The Gaza Strip was the bloody scene of Israeli air raids and intense fighting on Monday after threats from Hamas not to release the hostages it is holding “alive” without negotiation. During the night from Sunday to Monday, an AFP reporter reported powerful airstrikes on the town of Khan Younes, the new epicenter of the war located in the southern tip of the Gaza Strip. Hamas in Gaza reported “dozens” of deaths in nighttime raids.
Islamic Jihad, the second Palestinian armed Islamist movement, claimed that one of its members had blown up a house in an area of Gaza City in which there were Israeli soldiers who were trying to identify the mouth of an underground tunnel. The Israeli army reported rocket fire from Gaza on Monday and “fierce fighting” on Sunday in neighborhoods in the Gaza City sector and in Khan Younes, where terrorists “emerged from the tunnels”, “disposed explosives” and fire “rocket launchers”.
The main information to remember:
- Fighting continues in the Gaza Strip, particularly around the town of Khan Younes
- Hamas warned on Sunday that none of the hostages in the Gaza Strip would come out “alive” without “an exchange and negotiation”
- More than 100 Israeli soldiers dead since the start of the counter-offensive
- Gaza health system “on its knees” according to WHO boss
- Israeli strikes in Syria against “Hezbollah sites”
- The Hamas Health Ministry announced on Monday that Israeli bombardments in the Gaza Strip had killed 18,205 people since the start of the war.
Hamas Health Ministry announces new death toll of 18,205
The Hamas Health Ministry announced Monday that Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip had killed 18,205 people since the start of the war on October 7 between the Hamas terrorist movement and Israel. The Hamas government, which has controlled Gaza since 2007, estimates that 49,645 people were also injured, according to a statement from ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qodra.
Paris calls to avoid “any regional conflagration” in the Red Sea
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on Monday “to avoid any regional conflagration” after a French frigate shot down in the Red Sea two drones coming from northern Yemen, territory under the control of the Houthi rebels who threaten to disrupt this strategic maritime route in the context of the conflict between Israel and Hamas. “We condemn all attacks on freedom of navigation,” indicates the Quai d’Orsay in a press release, which ensures that it is following “very closely the evolution of the situation in the Red Sea and in the area of the Bab el Mandeb Strait.” .
Israel in a position of strength?
“I don’t want to say that we are using our full strength, but we are using significant force and we are achieving significant results,” Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said on Sunday.
The conflict was triggered after an attack of unprecedented scale carried out on October 7 by Hamas commandos infiltrated into Israel from Gaza, during which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, according to the authorities. A one-week truce at the end of November made it possible to free around a hundred of the approximately 240 hostages in the hands of Hamas and affiliated groups since the commando attack. After the truce, Israel said it wanted to impose a balance of power to its advantage on the ground to free the now 137 hostages still in Gaza.
Hamas warned on Sunday that none of the hostages in the Gaza Strip would come out “alive” without “an exchange and a negotiation, and without meeting the demands of the resistance”, declared Abou Obeida, the spokesperson for the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.
More than 100 Israeli soldiers dead since the start of the counter-offensive
In the Gaza Strip, the civilian population is forced into an increasingly cramped area and the health system threatens to “collapse” according to the WHO, while the death toll continues to rise. According to Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007, nearly 18,000 people have died in the Palestinian territory since the start of the Israeli offensive, the vast majority women and minors.
The Israeli army reported to AFP on Monday that a total of 101 soldiers had died since the start of its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. On the spot, the bombings reduced entire neighborhoods to ruins, and the population desperately tried to escape the clashes by fleeing towards the south. According to the UN, 1.9 million people have been displaced by the war, or 85% of the territory’s population. The Israeli army has asked the civilian population of Gaza to go to “safe areas” to escape the fighting.
Gaza health system “on its knees” according to WHO boss
“A unilateral declaration by an occupying power that lands without infrastructure, food, water, health care… are ‘safe zones’ does not mean that they are,” said the Operations Coordinator humanitarian aid worker for the Palestinian Territories, Lynn Hastings, whose visa was not renewed by Israel. Thousands of Gazans are fleeing however they can: by car or truck, sometimes by cart or on foot. “We move from one area to another, and there is no safe place,” laments Abu Mohamed, interviewed by AFP, now on his way to Rafah.
This town on the border with Egypt was transformed into a gigantic camp for displaced people where hundreds of tents were hastily set up with pieces of wood, plastic sheeting and sheets. According to WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the health system is “on its knees” in Gaza, and the organization has adopted a resolution calling for immediate humanitarian aid for the besieged territory. Arrivals of food, medicine and fuel in the Gaza Strip remain very insufficient according to the UN, and are unable to be transported beyond Rafah.
Israeli strikes in Syria against “Hezbollah sites”
After the failure of the UN Security Council on Friday to vote for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, with Washington blocking the resolution with its veto, the General Assembly is due to meet on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the situation in Gaza. The draft text seen by AFP on Sunday largely repeats the resolution rejected on Friday. Reporting the “catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip”, the text demands “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire” and the “immediate and unconditional” release of all hostages.
“A ceasefire at this time would only perpetuate the problem because Hamas is still alive, still alive and planning to carry out more and more October 7s,” the Hamas head told CNN. American diplomacy Antony Blinken. The war has also increased violence in the occupied West Bank, where more than 260 Palestinians have been killed by fire from Israeli soldiers or settlers since October 7 according to the Palestinian Authority, and a wider regional escalation.
Israeli aircraft carried out strikes during the night in different areas of the Damascus suburbs, according to the official Sana news agency, against “Hezbollah sites”, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. man (OSDH). Although it did not comment on the strikes near Damascus, the Israeli army said it responded to fire from Lebanon with raids on “targets” of Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, and Iran, its sworn enemy. of the Hebrew State.