Israel and Hamas at war, day 25 | “Fierce fighting” in the Gaza Strip with Hamas, according to Israel

“Fierce fighting” on the ground with Hamas is taking place in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army said on Tuesday, which is slowly advancing amid the ruins of the Palestinian territory, where the “disastrous” humanitarian situation according to the UN continues. to get worse.

Triggered by the unprecedented bloody attack perpetrated on October 7 by the Palestinian Islamist movement in Israel, the war has already left thousands dead and threatens to set the region ablaze.

At 25^e Today, calls for a “humanitarian truce”, in order to relieve the suffering of the 2.4 million inhabitants of Gaza, remain unanswered, despite cries of alarm from NGOs. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out any ceasefire on Monday evening.

After focusing the first phase of its response on massive bombings against the Gaza Strip, led by Hamas, Israel has gradually deployed ground troops since Friday, while further intensifying its strikes.

Tuesday, “fierce fights […] deep in the Gaza Strip” pit Israeli soldiers against Hamas, the Israeli army said in a statement. She added that dozens of Palestinian fighters had been killed in the past few hours.

For its part, the military wing of Hamas claimed to have targeted “two armored vehicles” with anti-tank shells, adding that its fighters had “annihilated” an Israeli force by ambushing it in a building in the north of the territory.

Images previously released by the Israeli army showed soldiers and tanks advancing through a mixture of sand and dust, then through abandoned buildings and rubble.

Other images, from Hamas, are presented as showing fighters emerging from tunnels with weapons in hand, and taking cover, in a non-residential area. Then an explosion occurs in the distance, accompanied by a deafening noise.

” Methodically ”

On Tuesday morning, army spokesperson Jonathan Conricus confirmed that Israeli forces were “in different parts of the northern Gaza Strip.” “We brought in heavily armored vehicles, tanks, armored combat vehicles, bulldozers,” he added, reporting some “300 targets” struck in 24 hours.

The army “extended its land action”, “methodically”, Mr. Netanyahu said Monday evening.

A few hours earlier, Israeli tanks had advanced for the first time to the outskirts of Gaza City, some 2 km inside Palestinian territory.

If this progression gives rise to intense fighting on the ground, it is impossible to provide human tolls from an independent source.

On Tuesday morning, the Israeli army had already reported “several armed confrontations with terrorist cells, which fired automatic weapons and launched anti-tank missiles”.

The day before, she had also mentioned the death of “dozens” of Palestinian fighters and claimed to have struck “600 targets” in 24 hours, weapons depots, anti-tank missile launch positions and even Hamas caches, which Israel, the United States and the EU consider it a “terrorist” organization.

“Even if it’s only three hours”

In Israel, according to the authorities, more than 1,400 people have died since October 7, mainly civilians killed on the day of the Hamas attack. More than 230 hostages, whose relatives are living in anguish, are still in the hands of Hamas, according to the same source.

The Palestinian Islamist movement claims, in a latest report published Tuesday, that 8,525 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Israeli bombings.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza, subject to massive bombings and, since October 9, a “complete siege” by Israel, is alarming. This deprives the 2.4 million inhabitants of water, food and electricity deliveries, more than half of whom have been displaced according to the UN.

On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated the number of Gazans suffering from “severe or moderate psychological disorders” at “more than 485,000”.

In Rafah (south), tons of aid continue to pile up on the Egyptian side of the border crossing, awaiting inspection by Israel, according to an American official who requested anonymity.

Some 117 trucks have been able to enter so far, but this “handful of convoys […] is nothing compared to the needs,” denounced the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini.

The mass delivery of aid “is a question of life and death for millions of people”, proclaimed this official.

No new aid had crossed the border as of Tuesday morning, according to a local official. “36 trucks have been waiting to cross since yesterday,” the director of the Rafah crossing point, Hicham Adwan, told AFP. “It’s extremely slow. »

In this town of Rafah, according to images from AFPTV, funerals took place during the day for victims of a bombing. We see bodies in shrouds being buried in tombs hastily made with breeze blocks and concrete blocks.

Further north, in Gaza City, near a Greek Orthodox cultural center hit in the night, Ahmed al-Kahlout, 50, implores. “The minimum they could give us is a truce, just give us three hours,” he told AFP.

In Jerusalem, the Orthodox Patriarchate denounced the bombing of its cultural center in Gaza, deploring Israel’s “unjustified determination to destroy civilian infrastructure.”

Hospitals at risk

The situation in hospitals also worries NGOs, as thousands of civilians have taken refuge there.

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported new strikes near al-Quds hospital on Tuesday. “The building is shaking and the displaced civilians and the crews at work are gripped by fear,” he wrote on X.

Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals to hide weapons or fighters. Hamas denies this.

In Gaza, doctors “operate on the ground,” Doctors of the World (MDM) denounced on Monday. Due to a lack of drinking water, “people are drinking sea water, those on my team have diarrhea, their children will be dehydrated in a few days,” added its vice-president, Jean-François Corty. .

This war has also exacerbated tensions in the occupied West Bank, where at least 122 Palestinians have been killed since October 7 by fire from Israeli soldiers and settlers, according to the local Health Ministry.

And the threats of regional conflagration remain. On Tuesday, Israel announced that it had intercepted a missile fired from the Red Sea region. Earlier, Houthi rebels in Yemen, a neighboring country, claimed to have launched drones towards the Jewish state.

On the Israeli-Lebanese border, where clashes are almost daily, the Israeli army claimed to have carried out new air strikes targeting Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas and Iran.