what to remember from Saturday, December 30

The south of the Gaza Strip, where there are a large number of displaced Palestinians, but also the center of the besieged territory, continues to be the scene of intense bombardments, day and night.

The war between Israel and Hamas, which entered its 13th week on Saturday, December 30, continues without respite in the Gaza Strip, to the great despair of the Palestinian population. “exhausted” in the face of incessant bombings by the Israeli army and in the absence of any concrete prospect of a ceasefire. Here is what to remember from the 85th day of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Gaza Strip population ‘exhausted’

Since the start of the war on October 7, across the Gaza Strip, 85% of the approximately 2.4 million residents have had to flee their homes, according to the UN, and are facing a dire humanitarian situation. . Oum Louay Abou Khater, who fled his home in Khan Younès, in the south of the territory, expressed to AFP on Saturday the general feeling of despondency. “The war is enough ! We are totally exhausted.”exclaims this 49-year-old woman.

A few dozen aid trucks enter the territory under complete siege by Israel daily, via the Rafah border post with Egypt, a clearly insufficient number. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of the growing threat of the spread of infectious diseases. According to the report published on Saturday by the Hamas Ministry of Health, in power since 2007 in the Gaza Strip, 21,672 people, mostly women, adolescents and children, were killed. HASno source on site can support this assessment.

This devastating war was sparked by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israeli soil. According to an AFP count based on official Israeli data, around 250 people were kidnapped, including 129 still held hostage in Gaza. In response, Israel has vowed to destroy the Palestinian Islamist movement and is relentlessly shelling the Gaza Strip. It has also been carrying out ground operations there since the end of October, in which 170 Israeli soldiers were killed, according to the army.

Hamas tunnels destroyed

While the north of the Gaza Strip was largely destroyed during the first weeks of war, the Israeli army on Saturday published images of Hamas tunnels that it discovered, equipped according to it with electricity, ventilation and wastewater disposal systems, rest and prayer rooms. In a press release, she claimed to have exploded this underground network on Friday. Aerial images show the impressive blast of the explosion.

Discussions for a peace plan continue

International mediators, who managed to negotiate a one-week truce at the end of November which allowed the release of more than 100 hostages and the entry of limited aid into Gaza, are continuing their efforts.

A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Friday to convey “the response of the Palestinian factions” to a three-step Egyptian peace plan. This answer will be given “in the coming days”, the deputy secretary general of Islamic Jihad, an armed group fighting alongside Hamas, said in a statement on Saturday. Israel has not officially reacted to Cairo’s plan. The Israeli Prime Minister told the families of the hostages on Thursday that the country was “in touch” with the Egyptian mediators.

Tensions in the region reignited by the war

On Saturday, a Palestinian was killed in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israeli army had previously announced that it had “neutralized” a person suspected of a car-ramming attack on a military checkpoint near Hebron.

Israel’s northern border with Lebanon is the daily scene of exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah. The Lebanese movement, close to Iran and which supports Hamas, announced on Saturday that four of its fighters had been killed “on the road to Jerusalem”, term used by the formation to designate its members who have fallen since October 7. In neighboring eastern Syria, 19 fighters affiliated with Israel’s archenemy Iran were killed in airstrikes on Saturday “probably Israeli”, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH).