Up to the “complete victory”. The government and the Israeli army promised, Saturday January 6, to continue the war against Hamas, which will enter its fourth month on Sunday, until the complete dismantling of the Islamist movement, in a Gaza strip that has become a “place of death”, according to the United Nations.
During the day, the Israeli air force carried out new deadly bombings in the north and south of the enclave, while tension rose on the Israeli-Lebanese border. Lebanese Hezbollah, pro-Iranian, fired several dozen rockets towards a military base in Meron, in northern Israel, an attack presented as its first response to the elimination, attributed to Israel, of number two of Hamas, Saleh Al-Arouri, Tuesday, near Beirut. Israeli army says it struck back “a series of terrorist targets” of the Lebanese Shiite movement in southern Lebanon.
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after its unprecedented attack on October 7, 2023 on Israeli soil which left 1,140 dead, mainly civilians, according to a count by Agence France-Presse (AFP) based on the Israeli toll. . Around 250 people were kidnapped and around 100 were released during a truce observed at the end of November.
Families of Israeli hostages also gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, under the slogan “We can’t reach 100 days, bring the hostages back now!” ».
“A place of death and despair”
“The war must not stop until we achieve” all its objectives, which are “to eliminate Hamas, recover the hostages and ensure that Gaza is no longer a threat to Israel”declared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a communicated broadcast after three months of conflict.
The Israeli army shortly afterwards announced to have “completed the dismantling of the Hamas military structure in the northern Gaza Strip.” In this area, “there are still terrorists acting sporadically and without command”declared General Daniel Hagari, spokesperson for the Israeli army, but the operations are concentrated “now on the dismantling of Hamas in the center and the south”.
Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip left 22,722 people dead, mostly women, children and adolescents, and more than 58,000 injured, according to the latest report from the Hamas health ministry.
According to AFP journalists, the army also bombed Rafah during the night and morning, at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have flocked fleeing military operations further north.
The Israeli offensive has displaced 1.9 million people, or 85% of the population, according to the UN, who lack water, food, medicine and care, while hospitals are mostly out of service. The Gaza Strip is “simply become uninhabitable”It is “a place of death and despair”, lamented the UN humanitarian affairs coordinator, Martin Griffiths. According to Unicef, fighting, malnutrition and health situation threaten “more than 1.1 million children” in this small, overpopulated and impoverished territory.
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“Israel has proclaimed its goal of eradicating Hamas. There must be another way to eradicate Hamas that doesn’t cause so many deaths.”pleaded Saturday the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, visiting Lebanon.
“Avoid regional escalation”
“It is imperative to avoid regional escalation in the Middle East, it is absolutely necessary to prevent Lebanon from being drawn into a regional conflict”said Mr. Borrell during a press conference with the head of Lebanese diplomacy, Abdallah Bouhabib. “I also address Israel: no one will win from a regional conflict”he added.
This fear of a regional extension of the war also affects the United States, Israel’s ally. “We must ensure that the conflict does not spread,” underlined the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, during a stopover in Crete, before his arrival in the evening in Amman, capital of Jordan, to begin a tour of Arab countries and Israel. “One of the real concerns is the border between Israel and Lebanon and we want to do everything possible to make sure there is no escalation”he added.
In a video message addressed to the American Secretary of State, the head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, who is based in Qatar, urged him to “focus on the end” of the Israeli offensive and the “end of the occupation of all Palestinian land”.
“The future of the Gaza Strip” will be “determined by the Palestinian people and not by Israel”of which “all scenarios (…) will only lead to failure”for his part declared Saturday Hussein Al-Sheikh, a senior official of the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, in response to the paths for the post-war presented Thursday by the Israeli Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant.
This plan, which has yet to be considered by a divided government, proposes that the administration of Gaza be entrusted to “Palestinian entities” from which Hamas would be excluded.