Israel and Hamas at war, day 22 | Defeating Hamas is an ‘existential challenge’ for Israel, says PM Netanyahu

Defeating the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza war is an “existential challenge” for Israel, but “it concerns all of Western civilization,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday evening.

Defeating the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza war is an “existential challenge” for Israel, but “it concerns all of Western civilization,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday evening.

“I think 90% of Hamas’ military budget comes from Iran. It (this country, Editor’s note) finances it, it organizes it, it guides it,” the Israeli leader also accused. However, he admitted “not being able to say” that Tehran “had participated in the ‘micro-planning’ of this specific action at this specific moment” regarding the bloody attack of unprecedented scale carried out by the Islamist movement in Israel on October 7.

Hamas leader ready for prisoner exchange

The leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinouar, said on Saturday that he was ready to “immediately” conclude an exchange of the hostages that his movement is holding for “all the Palestinian prisoners” incarcerated by Israel.

“We are ready to immediately conclude an exchange to free all the prisoners in the prisons of the Zionist enemy in exchange for all the hostages in the hands of the resistance,” declared Mr. Sinouar in a statement released by the Palestinian movement, of which he This is the first position taken since the start of the war on October 7.

“A new phase”

Israel said on Saturday that the war against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas had “entered a new phase” in the Gaza Strip, three weeks after being triggered by the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.

The UN has said it fears an “avalanche of human suffering” in this Palestinian territory where there are 2.4 million inhabitants who lack water, food, electricity, and who have found themselves since Friday without communications or Internet.

Since October 7, the Israeli army has been relentlessly shelling the Gaza Strip, in retaliation for the Hamas attack since which more than 1,400 people were killed in Israel, mainly civilians that day, according to local authorities.

Hamas, which controls Gaza, said 7,703 people, mostly civilians, had been killed in Israeli bombings, the highest death toll since Israel’s withdrawal from the Palestinian territory in 2005.

“We have entered a new phase in the war,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said.

According to the spokesperson for Civil Defense in Gaza, Mahmoud Bassal, “hundreds of buildings and houses were completely destroyed”.

The Israeli army intensified its bombardments during the night from Friday to Saturday and carried out several incursions on the territory of approximately 360 m². Saturday evening, Israeli armored vehicles and soldiers were still operating on the ground there, the army said.

Around “150 underground targets” were hit in the north of the Gaza Strip where, according to the army, Hamas directs its operations from a gigantic network of tunnels.

She reported “several Hamas terrorists killed” including a leader “who took part in the organization of the October 7 massacre” which deeply traumatized Israeli society.

” Battlefield ”

In the Shati refugee camp, on the outskirts of Gaza City, the bombings caused significant damage.

“What happened in Chati is worse than an earthquake,” resident Alaa Mahdi, 54, told AFP. “It was bombarding everywhere, the navy, the artillery and the planes. »

“In the streets, people have become lifeless bodies walking,” Djihad Mahdi, a resident of Gaza City, told AFP.

“We prefer to die inside our homes rather than go south,” assures Hasan Hammoud.

The Israeli army repeated its call for residents of Gaza (north) to “leave immediately” towards the south, saying it now considers this city and its region a “battlefield”.

Bombing continued throughout the day on Gaza, as salvos of rockets were fired from Gaza towards southern Israel, wounding three people according to medics.

Hamas also reported clashes between its fighters and soldiers in Beit Hanoun (north) and al-Boureij (center).

“Anguish” of hostage families

At the end of “a night of immense anguish”, without sleep with the intensification of the bombings, the families of the hostages said they were “worried” about their fate and were received by the government.

According to the army, nearly 230 people, Israelis, dual nationals or foreigners, were kidnapped on October 7 by Hamas, which has since released four women. The Islamist movement, which had threatened to execute hostages, estimates the number of them killed in the Israeli bombings to be “nearly 50”.

Hamas’ military wing said in a video on Saturday that it was ready to release the hostages, in exchange for the release of all Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

Ifat Kalderon, whose cousin Ofer Kalderon is believed to be detained in Gaza with members of his family, told AFP she supported this type of exchange.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the families of the hostages that he would explore “all options” to free the hostages.

The bombings on Gaza coincided with a communications and internet blackout in Gaza.

NGOs and UN agencies have reported losing contact with their teams in Gaza.

Humanitarian operations and hospital activity “cannot continue without communications,” said Lynn Hastings, a UN official.

Lack of anesthetic products

On October 9, Israel imposed a “total siege” on Gaza, cutting off water, electricity and food supplies, while the Palestinian territory had already been subject to an Israeli land, air and sea blockade for more than 16 years.

“Many more” people will “soon die” due to the siege, said the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini.

Some surgical operations are carried out without completely putting patients to sleep due to the shortage of anesthetic products, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned on Saturday.

Léo Cans, MSF head of mission in Jerusalem in charge of the Palestinian territories, recounted the operation this week of “a 10-year-old child, who had to amputate half of his left foot under half-sedation, on the hospital floor in the hallway because all the operating rooms were full.”

Since October 21, 84 trucks of humanitarian aid have arrived via Egypt, according to the UN, when at least a hundred are needed per day.

Demonstrations

Israel wants to “annihilate” the Islamist movement, in retaliation for October 7. That day, in the middle of Shabbat, the weekly Jewish rest, hundreds of Hamas fighters infiltrated from Gaza onto Israeli soil, where they carried out the deadliest attack in Israeli history.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday accused the West of being “the main culprit of the massacres in Gaza”, calling Israel a “war criminal”.

Israel subsequently announced that it would recall its diplomats from Turkey in order to “reassess relations” between the two countries.

Saudi Arabia, which had initiated a rapprochement with Israel before the war, denounced an “unjustified” violation of international law.

Thousands of people demonstrated abroad, in London and Paris in support of the Palestinians.

The international community fears a regional conflagration, while Iran, support of Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah, has issued warnings to the United States, a close ally of Israel.

Tension is also very high in the West Bank occupied since 1967, where more than 100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers since October 7.

On Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where exchanges of fire are almost daily between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, the headquarters of the UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon was hit by a shell on Saturday, without causing any casualties.