“The war will be long”warned Benjamin Netanyahu to his government on Sunday, December 24, paying tribute to the 154 Israeli soldiers killed since the start of the ground offensive in Gaza on October 27. “We are paying a very heavy price for the war, but we have no choice but to continue fighting”declared the Prime Minister of the Hebrew State.
The Israeli army announced at the same time that it was intensifying its operations against Hamas in the besieged south of the Gaza Strip. After fighting which caused immense destruction in the north of the Palestinian territory, it explained that it was now concentrating its main operations, in search of Hamas leaders, on the large city of Khan Younes, in the South, where There are numerous civilians who have fled the war to the north.
In the evening, she also announced in a press release having found the bodies of five Israeli hostages killed during their captivity in the Gaza Strip, in a network of tunnels located in the north of the enclave, publishing images showing a bathroom attached to an underground passage.
Five bodies of hostages found in tunnels
The press release does not provide further details on the circumstances of the death of these hostages – three soldiers and two civilians. The Israeli army spokesperson said the results of the autopsies were awaited. “We will inform the families and, then, depending on what they approve, the public”said Daniel Hagari.
Hamas released a video last week showing three of these hostages alive in what appeared to be a narrow, windowless room. “The weapons of your army killed the three”could we hear addressed to Israel, while the Palestinian group has declared in the past that some hostages kidnapped during the October 7 attack were killed in Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army also announced that it had discovered in northern Gaza on Sunday, “an arms depot adjacent to schools, a mosque and a medical center”which contained “explosive belts suitable for children, dozens of mortar shells, hundreds of grenades and intelligence equipment”.
The Hamas health ministry announced on Sunday that at least 70 people had been killed in an Israeli strike on the Maghazi refugee camp, located in the center of the Gaza Strip. When questioned, the Israeli army indicated that it ” checked “ the information.
Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said the strike destroyed “one block of inhabited houses”and that the balance sheet, already revised upwards several times, was “likely to rise” again, due to the large number of families who were there at the time of the bombing.
Also according to the Hamas health ministry, ten members of the same family were killed on Sunday in an Israeli strike on their house in the Jabaliya camp, in the north of the Gaza Strip.
“A future of hatred”
The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, a territory wedged between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean, remains disastrous: most hospitals there are out of service and in the next six weeks, the entire population risks suffering a level high levels of food insecurity, leading to famine, according to the United Nations. According to the UN, some 1.9 million people have fled their homes – or 85% of the population – many of whom have been displaced several times as the fighting has progressed.
Due to heavy Palestinian civilian losses, the United States, Israel’s historic ally, is increasingly insisting that Israel favor more targeted operations in its war against Hamas, launched on October 7 following the unprecedented attack carried out on its soil by the Islamist movement.
Despite the vote on Friday by the UN Security Council of a resolution calling for the delivery ” immediate “ And ” in large scale “ humanitarian aid, vital for the population of Gaza, had not seen a significant increase on Saturday. “In order for aid to reach those who need it, for hostages to be released, for further displacement to be avoided and, above all, for these devastating human losses to stop, a humanitarian ceasefire is the only way out »declared the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, on Sunday.
“War defies logic and humanity, and prepares for a future of more hatred and less peace”, he added. In Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of refugees are sheltering in makeshift camps, the population is rushing for food rations, which are insufficient.
Egyptian and Qatari mediators are still trying, for their part, to negotiate a new truce, after a seven-day break in fighting at the end of November, which allowed the release of 105 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners, as well as the entry into Gaza of large humanitarian aid convoys. However, both camps remain intransigent.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh visited Cairo on Wednesday as part of negotiations aimed at a new pause in fighting, which would allow the release of more Israeli hostages, after a seven-day truce that ended on 1er December.