The Israeli army increased its pressure on Tuesday against Hamas at “its breaking point”, according to it, in the Gaza Strip, where clashes are pushing the civilian population into exodus in desperate humanitarian conditions. During the night, Hamas reported violent clashes in the center of the Gaza Strip, and the Palestinian agency Wafa reported 12 dead and “dozens” injured in an air raid in Rafah.
Numerous strikes on Monday targeted the towns of Khan Younes, the new epicenter of the fighting, and Rafah, near the border with Egypt, where tens of thousands of people fleeing the violence are now massing. “Hamas is at its breaking point, the Israeli army is retaking its last bastions,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday evening in a televised address.
The main information to remember:
- Fighting continues in the Gaza Strip, particularly around the town of Khan Younes.
- “Hamas is at its breaking point, the Israeli army is retaking its last bastions,” declared the Israeli Minister of Defense.
- The situation in the Gaza Strip is “apocalyptic”, warned the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell.
- The UN and humanitarian organizations have urged Israel to let more aid into the Gaza Strip.
The toll worsens in the Palestinian enclave
“The fact that people are surrendering (…) accelerates our success and that is what we want: to move forward quickly,” army chief of staff Herzi Halevi declared in Khan Yunis, in specifying that the army was “intensifying” its operations in the south while consolidating its presence in the north. The war between Israel and Hamas, which entered its 67th day on Tuesday, was triggered by a bloody and unprecedented attack perpetrated by the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7 on Israeli soil from the Gaza Strip.
According to Israel, 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the attack, during which around 240 people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza, including 137 who remain in captivity after a truce that allowed the release of a hundred hostages. According to Hamas, more than 18,200 people died in Israeli bombings in Gaza, the vast majority women and minors. The Israeli army reported around a hundred deaths in its ranks.
Level of destruction in Gaza ‘more or less’ equal to that of Germany in 1945
The situation in the Gaza Strip is “apocalyptic”, warned Monday evening the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell, for whom the level of destruction in the Palestinian territory is “more or less, even greater” than that in Germany during the Second World War. According to the UN, more than half of the homes have been destroyed or damaged by the war in the Gaza Strip, where 1.9 million people have been displaced, or 85% of the population.
“More and more people have not eaten for a day, two days, three days… People lack everything,” said the director of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), Philippe. Lazzarini. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), the displaced in Rafah “are facing dire conditions, in overcrowded places, both inside and outside the shelters.”
“There is no hygiene, no food, no water… We do not have access to sanitary napkins; we have to use rags,” laments Samar Shalhoub, 18, on site. “We went from Gaza to Khan Yunis and then we were moved to Rafah. That night they bombed the house and destroyed it. They said Rafah would be a safe place. There is no no safe place,” Oum Mohammed al-Jabri, 56, who lost seven of his 11 children in the war, told AFP.
Aid without a ceasefire?
The UN and humanitarian organizations have urged Israel to let more aid into the Gaza Strip. Israeli authorities have said they want to control humanitarian trucks entering and leaving the territory. Monday evening, the Israeli army announced the establishment of two additional checkpoints for the inspection of trucks before their entry into Gaza through the Rafah crossing, a measure which should “double” according to it the entry of help.
This measure comes before a special meeting on Tuesday of the UN General Assembly on the humanitarian situation in Gaza after the American veto on Friday of a Security Council resolution calling for a “humanitarian ceasefire” . The Assembly, whose resolutions are not binding, could again vote on a resolution calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” and the “immediate and unconditional” release of all the hostages.
“We still do not support a ceasefire because it would leave Hamas in control of Gaza, but we absolutely support additional humanitarian pauses,” said John Kirby, a White House National Security Council spokesman. A “humanitarian pause” is the term used at the end of November to describe the week-long truce in Gaza, negotiated under the aegis of Qatar, Egypt and the United States, and which allowed the entry of more than aid and the release of Palestinian hostages and prisoners imprisoned in Israel.
Attack in the Red Sea
The war in Gaza continues to increase tensions in the region, particularly in the Red Sea, along the Lebanese-Israeli border, and even in Syria and Iraq, with two new attacks against international forces. A missile fired from areas controlled by Houthi rebels hit the Norwegian-flagged oil-chemical tanker Strinda off the coast of Yemen without causing any casualties, the US military said overnight.
The Houthis had threatened on Saturday to attack any ship in the Red Sea heading towards Israel if the population of the Gaza Strip did not receive emergency aid. And a French frigate subsequently shot down two drones coming from areas of Yemen under Houthi control. After renewed exchanges of fire Monday between Israel and Hezbollah, Benny Gantz, a member of the Israeli war cabinet, spoke with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the “increasing attacks” of the Lebanese Shiite movement and the need for Israel “to eliminate this threat”.
At the same time, the American government said it was “concerned” by reports from the Washington Post according to which Israel used American-made white phosphorus munitions during strikes in Lebanon in October.