A group of foreigners and dual nationals, who left the south of the Gaza Strip on Thursday aboard two buses, arrived in Egypt via the Rafah crossing, an Egyptian official told AFP. Earlier in the day, this group of “100 travelers holding foreign nationalities” was able to leave Gaza for Egypt, according to a spokesperson for the border post on the Palestinian side, a number which was not confirmed by the Egyptian official.
Four hundred people are expected to cross the border on Thursday, according to Egyptian officials, the day after the first evacuations.
“Possible war crimes”
Successive Israeli strikes on Gaza’s largest refugee camp in response to the October 7 attacks left “dozens” dead according to Hamas, bombings that the UN has likened to possible “war crimes.” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “appalled” by the strikes on the Jabaliya camp where 116,000 refugees live in the north of the Gaza Strip, targeted by bombings on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The main information to remember:
- Successive Israeli strikes on the Jabaliya camp left “dozens” dead, according to Hamas.
- The UN considers these bombings to be possible “war crimes”.
- Rescue workers said “entire families” had been wiped out.
- The Israeli army claimed to have eliminated the head of Hamas’s anti-tank unit, Muhammad Atzar.
- The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken is due to visit Israel again on Friday.
- A group of foreigners and dual nationals, who left the south of the Gaza Strip on Thursday aboard two buses, arrived in Egypt.
AFP journalists were able to see significant destruction at the scene, where survivors were moving through the rubble in search of survivors. The Palestinian Islamist movement reported “dozens” of deaths, a figure which could not be immediately confirmed. Rescue workers said “entire families” had been wiped out.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights estimated Wednesday evening that these bombings could constitute “war crimes”, “given the high number of civilian victims and the scale of the destruction”. The Israeli army, which is waging a relentless response in Gaza in response to Hamas’ bloody attacks on October 7, claimed to have eliminated the head of Hamas’ anti-tank unit, Muhammad Atzar, in its strikes on the camp on Wednesday.
Gaza: four UN schools housing displaced people hit by bombings
The UN announced that four of its schools in the Gaza Strip housing war-displaced people were hit Thursday by bombings, blamed on Israel by the government of the Palestinian movement Hamas.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said two of the affected schools were in the refugee camps of Jabaliya and Chati (north) and two others in Boureij, further south, and that the bombings reportedly left 23 dead.
Israeli army announces it has completed “encirclement of Gaza City”
The Israeli army announced Thursday evening that it had “completed the encirclement of Gaza City”, a week after the start of its ground operation in the Palestinian territory. “Our soldiers have completed the encirclement of Gaza City, the center of the terrorist organization Hamas,” Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari announced during a situation update.
Lebanese Hezbollah claims to have attacked 19 Israeli positions simultaneously
The Lebanese movement Hezbollah claimed Thursday to have simultaneously attacked “19 Israeli positions and military sites”, on the eve of a speech by its leader which should determine whether its formation will fully engage Lebanon in the conflict between Israel and the Hamas.
In a statement, the pro-Iranian party indicated that at 1:30 p.m. GMT its fighters had attacked “at the same time 19 Zionist positions and military sites using guided missiles, shells” and other weapons, and sent at the same time time of drones attacking “the occupied Chebaa farms”.
Palestinian people ‘at grave risk of genocide’, UN experts say
UN experts, including the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, estimated Thursday that the Palestinian people “run a serious risk of genocide”, in a joint statement released in Geneva. “We remain convinced that the Palestinian people are at serious risk of genocide,” write these independent experts mandated by the Human Rights Council but who do not speak on behalf of the UN, in the midst of the war between Israel and Hamas. .
Three Palestinians and an Israeli killed in occupied West Bank
Three Palestinians and an Israeli were killed Thursday in violence in several areas of the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health and Israeli emergency services. The West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, has been plagued by an intensification of violence since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, triggered by the bloody attack on October 7 by the Islamist movement on Israeli soil.
In El-Bireh, Ramallah’s twin city, two Palestinians aged 14 and 24 were killed and two others injured when the Israeli army opened fire in clashes that broke out during an incursion it was carrying out to carry out arrests, the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry said. In Qalqilya, further north, a 19-year-old Palestinian was killed by fire from Israeli soldiers, and two others were injured, during an army incursion, according to this source. No comment on the incursions could immediately be obtained from the army.
