Deadly fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas raged on Saturday in the south of the Gaza Strip, where thousands of trapped civilians survived in disastrous humanitarian conditions, in the rain and the cold.
In the devastated and besieged Palestinian territory, UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for aiding civilians, is in the sights of the Israeli authorities according to which some of its employees were involved in the bloody attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas on Israeli soil, at the origin of the war.
Israel wants to “ensure” that UNRWA no longer plays any role in Gaza after the war, declared Saturday its head of diplomacy, Israel Katz, while the Islamist movement denounced “threats” from Israel to against this agency.
Australia, Canada and Italy suspended their funding to UNRWA on Saturday, after the United States announced the day before that it would suspend all future funding.
Flooded camps
Khan Younes, the largest city in southern Gaza considered by Israel to be a Hamas stronghold, is now at the heart of the war.
Violent clashes took place in the city on Saturday, according to witnesses interviewed by AFP. The Hamas health ministry announced that 135 people were killed overnight.
The fighting is raging particularly around the city’s two main hospitals, Nasser and al-Amal, which are only operating slowly and which house sick people but also thousands of displaced people.
A few kilometers further south, tens of thousands of civilians are massed in Rafah, trapped in a very small perimeter against the closed border with Egypt. In total, around 1.7 million civilians have fled their homes since the start of the war, according to the UN.
During the night, torrential rains flooded the tent camps, adding to the distress of the displaced people who trampled in the muddy water while trying to save some belongings, according to AFP images.
“Heavy rains flood thousands of displaced people in Rafah, Khan Younes” as well as in Nouseirat, Deir el-Balah and Gaza City, further north, said Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal .
Hospitals under threat
The attack by Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel, resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count made from official Israeli figures.
In response, Israel vowed to “annihilate” Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007, and launched a vast military operation which left 26,257 dead, the vast majority women, children and adolescents, according to an updated report. Saturday from the movement’s Ministry of Health.
“Massive tank fire has been targeting the western sectors of the city, the Khan Younès refugee camp and the surroundings of the Nasser hospital since the morning”, where they caused “a power cut”, declared Saturday the Hamas government.
The “surgical capacity” of the Nasser hospital is “virtually non-existent” and the “few members of the medical staff who remained have to deal with very low stocks of medical equipment”, according to Médecins sans frontières.
“Hundreds of patients and members of health staff” from this hospital “fled. There are currently 350 patients and 5,000 displaced people remaining in the hospital,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, added on X.
“The hospital is running out of fuel, food and supplies,” he added, calling for an “immediate ceasefire.”
No “imminent” announcement
The highest court of the UN, at the request of South Africa, called on Israel on Friday to prevent any possible act of “genocide” in Gaza, an accusation deemed “scandalous” by Israel.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), which has no means to enforce its decisions, also called on Israel to take “immediate measures” to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
With the war showing no respite, Qatar, Egypt and the United States are trying to mediate to reach a new truce, which would include the release of Palestinian hostages and prisoners.
Some 250 people were kidnapped in Israel during the October 7 attack and taken to Gaza, around 100 of whom were released in late November during a truce in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. According to Israeli authorities, 132 hostages are still being held in the Gaza Strip, 28 of whom are presumed dead.
The head of the CIA, the American intelligence service, will meet “in the next few days in Paris” his Israeli and Egyptian counterparts, as well as the Qatari Prime Minister, to try to conclude a truce agreement, indicated Friday to the AFP a security source.
US President Joe Biden discussed with the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the “latest events in Israel and Gaza, including efforts to free hostages kidnapped by Hamas,” the House announced Friday Blanche, while suggesting that no “imminent” announcement was to be expected.