2023-12-01 06:41:54
The Israeli army has resumed fighting once morest Hamas in the Gaza Strip and accused the Palestinian group of violating the terms of the temporary truce in force for seven days.
The Israeli army resumed, this Friday, its strikes in the Gaza Strip following intense negotiations during the night for a new renewal of the truce. She accuses Hamas in particular of having violated the pause in force for a week.
The Israeli army announced that it had intercepted a rocket firenot immediately claimed, from the Gaza Strip regarding an hour before the end of the truce which was set at 7:00 a.m. local time (05:00 GMT).
In the process, witnesses told AFP of intense flights of military aircraft and drones in northwestern areas of Gaza City. A few minutes following the expiration, an AFP journalist testified to Israeli air strikes and artillery fire on this city.
The Israeli army confirmed that it had “resumed” its strikes on part of this territory, accusing Hamas of having “violated” the truce by firing towards Israeli territory. Earlier in the night, six Israelis were released by Hamas, following two others during the day, and returned to Israel, as part of exchanges with Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
As part of the resumption of fighting, the Israeli authorities have reinstated restrictions that were in force before the truce. In several areas of the country, schools can only open if they have shelter that meets standards. Also a sign of a still fragile situation, Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel in particular, claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on four Israelis on Thursday in Jerusalem.
Washington calls for protection plans to “minimize deaths”
Hamas nevertheless said ready to extend the truce in the Gaza Strip, following a call from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to continue the pause in fighting, hours before it expires on Friday.
The truce, extended twice following its entry into force on November 24, had put an end to seven weeks of devastating Israeli bombing on the besieged Palestinian territory, in retaliation for the bloody attack launched on October 7 by Hamas on Israeli soil.
This pause, negotiated by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, allowed the release of dozens of hostages held in the Gaza Strip since October 7 and three times more Palestinians detained by Israel, as well as the entry of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.
“Clearly, we want to see this process continue to move forward,” the head of American diplomacy said on Thursday. Antony Blinken, who had called for an extension of the truce, during a trip to Israel and the occupied West Bank where he met respectively with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas. In the event of a resumption of fighting, “plans for the humanitarian protection of civilians must be put in place to minimize the deaths of innocent Palestinians,” added the Secretary of State.
Hostages and prisoners
In Ofakim, in southern Israel, residents gathered on the night of Thursday to Friday to welcome one of their own, Shani Goren, 29 years old. “I love her, she is like my sister (…) No one is as kind as her. Even in captivity, she gave her food to others, this is what we learned from the testimonies of other hostages” , said a relative, Efik Cohen, on the spot.
In the process, Israel frees thirty Palestinians, women and minors detained in Israeli prisons, in accordance with the agreement with Hamas. The truce allowed the release of 80 Israeli hostageswomen and children, and 240 Palestinian prisoners. Around twenty foreigners or dual nationals, mostly Thais working in Israel, were also released outside the framework of the agreement.
“We can barely find water to drink, so I have already washed my children in the sea and now I am doing the laundry.”
The Israeli military estimated that approximately 240 people were taken hostage and taken to the Gaza Strip during the October 7 attack. This attack left around 1,200 dead in Israel, mostly civilians, according to the authorities.
In retaliation for this attack, Israel promised to “annihilate” Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, shelling the Palestinian territory and launching a ground offensive on October 27 which lasted until the start of the truce. According to the Hamas government, more than 15,000 people, including at least 6,150 children and young people under the age of 18, died in Israeli strikes.
Wash with salt water
The truce agreement had allowed to speed up the arrival of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, where long convoys of trucks entered once more Thursday from Egypt. The needs are immense in the territory already subject to an Israeli blockade since 2007 and placed since October 9 in a state of total siege by Israel.
According to the UN, 1.7 million of its 2.4 million inhabitants were displaced by the war, and more than half of the housing damaged or destroyed. Several hundred thousand civilians fled the north of the small territory, devastated by the fighting, to seek refuge in the south.
Thousands of them took advantage of the truce to return home to the north, ignoring the ban of the Israeli army which took control of several sectors there. For the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, a narrow strip of land that runs along the Mediterranean, the truce is also an opportunity to return to the seaside, to bathe, wash, do laundry or fish.
“We can barely find water to drink, so I have already washed my children in the sea and now I am doing the laundry,” explains Samia, who took refuge with her husband and five children in Deir al-Balah, in the center of the territory.
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