Residents of the Gaza Strip are licking their wounds on Monday, the first day of a truce between Islamic Jihad and Israel that ended three days of bombardment that left 46 Palestinians dead and significant destruction in the impoverished enclave.
Life slowly resumed its course with the reopening of the passage between the Palestinian territory under blockade and Israel, which made it possible to restart the only power plant in the enclave.
The plant had been shut down since Saturday due to lack of fuel delivered by Israel, which had closed the crossing points, notably complicating the operation of hospitals overwhelmed by the incessant flow of dozens of people injured in the bombardments.
“We welcomed the announcement of the ceasefire, and resumed work,” says Hazem Douima, who runs a shop in Gaza. “No more bloodshed!” »
The “situation is tragic and difficult,” another resident, Mohamed Alai, told AFP. “We have a lot of dead and wounded, destruction […]but Gaza heals its wounds,” he said.
Between the start of the Israeli operation on Friday and Sunday evening, 46 Palestinians, including 16 children, died and 360 were injured, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, which also reported entire buildings destroyed.
Two main Islamic Jihad military leaders in Gaza, Tayssir Al-Jabari and Khaled Mansour, were killed. The military wing of the Palestinian group confirmed on Monday the death of 12 of its men.
“Three days in fear”
In response to aerial bombardments and artillery fire launched by Israel, which said it was launching a preventive operation against Islamic Jihad in Gaza, the Palestinian group fired a thousand rockets, the vast majority having been intercepted according to the Israeli army.
The shootings from Gaza left three wounded in Israel, according to the emergency services.
On Monday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said in a televised speech that the bombardment had “dealed a devastating blow to the enemy” and that “the Islamic Jihad military high command in Gaza had been successfully targeted”.
The crossings between the Jewish state and the Gaza Strip reopened “for humanitarian needs on Monday”, said in a press release Cogat, the body of the Israeli Ministry of Defense which oversees civilian activities in the Palestinian Territories.
In Gaza, the plant has started “to generate electricity again”, said the spokesman of the electricity company, Mohammed Thabet, in the overcrowded microterritory and under Israeli blockade for more than 15 years.
Souhail al-Baouab “lived in fear for three days”. “We don’t want a war every six months and when we heard about the truce, we were so happy despite the mourning for the martyrs, because life is getting back to normal,” said the 56-year-old resident.
On Monday, families buried their dead, as in Jabalia (north), where hundreds of people attended the funerals of four young people from the same family killed in the bombardments.
In Ashkelon, in southern Israel where traffic had resumed, Eitan Casandini, sitting in a cafe, said that its inhabitants felt “very good”: “I think that the Jihad will not do anything for the next three or four years. »
“Preemptive attack”
According to Islamic Jihad, the truce agreement provides, among other things, “Egypt’s commitment to work for the release of two prisoners” from the group in the hands of Israel, in particular Bassem al-Saadi, whose arrest August 1 in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel, led to this outbreak of violence.
US President Joe Biden hailed the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire that came into effect at 11:30 p.m. Sunday (4:30 p.m. in Quebec), calling for investigations into civilian casualties.
For the head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, it is “essential to work to consolidate the ceasefire”.
The Israeli army presented its operation launched Friday as a “preventive attack”, fearing reprisals from Islamic Jihad after the arrest of Bassem al-Saadi, one of its leaders.
“Even in the future, if necessary, we will launch a preemptive attack, in order to protect the citizens of Israel,” Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Monday evening, speaking alongside Mr. Lapid.
In recent days, some 40 Islamic Jihad operatives have been arrested by Israeli forces in the West Bank.
The confrontation between Israel and Islamic Jihad is the worst since the one that pitted Israel for 11 days in May 2021 against the Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip.