This Sunday, the Israeli army returned to bombing Gaza, killing dozens of people on the eve of Ramadan and in the midst of an international mobilization to send humanitarian aid to the besieged civilian population threatened with starvation.
According to Hamas authorities, at least 85 Palestinians died in the last 24 hours in more than 60 night attacks, which also hit homes in Central and South Gaza, especially in Khan Yunis. At least 13 people died when projectiles fell on tents of displaced people in the Al-Mawasi region, between Khan Yunis and Rafah, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
With the victims of the last 24 hours, the five-month toll of the Israeli offensive in Gaza is 31,045 dead, according to health authorities controlled by Hamas.
The Israeli army, whose soldiers operate in vast areas of Palestinian territory, announced that around 30 Palestinian fighters were killed in the last 24 hours in central Gaza and Khan Yunis.
Ahead of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting that begins on Monday or Tuesday, there is no sign of a truce agreement in the conflict, triggered by the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
That day, operatives from the Palestinian extremist group invaded areas in southern Israel close to the Gaza Strip and killed around 1,200 people, taking two hundred hostages, according to Israeli authorities.
The attack led Israel to declare war once morest Hamas, promising to annihilate the Islamist group that has controlled Gaza since 2007. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union.
In addition to the fatalities and colossal destruction, the war caused a human catastrophe in the small Palestinian territory.
According to the UN, 2.2 million of the 2.4 million inhabitants are threatened with hunger and 1.7 million people have been displaced from where they lived. According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, 25 people, mostly children, died from malnutrition and dehydration.
Israel has surrounded the Gaza Strip since October 9 and only allows aid to enter by land from Egypt, which keeps the border closed.
Occupied by the Israeli army from 1967 to 2005, the Gaza Strip, which has been under blockade since 2007, borders Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea.
In recent days, several Western and Arab countries have been sending packages of food and medicine to Gaza. The European Union (EU) and the United States announced, on Friday, that they were preparing a humanitarian maritime corridor from Cyprus, around 370 kilometers from Gaza.
The North American military command announced yesterday that a ship from its fleet is heading to Gaza with equipment to build a temporary port to allow aid to arrive by sea.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, hoped that the first ship with 200 tons of food might start the journey yesterday.
It remains to be seen how aid will be transported through the territory, which is bombed daily by Israel and ravaged by fighting.
The American President, Joe Biden, once more criticized, on Saturday, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is determined to continue the war to end Hamas and enter Rafah.
“He is doing more harm than good to Israel,” Biden said. Netanyahu is also being criticized in the country, where part of public opinion wants a truce agreement that would allow the release of the hostages, while Israel and Hamas accuse each other of obstructing that agreement.
On Saturday night, thousands of people demonstrated in Tel Aviv to demand Netanyahu’s resignation, with the crowd chanting “Elections! Now” and “Shame on the government”, according to AFP.
