Fierce fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas fighters in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday led to the further displacement of thousands of Palestinians.
The war, triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Islamist movement in Israel on October 7, is continuing unabated across the Palestinian territory, and raises fears of a flare-up in Lebanon.
On May 7, Israeli troops launched a ground offensive in the southern city of Rafah, which Israel then presented as the last major Hamas stronghold. But fighting has since intensified in several other regions, particularly in the north.
PHOTO EYAD BABA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A man pushes his bicycle past the rubble of shelters destroyed by an Israeli raid in Rafah on June 29.
Since Thursday, Israeli forces have been carrying out an operation in Shujaiya, a district east of Gaza City, where they have eliminated “dozens” of fighters in 48 hours, the army said, reporting “close combat with terrorists.”
Two soldiers were killed and two others seriously injured in fighting in northern Gaza, according to the same source.
The armed wings of Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad indicated for their part that they were engaged in fighting with Israeli forces in the Shujaiya area.
The Palestinian Civil Defense reported on Friday “numerous deaths” and the flight of “tens of thousands of civilians”, after a call by the army to evacuate the neighborhood.
“Terrified”
“People were panicking in the streets, they were terrified. […] “Everyone was leaving Shujaiya,” says Samah Hajaj, 42. “We don’t know why they (the Israeli soldiers, editor’s note) entered Shujaiya since they had already destroyed the houses there.”
On Friday night and Saturday morning, AFP journalists heard explosions, airstrikes and gunfire coming from this area.
Also in Gaza City, the Civil Defense said four bodies and six wounded had been recovered from the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli strike.
In the central Palestinian territory, residents cleared rubble in the Maghazi refugee camp after an overnight strike on a house that hit a medical center.
“The pharmacy, the ophthalmology department and the emergency department were completely destroyed,” said Tarek Qandeel, the center’s director.
PHOTO EYAD BABA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A woman carries items recovered following an Israeli raid in Rafah on June 29.
Further south, five bodies were discovered after a bombing of displaced people’s tents in the al-Mawasi sector, near Rafah, according to doctors.
The army is continuing operations in the latter city, which borders Egypt, saying it has eliminated “numerous terrorists” there.
Witnesses reported deaths and injuries among displaced people in the Shakush camp, west of Rafah.
The Hamas attack on October 7 in Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
32 hospitals damaged
During the attack, 251 people were kidnapped, 116 of whom are still being held in Gaza, of whom 42 died, according to the army.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which has been in power in Gaza since 2007 and which it considers a terrorist organisation, as do the United States and the European Union.
Its offensive on the Gaza Strip has so far killed 37,834 people, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas-led Gaza government’s health ministry.
PHOTO BASHAR TALEB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A Palestinian woman stands next to her belongings in a camp for displaced people in Khan Yunis on June 28.
The war has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in the small, besieged Palestinian territory of 2.4 million inhabitants, more than half of whom have been displaced: water and food are lacking and the health system is on its knees.
A total of 32 hospitals out of 36 in the Gaza Strip have been damaged since October 7, and of them 20 are now out of service, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
UNRWA mission officer Louise Wateridge on Friday described living conditions in the Palestinian territory as “dire”, where humanitarian aid is arriving in dribs and drabs.
“Bring them home”
In Tel Aviv, thousands of demonstrators gathered on Saturday as they do every week to demand the return of the hostages and protest against the prime minister.
Among them is former hostage Noa Argamani, 26, who was freed on June 8 along with three other captives during an Israeli army operation. “Although I have returned home, we cannot forget the hostages who are still in Hamas captivity, and we must do everything in our power to bring them home,” she said.
On the diplomatic front, Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official based in Beirut, said Saturday that negotiations for an agreement with Israel on a ceasefire and the release of hostages had not led to any progress.
He said his movement had received the latest US proposal for a ceasefire agreement on June 24, but that it brought “nothing new.”
A plan presented at the end of May by American President Joe Biden, proposed according to him by Israel, has until now remained a dead letter, with the protagonists sticking to intangible demands.
Benjamin Netanyahu wants to continue the war until the total defeat of Hamas and the release of all hostages, while the Palestinian movement demands a permanent ceasefire and a total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Fears of seeing the conflict spread to Lebanon have recently increased with a verbal escalation between Israel and Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.
Since October 7, the two camps have exchanged fire almost daily in the border area, deadly violence having pushed thousands of residents on both sides of the border to flee.
UN resumes delivery of aid from US pier
PHOTO AMIR COHEN, REUTERS
A truck carrying humanitarian aid embarked at the temporary port on June 25.
Aid workers have begun moving tons of aid piling up at a U.S.-built dock off the Gaza coast to warehouses in the besieged territory, the United Nations said Saturday.
It is an important step as the United States weighs whether to resume operations at the dock after yet another pause due to rough seas.
It was unclear when aid might reach Palestinians in Gaza, where experts have warned of a high risk of famine as the war between Israel and Hamas militants enters its ninth month.
It is the first time trucks have transported aid from the dock since the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) suspended operations due to security concerns on June 9.
Millions of pounds of aid have been piling up. Over the past week, more than 10 million pounds have been delivered, according to the U.S. military.
WFP spokeswoman Abeer Etefa told The Associated Press that it was a one-off operation until the beach was cleared of aid and that efforts were being made to prevent any damage.
Further UN operations at the pier depend on the organization’s security assessments, Mr.me Etefa. The UN is investigating whether the pier was used during an Israeli military operation last month to rescue three hostages.
If WFP trucks manage to deliver aid to warehouses inside Gaza, it could affect the US military’s decision on whether to reinstall the pier, which was removed due to weather conditions on Friday. U.S. officials said they were considering not reinstalling the pier because of the possibility that the aid would not be recovered.
Julia Frankel and Wafaa Shurafa, Associated Press