Israel and Hamas at war, day 80 | Deadly strikes in Gaza, Netanyahu wants to intensify the fighting

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in the past 24 hours in massive Israeli strikes in Gaza, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Monday promising an intensification of the offensive against Hamas in the devastated and besieged territory.

As fears of a spillover of the conflict persist, Iran, an ally of Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas, has accused Israel of killing a leader of the Revolutionary Guards, its ideological army, in a strike in Syria and promised to avenge his death.

Triggered almost three months ago by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against Israel, the war offers no respite for Palestinian civilians threatened by famine according to the UN in the overpopulated 362 km territory^⁠2despite pressing calls for a ceasefire.

According to a latest report from the Hamas Ministry of Health, in power in Gaza since 2007, 20,674 people were killed in Israeli military operations, the majority civilians, and nearly 55,000 were injured.

The offensive, the bloodiest ever carried out by Israel against Hamas in Gaza, was launched in retaliation for the Palestinian group’s attack on its soil on October 7, which left around 1,140 people dead, most of them civilians, according to the latest official Israeli figures. Palestinian commandos also kidnapped around 250 people, of whom 129 remain detained in Gaza.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union in particular.

Monday before dawn, Israeli aircraft massively bombed Gaza, subject to an Israeli blockade since 2007, two years after Israel’s unilateral withdrawal in 2005 from this territory that it occupied for 38 years.

A strike near the village of Al-Zawaida (center) left 12 dead and another killed at least 18 in Khan Younes (south), according to the Hamas health ministry.

On Sunday evening, at least 70 people were killed in a strike on the al-Maghazi refugee camp (center), according to this source. The Israeli army said it was “verifying the incident”.

“What if it was your son!” »

On the Israeli side, the army announced the death of two soldiers, bringing to 156 the number of its soldiers killed since the launch of the ground offensive in Gaza on October 27, 20 days after the start of the aerial bombardments.

And Palestinian fighters fired rockets during the day into Israel, most of which are usually intercepted by Israel’s missile defense system.

Despite growing calls for a ceasefire, a heavy human toll and a humanitarian crisis described as catastrophic by the UN and NGOs, the Israeli Prime Minister remains inflexible.

After traveling to Gaza on Monday, he declared to the elected representatives of his Likud party: “I am now returning from Gaza. We don’t stop, we continue to fight and we intensify the fights in the days to come. It will be a long war […]. »

Then, during a speech in Parliament in which he explained that troops needed “more time” to secure the release of the hostages, Mr. Netanyahu was heckled by families of hostages who chanted “Now, now ! “.

“What if it was your son?” “, “80 days, every minute is hell”, could we read on banners held up by these families.

In the evening, relatives of hostages demonstrated in front of the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv ahead of a planned war cabinet meeting.

“Release our hostages now!” Whatever the price ! “, proclaimed a sign.

Israel ‘will pay’, Iran warns

In the Gaza Strip, subjected by Israel to a total siege since October 9, the situation of the 1.9 million displaced people – 85% of the population, according to the UN – is desperate, according to UN agencies, which say that no place is safe in the territory.

“The Israeli army does not spare civilians,” accuses Ziad Awad, in the al-Maghazi camp, referring to the nighttime strikes. It was like an “earthquake”.

Despite the vote on Friday by the UN Security Council of a resolution calling for the “immediate” and “large-scale” delivery of humanitarian aid, this has not increased significantly, and the residents lack everything.

The head of the UN, António Guterres, and his staff, who continue to warn of the catastrophic situation in Gaza and call for a ceasefire, have attracted the wrath of the head of Israeli diplomacy, Eli Cohen, for whom “the conduct of the UN is a shame”.

The UN has warned that in the next six weeks, the entire population risks experiencing high levels of food insecurity, including famine.

Despite the intransigent positions of the protagonists, the Egyptian and Qatari mediators are still trying to negotiate a new truce, after that of a week at the end of November which allowed the release of 105 hostages against 240 Palestinian prisoners and the entry into Gaza of significant aid .

The violence outside the borders of Israel and Gaza also still raises the specter of a widening of the conflict, with in particular almost daily and sometimes deadly exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli army on the border between Lebanon. and Israel and Yemen’s Houthi rebels’ attacks on ships in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea.

Iran has accused Israel of killing Brigadier General Razi Moussavi, “logistics manager”, with missiles against his house near Damascus. [en Syrie] of the axis of resistance” against Israel. This “axis” includes Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis.

Asked about this strike, the Israeli army refused to comment.

But Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi warned that Israel “will certainly pay for this crime”.