The war against Hamas entered a new stage on Saturday and will be “long and difficult”, warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, three weeks after the start of hostilities, triggered by the deadliest attack in the history of ‘Israel.
What there is to know
- On Friday evening, Israel launched an all-out attack on the Gaza Strip. Internet and cellular communications have been cut in the Palestinian enclave;
- The Israeli army announced that it had “hit 150 underground targets” in the north of the Gaza Strip, where according to it Hamas directs its operations from a gigantic network of underground tunnels;
- The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, but without condemning the October 7 attack by Hamas, as Canada proposed in an amendment;
- More than 9,100 people have been killed on both sides since October 7.
The leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinouar, spoke on Saturday evening for the first time since October 7 to say he was ready to conclude “immediately” an exchange of hostages that the Palestinian Islamist movement is holding in the Strip. Gaza – 230 according to Israel –, against “all Palestinian prisoners” incarcerated by Israel.
Since Friday evening, the Israeli army has been operating on the ground with soldiers and armored vehicles, while intensifying its bombardments of the Gaza Strip launched after the attack on October 7 since which 1,400 people have been killed on the Israeli side, mainly civilians, according to local authorities.
Hamas, which controls Gaza, claims that 7,703 people, mostly civilians, were killed in these bombings, the heaviest death toll since the Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territory in 2005.
The UN fears a humanitarian catastrophe. Its Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, deplored on Saturday the “unprecedented escalation of bombings” which “compromise humanitarian objectives”, calling once again for an immediate ceasefire.
Around 2.4 million people live crowded together in Gaza (260 m2), lacking water, food, electricity, and since Friday, communications and the internet.
A total of 84 trucks of humanitarian aid have been able to arrive via Egypt, according to the UN, but at least a hundred are needed per day.
” A battlefield “
“The war in the Gaza Strip will be long and difficult and we are ready for it,” Netanyahu said at a news conference in Tel Aviv, adding that his army “will destroy the enemy on land and underground “.
A reference to the gigantic network of underground tunnels of hundreds of kilometers from where, according to the military, Hamas directs its operations.
From now on, “the second stage of the war is underway, the objective of which is clear: destroy the military capabilities and leadership of Hamas; bring the hostages home,” Mr. Netanyahu said after meeting the families of the 230 people held captive in the Gaza Strip, according to the latest count by the authorities.
The Israeli army on Saturday repeated its call for residents of Gaza (north) to “leave immediately” towards the south, saying that it now considered this city and its region as a “battlefield”.
According to the spokesperson for Civil Defense in Gaza, Mahmoud Bassal, “hundreds of buildings and houses were completely destroyed” during the day.
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 Gaza City, “in the streets, people have become lifeless bodies walking,” resident Jihad Mahdi told AFP.
PHOTO MOHAMMED ABED, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
People search through the rubble of a building destroyed by Israeli strikes on the Shati camp in Gaza City on October 28.
The Israeli army reported “several Hamas terrorists killed” including a leader “who took part in the organization of the October 7 massacre” which deeply traumatized Israeli society.
Salvos of rockets were also fired from Gaza towards Israel during the day, wounding three people, according to doctors.
Hostage-prisoner exchange?
After “a night of immense anguish” due to the intense bombardments, the families of the hostages were finally received on Saturday by Mr. Netanyahu.
PHOTO MOHAMMED ABED, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
People gather amid debris piled up in the middle of a street following Israeli strikes on the Shati camp in Gaza City on October 28.
Only four female hostages have been released to date. Hamas, which had threatened to execute hostages, estimates the number of them killed in the bombings to be “nearly 50”.
“We are ready to immediately conclude an exchange to release all the prisoners in the Zionist enemy’s prisons in exchange for all the hostages,” Hamas leader in Gaza Mr. Sinouar said in a statement.
The Israeli prime minister told the families of the hostages that he would explore “all options” to have them released.
At the end of the meeting, Ifat Kalderon, whose cousin Ofer Kalderon is reportedly detained in Gaza with members of his family, told AFP that she supported this type of exchange.
PHOTO ARIS MESSINIS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
This photo taken near the southern Israeli town of Sderot shows smoke rising during an Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip on October 28.
Communications cut
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.
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.
PHOTO HATEM ALI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A boy injured during Israeli bombings on the Gaza Strip waits for treatment at a hospital in Rafah on October 28.
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 responsible for 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.”
“Existential challenge”
Israel wants to “annihilate” the Islamist movement, in retaliation for the October 7 attack. 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 described Israel as a “war criminal”, who subsequently announced that he would recall his diplomats from Turkey in order to “reassess relations” between the two countries.
PHOTO ADEM ALTAN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Thousands of people demonstrated abroad, in London and Paris in support of the Palestinians.
Defeating Hamas is an “existential challenge” for Israel, said the Israeli Prime Minister, once again attacking Tehran. “I think 90% of Hamas’ military budget comes from Iran,” he accused.
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.