The war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas entered its 4th on Sundaye months without any sign of respite, the Israeli air force carrying out new deadly strikes in Gaza and the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, seeking to avoid a regional conflagration.
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after its unprecedented attack on its territory on October 7, which killed around 1,140 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP count based on the Israeli toll. Around 250 people were kidnapped, including around a hundred released during a truce at the end of November.
The Israeli offensive has left 22,835 dead in the besieged Gaza Strip, mainly civilians, according to a latest report from Hamas. The bombings destroyed entire neighborhoods, forced 85% of the population to flee and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis according to the UN.
The Israeli army carried out several airstrikes throughout the night, including at least six in Rafah, close to the Egyptian border, noted an AFP correspondent. According to the Hamas health minister in Gaza, at least 64 people were killed in these nighttime strikes.
Early Sunday, witnesses reported strikes in Khan Younes, the main city in southern Gaza and the new epicenter of fighting between soldiers and Hamas.
Still according to the Hamas ministry, two Palestinian journalists, Moustafa Thuraya, a freelance videographer working with the AFP, and Hamza Waël Dahdouh, journalist for the Al-Jazeera channel, were killed on Sunday in an Israeli strike.
In a statement, the Qatari channel condemned “the targeting and assassination” of journalists in Gaza.
And in the occupied West Bank, a raid by Israeli forces cost the lives of eight Palestinians in Jenin, according to the Palestinian Authority, and two Israelis, a policewoman and a civilian, also lost their lives.
“Total Victory”
The army, which launched its ground offensive on October 27 in the Gaza Strip, announced on Saturday that it had “completed the dismantling of the Hamas military structure in the North”, specifying that it was focusing “now in the center and the south”. of the territory.
Classified as a “terrorist group” by the United States and the European Union, Hamas took power in Gaza in 2007, two years after Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the territory, which it then subjected to a blockade for 16 years before a total siege since October 9.
Despite international pressure and calls for a ceasefire, Israel remains inflexible.
“I have a clear message to our enemies: what happened on October 7 will never happen again,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
“This is the commitment of my government and this is why our soldiers on the ground give their lives. We must continue until total victory,” he continued.
In this context, Antony Blinken, whose country is Israel’s leading political and military supporter, spoke with King Abdullah II of Jordan in Amman, at the start of a new tour of Arab countries and Israel.
According to a statement from the Royal Palace, the Hashemite ruler called on the United States to put pressure on Israel to obtain an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and warned of the “catastrophic repercussions” of a continuation of hostilities .
He also hammered home “Jordan’s total rejection of the forced displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip”, after several Israeli ministers advocated a return of Jewish settlers to Gaza.
For his part, Anthony Blinken once again reiterated the United States’ opposition to such a design, according to a press release from the American State Department.
“Endless cycle of violence”
During a visit to a World Food Program (WFP) center in Jordan, he affirmed that it was “imperative to maximize humanitarian aid in Gaza”, both in its delivery and in its distribution to the displaced.
A few hours after this visit, he landed in Doha, Qatar. The wealthy Gulf state played a key mediating role in bringing about a week-long ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages at the end of November.
A well-informed source told AFP that “negotiations between the Qataris, Israel and Hamas regarding the release of hostages in Gaza are continuing, although recent events have understandably affected the atmosphere surrounding the talks.”
Events which raise fears of an extension of the conflict to the entire region. Before his arrival in Jordan, Anthony Blinken had called for avoiding at all costs a conflagration in the region and preventing “an endless cycle of violence”, emphasizing in particular the need “to work towards lasting regional peace and to move towards establishment of a Palestinian state.
Since October 7, there have been almost daily exchanges of fire between Lebanese Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Israeli-Lebanese border. In Syria and Iraq, attacks on US military bases have also increased, while the Houthis in Yemen are disrupting global maritime traffic in the Red Sea by attacking ships there in support of the Palestinians.
Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets on Saturday at a military base in northern Israel, an attack presented as its first response to the elimination, attributed to Israel, of Hamas number two Saleh al-Arouri, killed Tuesday in a strikes in a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut.
In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli offensive has caused the displacement of 1.9 million of the approximately 2.4 million Palestinians who lack everything, to the point that the Palestinian territory has “simply become uninhabitable”, “a place of death and despair,” according to the UN.
On Sunday, the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced that it had evacuated its staff from a hospital in central Gaza.
“The situation became so dangerous that some of our team members living in the neighborhood were not even able to leave their homes due to constant threats from drones and snipers,” said Carolina Lopez, a member of MSF.