Ground fighting continues on Tuesday in the Gaza Strip between Hamas and the Israeli army, which is advancing “methodically” in the Palestinian territory, where the “disastrous” humanitarian situation according to the UN continues to worsen, on the 25e day of the war.
Triggered by the unprecedented bloody attack perpetrated on October 7 by the Palestinian Islamist movement in Israel, the war has already left thousands dead and threatens to set the region ablaze.
Calls for a “humanitarian truce”, in order to relieve the suffering of the 2.4 million inhabitants of Gaza, remain unanswered, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruling out any ceasefire on Monday evening.
After focusing the first phase of its response on massive bombings against the Gaza Strip, ruled by Hamas since 2007, Israel has further intensified these strikes since Friday, and gradually deployed ground troops.
Images released by the Israeli army show soldiers advancing through a landscape of devastation, amid destroyed buildings and rubble.
Army spokesman Jonathan Conricus confirmed Tuesday morning that Israeli forces were “in different parts of the northern Gaza Strip.” “We brought in heavily armored vehicles, tanks, armored combat vehicles, bulldozers,” he added, reporting some “300” military targets struck in 24 hours.
The army “has extended its ground action in the Gaza Strip, it is doing so in measured and very powerful stages, progressing methodically,” Mr. Netanyahu said Monday evening, speaking of a “third phase.”
A few hours earlier, Israeli tanks had advanced for the first time to the edge of Gaza City, some 2 km inside Palestinian territory, bombarding a highway on the ground and from the air, before turning back. .
“Ambush”
In the midst of the ruins, this progression gave rise to intense ground fighting, for which it is however impossible to provide assessments from an independent source.
“A number of terrorists were killed during the extensive ground operations,” the Israeli army said Tuesday morning.
She mentioned “several armed confrontations with terrorist cells, which fired automatic weapons and launched anti-tank missiles.”
On Monday, the Israeli army had already mentioned the death of “dozens of terrorists” and claimed to have struck “600 targets” in 24 hours, weapons depots, anti-tank missile launch positions and even Hamas hideouts, which Israel, the United States and the European Union consider it a “terrorist” organization.
“Our fighters ambushed and opened fire towards invading (Israeli) vehicles in Al-Tawam West, and targeted three other Zionist vehicles using 105 Yassine missiles,” announced for his part Tuesday the armed wing of Hamas.
Israeli strikes on Gaza continued throughout the night, according to the Palestinian Wafa agency. On the other side of the border, rocket fire warning sirens sounded in the morning, according to the Israeli army, which did not report any damage.
” Question of life or death “
In Israel, according to the authorities, more than 1,400 people have died since October 7, mainly civilians killed on the day of the Hamas attack. The Palestinian movement affirms, in a latest report on Monday, that 8,525 people, mainly civilians, have been killed in Israeli bombings since that date.
At 25e day of the war, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, subject to massive bombings and, since October 9, to a “complete siege” by Israel, continues to cause great concern. This deprives the 2.4 million inhabitants of water, food and electricity deliveries, more than half of whom have been displaced according to the UN.
On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated the number of Gazans suffering from “severe or moderate psychological disorders” at “more than 485,000”. And 1,870 people including 1,020 children are missing, and could be under the rubble, according to her.
In Rafah, tons of aid continue to pile up on the Egyptian side of the border crossing, awaiting inspection by Israel, according to a US official who requested anonymity.
Some 117 trucks have been able to enter in recent days but this “handful of convoys […] is nothing compared to the needs,” denounced the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini.
The mass delivery of aid “is a question of life and death for millions of people”, proclaimed this official, calling in vain for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”.
No new aid had crossed the border as of Tuesday morning, according to a local official. “36 trucks have been waiting to cross since yesterday,” the director of the Rafah crossing point, Hicham Adwan, told AFP, without hiding his frustration. “My feeling is that it is extremely slow […]without knowing why.
Further north, in Gaza City, near a Greek Orthodox school and cultural center hit in the night by an Israeli strike, Ahmed al-Kahlout, 50, implores. “The least they could give us is a truce, just give us three hours… We just want to live like other humans in the world, in peace,” he told the AFP.
Hospitals at risk
The situation in hospitals also worries NGOs, as thousands of civilians have taken refuge there.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported new strikes near al-Quds hospital on Tuesday. “The building is shaking and the displaced civilians and the crews at work are gripped by fear,” he wrote on X.
Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals to hide weapons or fighters, which the Islamist movement denies.
In Gaza, doctors “operate on the ground” and perform cesarean sections or “amputations without anesthesia,” Médecins du Monde (MDM) denounced on Monday. Due to a lack of drinking water, “people are drinking sea water, those on my team have diarrhea, their children will be dehydrated in a few days,” added the vice-president of the NGO, Jean-François Corty.
During its bloody attack on October 7, Hamas also kidnapped 240 people, according to Israeli authorities, whom the movement wants to exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
One of them, Ori Megidish, a soldier, was released during a ground operation, the Israeli army announced Monday. Four women were released last week by Hamas. On Monday, Israel confirmed the death of a German-Israeli woman who had been kidnapped.
The conflict has also exacerbated tensions in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where more than 120 Palestinians have been killed since October 7 by fire from Israeli soldiers and settlers, according to the local Health Ministry.
No diplomatic breakthrough is on the horizon. The UN Security Council once again exposed its deep divisions on Monday, and threats of conflagration remain.
On the Israeli-Lebanese border, where clashes are almost daily, the Israeli army said on Tuesday that it had carried out new air strikes targeting Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas and Iran.
Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed to have launched drones towards Israel. The Israeli army had previously claimed to have detected a “hostile flying device” off the coast of Eilat, on the shores of the Red Sea.