Israel announced Thursday that it had entered the Gaza Strip with tanks, to “prepare the battlefield” for a ground offensive, on the 20th day of its war against Hamas which left more than 7,000 dead in Gaza, according to the Palestinian movement. This probable operation, mentioned numerous times since the unprecedented deadly attack by Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7, worries a large part of the international community. The latter fears a significant number of civilian victims in this small, densely populated territory where some 2.4 million inhabitants are crowded together.
The bloody attack carried out by Hamas in Israel on October 7 and the reprisals by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip have so far left more than 1,400 dead in Israel, according to the authorities, and more than 7,000, including nearly 3,000 children in the Palestinian territory, according to Hamas. According to a new report from the Quai d’Orsay, 35 French people are among the victims of this attack.
The main information:
– According to a new report from the Quai d’Orsay, 35 French people died in the Hamas attack
– Israel carried out “targeted operations” with tanks in the north of the Gaza Strip overnight from Wednesday to Thursday
– Emmanuel Macron will organize “in the coming weeks” a tribute for the French victims of the unprecedented attack carried out by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Israel.
– Nine other French nationals are considered “hostages” in the hands of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Gaza: EU leaders call for ‘humanitarian corridors’ and ‘breaks’
European leaders, meeting at a summit in Brussels, expressed their “concern” on Thursday regarding the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and called for the establishment of “humanitarian corridors” and “breaks” to respond to humanitarian needs.
In a 19-point declaration, the Twenty-Seven also underline that the EU is in favor of the organization of an “international peace conference” which would take place “soon”.
35 French people died in the Hamas attack
35 French people were killed in attacks by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on October 7 against Israel, and nine are missing, according to a new report Thursday from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “France deplores the tragic death of new French nationals, which brings to 35 the toll of French victims in the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas against Israel,” indicates the Quai press release, specifying that of the nine missing, “some are Hamas hostages.
Hamas “estimates” that “nearly 50” Israeli hostages have been killed since the start of Israeli raids
The military wing of Palestinian Hamas “estimated” Thursday that “nearly fifty” Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip had been killed by Israeli strikes since the start of the war on October 7.
“The Qassam Brigades estimate that the number of Zionist hostages who have been killed in the Gaza Strip due to Zionist bombings and massacres has reached nearly fifty,” the Palestinian Islamist group said in a message on Telegram, a claim which could not be independently verified.
A targeted raid by the Israeli army during the night from Wednesday to Thursday
“During the night, the army carried out a targeted raid with tanks in the northern Gaza Strip, as part of its preparations for the next stages of the fight,” said a statement from the military spokesperson on Thursday morning. . The soldiers “left the area” at the end of the operation, he assured. Black and white images released by the Israeli army show armored vehicles and bulldozers passing through a protective fence, similar to the one separating Israel from the Gaza Strip.
According to the Israeli army, during their nighttime incursion, the soldiers “located and struck numerous terrorists, their infrastructure and anti-tank rocket launch positions, and operated to prepare the battlefield” before a ground offensive confirmed the day before by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And as a prelude to this operation, the Israeli army has been relentlessly bombing the Gaza Strip since October 7, also subject to “a total siege” which is depriving it of water, food and electricity. Satellite images released Thursday show the extent of the destruction in Gaza where entire neighborhoods were razed by bombs.
“We are safe from nothing”: the testimony of a Frenchman stuck in Gaza
Thursday on the show Pascal Praud and you, every day between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Europe 1, a French listener from Gaza, who returned last September, explained that he was blocked and that he feared the bombings. “We are safe from anything, it could happen at any time,” he said at Pascal Praud’s microphone. Listen to the full testimony again here.
A land offensive would be an “error”, Macron said
A ground offensive promises to be difficult in this very densely populated territory, riddled with tunnels where Hamas hides weapons and members, and in the presence of more than 200 hostages. French President Emmanuel Macron ruled on Wednesday in Cairo that such an operation, if it were to be “massive”, would be an “error”. His Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, called for avoiding a “land invasion of Gaza”.
In the United States, President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that Israel had “the right” and “the responsibility” to defend itself, but that it must do everything possible “to protect innocent civilians.” During his visit to Israel on October 18, Joe Biden also warned his ally not to repeat the “mistakes” made by the United States in the aftermath of September 11.
“When the crisis is behind us, there must be a vision of what comes after. And for us, this must go through a two-state solution”, a Palestinian and an Israeli, the American president said on Wednesday. . Emmanuel Macron also called on Wednesday from Cairo to “finally achieve the two-state solution”. Joe Biden, however, assured that he had not “demanded” that Benjamin Netanyahu delay his possible offensive until the release of the hostages in the hands of Hamas.
Four female hostages have been released since Friday
Some 224 hostages were taken to Gaza by terrorists from the Palestinian Islamist movement, classified as terrorist by the United States, Israel and the European Union, according to the latest figures from the Israeli authorities made public Thursday. Four women have been released since Friday evening. “We are sick with anxiety, sick with anxiety,” repeats in Paris, France, Moran Betzer Tayar, a 54-year-old woman whose nephew and his wife were taken hostage at Kibbutz Nirim, urging Hamas to ” show humanity.”
For the United States, a ceasefire “at this stage would only benefit Hamas.” The White House instead suggested “pauses” to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid. Meeting at a summit on Thursday in Brussels, the 27 countries of the European Union will debate this call for a humanitarian pause. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Tuesday for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” and condemned the “clear violations of humanitarian law” in the Palestinian territory, provoking the anger of Israel.
Only a few dozen trucks of humanitarian aid have arrived in Gaza since October 21 via Egypt, while at least a hundred trucks per day would be needed, estimates the UN. The latter urgently calls for the delivery of fuel to run generators in hospitals, pump and purify water. Which Israel excludes, saying it would benefit Hamas. According to Mohammed Abu Selmeya, the director of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the largest in the territory, “ten hospitals are already out of service” and “more than 90% of medicines and products are exhausted.”
“No safe place”
The Israeli Prime Minister recognized on Wednesday that he too would have to “be held accountable” after this attack which stunned the country, but “later” after the war. Since October 15, the Israeli army has called on the population of the northern Gaza Strip, where the bombardments are most intense, to evacuate to the south, and at least 1.4 million Palestinians have fled their homes since the beginning. of the war, according to the UN.
However, strikes also continue to affect the south, where several hundred thousand civilians are massed. On Thursday, a teenage girl was pulled out from the rubble of a building in Khan Younes, in the south of the Gaza Strip. She was taken to hospital after 35 hours under the rubble. “No place is safe in Gaza,” said the UN humanitarian affairs coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Lynn Hastings, on Thursday.
“I survived five wars and a million escalations,” says Jawaher al-Aqraa, an English teacher who took refuge with her brother in the Deir el-Balah camp (center). “But with this war, I feel like I’m just waiting for my turn to die.” While part of the international community fears a regional conflagration, the Israeli army announced Wednesday evening strikes against Lebanon in response to a surface-to-air missile attack. Earlier, it said it had struck military infrastructure in Syria after shots fired towards its territory. Tension is also very high in the occupied West Bank where more than a hundred Palestinians have been killed in violence since October 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.