(Rafah) More wounded Palestinians and foreigners – several hundred – must be evacuated Thursday to Egypt, from the Gaza Strip, bombarded relentlessly by Israel and where ground fighting is deadly between the Israeli army and Palestinian Hamas .
At 27e day of this war triggered by the bloody attack by Hamas in Israel on October 7, these “ferocious” fighting continue in the ruins of Gaza, as do the incessant bombings on the Palestinian territory, where the humanitarian situation is considered catastrophic. Dozens of people were killed Tuesday and Wednesday in Israeli strikes on the Jabiliya camp (north), in possible “war crimes” according to the UN, while Israel says it wants to “annihilate” Hamas.
Thursday morning, a rare positive development in this war which has already left thousands dead, an additional group of “100 travelers holding foreign nationalities”, aboard two buses, was able to leave Gaza towards Egypt, according to a spokesperson. word from the terminal on the Palestinian side, Wael Abou Mohsen.
In total, dozens of injured and up to 400 dual nationals and foreigners must leave the territory on Thursday, the day after the first evacuations.
“We have seen things we have never seen before, this war is the worst the Palestinian people have ever known,” Shams Shaath, a teenager with an American passport, still in prison, told AFP. ‘waiting.
Around them, in a large covered area, dozens of people, including women, children and the elderly, are also waiting, many of them with their passports in hand. A clearly exhausted boy is dozing, his head resting on his schoolbag, not far from a large white bus ready to evacuate them.
“Up to 7,000 foreigners” will be evacuated, according to Egypt
As the day before, the injured will be treated and transported by ambulance to Egyptian hospitals located a few dozen km away, notably in Al-Arich, capital of the North Sinai province.
Egypt said Thursday that it was preparing to welcome “up to 7,000” foreigners of “more than 60” nationalities, via the Rafah crossing point, the only window on the world for the Palestinian territory ruled by Hamas and subjected to a “complete siege” of Israel since October 9.
The timetable and details of this Egyptian plan have not been revealed.
According to an official Egyptian source, among the 361 dual nationals and foreigners evacuated on Wednesday were around thirty Austrians, four Italians, five French and a few Germans, the number of which was not specified. The United States also reported the presence of Americans.
Meanwhile, fighting continues to rage in the north of the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army claimed Thursday to have killed “dozens” of Hamas fighters overnight, after “terrorist cells […] fired anti-tank missiles, detonated explosive devices and threw grenades.”
Thursday morning, its spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that Israeli forces “continued to break through the defense lines” of the Palestinian Islamist movement.
He added that 332 soldiers had been killed since October 7.
The number of hostages, Israeli or foreign, still in the hands of Hamas is 242, this spokesperson further indicated.
“High number of victims” in Jabaliya
According to Israeli authorities, at least 1,400 people have been killed in Israel since the start of the war, the majority civilians and most of them on the day of the Hamas attack, of unprecedented scale and violence.
In the Gaza Strip, 9,061 people, including 3,648 children, were killed in Israeli bombings, according to a new report from Hamas on Thursday. More than 2,000 people are missing, according to the same source.
Also on Thursday, Hamas claimed that Israeli strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday against a refugee camp in Jabaliya (north) had left 195 dead and 120 missing. This assessment could not be verified from an independent source.
Tuesday’s bombing made it possible, according to Israel, to eliminate one of the Hamas leaders responsible for the October 7 attack, Ibrahim Biari.
But the UN described the bombing as a new “atrocity”, and its Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “appalled”. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights estimated Wednesday evening that these bombings could constitute “war crimes”, “given the high number of civilian victims and the scale of the destruction”.
In the United States, while welcoming Wednesday’s evacuation operation, made possible according to him thanks to the “leading role” of Washington, President Joe Biden for his part called for the first time for a “humanitarian pause » in Gaza, where the “complete siege” deprives the population of deliveries of water, food and electricity.
” Last call ”
Sixty-one trucks carrying medicine and food arrived on Wednesday, after 59 the day before, according to Israeli authorities, and more than 200 since October 21 according to the UN, which is calling for more massive aid.
And while more than “20,000 injured” have “limited access to care” according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Hamas claims that 16 hospitals are no longer operational, out of the 35 in the territory according to the WHO.
Mohammed Abu Selmeya, the director of al-Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest, made a “final appeal” on Wednesday, warning that the main generator was at risk of shutting down due to lack of fuel. If this is the case, “the next announcement will be the deaths of babies in incubators, of patients on respirators, in intensive care and in operating rooms,” he said.
