Bombings targeted the Gaza Strip on Monday, after the announcement by the Israeli Prime Minister that the “intense” phase of the fighting was coming to an end, notably in Rafah, in the south of the Palestinian territory, but that the war against Hamas would continue.
The Islamist movement responded Monday that any agreement must “include a permanent ceasefire and a complete Israeli withdrawal” from Gaza, conditions that Israel has always rejected.
The Israeli army launched a ground offensive at the beginning of May in Rafah, a town on the border with Egypt, with the aim of destroying Hamas, author of a bloody attack on Israel on October 7 which sparked the war.
The Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, repeated on Sunday that the “objective” was “to recover the hostages” held in Gaza and to “uproot the Hamas regime”, in place since 2007 and considered terrorist by the United States, the European Union and Israel.
PHOTO ABIR SULTAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
“The intense phase of fighting against Hamas is about to end […] This does not mean that the war is about to end, but the war in its intense phase is about to end in Rafah,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Israeli channel 14.
“We are not living. We are all dead. Enough of killing these innocent people, of these explosions, these bombings, these destroyed houses. Our lives have become an unbearable hell,” responded Sumaya al-Amrain, a 60-year-old Palestinian from the northern Gaza City.
“There will be a war”
In response to a question, Mr. Netanyahu, however, declared that he was “ready to conclude a partial agreement” which would allow the release of some of the hostages, before “continuing the war”.
The main association of relatives of hostages, the Families Forum, condemned these comments on Monday and estimated that “the end of the fighting in Gaza without the release of the hostages would constitute an unprecedented national failure”.
Mr. Netanyahu is strongly criticized in his country, where a demonstration of unprecedented scale since the start of the war brought together more than 150,000 people in Tel Aviv on Saturday, according to the organizers, to demand early elections and the return of hostages.
The war has also caused a military escalation on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, raising fears of an extension of the conflict.
“After the intense phase ends, we will be able to redeploy some forces to the north, and we will do so, primarily for defensive purposes, but also to bring back locals [déplacés] at home,” the Prime Minister added on Sunday.
PHOTO BASHAR TALEB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
An Israeli Air Force helicopter launches flares as it flies over northwest Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on June 24.
Exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Lebanese Hezbollah, a powerful Islamist movement allied with Hamas, armed and financed by Iran, have led to the displacement of tens of thousands of residents of the border areas of southern Lebanon and the northern Israel.
“There will be a war,” predicted Helene Abergel, a resident of Kiryat Shmona, in northern Israel, staying in a Tel Aviv hotel. “A war must take place to push Hezbollah away from the border,” added this 49-year-old woman interviewed by AFP.
While the relationship between Mr. Netanyahu and the United States is experiencing tensions after Israeli criticism of delays in deliveries of American weapons, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant arrived in Washington for talks he described as “crucial” for the rest of the war.
Looting and smuggling
In the Gaza Strip, besieged by Israel, artillery fire targeted Rafah on Monday as well as the Palestinian camp of Nousseirat in the center and the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, where fighting was reported, according to witnesses.
According to Civil Defense, two medical professionals were killed in an airstrike on Al-Daraj Hospital in Gaza City, including Hani Al-Jafarwari, the director of the ambulance and emergency department at the Ministry of Health from Gaza.
PHOTO DAWOUD ABU ALKAS, REUTERS
A man inspects the damage at Al-Darajj Hospital which was hit during an Israeli strike in Gaza City on June 24.
According to this ministry, at least “500 health professionals have been killed directly” since the start of the “Israeli aggression”.
The army announced that it was continuing its “targeted operations” in the Rafah sector and having “eliminated armed terrorists” there.
The war was sparked on October 7 by an attack carried out by Hamas commandos in southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data. Israelis.
Of 251 people kidnapped, 116 are still held hostage in Gaza, of whom 41 are dead, according to the Israeli army.
In response, the Israeli army launched an offensive in the Palestinian territory which has so far left 37,626 dead, mostly civilians, including 28 in 24 hours, according to data from the Gaza government’s Ministry of Health. led by Hamas.
The war has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in the territory, where looting and smuggling “are widespread” and “prevent” the delivery of aid that the population “desperately needs”, the head of UNRWA said on Monday. the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini.
More than a million people are constantly moving across the Gaza Strip in the hope of finding refuge, while “no place is safe”, stressed the World Health Organization.
Based on satellite images, the UN calculated that around 65% of the road network was damaged or destroyed.