2023-12-16 03:57:23
Israel authorized the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza through one of its border crossings under pressure from the international community, and especially from its ally the United States, which asks it to reduce the intensity of the attacks and protect civilians.
The conflict between Israel and Hamas began on October 7 following the unprecedented terrorist attack by Hamas on Israeli soil, in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed. The attackers also took hundreds of hostages, many of them women, children and the elderly.
In retaliation, Israel promised to “annihilate” Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007 and considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel. More than 18,700 people have died since then in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas Health Ministry.
The same source reported “dozens of dead and wounded” in bombings in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Palestinian territory, where according to Israel leaders of the Palestinian group are located.
The neighboring town of Rafah was also attacked. “We were sleeping in our house and suddenly there was an attack, like a barrel bomb,” full of explosives, said one survivor, Bakr Abu Hajjaj. At the same time, several rockets were intercepted by the Israeli air defense over Jerusalem.
Faced with pressure to protect civilians, Israel announced that it will “temporarily” allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza through one of its crossing points, in Kerem Shalom, to decongest the Rafah crossing, on the border with Egypt.
“More than several months.” In any case, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had already warned that the war was going to last “more than several months, but we will defeat and destroy” Hamas.
Yesterday, in a visit to the troops deployed in Gaza, the head of Army intelligence, General Aharon Haliva, said: “We have several months ahead” of the offensive.
The United States, Israel’s main ally, is beginning to show signs of impatience with the high number of civilian losses in Gaza. “I want Israelis to focus on how to save civilian lives. Not that they stop persecuting Hamas, but that they be more careful,” declared President Joe Biden.
Washington wants the Israeli offensive to move to “low-intensity operations” in “the near future,” according to the White House.
But when the war ends, it would not be “correct” for Israel to occupy the Gaza Strip in the long term, estimated yesterday the White House National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, visiting Israel.
In Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told Sullivan that any attempt to “separate and isolate” Gaza from the Palestinian state was “unacceptable.”
The war also multiplied the incursions of the Israeli army into the West Bank, where more than 280 Palestinians have died since its beginning. Both the European Union and Australia, Canada, Norway, the United Kingdom and Switzerland condemned the “violence committed by extremist settlers, who terrorize Palestinian communities.”
And in East Jerusalem, a journalist from the Turkish Anadolu agency was violently attacked by Israeli police while trying to take photos of Palestinians praying. A police spokesman indicated that the officers were suspended.
“More battles.” There will be “more difficult battles in the coming days,” warned Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari.
This offensive allowed Israel to take control of several sectors in the north, before extending to the entire territory. The Israeli army said yesterday that a total of 119 soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ground offensive on October 27.
The war plunged the Gaza Strip into a serious humanitarian crisis and 1.9 million inhabitants (85% of its population) were displaced, according to the UN. Many of them had to flee several times as the fighting spread.
The UN warned of a “collapse of civil order” in the Gaza Strip, and stated that hunger and desperation were pushing the inhabitants to seize humanitarian aid, which arrives in dribs and drabs.
“Everywhere we go, people are desperate, hungry and terrified,” declared Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).
The small territory has been under a total siege by Israel since October 9.
“We have no food, no water, no shelter. Everything is scarce in Gaza,” said a desperate resident of the Jabaliya camp in the north, who did not want to give his name.
The war fueled tensions on the Israeli-Lebanese border and also in the Red Sea, where Yemen’s Houthi rebels – allies of Hamas – yesterday claimed responsibility for two attacks on ships heading to Israel.
Shipping company Maersk said it was suspending routes through the Red Sea Strait of Bab el Mandeb until further notice following one of its ships was attacked on Thursday.
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