The Israeli army on Wednesday called on all residents to evacuate Gaza City, the main city in the besieged Palestinian territory, where its soldiers are engaged in a major operation against the Islamist movement Hamas.
At 10e months into this devastating war and after months of futile efforts, new talks are planned in Qatar to try to move towards a ceasefire and the release of hostages taken during the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, which triggered the hostilities.
Israel has vowed to destroy the Islamist movement that has ruled Gaza since 2007, and responded to the attack with a major air and ground military offensive in the small Palestinian territory, besieging its roughly 2.4 million residents.
Speaking to parliament, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the army had “eliminated or wounded 60 percent” of Hamas fighters during the nine-month war, calling it a military “success.”
After claiming in January to have “completed the dismantling of the military structure” of Hamas in the north of the Gaza Strip, mainly in the eponymous city, the army resumed its ground operations in this region on June 27, with the support of the air force and artillery.
It launched a first ground operation in Shujaiya, in the east of Gaza City, before extending it to other neighborhoods, forcing tens of thousands of residents to flee according to the UN after initial calls to evacuate certain areas.
On Wednesday, she confirmed that she had dropped leaflets in Gaza City calling on “all people” to leave.
“To all people in Gaza City, security corridors allow you to travel quickly and without inspection to shelters in Deir el-Balah and Al-Zawiya. Gaza City remains a dangerous combat zone,” the leaflet said.
PHOTO HATEM KHALED, REUTERS
Mourners pray next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike.
“12e times ”
“This is the 12the “We have been displaced for so many times. How many more times must we endure? A thousand times? Where will we end up? I can’t take it anymore!” says Umm Nimr al-Jamal, who fled a Gaza neighborhood with her family.
According to the army, “the soldiers carried out an operation against Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists who were using the headquarters of UNRWA (the UN agency for Palestinian refugees) in Gaza City as a base to launch attacks,” and “eliminated terrorists.”
UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma said it was unclear whether people had taken refuge in the siege.
“Dozens of terrorists” were killed and underground tunnels destroyed in Shujaiya, the army said. The Palestinian Red Crescent said it was unable to reach victims in Gaza due to the intensity of the fire.
In the south of the Palestinian territory, Israeli tanks entered the city center of Rafah, witnesses said, reporting intense gunfire in the city, which is also the target of a ground offensive by the army.
PHOTO HATEM KHALED, REUTERS
Palestinians gather outside homes destroyed in the Israeli military offensive.
Deadly strike on school
According to Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, “there is absolutely no safe place” in the Palestinian territory, where more than 80% of the population has been displaced and where residents live in “dire” conditions according to the UN.
On Tuesday evening, and for the fourth time in as many days, an Israeli strike hit a school sheltering displaced people in Abassan near Khan Younis (south), killing 29 people including children according to a medical source and Hamas. The army said it was targeting “terrorists” in these raids.
At Nasser hospital where the victims of the Abassan strike were transferred, many of the injured, including children, young people and the elderly, were transported by their relatives, on foot, in vans or ambulances, according to AFP images.
Schools in Gaza ‘often become places of death and misery’ […] “Gaza is no place for children,” Lazzarini said. Paris and Berlin condemned the strikes on schools.
PHOTO HATEM KHALED, REUTERS
Palestinians near damaged tents at the site of an Israeli strike, near the school sheltering displaced people.
“Famine Campaign”
On Tuesday, independent UN experts accused Israel of waging “an intentional and targeted campaign of starvation against the Palestinian people, which is a form of genocidal violence and has led to famine throughout the Gaza Strip.” Israel has denied this.
On October 7, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza into southern Israel launched an attack that killed 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data. Of the 251 people kidnapped at the time, 116 are still being held in Gaza, 42 of whom are dead, according to the army.
The Israeli offensive in Gaza has so far killed 38,243 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run Gaza government. In an attempt to move toward a ceasefire, American and Israeli envoys are expected in Doha on Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the discussions, while differences persist between the warring parties.
In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted during a meeting with Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East, on his commitment to an agreement “as long as Israel’s red lines are respected.”
An allusion to Israel’s desire to continue the war until the destruction of Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, and to obtain the release of all hostages.