Israeli bombings and fighting between the army and Hamas continued unabated across the Palestinian territory on Wednesday, February 21, where 118 people were killed in twenty-four hours, according to the Hamas health ministry. The situation is particularly alarming in the north of the enclave, plagued by “to chaos and violence”according to the World Food Program (WFP), which suspended the distribution of its aid in this sector on Tuesday.
According to witnesses, fighting took place on Wednesday in the south of the Gaza Strip, in Khan Younes, where soldiers are tracking down Hamas fighters in the middle of the ruins, but also in Zaytoun and Shujaiya, two sectors of the city of Gaza, in the north. The Israeli army claimed to have killed “dozens of terrorists” in Zaytoun, Tuesday, and destroyed “dozens of targets”. She declared “intensify” its operations in Khan Younes.
The war, which began on October 7, 2023, left 29,313 dead in Gaza, according to the Hamas health ministry, and more than 1,160 people on Israel’s side, according to a count by Agence France-Presse carried out from official Israeli data.
The director general of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that the situation was “inhumane”. “Gaza has become a death zone”said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Situation in Gaza “inhumane”, denounces WHO director
The director general of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that the situation “health and humanitarian” in the Gaza Strip, after more than four months of war, is “inhumane”. “What world do we live in when people can’t get food and water, or when people who can’t even walk can’t receive care? “, declared Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a regular press conference in Geneva.
According to the UN, 2.2 million people, the vast majority of the population, are threatened with famine in the Gaza Strip, besieged by Israel since the start of the war on October 7, 2023.
Humanitarian aid still insufficient
Humanitarian aid enters Gaza mainly through Rafah, but its transport to the north is made almost impossible by the destruction and fighting which isolate this region from the rest of the territory.
The Israeli authorities announced on Wednesday the entry, the day before, of 98 trucks with humanitarian aid into Gaza, while a group of international NGOs (AIDA) deplored the slowness of the inspection process and the blockage of dozens of trucks for several days at the border.
The Palestinian Red Crescent, for its part, called on Wednesday “UN agencies to step up their aid, particularly for areas in the north of the Gaza Strip, where 400,000 people are threatened with famine”.
Head of Hamas political bureau in Cairo for new truce talks
The head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismaïl Haniyeh, based in Qatar, is due to discuss Wednesday in Cairo with the head of the Egyptian intelligence services, Abbas Kamel, notably the ” first phase “ of a plan drawn up in January by the mediating countries – Qatar, the United States and Egypt – a Hamas source told AFP in Gaza.
The World Application
The Morning of the World
Every morning, find our selection of 20 articles not to be missed
Download the app
This first phase provided for a six-week truce, associated with an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and the entry into Gaza of a large quantity of humanitarian aid. The American president’s Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk, is traveling to Egypt on Wednesday and to Israel on Thursday.
Hamas is demanding a ceasefire, an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, an end to the Israeli blockade and safe shelter for the hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced by the war. Israel, for its part, affirms that its offensive will continue as long as Hamas has not been eliminated and the hostages freed.
Occupied Palestinian territories: Washington defends Israel before the ICJ
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), which sits in The Hague, is holding hearings this week on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967, with an unprecedented number of fifty-two countries called to testify. Most speakers called for Israel to end its occupation following the Six-Day War, but Washington came to its ally’s defense.
“The court should not conclude that Israel is legally obligated to immediately and unconditionally withdraw from the occupied territory”said Richard Visek, legal advisor to the US State Department. “Any movement toward Israel’s withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza requires consideration of Israel’s very real security needs”who were recalled on October 7, 2023, he continued.
The violence committed “strengthen the determination of the United States to urgently achieve definitive peace”, said Mr. Visek. But “negotiations are the path to lasting peace”he insisted.