeli prime minister promised to increase pressure on Palestinian Hamas.
“In the coming days, we will increase military and political pressure on Hamas, because this is the only way to free our hostages and achieve our victory,” Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video message broadcast on the eve of Passover Jewish.
More than six months after the start of the war, triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against Israel on October 7, Mr. Netanyahu continues to proclaim his determination to launch a ground offensive in Rafah, which it considers to be the last great bastion of Hamas.
According to the UN, nearly a million and a half displaced Gazans are massed in this city located at the southern tip of the territory. On Friday, the G7 reaffirmed its opposition to “a large-scale operation” in this border town with Egypt, fearing a bloodbath.
Still in the south of the besieged Palestinian territory, in Khan Younes, the Gaza Civil Defense announced that it had exhumed at least 50 bodies of Palestinians buried in the courtyard of a hospital.
PHOTO AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Palestinians cry next to the bodies of their loved ones dug up in Khan Younes on April 21.
Questioned by AFP, the Israeli army indicated that it verified these assertions.
This macabre discovery comes at a time when the United States, Israel’s staunch ally, approved $13 billion in military aid for its ally. For Hamas, in power since 2007 in Gaza, Washington gave Israel the “green light” to continue “aggressing” the Palestinians.
Human remains
According to Gaza Civil Defense, some of the bodies found in Khan Yunis “were stripped of their clothes, which certainly indicates that they were arrested, tortured and subjected to ill-treatment by the occupying army.” .
An AFP photographer saw members of the Civil Defense exhuming human remains in the hospital courtyard on Sunday. AFP images show Gazans massed in the same place, looking for missing relatives.
Among them, Oum Mohammed al-Harazeen who is looking for her husband. “He’s been missing for about a month. He only came out to bring us food and water. He disappeared when the Israeli army entered Khan Yunis,” she said.
The Israeli army withdrew from Khan Yunis on April 7, after carrying out what it called a “precise and limited operation” in the hospital, one of the largest in Gaza.
PHOTO MOHAMMED ABED, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A Palestinian waits for news of his daughter as rescuers search for survivors under the rubble of a building hit during an overnight Israeli bombardment in Rafah on April 21.
Gaza Civil Defense also reported that Israeli strikes on two houses in Rafah killed at least 16 people on Sunday. In total, 34,097 Palestinians have died since the start of the war, the majority of them civilians.
PHOTO MOHAMMED SALEM, REUTERS
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Rafah on April 21.
In the occupied West Bank, three Palestinians, two teenagers and a woman, were killed by Israeli soldiers in two separate incidents, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The army said the three tried to attack soldiers. The day before, an Israeli raid near Tulkarem left 14 dead, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The Israeli army announced on Sunday the death of one of its soldiers, who was seriously injured on April 17 during a Hezbollah attack on a village in northern Israel.
Rocket fire
Tension rose sharply in the Middle East on April 13, when Iran carried out an unprecedented attack against Israel, its sworn enemy, with hundreds of drones and missiles, most of which were intercepted.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday praised the “successes” of the armed forces, which he said illustrate the “greatness” of Iran on the international scene.
Israel had promised to retaliate while Iran said it had acted in “self-defense” after the deadly attack, attributed to Israel, having destroyed its consulate in Damascus on 1er April and killed seven Iranian soldiers, including two senior officers.
On Friday, an attack blamed on Israel hit central Iran, causing no damage according to authorities. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian compared it on Saturday to child’s play.
A sign that the situation remains tense, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed to have launched twenty rockets on Sunday into northern Israel from southern Lebanon, in response to Israeli attacks in Gaza and the West Bank.
An empty chair
The war in Gaza was triggered by the attack launched on October 7 against Israel by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza and which led to the death of 1,170 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP report established from official Israeli data.
More than 250 people were kidnapped during the attack and 129 of them are still held in Gaza, 34 of whom have died according to Israeli officials.
Furthermore, negotiations for a truce of several weeks associated in particular with the release of hostages are stalling, with the protagonists accusing each other of blocking them.
Demonstrators once again demanded the resignation of Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening in Tel Aviv. The families of the hostages called on Israelis to leave an empty chair at the ritual Seder meal Monday evening, which marks the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover, so as not to forget them.
PHOTO JACK GUEZ, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Demonstration in Tel Aviv, April 20