New Israeli strikes left dozens dead, according to Hamas, on Sunday and Monday in the besieged Gaza Strip, where Israel is accused by a humanitarian organization of deliberately starving the population.
Despite international indignation at the heavy civilian losses, the Israeli army continues its strikes on the Palestinian territory, in the grip of a humanitarian disaster, in retaliation for the bloody attack launched by Hamas against Israel on October 7.
The organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the Israeli government on Monday of using “the starvation of civilians as a technique of war in the occupied Gaza Strip, which constitutes a war crime.” The government in return described HRW as “an anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli organization”.
“The Israeli army is deliberately blocking access to drinking water, food and fuel, while intentionally obstructing humanitarian aid, reportedly destroying agricultural areas and depriving the civilian population of products essential to its survival,” assures HRW in a report.
Ten days after an American veto, the UN Security Council must decide on Monday on a new text calling for an “urgent and lasting cessation of hostilities” in Gaza, at a time when Washington is showing signs of impatience with its Israeli ally.
On Monday, the Hamas Health Ministry announced that 110 Palestinians had been killed since the day before in Israeli bombings in Jabalia, in the north, including 50 who died in strikes “on houses”.
In the south, clouds of smoke rose Monday morning above the large city of Khan Younes, after bombings, according to AFP images.
PHOTO MOHAMMED ABED, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Palestinians sell wood, despite the fighting.
The war was triggered by the unprecedented attack launched by Hamas commandos infiltrated onto Israeli soil from Gaza, which left around 1,140 dead on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count made from of the latest official Israeli figures available.
Around 250 hostages were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, of whom 129 are still being held in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
In response to the attack, Israel promised to destroy Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007.
In the Gaza Strip, more than 18,800 people, mostly women, children and adolescents, were killed by Israeli bombings, according to a report from the Hamas Ministry of Health dating from Friday.
Hospitals targeted
In the small territory subjected by Israel to a total siege since October 9, around 1.9 million residents, or 85 percent of the population, have been displaced by the war, many of them multiple times, surviving in makeshift camps.
“I would not be surprised if people started dying of hunger, or a combination of hunger, disease and low immunity,” the commissioner general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Sunday. , Philippe Lazzarini.
Several hospitals were caught in the fighting, despite the presence of sick and displaced people. Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals as bases and using civilians as “human shields”, which the Islamist movement denies.
The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Sunday that the agency was “dismayed by the effective destruction” of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya in the north, where Israeli forces carried out an operation for several days against Hamas, before withdrawing.
In the hospital courtyard, hollowed out by the tracks of tanks and bulldozers, Palestinians wandered in the rubble, looking for corpses.
Mahmoud Assaf, 50, came from Jabalia with a cart to collect two children from his family, suffering from burns and hospitalized for ten days. He said he found one of the two children, Hadi, “paralyzed… lying on his back under the chairs. It was all on him.”
According to the WHO, the bombings reduced the emergency department of Al-Chifa hospital, the largest in the territory, in Gaza City, to “a bloodbath”.
Also in the north, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, Israeli forces stormed Al-Awda hospital and arrested medical staff.
In the south, according to the ministry, an Israeli strike hit the Nasser hospital, the largest in the region, in Khan Younes on Sunday, leaving one dead and seven injured.
Call for help
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again pledged on Sunday to “fight to the end” to eliminate Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel, and free all the hostages .
The government is facing strong pressure from the families of the hostages, who are demanding their return.
On Friday, the army admitted to having mistakenly killed three hostages aged between 25 and 28 in Gaza City. She then indicated that these hostages had brandished a white flag and spoken in Hebrew, in an area where Israeli soldiers are being ambushed.
On Sunday evening, the army said a search of a nearby building showed signs of a cry for help, drawn with “remains of food”.
The army also claimed on Sunday to have discovered “the largest tunnel” dug by Hamas under the Gaza Strip, which extends “for more than four kilometers and comes only 400 meters from the crossing point ‘Erez’, between Israel and the north of the Palestinian territory.
According to the army, 126 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground offensive began on October 27.
Prevent escalation
Qatar, the main mediator in this conflict, with the United States and Egypt, assured that “diplomatic efforts were underway to renew the humanitarian pause”.
But Hamas said on Telegram that it was “against any negotiations on the exchange of prisoners until the aggression against our people ceases completely.”
A seven-day break, between November 24 and November 1er December, allowed the release of 105 hostages held by Hamas and affiliated groups, including 80 in exchange for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
“Hamas’ conditions are clear: a complete ceasefire, the withdrawal of tanks from the cities, the opening of the road between the north and the south, the end of the siege, the normal entry of aid everywhere in Gaza without restrictions,” a Hamas member said on Monday.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Kuwait on Monday and is scheduled to visit Israel.
The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, was in Lebanon on Monday, after a visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank on Sunday, to try to prevent an escalation on the Israeli-Lebanese border, between Israel and Lebanese ally Hezbollah. of Hamas.