2023-10-14 22:15:12
– Israel gives Palestinians more time to evacuate the north
Israel is not expected to launch its ground offensive in the northern Gaza Strip in the coming hours. The IDF indicated that it was giving the population more time to evacuate the area and reach the south of the territory.
Published today at 12:15 a.m.
Palestinians are fleeing the northern Gaza Strip.
AFP
Israel continued on Saturday to call on the Palestinians to evacuate the north of the Gaza Strip, giving them a little more time before a probable ground offensive, a week following the unprecedented Hamas attack, which sparked a deadly war . Israel responded to this attack carried out on October 7 by the Palestinian Islamist movement, in power in the Gaza Strip, by massively bombarding this territory, from where rockets continue to be fired by Hamas into Israeli territory.
Pending a ground offensive for which Israel said it was preparing, the army called on Friday civilians in the north of the territory – 1.1 million people out of a total of 2.4 million inhabitants – to reach the south, and urged them on Saturday not to “delay”. According to her, the center of operations of the Palestinian Islamist movement is in Gaza City (north).
But an army spokesperson said on Saturday evening that they were still giving the Palestinians time to leave for the south, and assured that the ground offensive would not start on Sunday, for humanitarian reasons. Since Friday, thousands of residents have been fleeing by all means, their possessions piled up hastily, on trailers, carts, on motorbikes, by car, through the ruins.
“It will continue”
The Israeli army also announced on Saturday evening that it had found in the Gaza Strip “bodies” of hostages kidnapped by Hamas during its attack. She said they were found during army incursions into the territory, without elaborating. Hamas earlier reported 22 hostages killed in Israeli bombings.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Israeli troops near the Gaza Strip on Saturday. “It will continue,” he told several soldiers.
The Hamas attack and the war it unleashed have stoked fears of an extension of the conflict, and of a humanitarian catastrophe for the population of Gaza, subjected to siege, deprived of water, electricity or food, and where hundreds of thousands of people have already been displaced.
At least 1,300 people, mostly civilians, including at least 130 foreign or dual nationals, have been killed in Israel since the October 7 attack. More than 2,200 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including 724 children, according to local authorities, have died in the Gaza Strip, a poor territory wedged between Israel and Egypt.
The Israeli state said it had identified at least 120 people, civilians, soldiers and foreigners, who were kidnapped during the attack by Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel. Hundreds of people remain missing, and bodies are still being identified.
“War crimes”
The leader of Hamas, Ismaïl Haniyeh, on Saturday accused Israel of “war crimes” in Gaza and said he refused the “displacement” of the Palestinians. The Palestinian movement is for its part regularly accused by Israel of using civilians as human shields. Israel announced the death of two Hamas military leaders, responsible according to the army for the October 7 attack. After announcing that it was suspending discussions on possible normalization with Israel, Saudi Arabia called for an “immediate ceasefire”.
US President Joe Biden told Netanyahu that the United States was working with the UN and countries in the Middle East “to ensure that innocent civilians have access to water, food and health care.” medical”. Earlier, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for “immediate” humanitarian access to this small strip of land, subject to an Israeli blockade for more than 15 years.
And in a telephone call to President Biden, his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, also stressed the need for “the opening of humanitarian corridors in the Gaza Strip, to provide basic products, medical supplies, electricity and fuel,” according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Tension is also high on Israel’s northern border, where the Israeli army announced on Saturday that it had killed “several terrorists” who were trying to infiltrate. The Lebanese movement Hezbollah, ally of Hamas, announced the death of one of its fighters in “Israeli strikes” or following “clashes”, and two civilians were killed in an Israeli bombardment in the south of the Lebanon, according to a local elected official.
“Errors”
At dawn on October 7, in the middle of Shabbat, the weekly Jewish rest, hundreds of Hamas fighters infiltrated Israel in vehicles and by air from Gaza. They killed more than a thousand civilians, sowing terror under a barrage of rockets during this attack on a scale not seen since the creation of Israel in 1948. Around 270 people, according to the authorities, were killed at a music festival.
The Israeli government’s national security adviser on Saturday acknowledged “errors” by the intelligence services ahead of the attacks. Families of the hostages launched an appeal for help on Saturday evening, demanding an agreement between Hamas and the Red Cross “by midnight” to urgently deliver the medicine their loved ones need to stay alive.
“Disaster”
Concern is growing for residents of the Gaza Strip, a 362 square kilometer territory subject to an Israeli land, air and sea blockade since Hamas took power there. Egypt controls the only opening not under Israeli control, the currently closed Rafah crossing.
In front of the hospital, sitting on the ground, entire families are left to their own devices, some crying, others showing frightened and shocked faces. More than 423,000 Palestinians have already left their homes, and 5,540 homes have been destroyed, according to the UN. The NGO Doctors Without Borders urged Israel on Saturday to “show humanity” in the Gaza Strip, calling it an “intolerable” situation. Palestinians trying to flee to the south of the territory through an area that the Israeli army had presented as secure were killed in Israeli strikes, witnesses and Hamas officials said on Saturday.
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