The head of Israeli military intelligence has resigned, assuming his “responsibility” for the bloody Hamas attack, at the origin of the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the army announced on Monday.
The same day, a Gaza official said that around 200 bodies had been exhumed since Saturday from mass graves inside the Nasser hospital in Khan Younes, in the south of the territory. Asked by AFP, the Israeli army did not react immediately.
General Aharon Haliva is the first political or military figure to resign since the unprecedented attack of October 7, carried out by commandos of the Islamist movement Hamas infiltrated from Gaza.
“On October 7, 2023, Hamas carried out a deadly surprise attack against the State of Israel. […] The intelligence service under my command did not fulfill the mission entrusted to us,” wrote General Haliva, who has a 38-year military career, in his resignation letter published by the army.
This announcement comes as Israel celebrates the holiday of Pessah, Jewish Passover, among the most important in the Hebrew calendar. This celebration is marked this year by the absence of the 129 hostages held in Gaza since October 7.
Monday evening, during the traditional Seder meal, demonstrators set up a huge table, with empty chairs and plates, in front of the home of the Israeli Prime Minister. They also set fire to another table. The families of the hostages had called for a chair to be left empty around the table, a symbol of the hope of seeing the hostages return.
On Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu promised to deal “new hard blows” to Hamas, which he considers, along with the United States, Canada and the European Union, to be a terrorist organization.
“Black Day”
“I have carried that dark day with me ever since. Day after day, night after night. I will carry this terrible pain forever,” General Haliva wrote in his letter.
The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli data. In response, Israel promised to destroy Hamas and launched an offensive that has so far left 34,151 people dead, mostly civilians, according to Hamas.
On the ground, bombings and fighting continued Monday in the besieged Gaza Strip and threatened with famine.
Prime Minister Netanyahu continues to proclaim his determination to launch a ground offensive in Rafah, in the south of the territory, which he considers to be the last major bastion of Hamas.
The army maintains that some of the hostages kidnapped on October 7 are being held in Rafah. More than 250 people were kidnapped that day and 129 of them remain captive in Gaza, 34 of whom died according to Israeli officials.
But humanitarian organizations and many foreign countries, including the American ally, are opposed to this operation, fearing a bloodbath in the border town with Egypt where a million and a half Gazans, residents or displaced people, are crowded together. .
200 bodies exhumed in Khan Younes
An AFP correspondent reported intense artillery fire late Monday in Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, in the north of the Gaza Strip.
Earlier in the day, drones struck a school playground in the al-Bureij camp in the center of the territory.
“At 1:15 a.m., we suddenly saw fire, debris and destruction all around us. We started running and found the mosque destroyed,” Mousaad, a resident of this camp, told AFP.
The Israeli army announced that it had launched an operation in the center of the Gaza Strip and “continue to eliminate terrorists and dismantle terrorist infrastructures”.
In Khan Younes, a Gaza official said around 200 bodies had been exhumed in three days from mass graves inside the Nasser hospital. Like other hospital complexes in Gaza, it had previously been the subject of a raid by the Israeli army. She accuses Hamas of using hospitals as a military command center.
A Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson told AFP that several of the bodies found were decomposed, making the process of identifying victims even more complex.
A source at Civil Defense as well as another within the Hamas government, in power in Gaza since 2007, put the figure at 283 bodies.
The Israeli army withdrew from Khan Younes on April 7.
American aid
This macabre discovery comes shortly after the United States approved $13 billion in military aid for its Israeli ally.
For Hamas, Washington gave Israel the “green light” to continue “aggressing” the Palestinians.
The United States insists on the need for an immediate ceasefire associated with the release of the hostages. But the negotiations carried out through the mediating countries have stalled, with both camps accusing each other of blocking them.
In addition to the heavy human toll and destruction, the war has caused a serious humanitarian crisis, threatening the approximately 2.4 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip with famine. Met by AFP, a resident of the center of the territory, Naim al-Goaan, said he transformed a parachute filled with humanitarian aid into a makeshift shelter.
“People took help, and we salvaged the parachute to make a tent where my sister sleeps at night, while during the day we use it as a store. »
Furthermore, violence is increasing on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, between the army and Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, as well as in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces carry out almost daily raids, saying they want to fight against Palestinian armed groups.