Despite calls for humanitarian pauses, Israel continues intensive bombardment of Gaza Strip

2023-10-28 07:44:00

The barbarity of Hamas is followed by the ferocity of the Israeli government towards the civilian population of Gaza. The Health Ministry of the Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas said that 7,326 Palestinians, most of them civilians, had died in a three-week bombing campaign carried out by Israel in this laminated enclave. An unprecedented bombing campaign razing entire residential buildings in Gaza in retaliation for the massacres perpetrated by the Islamic terrorist movement (more than 1,400 dead, mostly civilians, according to the Israeli authorities).

The United Nations General Assembly on Friday called for an immediate humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas and requested that aid be delivered to the Gaza Strip. A non-binding resolution presented by Arab states was adopted with 120 votes in favor, 45 abstentions and 14 votes once morest, with Israel and the United States notably voting once morest the text.

Israel opposed to any humanitarian pause

Predictably, Israel has rejected calls for a fair respite for Gaza’s civilian population. “Israel is opposed to a humanitarian pause or ceasefire at this stage”Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said Friday, while a senior Israeli official said calls for a pause in fighting seemed “bad faith”. Despite the UN resolution, intensive Israeli bombardments continued throughout the night and were continuing on Saturday morning from Israeli fighter jets, artillery and the sea, according to AFP journalists positioned in the area.

Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari announced earlier this evening that Israeli air and ground forces are to expand their operations in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army announced on Saturday that it had “hit 150 underground targets” in the northern Gaza Strip during a night of bombing. In addition, communications and the internet have been cut since Friday. The Palestinian Red Crescent and several UN agencies said they had lost contact with their teams in Gaza. The human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned on Saturday that the cut risks “serve as a cover for mass atrocities”. No toll has been communicated but medical sources in the Palestinian territory told an AFP journalist they feared a large number of victims and significant damage following these bombings.

SAccording to Israel, any pause in fighting benefits Hamas which, according to it, diverts humanitarian aid for the benefit of its fighters. “A ceasefire means giving Hamas time to rearm so that it can massacre us once more”, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said on Thursday. A Hamas official said earlier Friday that the group was prepared to release Israeli civilian hostages on the condition that a ceasefire agreement was reached. The families of the hostages, mostly Israeli, held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip expressed their ” worry “ and demanded explanations from the government following the army’s intense bombardment of the Palestinian territory.

The hesitant West

Major powers this week called on Israel to allow pauses in order to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip and free hostages held in the enclave by Hamas. The question has exposed divisions between Israel and its supporters, in particular the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom or other G7 member countries such as Japan. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez thus invoked on Friday “a legitimate doubt” regarding Israel’s respect for international law in its response, deploring the “unacceptable” images of the suffering of children in Gaza.

For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron notably called on Friday for a “humanitarian truce” between Israel and Hamas to protect the civilian population of Gaza, believing that the Israeli response must “better target” THE “terrorists”in a position a notch above the laborious compromise worked out by the European Union. “A humanitarian truce is useful today”to prevent “people are totally unjustified victims of this legitimate fight once morest terrorism”negotiate the release of the hostages, and “solve the problem of hospitals which is very complicated”, said Emmanuel Macron. And to hammer home that “the complete blockade, the indiscriminate bombardment and even more the prospect of a massive land operation are not likely to adequately protect civilian populations”he insisted.