Without any sign of respite, the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas entered its fourth month on Sunday January 7. Israel vowed to destroy Hamas when it attacked its territory on October 7, causing the deaths of 1,140 people, mainly civilians, according to a count by Agence France-Presse (AFP) based on a Israeli assessment. Around 250 people were kidnapped, and around 100 of them were released during a truce at the end of November.
The Israeli offensive has left 22,835 people dead in the besieged Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas health ministry. This assessment could not be independently verified. The bombings destroyed entire neighborhoods, forced 85% of the population to flee and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis according to the UN.
Two Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza, announces Hamas
The Hamas health ministry in the Gaza Strip said Sunday that an Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinian journalists in Rafah. Moustafa Thuraya, a freelance videographer working with AFP since 2019, and Hamza Waël Dahdouh, journalist for the Al-Jazeera channel, were killed while driving. The latter had already lost his wife and two children in another Israeli strike during the first weeks of the war.
Witnesses also reported Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younes, the main city in the south of the Gaza Strip and the new epicenter of the fighting between soldiers and Hamas, with the official Palestinian agency WAFA counting numerous deaths and injuries.
And in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, a raid by Israeli forces cost the lives of six Palestinians in Jenin, according to the Palestinian Authority. An Israeli officer was killed in an ordnance explosion, police said.
After northern Gaza, Israel continues its offensive on the South
On Saturday, the army, which launched its ground offensive on October 27 in the Palestinian territory, announced that it had “completed the dismantling of Hamas’ military structure in the north”. “We are now focusing on the center and the south”said army spokesperson Daniel Hagari, specifying however that Hamas elements were still operating in the north “without structure and without commander”.
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 this territory after a thirty-eight year occupation. Israel then imposed an air, sea and land blockade on the territory from 2007, before a total siege since October 9.
Despite international pressure and calls for a ceasefire, Israel remains inflexible. “The war must not end until we have achieved [nos objectifs] » who are from“eliminate Hamas, recover the hostages and ensure that Gaza is no longer a threat to Israel”, declared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening. The same evening, Israeli demonstrators gathered in Tel Aviv called for early elections and the resignation of the government.
Antony Blinken in Jordan to avoid “an endless cycle of violence”
In this context, Antony Blinken, who began a new tour in Arab countries and Israel in Amman, called for avoiding an escalation of the conflict at all costs and preventing “an endless cycle of violence”.
Mr Blinken, whose country is Israel’s biggest political and military backer, is due to hold talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and visit a World Food Program center, following visits to Turkey and Crete. “We must ensure that the conflict does not spreadhe said Saturday evening in Crete. One of the real concerns is the border between Israel and Lebanon (…). »
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Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, 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 the number two in the political office of Hamas, Saleh Al-Arouri, killed Tuesday in a drone strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold. Since October 7, there have been almost daily exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Israeli-Lebanese border. In Syria and Iraq, attacks on US military bases have also increased since October 7, while Houthi rebels in Yemen – supported by Iran like Hamas and Hezbollah – are disrupting global maritime traffic. in the Red Sea by attacking ships there ” support “ to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Mr. Blinken also insisted on the character “imperative” to increase humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population of Gaza, “to reduce the number of civilian casualties, to work towards lasting regional peace and to move towards the establishment of a Palestinian state”.
MSF evacuates hospital in central Gaza
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, member of MSF.
The Israeli offensive has caused the displacement of 1.9 million of the approximately 2.4 million Palestinians, according to the United Nations (UN), who live in terrible conditions, lacking water, food, of medicines and care, with hospitals mostly out of service. To the point that Gaza is “simply become uninhabitable”, “a place of death and despair”lamented the UN humanitarian affairs coordinator, Martin Griffiths.