2023-10-10 15:33:37
Israel said on Tuesday that it had found around 1,500 bodies of Hamas fighters on its soil, on the fourth day of the war triggered by an unprecedented deadly offensive by the Palestinian Islamist movement.
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The army, which has been shelling the Gaza Strip since the Hamas attack, announced on Tuesday that it had “more or less” regained control of the border with the Palestinian enclave.
Here’s what we know so far regarding this conflict:
Hamas, in power since 2007 in the Gaza Strip and sworn enemy of Israel, launched its offensive on Saturday at dawn, in the middle of Shabbat, the Jewish weekly rest, and 50 years and one day following the start of the war Israeli-Arab from 1973.
He said he fired 5,000 rockets into Israel while his fighters used explosives and bulldozers to breach the barrier separating Gaza from Israeli territory, attacking military positions and civilians in the streets.
Aboard vehicles, boats and even motorized paragliders, the fighters infiltrated urban areas of Israel like Ashkelon, Sderot and Ofakim, regarding twenty kilometers from the Gaza Strip, a poor enclave populated by 2, 3 million inhabitants.
Hamas seized Israeli military equipment and took some 150 civilians and soldiers hostage.
Its fighters notably attacked a music festival attended by hundreds of Israelis near Kibbutz Reim, close to Gaza, killing some 250 people, according to an Israeli NGO.
“What Hamas is going to experience will be difficult and terrible (…), we are going to change the Middle East,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Monday, calling for the formation of a “government of national unity “.
The Israeli army, which counted more than 3,000 Palestinian shots, launched Operation “Iron Saber” on Saturday, carrying out airstrikes and destroying buildings presented as Hamas “command centers” in Gaza.
More than 187,500 Palestinians have been displaced inside Gaza because of the strikes, according to the UN.
Israel has imposed a “total siege” on the Gaza Strip since Monday and announced that it had deployed tens of thousands of soldiers in the south of the country who fought once morest infiltrated fighters. He also strives to save Israelis taken hostage by Hamas.
Furthermore, the Israeli authorities decided to evacuate residents from around Gaza and ordered the “immediate” shutdown of the water supply to the Gaza Strip, or 10% of the territory’s annual water consumption.
More than 900 people have been killed in Israel since the offensive. On the Palestinian side, 765 people were killed, according to local authorities.
Furthermore, Israel announced Tuesday that it had found around 1,500 bodies of Hamas fighters on its soil and an NGO claimed that more than 100 people had been killed in a single kibbutz in southern Israel.
Eighteen Thais, eleven Americans, ten Nepalese, seven Argentinians, four Frenchmen, two Ukrainians, two Russians, one Cambodian, two British, one Cambodian and one Canadian were killed in the Hamas offensive, according to authorities in their countries .
Israel has acknowledged that nearly 150 Israeli civilians and soldiers were kidnapped. Many foreign nationals are missing.
Four of the hostages held by Hamas were killed in Israeli strikes, the Palestinian movement said.
Eight Palestinian journalists have also died in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip since Saturday, according to the Palestinian press union.
Hamas threatened Monday evening to execute Israeli hostages in response to strikes on the Gaza Strip.
“Every time our people are targeted without warning, it will result in the execution of one of the civilian hostages… The enemy does not understand the humanitarian and ethical language, so we will speak to them a language that They understand,” he threatened.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced that they had launched the offensive to “put an end to the crimes of the occupation”. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, annexed the eastern part of Jerusalem and has imposed a strict blockade on the Gaza Strip since 2007.
“We are on the verge of winning a great victory,” said Ismaïl Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, at the start of the offensive.
The movement called on “resistance fighters in the occupied West Bank” as well as “Arab and Muslim nations” to join its fight.
“Deeply concerned,” the United States warned Lebanese Hezbollah on Monday evening not to open a “second front” once morest Israel.
Hezbollah, Israel’s nemesis, announced the death of three of its members by Israeli bombings in southern Lebanon. He later said he had bombed two Israeli barracks.
Earlier on Monday, the “Al-Quds Brigades”, the military branch of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which claims to support Hamas, claimed responsibility for an infiltration operation into Israeli territory from Lebanon.
For its part, the Israeli army indicated that it had “killed several armed suspects who had infiltrated Israeli territory from Lebanese territory.”
The United States began sending military aid to Israel and moving its carrier strike group closer to the Mediterranean.
For its part, the UN recalled that the total siege of the Gaza Strip by Israel is “prohibited” by international humanitarian law.
The European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council pleaded on Tuesday for “sustainable financial support” to the Palestinians, following a joint meeting of their foreign ministers in Oman.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar say they are increasing contacts to put an end to the escalation.
Iran has placed itself at the forefront of supporting the Hamas offensive, while rejecting accusations of its involvement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that the conflict demonstrated the “failure” of United States policy in the Middle East, deeming the creation of a Palestinian state “necessary.”
The head of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, assured that his organization rejected violence “on both sides”. Arab foreign ministers will meet on Wednesday at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo.
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