Israel resumed its deadly shelling of the Gaza Strip on Friday after a week of pause in hostilities, once again promising to “eliminate” Hamas, in power in this small, overpopulated territory of 2.4 million inhabitants, devastated by seven weeks of bombing.
What there is to know
- The truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement expired Friday morning, and hostilities resumed.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of having “violated the agreement” and “fired rockets” towards Israel.
- Islamic Jihad, Gaza’s other major Islamist movement, claimed responsibility for firing rockets into Israel on Friday morning.
- The resumption of Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip has left “more than 100 dead,” according to the Ministry of Health in the territory controlled by Hamas.
- From the first explosions on Friday morning, thousands of residents of the small Palestinian territory returned to hospitals and schools that had become makeshift camps for the displaced.
- Qatar, the main mediator between Israel and Hamas, has urged the international community to act quickly to end the violence in the Gaza Strip.
- The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, described the resumption of hostilities as “catastrophic”, urging “all parties and all States with influence” over the belligerents “to redouble their efforts.” “efforts, immediately, to secure a ceasefire.”
- “Inaction is, in essence, a green light given to the killing of children,” said the spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), James Elder.
- The seven days of truce allowed the release of 80 Israeli hostages, women and children, and 240 Palestinian prisoners, also women and minors.
From the first explosions, which occurred shortly after the expiration of a truce at midnight, thousands of residents, some surprised in their sleep, returned to hospitals and schools transformed into makeshift camps for the displaced, noted AFP journalists in the Gaza Strip.
The Islamist movement’s Ministry of Health reported “more than 100 deaths”, including children, in various Israeli bombardments on the Gaza Strip, from which thick clouds of grayish smoke rose.
During the night, however, intense negotiations took place for a new renewal of the truce in force since November 24 between Israel and Hamas, in the war triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian movement in Israel on October 7.
But on Friday morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of having “violated the truce agreement” and “fired rockets” towards Israel.
PHOTO JACK GUEZ, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Rockets fired from Gaza towards Israel.
“The Israeli government is determined to achieve the goals of the war: freeing the hostages, eliminating Hamas and ensuring that Gaza never again poses a threat to the people of Israel,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. the spokesperson for the Israeli government promising Hamas “the worst beating”.
In response, Ezzat el-Richq, a leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another armed movement in Gaza, affirmed that the Israeli army “will not achieve by resuming the war” the objectives that it “did not achieve before the truce.”
“Evacuation zones”
Early Friday, the Israeli military began sending messages to the phones of residents in neighborhoods of Gaza City (north), as well as villages along the border with Israel in the south, urging them to “leave immediately” because it was going to carry out “harsh military attacks”.
The army also published a map in Arabic of the “evacuation zones” of the Gaza Strip, to allow Gazans to flee certain areas for their safety.
Thursday evening, the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken called during a press conference in Tel Aviv for an extension of the truce, while anticipating a resumption of fighting by calling on Israel to “minimize the deaths of innocent Palestinians”.
The Palestinian Authority, through Nabil Abou Roudeina, spokesperson for President Mahmoud Abbas, however, denounced “the continuation of ethnic cleansing and genocide” in Gaza.
A sign of a truce that was becoming more and more precarious, Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel in particular, claimed responsibility for a deadly attack Thursday in Jerusalem which cost the lives of four Israelis.
Hamas nevertheless said it was ready Thursday evening to extend the truce, negotiated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, which allowed the release of dozens of Palestinian hostages and detainees and the entry of aid humanitarian in the besieged and devastated Palestinian territory.
Israel estimates that around 240 people were taken hostage and taken to the Gaza Strip during the bloody attack by Hamas in Israel on October 7. This attack left 1,200 dead, mostly civilians, according to the authorities.
In retaliation for this attack, Israel promised to “annihilate” Hamas, shelling the Palestinian territory, subject to a total siege, and launching a ground offensive on October 27.
According to the Hamas government, more than 15,000 people, including at least 6,150 children and young people under the age of 18, have died in Israeli strikes since October 7.
” Nightmare ”
Friday morning, a source informed of the negotiations told AFP that negotiations for a truce are continuing with Qatari and Egyptian mediators despite the resumption of hostilities.
PHOTO MOHAMMED ABED, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
People mourn the deaths of war victims in Rafah after the resumption of hostilities.
Israel’s main allies, the United States “continues to work” towards a humanitarian truce in Gaza, the White House assured Friday.
Qatar also urged the international community to act, affirming that the resumption of bombings “exacerbates the humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, with France for its part deeming a renewal of the truce “indispensable”.
The resumption of fighting has plunged the Gaza Strip back into a “nightmare”, lamented the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Robert Mardini.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told him he “regrets[r] deeply” the resumption of hostilities, hoping that it is always “possible to renew the pause”.
PHOTO SAID KHATIB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
An Israeli strike in Rafah.
The pause in hostilities had offered respite to a besieged population which experienced – before the seven-day truce – seven weeks of devastating Israeli bombardments.
It also enabled the release of 80 Israeli hostages, women and children, and 240 Palestinian prisoners, also women and minors.
Around twenty foreigners or dual nationals, mostly Thais working in Israel, were also released outside the framework of the agreement.
“Even more fierce”
The truce agreement had at the same time made it possible to increase the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, where, according to the UN, all of the 2.4 million inhabitants are food insecure.
“No aid trucks have entered since the resumption of Israeli bombings but preparations are underway for the evacuation of several wounded and the entry into Gaza of Gazans who were stranded abroad,” he said. AFP Waël Abou Omar, head of communications at the Rafah terminal (South), crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
The needs are immense in the territory already subject to an Israeli blockade for more than 15 years and placed since October 9 in a state of total siege by Israel.
On Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported 111,000 cases of acute respiratory infection and 36,000 cases of diarrhea among children under five years old among those displaced since the start of the war.
According to the UN, 1.7 million inhabitants have been displaced by the war, and more than half of the homes damaged or destroyed.
Several hundred thousand civilians fled during the first weeks of the war from the north of the small territory, devastated by the fighting, to seek refuge in the south.
But in Khan Younes, in the south of the Gaza Strip, where bombings left several dead on Friday morning according to the Hamas government, Anas Abou Dagga deplored that “the war has resumed, even more ferocious”.
PHOTO MAHMUD HAMS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
An Israeli strike in Khan Younes destroyed this house.
“Our house was destroyed, we have seven injured relatives,” this Gazan told AFPTV, rushing to Nasser hospital, where residents also rushed on Friday to donate blood to the injured.
In Israel, the authorities have reinstated the ban on schools opening if they do not have shelter that meets standards.
In Tel Aviv, residents interviewed by AFP considered the resumption of hostilities inevitable.
“As long as Hamas is there, we must continue to fight,” said Ofir Dardary, 39.