Separately, an Israeli was killed near the settlement of Einav, in the northern West Bank, after his car came under Palestinian fire, according to the Israeli army and Magen David Adom, the Israeli emergency service. He is reservist Elhanan Klein, 29, a resident of the Einav settlement who was returning home, according to advice from Shomron, the name given by Israel to the north of the West Bank.
Hamas announces 27 dead in Israeli strike near UN school
The Health Ministry in Gaza’s Hamas government announced Thursday that at least 27 people were killed in an Israeli strike near a UN school in a refugee camp.
“The bodies of 27 martyrs have been recovered, and there are also many injured,” said ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidreh. This assessment could not be immediately verified. On images from AFPTV we can see numerous bloodied bodies lying on the ground in front of the school, in which many displaced people from the ongoing war had taken refuge.
Hamas announces 195 dead in Israeli strikes in Jabaliya Tuesday and Wednesday
Hamas announced Thursday that 195 people had been killed in two Israeli bombings Tuesday and Wednesday on the Jabaliya refugee camp, the largest in the Gaza Strip.
“The victims of the first and second massacres in Jabaliya exceed a thousand between martyrs and wounded. We recorded 195 martyrs, 120 missing under the rubble and 777 wounded,” the Hamas government press service said in a statement. This assessment could not be immediately verified.
Egypt to help evacuate “around 7,000 foreigners” via Rafah post
Egypt will help evacuate “around 7,000” foreigners and dual nationals from the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Thursday. In a meeting with foreign diplomats, Deputy Foreign Minister Ismail Khairat said Egypt was preparing “to facilitate the reception and evacuation of foreign citizens from Gaza through the Rafah crossing point” , adding that there were “around 7,000” and represented “more than 60” nationalities.
“Die or Surrender”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised “victory” against Hamas. The Islamist movement has the choice between “dying or surrendering unconditionally,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant insisted on Wednesday. “The Palestinian people deserve peace and security. Instead, they are used as human shields,” said Israeli army spokesman Richard Hecht.
Abdul Issa Massoud, a 30-year-old resident of the camp, however assured that there was “no resistance (from Hamas terrorists, editor’s note)” in the camp. “They hit a residential area full of young people and old people.” The press service of the Hamas government reported on the night of Wednesday to Thursday new “massive Israeli strikes” in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, west of Gaza City, citing an unspecified number of victims.
A first evacuation operation on Wednesday allowed 76 wounded Palestinians and 335 foreigners and dual nationals, according to an Egyptian official, to leave the territory via the Rafah border post, the only one not controlled by Israeli forces. American President Joe Biden welcomed this operation, ensuring that it had been made possible thanks to the “leading role” of the United States, with help in particular from Qatar.
But the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) stressed that “more than 20,000 injured remain in Gaza, with limited access to health care.” And “attention must not be diverted from the even greater needs” of thousands of patients “whose health is too precarious to be evacuated,” warned the World Health Organization (WHO).
Blinken expected Friday
Every day brings fears of a regional conflagration. In this context, the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken must visit Israel once again on Friday, then to Jordan, a country which recalled its ambassador to Tel Aviv on Wednesday.
Turkey and Iran, for their part, called for the convening of a major international conference. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said Wednesday that the region would not experience stability if the Palestinians did not obtain their “independence.”
According to Israeli authorities, at least 1,400 people have been killed in Israel since the start of the war, the majority civilians and most of them on the day of the Hamas attack, of a scale and violence unprecedented since the creation of the country in 1948. The Israeli army also announced the death of 332 of its soldiers, including some on the Lebanese border, under fire from Hezbollah, allied with Hamas.
In the Gaza Strip, nearly 8,800 people, including 3,648 children, have been killed since October 7 in Israeli bombardments, according to Hamas. More than 2,000 people are missing under the rubble, according to the same source. The evacuation of wounded and foreigners from Gaza on Wednesday represented a rare clearing since the start of the war.
The injured were the first to pass through the Rafah border post, before the evacuation of dual nationals and foreigners, including Americans, Italians, French, Australians and Austrians.