Israel and Hamas at war, day 84 | Discussion of a ceasefire in Cairo, humanitarian aid bombed

The Israeli army continued its massive bombardments on Friday in the Gaza Strip, where the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) denounced the conditions for the delivery of humanitarian aid to the population living in critical conditions.

At 84^e day of the war, triggered by an unprecedented attack carried out from Gaza by Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7, a delegation from the Palestinian Islamist movement is in Cairo to discuss an Egyptian project aimed at gradually putting an end to the fighting .

After another night of deadly bombings, which are concentrated in the center and south of the Gaza Strip, Palestinians rushed to al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah (center) on Friday to identify the bodies of relatives.

Rescuers carry injured men, women and children, their clothes stained with blood. Some are cared for on the ground.

Outside, Suhair Nasser cries while holding the bodies of her twins, killed the day before in an Israeli strike, she says.

“We were sleeping in the bedroom with two of my children, my twins were in another room. The house was bombed and the rubble fell on them,” confides this woman.

The “exhausted” population

The attack carried out by Hamas on October 7 resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people in Israel, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on the latest official Israeli figures available. Around 250 people were also kidnapped that day, 129 of whom are still detained in Gaza, according to the Israeli army.

In retaliation, Israel has sworn to destroy Hamas and is shelling the Palestinian territory, where the Islamist movement took power in 2007. Its army has deplored the deaths of 168 soldiers since the start of its land operations at the end of October.

At least 21,507 people have been killed since October 7 in the Gaza Strip, the majority of them women and minors, according to the latest report Friday from the Hamas Ministry of Health.

The approximately 2.4 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, 85% of whom have had to flee their homes according to the UN, continue to face a disastrous humanitarian situation.

“The traumatized” and “exhausted” population is piling up on “an increasingly small plot of land” in the south of the territory, the head of UN humanitarian operations, Martin Griffiths, declared on Friday on X.

Israel has imposed a complete siege on the Gaza Strip since October 9, and humanitarian aid enters only sparsely, after inspection, mainly through the Rafah border crossing.

Faced with the glaring inadequacy of aid, Gazans are in “great danger”, warned the World Health Organization (WHO), its head saying in particular “very concerned” by the growing threat posed by diseases infectious.

“The quantity of aid delivered, necessary and urgent, continues to be limited and encounters numerous logistical obstacles,” denounced the Commissioner General of Unrwa, Philippe Lazzarini, recalling that “all parties” must facilitate access humanitarian aid.

“Extremely expensive”

On Friday, the UN agency also said that one of its aid convoys had been targeted by fire from the Israeli army. When questioned, the Israeli army indicated that it was “verifying” the information.

A seller at the Rafah market, Muntasser al-Shaer, 30, was delighted on Friday at the arrival on his stalls, for the first time since the start of the war, of “eggs and some fruits” from from Egypt. But, for the rest, “it lacks everything” and the vegetables available “are extremely expensive”.

While Israeli military operations continue without respite, a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo according to a source close to the Palestinian movement to discuss an Egyptian plan expected to lead to a ceasefire, a thin glimmer of hope.

With three stages, the Egyptian plan provides for renewable truces, staggered releases of Palestinian hostages and prisoners and, ultimately, a cessation of hostilities.

In Cairo, the delegation of Hamas, a movement classified as terrorist by the European Union, the United States and Israel in particular, must transmit “the response of the Palestinian factions”. This “includes several observations”, in particular “on the modalities of the planned exchanges and the number of Palestinian prisoners who will be released, and on obtaining guarantees for a total Israeli military withdrawal” from Gaza, told AFP an official of the Islamist movement who requested anonymity.

“We are in contact (with the Egyptian mediators),” declared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.

“We are working to bring them all back,” he said during a meeting in Tel Aviv with relatives of hostages.

The International Court of Justice also announced Friday that South Africa accused Israel before this United Nations judicial body of engaging in “acts of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza”, allegations rejected “with disgust” by Israel.

Hamas, for its part, accused Israel of having destroyed “more than 200 historical and archaeological sites” out of the 325 in the Gaza Strip, according to them, since the start of the war.

“Complete ceasefire”

In Rafah, Aburahman al-Ghabris said he hoped for “a total ceasefire”. “The Palestinian people hope that security will be restored, in order to live in peace like other nations of the world,” he told AFP.

While attacks against Israel or its American ally in the Near and Middle East, carried out by armed groups in solidarity with Hamas, have multiplied since October 7, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “seriously concerned about to a greater extension” of the conflict, “which could have devastating consequences on the entire region”, according to its spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric.

On Friday, sirens sounded several more times in northern Israeli territory, according to the Israeli army, which said it had identified shots coming from Lebanese territory.

In the morning, the Israeli army said it had again bombed Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, near the border, from where the Shiite movement and allied groups carry out fire towards Israel.

The Islamic Jihad group has reported two deaths in its ranks in southern Lebanon.

Another front, Yemen, from where the Houthi rebels are increasing their firing towards the Red Sea to slow down international maritime traffic.