Israel receives the American national security adviser on Thursday, who is expected to repeat that the United States expects better protection of civilians, the first victims of the bombings in the Gaza Strip.
The Health Ministry of the Hamas administration, in power in Gaza since 2007, deplored the deaths of 67 people overnight across the small, overpopulated Palestinian territory.
The number of Palestinian victims now exceeds 18,600, the vast majority of them women, children and adolescents, according to the same source.
Israel promised to “destroy” Hamas after an unprecedented attack carried out on October 7 by commandos of the Islamist movement infiltrated from Gaza into southern Israel, which left around 1,200 dead, mostly civilians, according to the authorities. Some 240 people were also kidnapped and taken to Gaza by Hamas and other allied groups.
Without calling into question its support for the Israeli operation, the United States has expressed its impatience in recent days, with President Joe Biden referring to “indiscriminate bombings” and a possible “erosion” of Western support for Israel.
Israel must find a way to reduce the intensity of the strikes, suggested Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser expected Thursday and Friday in Jerusalem for talks with Prime Minister Netanyahu in particular.
He will discuss the need to carry out “more precise” strikes in order to reduce civilian casualties,” said John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council.
Appearing to echo this request, the Israeli army (IDF) indicates that it carried out “targeted interventions” on Thursday on several sites around Khan Younes, in the south of the Gaza Strip, where it discovered an arsenal and destroyed two raids. in Hamas tunnels.
Violent ground clashes were observed during the night around Deir al-Balah, east of Bani Suhaila, or around the Khan Younès camp by AFP journalists.
According to Keren Hajioff, an army spokesperson, troops found “vast weapons depots and tunnels at multiple schools.”
Israel maintains that Hamas uses civilian infrastructure to carry out attacks against its territory, which the Islamist movement denies.
The IDF also deplored the death of a soldier in the south of the Gaza Strip, bringing to 116 the death toll of Israeli fighters in the Palestinian territory.
Sirens sounded again on Thursday to warn of the threat of rockets launched by Hamas towards southern Israel.
Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reiterated on Wednesday that their country would continue its war “to the end” to destroy Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, among others.
But Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh called any post-war plan that imagines Gaza without Hamas and the “resistance movements” an “illusion.”
In a speech from Qatar where he is based, Mr. Haniyeh however said he was open to discussions on “a political path which will ensure the right of the Palestinians to an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital”.
“We wish to die”
In the Gaza Strip, subject to an Israeli blockade for 16 years and a total siege since October 9, living conditions are worsened by the rain of recent days which floods the makeshift camps in Deir el-Balah and Rafah in particular.
About 85 percent of the territory’s 2.4 million residents have been displaced, many several times since the start of the Israeli offensive.
Far south, in Rafah, tents made of pieces of wood and tarpaulins have sometimes been swept away by bad weather, while others are flooded, like that of Bilal al-Qassas, 41 years old.
Originally from Khan Younes, he sleeps outside and seems to be sinking into despair: “Now we just want to die. We don’t want food or water.”
Money does little to help the most fortunate when everything is lacking. Mohammed al-Mahdun managed to find winter clothes, for three times the normal price, but describes a “journey of indescribable suffering and humiliation”.
Violence has also intensified in the occupied West Bank, with around 270 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire and settler attacks since October 7, according to Palestinian officials.
The Palestinian Authority on Thursday spoke of ten deaths during an Israeli raid. An AFP photographer saw Israeli soldiers deployed Thursday in the Jenin camp, from where families were trying to escape for shelter.
“Shocked”
In Israel, anguish continues for the families of the 135 hostages still held captive in Gaza by Hamas and other groups.
The families of the hostages said they were “shocked” by the announcement by the director of Mossad to refuse to lead new negotiations to free the captives.
In a press release on the family forum website, they demand “an immediate explanation” from the Prime Minister and his cabinet.
Representatives of the families of American hostages were received Wednesday at the White House by President Joe Biden and the mayor of New York.