The Israeli army continued its strikes on the besieged Gaza Strip on Tuesday, with the Israeli chief of staff warning that the war would last for “many more months” despite serious concerns expressed by the United Nations, which named a coordinator for international aid.
What there is to know
- On Tuesday, thick clouds of smoke rose into the sky over Gaza after strikes, particularly over Khan Younes. Nighttime strikes also targeted the neighboring town of Rafah, on the Egyptian border;
- According to a latest report, 20,915 people, mostly women, adolescents and children, have been killed in Israeli military operations in Gaza, including 241 in the last 24 hours;
- Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that he wanted to intensify the fighting in the coming days;
- In this small territory, subjected by Israel to a total siege since October 9, the war has forced 1.9 million people to flee their homes, or 85% of the population according to the UN;
- The inflow of humanitarian aid has not increased significantly, despite the UN Security Council passing a resolution on Friday calling for its “immediate” and “large-scale” delivery.
Four days after the adoption of a Security Council resolution demanding the “large-scale” delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, where 85% of the population has been displaced and lacks everything, the United Nations has appointed the outgoing Dutch minister, Sigrid Kaag, to coordinate this mission.
An announcement which comes as deadly Israeli strikes intensified on Tuesday. A total of 241 people have been killed in the past 24 hours, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
PHOTO MAHMUD HAMS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Smoke in Khan Younes
Beyond Gaza, the specter of a widening conflict still looms, with new exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel on the Israeli-Lebanese border, where nine Israeli soldiers were injured Tuesday by rocket fire from the movement Lebanese. He announced the death of two of his fighters.
Thick clouds of smoke rose above Khan Younes, the large southern city where Israel says it is concentrating most of its offensive against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007.
PHOTO HATEM ALI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A bulldozer unloads the bodies of Palestinians killed in the northern Gaza Strip and handed over by the Israeli army during a mass funeral in Rafah.
Nearly three months after the start of the war, triggered by a bloody attack launched on October 7 by Hamas in Israel, the ground fighting between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters, as well as the devastating Israeli aerial bombardments, show no signs of of respite.
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after this attack carried out by commandos infiltrated from Gaza, which left around 1,140 dead, most of them civilians, according to the latest official Israeli figures. Around 250 people have been kidnapped, according to Israel, of whom 129 remain detained in Gaza.
In Israeli military retaliatory operations in Gaza, 20,915 people were killed and 54,918 injured, according to the Hamas Health Ministry.
PHOTO SAID KHATIB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Palestinians inspect the damage to their home after an Israeli bombardment in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
“Deeply concerned”
According to the UN, famine threatens in the cramped territory and most hospitals are out of service.
Subjected by Israel to a total siege since October 9 after more than 16 years of Israeli blockade, the Gaza Strip was affected by a new telecommunications cut on Tuesday.
In addition to Khan Younes, where many displaced people who fled the fighting in the north are massed, Israeli strikes targeted the neighboring town of Rafah, further south, where tens of thousands of displaced people are crowded into makeshift camps.
Israel “claims that there are safe inhabited areas, but this attack contradicts its lies,” said a survivor, Abou Baraa, in the ruins of a house destroyed by a bombing in Rafah.
The army issued a new evacuation order to residents of the al-Bureij camp (center) and its surroundings. Some have already fled to Rafah, where they arrived with their luggage piled on the roof of their cars, according to AFP images.
PHOTO MOHAMMED AL-MASRI, PROVIDED BY REUTERS
Palestinians rest next to their belongings as they flee their homes after being ordered by the Israeli army to evacuate the area, in Bureij, in the central Gaza Strip.
“We are deeply concerned about the continued Israeli bombardment of central Gaza. […] All attacks must strictly respect the principles of international humanitarian law, in particular the distinction between civilians and military personnel, said the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
France said on Tuesday it was “seriously concerned”, calling “strongly” for “an immediate truce leading to a ceasefire”
PHOTO HATEM ALI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Palestinians shelter from Israeli bombings in the European hospital in Khan Younes.
The army announced on Tuesday that it had struck more than 100 Hamas targets over the past day, including tunnel entrances and military sites in Jabaliya (north) and Khan Younes.
Hamas, considered a terrorist group by Israel, the United States and the European Union in particular, “must be destroyed, Gaza must be demilitarized and Palestinian society deradicalized” to achieve peace “with Palestinian neighbors,” he said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Wall Street Journal on Monday.
“The objectives of this war are not easy to achieve. The war will last for many more months,” said Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi after meeting soldiers in Gaza.
Five soldiers killed, nine injured
On Tuesday, the army announced the death of five soldiers in the fighting in Gaza, bringing to 161 the number of soldiers killed since the start of its ground offensive on October 27.
Faced with the dire conditions of the civilian population in Gaza, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, once again called for “an immediate ceasefire”.
On Tuesday, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer was to meet with the head of American diplomacy Anthony Blinken and the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. On the agenda: the war between Israel and Hamas as well as the release of the hostages.
Historical allies of Israel, the United States is increasingly insisting that Israel favor more targeted operations.
International aid continues to arrive in insufficient quantities and humanitarian efforts “are not close to meeting the needs of the population of Gaza”, according to the head of the WHO.
The efforts of mediators, especially Egyptian and Qatari, have so far failed to achieve a new humanitarian truce, due to the intransigent positions of the protagonists.
At the end of November, a one-week truce allowed the release of 105 hostages against 240 Palestinian prisoners and the entry of significant aid into Gaza.
PHOTO AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Smoke rises above the village of Meiss El-Jabbal in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel, following an Israeli bombardment.
Furthermore, fears of an extension of the conflict persist, especially with the violence on the Israeli-Lebanese border and attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels against ships in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea.
Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for a drone attack on a ship in the Red Sea and a missile strike towards Israel, which was intercepted.
The American army, for its part, announced that it had destroyed 12 drones and 5 missiles fired by the Houthis on Tuesday.
Attacks attributed to pro-Iranian groups against American troops have also increased in Iraq and neighboring Syria. And the United States carried out strikes against three sites used by pro-Iranian groups in Iraq, which left one person dead.
On Monday, Iran accused Israel of killing one of its senior officers, Razi Mousavi, in a strike in Syria in which three other pro-Iranian fighters also died. Tehran has promised to avenge his death.