what to remember from Saturday May 18

While humanitarian aid has been virtually at a standstill for days in the Gaza Strip, “more than 300 pallets” of material have been transported via a temporary floating jetty, the Israeli army announced.

Violent fighting broke out on Saturday May 18 in the Gaza Strip, notably in Rafah, a town in the south of the Palestinian enclave. For his part, the Israeli army announced a first delivery of humanitarian aid via a temporary jetty deployed by the United States in Gaza. Here is what to remember from Friday May 17.

Heavy fighting in the north and south of the Gaza Strip

“Hundreds of terrorist infrastructures have been destroyed” in Rafah, including “ready-to-use weapons production facilities and launch sites”according to the Israeli army. UThe strike left two dead in a displaced persons camp in this town in the south of the Palestinian enclave, the city’s Kuwaiti hospital said. Witnesses reported heavy gunfire and shelling in the southeast and eastern districts of Rafah.

Furthermore, in the north of the Gaza Strip, fighting has also resumed. AFP correspondents, witnesses and doctors reported intense fighting overnight from Friday to Saturday in the Jabalia refugee camp, north of Gaza City. At the beginning of January, Israel announced that it had dismantled Hamas’s command structure in the north of the Palestinian territory, but the army affirmed Friday that the Palestinian movement controlled “totally” Jabalia upon his arrival “a few days ago”.

Some 800,000 people have fled Rafah, according to UNRWA

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees estimated on Saturday that 800,000 people had fled the fighting in Rafah since May 6 and the start of Israeli ground operations in this locality on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip. . “In response to evacuation orders asking people to flee to so-called safe zones, they mainly went to central areas [de la bande de Gaza] and to Khan Younes [dans le Sud] including in destroyed buildings”says on X Philippe Lazzarini, boss of Unrwa.

First unloading of humanitarian aid on the coast

While humanitarian aid has been virtually at a standstill for days, “more than 300 pallets” of equipment were transported for the first time on Saturday via a temporary floating jetty built by the United States, the Israeli army announced. However, the main land crossing points are closed or operating slowly due to the fighting.

The UN and humanitarian organizations repeat that only the opening of these road crossings can guarantee the necessary large-scale distributions, in a territory under siege and threatened by famine. “No aid delivery route, including the floating jetty, constitutes an alternative to routes under Palestinian supervision”believes Hamas for its part.

Israeli army announces repatriation of body of new hostage recovered in Gaza

The Israeli army announced on Saturday that it had repatriated the body of an Israeli recovered in the Gaza Strip, where he had been taken by Hamas on October 7 after being killed in the attack carried out by the Palestinian movement in the south of ‘Israel. The body of Ron Benjamin, 53, was found with those of three hostages – Shani Louk, Amit Buskila and Itzhak Gelerenter – whose repatriation of bodies had been announced on Friday, said the spokesperson for the Israeli army, the Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.