Israel-Hamas: what to remember on the 99th day of the conflict

On the eve of the hundred days of the deadly conflict in the Gaza Strip, the UN deplored “a stain on our common humanity” while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured that “no one” will stop Israel in its war for destroy the Hamas terrorist movement. “It has been a hundred days since this devastating war began, killing and displacing people in Gaza, following horrific attacks by Hamas and other groups against the people in Israel. It has been a hundred days of hardship and anguish for the hostages and their families,” declared the head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee aid agency, Philippe Lazzarini, from the Palestinian territory.

“Right to live in security”

In Tel Aviv, Benjamin Netanyahu insisted during a press conference: “No one will stop us, neither The Hague, nor the Axis of Evil, nor anyone else”, in particular with reference to the request of the South Africa before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of a genocidal act in the Gaza Strip. And to the chief of staff of the Israeli army to assure at the same time that his country is waging a “just” war to defend “its right to live in security”. Again on Saturday, the Gaza Strip was shelled by the Israeli army, where dozens of people were killed, according to Hamas.

Since Friday, the conflict has spread to Yemen, with American and British strikes against Houthi rebels who are attacking maritime transport in the Red Sea in “solidarity” with Gaza. A new strike hit the Yemeni port city of Hodeida on Saturday. On the ground in Gaza, Beit Hanoun (north) is nothing more than a field of ruins, gutted buildings and piles of collapsed walls, according to an AFP correspondent. Like many others who fled at the start of the war, “I returned to Beit Hanoun and found the town completely destroyed, unfit for life, without water or food”, cries Zarifa Saadat.

Israeli strikes in the south of the Gaza Strip have left more than 60 dead, mostly women and children, and dozens injured, according to the Health Ministry of Hamas, the movement which has controlled the small besieged Palestinian territory since 2007 and overcrowded. Bassam Arafa, who fled the Bureij refugee camp, in the center of the coastal strip, holds up a photo of a little girl on his phone: “this little girl, what did she do to them? She died starving, with a piece of bread in her hand.

In the center of the territory, the army said it had “eliminated armed terrorists” in a “Hamas command post”. The rain and cold, which fell on the region, make the daily survival of families, who camp in the courtyard of the hospital of Al-Nasser hospital, even more difficult. “But where to go,” laments forty-year-old Nabila Abu Zayed.

Partial return of communications

International organizations tirelessly denounce the humanitarian disaster endured by the 2.4 million Gazans, 1.9 million of whom have had to flee their homes. According to an AFP journalist, on Saturday, communications and internet services were partially restored, after having been completely cut off the day before, due to the Israeli side according to the Palestinian operator Paltel. The lack of fuel led to the shutdown of the main generator at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah (center), according to a source in the Hamas Ministry of Health.

Israel opposes the entry of fuel among humanitarian aid, citing the risk of diversion by Hamas, which it classifies as “terrorist” like the European Union and the United States. The war was triggered by the unprecedented attack by Hamas on October 7 on Israeli soil, which left around 1,140 dead, mainly civilians, according to an AFP count based on the Israeli toll.

“Continue to live”

Some 250 people were taken hostage by Hamas, including around a hundred released during a truce at the end of November. Israeli military operations since then in the Gaza Strip have killed 23,843 people, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health. In Rafah, strikes and deprivations did not prevent Afnan and Moustapha from uniting their destiny, even if the ceremony was reduced to a minimum. “We are all experiencing the same tragedy. But we must continue to live, and life must continue,” Ayman Shamlakh, uncle of the groom, told AFP.

At the same time, negotiations continue over the fate of the hostages. Their relatives held a new gathering in Tel Aviv on Saturday, around a simulation of the tunnels peppering Gaza and used by Hamas for its operations. In a video broadcast on social networks on this occasion, French President Emmanuel Macron assured: “the French nation is determined that (…) all the hostages of the terrorist attacks of October 7 are released (. ..) This is why we must resume negotiations for their release again and again.”

The war is also fueling violence on the Israeli-Lebanese border, in the occupied West Bank and in Syria and Iraq, where attacks on American bases have increased. In the West Bank, the Israeli army said it had killed three people on Friday after attacking the Jewish colony of Adora, about twenty km from Hebron. According to the Palestinian agency Wafa, they are a 19-year-old and two teenagers. In a separate incident in the northern West Bank, a 19-year-old Palestinian died after an Israeli army strike in the Tulkarem area, according to Wafa.

After two historic days of hearing, the International Court of Justice, in The Hague, in the Netherlands, must also render its decision, possibly in the coming weeks, after the accusations of “genocide” brought by South Africa. Israel rejected them as “totally distorted” and “malicious”.