The Israeli army bombed the central to southern Gaza Strip on Friday, where it claimed to have killed dozens of “terrorists”, with Hamas authorities reporting at least 59 deaths overnight, as the 100 days of the conflict between Israel and the terrorist movement. An AFP journalist heard violent artillery fire between Rafah, at the southern tip of the Palestinian territory, and Khan Younes, the large southern city, during the night from Thursday to Friday, marked however by fewer strikes.
Information to remember:
- The Gaza Strip was bombed overnight by the Israeli army
- IDF claims to have killed dozens of “terrorists”
- Hamas authorities report at least 59 dead
- Internet and telephone completely cut off again in the Gaza Strip
- Houthis: US and British interests have become ‘legitimate targets’ after Yemen strikes
Internet and telephone completely cut off again in the Gaza Strip
Internet and telephone were completely cut off again on Friday in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian operator Paltel announced on the social network X, in the midst of the Israeli army’s offensive against Hamas in the besieged territory. “We regret to announce that all telecommunications services in the Gaza Strip have been interrupted due to the ongoing aggression. Gaza is once again cut off from the world,” the company said.
“More than 59 dead and dozens of injured taken to hospitals” in Gaza
According to Hamas, “more than 59 dead and dozens of wounded were taken to hospitals following the attacks carried out” during the night “in several sectors.” “Dozens of terrorists” were killed in Khan Younes and Maghazi, in the center, “including officers of the Nukhba unit” (“elite” in Arabic, editor’s note), said the Israeli army, which also report of a drone strike in Bureij, in the center.
In Khan Younes, “an officer from the Nukhba unit who had participated in the October 7 massacre” was killed, according to the army. At Najjer hospital in Rafah, a young man who does not give his name shows AFPTV bodies in plastic sheeting. “The women are widows, the children orphans. Does anyone care about us? Why is everyone silent?” he asks.
23,708 dead in Gaza since the start of the war
Since the start of the war, 23,708 people have been killed and nearly 60,000 others injured in the Gaza Strip, according to the latest report published Thursday by the Hamas Ministry of Health, which has governed the territory since 2007. With an average of 250 deaths per day according to his calculations, the average lethality rate of this war is “significantly higher” than that of “any other recent conflict”, “in Syria (96.5 deaths per day), in Sudan (51 .6), Iraq (50.8), Ukraine (43.9), Afghanistan (23.8) and Yemen (15.8),” denounced Oxfam.
In a press release, the NGO notes that the already catastrophic humanitarian situation of the 2.4 million inhabitants is further aggravated by the drop in temperatures. The war was sparked on October 7 by attacks by Islamist Hamas commandos, who killed some 1,140 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel.
Israel defends itself against “distorted” accusation of genocide
Israel said Friday it did not seek to destroy the Palestinian people in Gaza, defending itself from a “totally distorted” and “malicious” accusation of genocide brought against it before the highest UN court. South Africa last month urgently seized the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which sits in The Hague, arguing that Israel was violating the United Nations Convention on Genocide, signed in 1948 following the Holocaust. Pretoria wants judges to order Israel to “immediately” stop the military campaign launched in Gaza.
But according to Tal Becker, one of the Jewish state’s lawyers, Pretoria “unfortunately presented to the Court a completely distorted factual and legal picture” of the conflict. Using videos and images, Mr. Becker presented before the magistrates a picture of the horrors committed according to him during the Hamas attack. Hamas members “tortured children in front of their parents, parents in front of their children, burned people” and were guilty of rape and mutilation, he said.
Houthis: US and British interests have become ‘legitimate targets’ after Yemen strikes
US and British interests have become “legitimate targets” for the Houthis after US and UK strikes in Yemen, the Iran-backed rebels said on Friday. “All US-British interests have become legitimate targets for the Yemeni armed forces following the direct and overt aggression against the Republic of Yemen,” the Houthi Supreme Political Council said.
“The Americans and the British must not believe that they will escape punishment from our heroic armed forces,” added this high authority of the rebels, in a press release published by their official media. “The joy of the aggressors will not last long, and our hand will have the upper hand, God willing,” continued the Houthi Supreme Council.