A hundred Palestinians have been killed in recent hours in massive Israeli strikes according to Hamas in Gaza where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Monday promising an intensification of the military offensive against the devastated and besieged territory.
Entering his 80e Today, the war, triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against Israel, offers no respite to Palestinian civilians threatened with famine according to the UN in the overpopulated territory of 362 km2despite 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 have died in Israeli military operations, the majority women, children and adolescents, as well as nearly 55,000 injured.
The offensive, the bloodiest ever carried out by Israel against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, was launched in retaliation for the attack on its soil on October 7, which left around 1,140 dead, mostly civilians, according to the latest reports. official Israeli figures. Palestinian commandos also kidnapped around 250 people, 129 of whom remain detained in Gaza.
The Israeli military and politicians have sworn 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.
One of the strikes, near the small village of Al-Zawaida (center), left 12 dead and another left at least 18 dead in Khan Younes (south), according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
On Sunday evening, at least 70 people were killed in a strike on the al-Maghazi refugee camp, according to the same source. The Israeli army said it was “verifying the incident”.
PHOTO SHADI TABATIBI, REUTERS
At least 70 people were also killed in a strike on Sunday on the al-Maghazi refugee camp, according to Hamas.
“A long war”
On the Israeli side, the army announced the death of two soldiers, bringing to 156 the number of its losses since the start of the ground offensive launched in Gaza on October 27, 20 days after the start of the aerial bombardments.
“We are paying a very heavy price for the war, but we have no other choice but to continue fighting,” Benjamin Netanyahu insisted on Sunday.
PHOTO OHAD ZWIGENBERG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
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 are not stopping, we are continuing to fight and we are intensifying the fighting in the days to come and it will be a long war that is not going to end any time soon.”
“We are facing monsters,” he said on Sunday in his Christmas message to Christians around the world. “It is a battle of civilization against barbarism. »
At the Vatican, Pope Francis denounced in his traditional Christmas message “the desperate humanitarian situation” in Gaza, calling once again for the release of hostages and a cease-fire.
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 not safe in the territory.
PHOTO IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA, REUTERS
The displaced Hazem Saba found refuge with his wife Ghada at his father-in-law’s house in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, on December 25.
“Like an earthquake”
“The Israeli army does not spare civilians,” accuses Ziad Awad, in the Maghazi camp targeted on Sunday evening. 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 seen a significant increase and the residents lack everything.
PHOTO IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA, REUTERS
Displaced Palestinians receive medicine in a tent set up by volunteers in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on December 24.
“The conduct of the UN since October 7 is a shame for the organization and the international community,” wrote the head of Israeli diplomacy Eli Cohen on X, protesting against the positions of the UN boss, Antonio Guterres and his staff who continue to warn about the catastrophic situation in Gaza and call for a ceasefire.
The UN has warned that most hospitals are out of service in Gaza and that in the next six weeks the entire population risks experiencing a high level of food insecurity, including famine.
PHOTO MOHAMMED SALEM, REUTERS
A Palestinian patient receives dialysis treatment at a hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on December 24.
On Saturday, a new mission led by the World Health Organization (WHO) visited hospitals in Gaza City, including the delivery of more than 19,000 liters of fuel oil to al-Chifa hospital, the largest in the territory.
One of the convoys carrying food was stormed by desperate and hungry people, the WHO said on Sunday.
Despite the intransigent positions of the protagonists, Egyptian and Qatari mediators are still trying to negotiate a new truce, after a seven-day break in fighting at the end of November, which allowed the release of 105 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners as well as entry into Gaza large humanitarian aid convoys.
The leader of Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian armed movement in Gaza which fights alongside Hamas and holds hostages, arrived in Cairo on Sunday, after a visit from Hamas leader Ismaïl Haniyeh.