(Gaza) A heavy price for civilians on both sides
On both sides, the conflict between Israel and Hamas has already left between 2,000 and 3,000 dead, around 7,000 injured, around a hundred hostages and 263,000 Palestinians displaced due to a siege condemned Tuesday by the UN.
PHOTO SAID KHATIB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A grieving Palestinian woman stands near a truck carrying the bodies of victims of Israeli strikes in Khan Yunis.
A rare breakthrough in the escalation of terror, Israeli forces announced that they had found 30 people who had been missing in a kibbutz in the south of the country. “Through the great darkness, we saw a little bit of light [lundi soir] said Yossi Graiber, an officer with the Home Front Command.
Le premier ministre d’Israël, Benyamin Nétanyahou, a qualifié l’offensive massive lancée samedi par le Hamas contre Israël de « sauvagerie jamais vue depuis la Shoah », promettant que son pays allait « vaincre [le groupe palestinien] with force, enormous force.”
PHOTO YOUSEF MASOUD, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Palestinians note the damage caused by Israeli strikes, which fell on Palestinian territory by the thousands.
Israel’s total siege of Gaza continues, denounced by the UN. “The imposition of sieges that endanger the lives of civilians by depriving them of goods essential to their survival is prohibited by international humanitarian law,” said the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, in a statement. communicated.
The World Health Organization called in vain on Tuesday for the establishment of humanitarian corridors “to deliver essential medical supplies to the populations” of the Gaza Strip.
Hospitals overwhelmed, morgues overflowing
On the Gaza side, the only border to flee to Egypt was blocked on Tuesday. Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals “which treat thousands of wounded will have to do so without being able to count on a reliable supply of electricity,” said Mahmoud Shalabi, one of the leaders of the humanitarian organization Medical Aid for Palestinians.
International media relay images of overflowing morgues, Israeli soldiers opening body bags of victims of Saturday’s raid for identification purposes, mourners burying their dead, children running to escape the bombs and soldiers collapsed. On the faces, in Israel as in the Gaza Strip, panic and distress.
Returning to Saturday’s attacks, Moti Bukjin, spokesperson for the NGO Zaka, which is involved in collecting bodies in Israel, explained that the Hamas men were “shooting at everyone”. “They murdered children, babies, elderly people, everyone in cold blood. »
In major Israeli cities, daily life, since Saturday, has been made up of sirens and runs to shelters. As reported by Agence France Presse, life seems to be at a standstill. Tables and chairs remain empty in many restaurants in a Tel Aviv market. Jerusalem “is a ghost town,” summarizes Mary Bahba, a Palestinian forty-year-old.
A growing conflict
“There are moments in existence […] where pure evil strikes the world. The people of Israel have just experienced one of those moments, at the blood-stained hands of the terrorist organization Hamas,” US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday.
He also indicated that he was ready to send “additional resources”, particularly in support of the “Iron Dome”, Israel’s anti-missile defense system.
Israel has mobilized 300,000 reservists and deployed tens of thousands of troops around Gaza and on its northern border with Lebanon.
And already, the conflict is spreading. Salvos of rockets, claimed by Hamas, were once again fired from southern Lebanon towards Israel, provoking a response from the Hebrew state, which said it had targeted pro-Iranian Hezbollah positions there.
Israel also announced that it had fired shells into Syria from the Golan Heights, also in response to projectile fire in this territory that Israel has occupied since 1967.
According to New York Times On site, hospitals, schools and mosques were reportedly hit in the Gaza Strip by Israeli strikes, without notice being given to civilians to take shelter as Israel did during previous conflicts.
And in any case, the Palestinians said New York Timesthere is no place to take refuge.
Only losers, except Iran
On Saturday, Hamas demonstrated “unprecedented firepower, and Israel’s response is more violent than ever.” The outbreak of violence is difficult to describe,” summarizes Julia Grignon, associate professor at the faculty of law at Laval University, where she teaches international humanitarian law in particular, in an interview.
Thomas Juneau, associate professor at the University of Ottawa and specialist in the Middle East, notes that Saturday’s massacre “is one of the worst terrorist attacks in history. “Israel’s response will reach a level of destruction that we have never seen.”
Rare certainty, he says, Palestinians and Israelis will all lose. “The Palestinian cause – not that of Hamas, but that of the emancipation and dignity of the Palestinian population – will not advance. And Israeli society is plunged into a crisis of confidence, into a deep psychological shock. »
The only winner in all this “is Iran, which positions itself in the region as champion of resistance against Israel and the United States.”
While many questions remain about what happened, “that of Iran’s involvement is not up for debate,” said Mr. Juneau.
Hamas would never have been able to carry out such a massacre on Saturday without Iran, which supports it “with missiles, rockets, money, intelligence, etc..” “.
And international law?
There were massacres on Saturday and there is currently a siege in Gaza by Israel. As in any armed conflict, there are violations of international law, observes Professor Julia Grignon.
Siege as a method of war “is not as such prohibited in the Geneva Conventions,” she continues. On the other hand, all the consequences produced by the siege produce violations of international humanitarian law. Because electricity cuts, for example, are not only suffered by Hamas, but by all Palestinian civilians, they affect hospitals…”.
Mme Grignon recalls that “we must distinguish between Hamas and Palestinian civilians, who must be protected.”
But there is no international law police capable of acting immediately and, at best, it is only years later that international justice manifests itself.
Note that the most recent Palestinian elections date back to 2006. Hamas won them, explains Professor Thomas Juneau, because it appeared to be a lesser evil “compared to Fatah, a corrupt, incompetent party and considered illegitimate by a big majority of Palestinians.
In 2006, some voters actually supported Hamas, but “many did so by holding their noses” by default.
With Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press