2024-02-03 20:12:24
Israel is trying to turn Gazans against Hamas as the fighting enters its 120th day
Violent fighting continued in most areas of the Gaza Strip on Saturday, and the areas north and south of the Strip witnessed fierce battles and mutual attacks, while the Palestinian Authority warned of the catastrophic repercussions of a possible Israeli attack on the city of Rafah, in the far south, and considered it tantamount to “genocide of about 1.5 million Palestinians, or An effort to displace them.”
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it “views with extreme seriousness the statements of the Minister of the Occupying Army (Yoav Galant) and other Israeli officials that they are close to starting a new and hideous episode of genocide in Rafah and its area, which exposes the lives of more than 1.5 million Palestinians to great and real danger.”
A Palestinian boy pulling a cart containing food supplies distributed by the United Nations in Rafah on Saturday (AFP)
The Foreign Ministry accused the occupation forces of continuing to commit more crimes and massacres against civilians, in all areas of the Gaza Strip from its north to its center to its south, including women, children, the sick, and the elderly, in the ugliest forms of ethnic cleansing. She said that the Israeli government is working to annihilate everything in the Gaza Strip and turn it into an uninhabitable area.
The Palestinian warning came after statements by Gallant on Thursday, in which he confirmed that the Israeli army would head to the Rafah border with Egypt, after completing its mission in Khan Yunis.
Rafah is the last stronghold of Hamas that was not entered by Israeli forces, which to this day face fierce resistance in the northern and southern regions.
A Palestinian woman on the rubble of a house destroyed by Israeli bombing in Rafah on Saturday (AFP)
An Israeli army spokesman said on Saturday that his forces in the northern and central Gaza Strip killed dozens of militants over the past 24 hours, and destroyed several platforms for launching anti-tank missiles. Military equipment, combat means, and documents belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization were found.
He added that the Israeli forces also killed Palestinian fighters in the west of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, and destroyed a Hamas combat complex that contained a tunnel opening and a warehouse for the organization’s weapons. RPG shells, grenades, military equipment and diving equipment were found.
On the other hand, the “Al-Qassam Brigades” affiliated with “Hamas” and the “Al-Quds Brigades” affiliated with “Islamic Jihad” confirmed that their fighters clashed with Israeli forces in most areas of the incursion, targeting and killing soldiers and destroying Israeli tanks and vehicles.
As the war between Israel and Hamas entered its 120th day on Saturday, the conflict this week became the longest open war Israel has waged since 1948.
The Times of Israel website saw that there is no clear end in sight to the ongoing war, with Israel insisting that even if an agreement is reached for a truce and the release of the Israeli hostages, this pause will be temporary and the war will not end until Hamas is overthrown. of authority in the sector.
Palestinians in Al-Najjar Hospital in front of the bodies of those killed in the Israeli bombing of Rafah on Saturday (AP)
The website stated that Israel is still planning to attack Rafah.
He re-published Galant’s pledges that the Israeli army would reach the “Rafah Brigade” affiliated with “Hamas” and dismantle it, just as it is currently doing with the movement’s brigades in the Khan Yunis area in southern Gaza.
Gallant said: “The Khan Yunis battalion affiliated with Hamas bragged that it would stand up to the IDF, and now it is collapsing, and I am telling you here that we are completing the mission in Khan Yunis and we will also reach Rafah and eliminate everyone who is a terrorist there who tries to harm us.” He added that the Israeli army’s operations in Khan Yunis are “progressing with impressive results,” and that the matter is “much more difficult for Hamas.”
He continued: “They do not have weapons, they do not have ammunition, they do not have the ability to treat the wounded, and they have 10,000 dead terrorists (all over Gaza) and 10,000 wounded who are unable to do their work.” He stressed that it was “a blow that erodes their ability.”
If the Israeli army continues its attack towards the Rafah border, this means that Israel has decided to proceed with a confrontation with Egypt, which fears that the attack on Rafah may include control of the Philadelphia border axis and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to Egypt, two issues that Egypt has warned that it will not Allow them.
As the war continued and was expected to last longer, Israel tried to turn the population in Gaza against Hamas.
Israeli planes dropped leaflets in the form of a newspaper called “Al-Waqi’a” calling on the residents of Gaza to “wake up.”
The newspaper accused Hamas of wasting the money of the residents of the Gaza Strip, and said: “They burned the people’s money on tunnels and weapons.”
She added: “They destroyed everything good, they beat you and tortured you, they left your families on the streets, and they are hiding in the tunnels… Are you silent? All this is just a drop in the ocean. Your future is in your hands.”
The residents of Gaza are living in harsh and unprecedented conditions in the war, which has killed them, demolished their homes, displaced them, and left them vulnerable to major famine.
The World Bank said: “About 45 percent of the residential buildings in the Gaza Strip were completely destroyed, meaning that nearly a million people completely lost their homes in the Strip.”
According to a World Bank report, 34,000 homes were completely destroyed as a result of the ongoing aggression on the Gaza Strip since October 7, out of 55,000, with a destruction rate of approximately 60 percent.
This destruction led to the killing of 27,238 Palestinians, the wounding of 66,452, and the displacement of about two million Palestinians.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced that estimates indicate that 17,000 Palestinian children in Gaza have lost their parents or been separated from their families.
“The parents of the children in the Gaza Strip were either killed, injured, or forced to move elsewhere,” UNICEF Communications Director in the Palestinian Territories, Jonathan Krekes, told reporters in Geneva, via video link from Jerusalem.
He stated that “the psychological state of Palestinian children has been severely affected, and they are showing symptoms such as excessive levels of constant anxiety and loss of appetite, they cannot sleep, and they have emotional or panic attacks every time they hear an explosion.”
He added, “These children have nothing to do with this conflict.” But they suffer in a way that no child should be exposed to. “No child, regardless of their religion, nationality, language or race, should be exposed to this level of violence that we have witnessed since October 7, 2023.”
1707004669
#Israel #announces #bombing #Hezbollah #targets #Syria #Lebanon #start #Gaza #war