Israel and Hamas at war, day 20 | Israel enters Gaza with tanks, prelude to ground offensive

(Jerusalem) Israel announced Thursday that it had entered the Gaza Strip with tanks, to “prepare the battlefield” for a ground offensive, on the 20^e day of his war against Hamas.

This probable operation, mentioned numerous times since the unprecedented deadly attack by the Palestinian movement on Israeli soil on October 7, worries a large part of the international community. The post-crisis and the future of the Palestinians are also concerns, particularly the United States, Israel’s main ally.

“Overnight, the army carried out a targeted raid with tanks in the northern Gaza Strip, as part of its preparations for the next stages of the fight,” a statement from the military spokesperson said on Thursday morning. .

The soldiers “left the area” at the end of the operation, he assured.

Black and white images released by the Israeli army show armored vehicles and bulldozers passing through a protective fence, similar to the one separating Israel from the Gaza Strip.

According to the Israeli army, during their nighttime incursion, soldiers “located and struck numerous terrorists, their infrastructure and anti-tank rocket launch positions, and operated to prepare the battlefield.”

On Wednesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the preparation of a ground offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“When, how, how much, and the considerations we take into account, I cannot go into detail,” he said.

And as a prelude to this operation, the Israeli army has been relentlessly bombarding the Gaza Strip since October 7, where 2.4 million Palestinians are crowded together, also subject to “a total siege” which deprives them of water and food. and electricity.

“Two-state solution”

A ground offensive promises to be difficult in this very densely populated territory, riddled with tunnels where Hamas hides weapons and fighters, and in the presence of more than 200 hostages.

French President Emmanuel Macron ruled on Wednesday in Cairo that a “massive” ground offensive by the Israeli army in Gaza would be a “mistake”. His Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, called for avoiding a “land invasion of Gaza”.

In the United States, President Joe Biden said Wednesday that Israel had “the right” and “the responsibility” to defend itself, but that it must do everything possible “to protect innocent civilians.”

During his visit to Israel on October 18, Mr. Biden also warned his ally not to repeat the “mistakes” made by the United States in the aftermath of September 11.

“When the crisis is behind us, there must be a vision of what comes next. And for us, this must go through a two-state solution,” one Palestinian and one Israeli, the American president said on Wednesday. Emmanuel Macron also called for “finally achieving a two-state solution”.

Mr. Biden, however, assured that he had not “demanded” that Mr. Netanyahu delay his possible offensive until the release of the hostages in the hands of Hamas.

Some 224 hostages were taken to Gaza by fighters of the Palestinian Islamist movement, classified as terrorist by the United States, Israel and the European Union, according to the latest figures from the Israeli authorities released Thursday. Four women have been released since Friday evening.

“We are sick with anxiety, sick with anxiety,” repeats in Paris, France, Moran Betzer Tayar, a 54-year-old woman whose nephew and his wife were taken hostage at Kibbutz Nirim, urging Hamas to “ demonstrate humanity.”

The Hamas attack killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, mainly civilians, according to authorities.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, subject since 2007 to an Israeli land, air and sea blockade, announced on Wednesday a new toll of more than 6,500 deaths, mainly civilians, since the start of the Israeli bombings.

Humanitarian “breaks”

For the United States, a ceasefire “at this stage would only benefit Hamas.” The White House instead suggested “pauses” to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid. Meeting at a summit on Thursday in Brussels, the 27 countries of the European Union will debate this call for a humanitarian pause.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Tuesday for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” and condemned the “clear violations of humanitarian law” in the Palestinian territory, provoking the anger of Israel.

Only a few dozen trucks loaded with humanitarian aid have arrived in Gaza since October 21 via Egypt, while at least a hundred trucks per day would be needed, estimates the UN.

The latter urgently calls for the delivery of fuel to run generators in hospitals, pump and purify water. Which Israel excludes, saying it would benefit Hamas.

According to Mohammed Abu Selmeya, the director of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the largest in the territory, “ten hospitals are already out of service” and “more than 90% of medicines and products are exhausted.”

“No safe place”

On October 7, in the middle of Shabbat, the weekly Jewish rest, hundreds of Hamas fighters infiltrated Israel from the Gaza Strip, sowing terror during this attack of unprecedented violence and scale since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.

The Israeli Prime Minister recognized on Wednesday that he too will have to “be held accountable” after this attack which stunned the country, but “later” after the war.

Since October 15, the Israeli army has called on the population of the northern Gaza Strip, where the bombardments are most intense, to evacuate to the south, and at least 1.4 million Palestinians have fled their homes since the beginning. of the war, according to the UN.

However, strikes also continue to affect the south, where several hundred thousand civilians are massed. On Thursday, a little girl was pulled out from the rubble of a building in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, and taken to hospital after spending 35 hours under the rubble.

“No place is safe in Gaza,” said the UN humanitarian affairs coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Lynn Hastings, on Thursday.

“I survived five wars and a million escalations,” says Jawaher al-Aqraa, an English teacher who took refuge with her brother in the Deir el-Balah camp (center). “But with this war, I feel like I’m just waiting my turn to die.”

While part of the international community fears a regional conflagration, the Israeli army announced Wednesday evening strikes against Lebanon in response to a surface-to-air missile attack. Earlier, it said it had struck military infrastructure in Syria after shots fired towards its territory.

Tension is also very high in the occupied West Bank where more than a hundred Palestinians have been killed in violence since October 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.