While the mediators – Qatar, Egypt, United States – await responses from Israel and Hamas to their latest truce proposal, the Israeli offensive triggered on October 7 by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil knows no respite in the Palestinian territory under siege and threatened with famine, according to the UN.
The main information to remember:
- Mediators – Qatar, Egypt, United States – await responses from Israel and Hamas to their latest truce proposal
- Israeli forces blew up dozens of homes and residential buildings overnight with explosives and launched a dozen airstrikes in the central Gaza Strip
- The risks of the conflict spilling over have increased with Iran’s threats against Israel, accused of a strike that destroyed its consulate in Damascus on April 1
- The United States reiterated its “unwavering support for the defense of Israel”, despite tensions between Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Dozens of airstrikes
According to the Hamas press office, Israeli forces blew up dozens of houses and residential buildings overnight with explosives in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip where the Palestinian movement took power in 2007. They also carried out dozens of airstrikes on the areas of Nousseirat, Al-Zahra, Al-Moughraqa and Al-Maghazi, also in the center of the small strip of land, he added.
Twenty-five people were killed after a raid on the Al-Tabatibi family house, in the al-Daraj neighborhood, and transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, according to the same source .
“Aerial and artillery bombardments hit Nousseirat all night. It was nothing but fire and destruction, with martyrs lying in the streets. We fled in the morning and have nowhere to go. “This is the sixth time we have been displaced. The occupation (Israel, editor’s note) has destroyed all of Gaza. Gaza has become unlivable,” Mohammad Al-Rayes, 61, told AFP.
Risks of the conflict spilling over
The risks of the conflict spilling over have increased with Iran’s threats against Israel, accused of a strike which destroyed its consulate in Damascus on April 1, killing 16 people, according to an NGO, including seven members of the Revolutionary Guards. , Iran’s ideological army.
After US President Joe Biden’s announcement on Wednesday that Iran “threatens to launch a significant attack against Israel”, an American general in charge of the Middle East, Michael Erik Kurilla, is in Israel, and the United States United States has restricted the movements in this country of its diplomatic personnel.
Threat escalation
“The level of preparation for an Iranian attack against the State of Israel” was discussed Thursday by American Defense Ministers Lloyd Austin and Israeli Yoav Gallant, according to an official Israeli statement. “Israel will not tolerate an Iranian attack on its territory,” Yoav Gallant said. “If Iran carries out an attack from its territory, Israel will respond and attack Iran,” warned the head of Israeli diplomacy, Israel Katz.
The United States reiterated its “unwavering support for the defense of Israel”, despite tensions between Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the conduct of the war against Hamas. Israel’s sworn enemy and Hamas ally, Iran threatened to “punish” Israel after the destruction of its consulate. “The evil regime made a mistake (…) it must be punished and it will be punished,” Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, repeated on Wednesday.
The White House “warned” Iran, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked his Chinese, Turkish and Saudi counterparts to dissuade Tehran from any attack against Israel. After telephone conversations with his German, Australian and British counterparts, the head of Iranian diplomacy Hossein Amir-Abdollahian spoke of the “need” for Tehran to respond to the strike against its consulate. Moscow and Berlin called for restraint and German airline Lufthansa suspended flights to and from Tehran until Saturday.
“Occupy Rafah”
On Thursday evening, hundreds of Israelis demonstrated near Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem to call on the government to continue the war. “We must occupy Rafah as quickly as possible, to emerge victorious from the war,” said one of them, Dimitri, a 42-year-old professor, in reference to the Israeli ground offensive, desired by Benjamin Netanyahu, against this city in the south of the Gaza Strip, where 1.5 million Palestinians are crowded.
“Stopping the fighting now would be a gift to our enemies,” said another, Itzik Buntzel, the father of a soldier killed in Gaza. Negotiations for a truce of several weeks associated in particular with the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel are stalling, the protagonists remaining inflexible and accusing each other of blocking them.
On Thursday, a Hamas official, Bassem Naïm, warned that locating the hostages in Gaza would require “time and security”, two conditions that a truce is likely to promote.