In the ninth month of the war, Israel’s northern front, on the border with Lebanon, is experiencing a new outbreak of violence with intense cross-border firefights between Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, and the Israeli army.
French roadmap
French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that France, the United States and Israel would work in a “trilateral” format on a French road map to contain tensions on the Israeli-Lebanese border. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant rejected this new initiative on Friday, accusing Paris of “hostility” towards Israel, statements denounced as “inappropriate” even within Israeli diplomacy.
And the Yemeni Houthi rebels, allied to Hamas, have claimed responsibility in recent days for a series of attacks against ships in the Red Sea, which pushed Washington to “destroy” seven radars in Yemen necessary for this type of operations. In parallel with these regional developments, hopes for a short-term ceasefire in Gaza seem dashed, with the protagonists sticking to their intangible positions.
In the early hours of Saturday, witnesses reported Israeli strikes in the Palestinian territory in the grip of a major humanitarian crisis with the threat of famine and where 75% of the approximately 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced according to the UN. The al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for rocket fire into Israeli territory, very close to the Gaza Strip.
“Enough” !
“We were sitting at home and eating. Suddenly the house collapsed on us,” hit by an Israeli nighttime strike on Gaza City (north), Anwar Harz told AFP on Friday. “Enough, enough of war and destruction.” At the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah (center), members of the Hegazi family mourned the death of Eyad, 10, who they said died of malnutrition. Images show his sister holding his very emaciated body in her arms.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 8,000 children under the age of five were treated in Gaza for acute malnutrition, “including 1,600 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition.” “There have already been 32 deaths attributed to malnutrition, 28 of them among children under five,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.
And on Friday, the WHO expressed concern about the worsening health crisis in the occupied West Bank, where restrictions, violence and attacks on medical infrastructure are complicating access to care.
Jetty moved
In Gaza, the temporary American jetty which allows humanitarian aid to be transported to the Gazan population by sea will be removed in anticipation of rough seas, the American Middle East Command (Centcom) announced on Friday. This pier will be moved to the Israeli port of Ashdod, Israel. “The decision to temporarily move the pier is not taken lightly, but it is necessary” to be able to “continue to deliver aid in the future,” Centcom added, promising that it will be reinstalled “quickly “.
Israel’s primary military supporter, Washington installed this pier off the coast of Gaza in the face of severe restrictions imposed by Israel on the land delivery of aid to the violence-ravaged Palestinian territory. The war was sparked on October 7 by the attack launched by Hamas from Gaza in southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count established from official Israeli data.
Of 251 people kidnapped, 116 are still held hostage in Gaza, of whom 41 are dead, according to the army. In response, the Israeli army launched a large-scale offensive in Gaza which left 37,266 people dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.
Biden criticizes Hamas
A truce plan in Gaza announced on May 31 by American President Joe Biden, Israel’s main ally, has so far remained a dead letter, with the Israeli government and Hamas sticking to their positions. The plan provides, in a first phase, a six-week ceasefire accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas of Gaza, the release of certain hostages held in Gaza and the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Mr. Biden presented this plan as coming from Israel. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deemed it incomplete, reaffirming his government’s determination to continue the war until Hamas is defeated and all hostages are freed. Hamas sent the mediating countries a first response, which according to a source close to the discussions, contains “amendments” to the plan, including “a timetable for a permanent ceasefire and the total withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.” . Demands that Israel has always rejected.
On the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy, Mr. Biden blamed Hamas on Thursday. “I submitted a proposal approved by the Security Council, by the G7, by the Israelis, and the main obstacle at this point is Hamas refusing to sign, even though they proposed something similar.” According to a draft declaration, the G7 called on Friday for UN agencies, including that for Palestinian refugees Unrwa, to be able to work without hindrance in Gaza.