Violent fighting pitted the Israeli army against Hamas on Monday in the Gaza Strip, particularly in Rafah, despite warnings from the United States against a major offensive in this overpopulated city and the risk of “anarchy” in the Palestinian territory. . AFP correspondents and witnesses report violent clashes between Israeli soldiers and Hamas members in different sectors of Gaza, as Israel prepares to celebrate the 76th anniversary of its creation, overshadowed by more than seven months of war in the Palestinian territory.
The main information:
- Violent clashes take place between Israeli soldiers and Hamas members in Gaza
- Israel prepares to celebrate 76th anniversary of its creation, despite conflict
- Healthcare system in Gaza Strip ‘hours away from collapsing’ due to lack of fuel, Hamas says
- “More than 1,000 Hamas members” are currently hospitalized in Turkey for treatment, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Monday
“More than 1,000 Hamas members” hospitalized in Türkiye, announces Erdogan
“More than 1,000 Hamas members” are currently hospitalized in Turkey for treatment, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Monday, reaffirming that he “does not consider Hamas a terrorist organization.” “So many members of Hamas are killed. The whole West is attacking them with all kinds of weapons and ammunition,” said the Turkish head of state, who spoke to the press alongside Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
“Calling Hamas (…) a terrorist organization would be cruel,” he said, recalling that Greece and Turkey “do not agree” on this “very important” issue. “On the contrary, Hamas is a resistance organization,” insisted Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who last month received the political leader of the Palestinian movement Ismail Haniyeh.
300,000 Palestinians evacuated Rafah, according to Israeli army
A little less than a week after the start of the Israeli army’s incursion into Rafah, on the Egyptian border in the south of the Gaza Strip where 1.4 million Palestinians are crowded together, the American Secretary of State , Antony Blinken, said that a major offensive in the crowded city would not achieve Israel’s goal of eliminating Hamas. AFP correspondents reported helicopter fire and bombings in eastern Rafah, a town where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is threatening to launch a major ground offensive to attack the last battalions of Hamas who are sheltering there, according to him.
Fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants has raged in recent days also in the northern Gaza Strip, where, a few months after declaring that the Hamas command structure had been dismantled, an army spokesperson Israeli government said Hamas was “trying to rebuild its military capabilities.” Last week, Israeli forces ordered the population to evacuate eastern Rafah and 300,000 Palestinians followed the calls, according to the army. These calls were renewed on Monday, according to witnesses.
But in the eyes of Antony Blinken, a vast operation in Rafah would risk creating “chaos”, “anarchy” and “enormous damage” for the civilian population “without solving the problem” of Hamas. “We have seen Hamas return to the areas that Israel liberated in the north, even to Khan Younes,” a ruined town near Rafah, he said in an interview with NBC.
“No safe place in Gaza”
On foot, aboard vehicles or tricycles, Palestinians continue to flee Rafah to try to find refuge elsewhere in the Palestinian territory. “We experienced hell for three days and the worst nights since the start of the war,” Mohammed Hamad, 24, who fled eastern Rafah, which was targeted by bombings, told AFP. Hamas’ military wing claimed responsibility for shelling Israeli soldiers and vehicles near the Rafah crossing.
“The Israeli authorities continue to issue forced displacement orders (…). This forces the residents of Rafah to flee anywhere,” the head of the UN agency wrote on the social network for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini. “Talk about safe zones is false and misleading. No place is safe in Gaza” for its approximately 2.4 million inhabitants, he said.
By attacking Rafah, the Israeli Prime Minister wants to “derail” talks on a truce and the release of hostages held in Gaza, Hamas accused on Sunday. The terrorist movement claimed to have accepted a proposal from mediators – Egypt, Qatar, United States – on a truce, but Israel responded that the accepted proposal was “far from (its) demands”.
In short
The war was triggered by the attack on October 7 by Hamas members infiltrated from Gaza in southern Israel, which left more than 1,170 dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP report based on data. Israeli officials. More than 250 people were kidnapped during the attack and 128 remain captive in Gaza, of whom 36 are believed to have died, according to the army.
In response, the army launched intense bombardments followed by a ground offensive on October 27, which ravaged Gaza, displaced the majority of the population and caused a humanitarian catastrophe with an imminent threat of famine, according to the UN, and a heavy human toll: 35,091 deaths, the majority of them civilians according to Hamas.
On the verge of “collapse”
Hamas warned on Monday that the Palestinian territory’s healthcare system was “hours away from collapse” due to lack of fuel to operate hospital generators, ambulances and personnel transport. reports the death of 272 of its soldiers since the start of the ground offensive After resounding for the first time on Sunday evening in Israel to mark the start of the annual commemorations for the soldiers who fell in the defense of the country and the victims of. attacks, sirens sounded again on Monday at 11 a.m. (8 a.m. GMT), followed by a series of ceremonies at Israel’s military cemeteries.
The festivities to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel, which are due to begin Monday evening, are overshadowed by the war in Gaza. On May 15, the Palestinians must commemorate the Nakba (the “catastrophe” in Arabic, editor’s note) which for them evokes the exodus of 760,000 people during the 1948 war after the creation of the State of Israel. .
Furthermore, the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, announced Monday that it had targeted a military position in northern Israel, bordering Lebanon. “Two anti-tank missiles” fell in this sector, injuring four soldiers, the Israeli army said.