In the Palestinian territory, according to the Israeli authorities, at least 242 hostages are still in the hands of Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel.
While their loved ones live in anguish, Hamas claimed that seven hostages, “including three holders of foreign passports”, had been killed Tuesday in the first bombing in Jabaliya.
There is no respite either from fears of regional conflagration, while the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken is due to arrive in Israel on Friday, then go to Jordan, a country which has just recalled its ambassador to Tel- Aviv.
In Iraq, a conference on regional stability in which French President Emmanuel Macron was to participate at the end of November was postponed indefinitely.
On the northern border of Israel, where armed clashes are daily between the Israeli army on the one hand and the Lebanese Hezbollah and its allies on the other, the Lebanese army found on Thursday the bodies of two shepherds, killed by Israeli fire according to official Lebanese media.
This violence has left 66 dead in southern Lebanon since October 7, according to an AFP count, including 48 Hezbollah fighters. Seven civilians were killed. Eight soldiers and one civilian were killed on the Israeli side, according to authorities.
The war has also exacerbated tensions in the occupied West Bank, where two Palestinians and an Israeli were killed in violence on Thursday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry and Israeli emergency services.
Nearly 130 Palestinians have been killed since October 7 by fire from Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to the Palestinian Authority.
Update on the situation on the 27the war day
The war between Israel and Hamas, entered its 27e day Thursday, was triggered by the bloody attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7 on Israeli soil from the Gaza Strip which it controls.
In retaliation, the Israeli army is relentlessly bombing this completely besieged territory where 2.4 million Palestinians are crowded together, and has been conducting increasingly deep ground operations there for almost a week.
Here are the latest developments:
Foreigners evacuated
Egypt is preparing “to facilitate the reception and evacuation of foreign citizens from Gaza through the Rafah crossing point”, the only one not controlled by Israel, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, adding that There were “around 7,000” of “more than 60” nationalities.
A group of “100 travelers holding foreign nationalities” left Gaza for Egypt on Thursday, according to a spokesperson for the terminal on the Palestinian side.
The day before, 76 Palestinians (46 injured and 30 people accompanying them) and more than 300 foreigners and dual nationals were able to leave Gaza via this border post, a first since the start of the war, an Egyptian official said on Thursday.
Night fights
The Israeli army said Thursday it had killed “dozens” of fighters overnight, after “terrorist cells in the northern Gaza Strip fired anti-tank missiles, detonated explosive devices and threw grenades.”
“The soldiers engaged the terrorists, with the help of artillery and tanks, while directing an air attack from a helicopter and a missile attack from a boat,” according to the army.
Bombed refugee camp
The Israeli army bombed the Jabaliya refugee camp, the largest in the Gaza Strip, on Tuesday and Wednesday.
According to Hamas, these strikes left 195 dead, 777 injured and 120 missing under the rubble.
This assessment could not be immediately verified.
The head of UN humanitarian operations, Martin Griffiths, denounced an “atrocity”.
According to Israel, Tuesday’s bombing made it possible to “eliminate” a senior Hamas leader, Ibrahim Biari.
“Last call” for al-Shifa hospital
Mohammed Abu Selmeya, director of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, the largest in the territory, launched a “final appeal regarding the shutdown of the main generator” due to lack of fuel. “If this generator stops, the next announcement will be deaths of babies in incubators, patients on ventilators, in intensive care and operating rooms.”
A cancer treatment center is now out of service due to lack of fuel and damage from airstrikes in the neighborhood, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The area around Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City was the scene of intense bombing for more than two hours, the Palestinian Red Crescent said Wednesday evening.
20,000 still injured in Gaza
More than 20,000 injured people remain in Gaza, “with limited access to health care,” said Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
Balance sheets
The Hamas Health Ministry announced Wednesday that 8,796 people, including 3,648 children, had been killed in the Gaza Strip since October 7, and 2,000 people were missing under the rubble.
In the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel, more than 125 Palestinians have been killed by fire from Israeli soldiers or settlers since October 7, according to the Palestinian Authority.
In Israel, more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Hamas attack, according to authorities, and 242 people were kidnapped by Hamas and taken to Gaza. Four women have been released so far.
On Thursday, army spokesman Daniel Hagari said 332 soldiers had been killed since the start of the war.