Israel carried out strikes on the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, and witnesses reported explosions in the south, but the situation there was relatively calmer than on the eve of the first day of the great Muslim feast of sacrifice.
In a message to Muslims for Eid al-Adha, US President Joe Biden on Sunday defended a ceasefire plan between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, seeing it as the best way to help the victims of the “horrors” of more than eight months of war.
The first day of the Muslim holiday coincided with the announcement by the Israeli army of a pause in its operations in an area of southern Palestinian territory to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid, which Gazans desperately need. .
The Israeli army reported a break “from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. (5 a.m. to 12 p.m. Eastern time) every day and until further notice”, on a road section of around ten kilometers stretching from the Israeli crossing point of Kerem Shalom, at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, to the European hospital in Rafah, further north.
An Israeli official, however, reminded AFP on Monday that there was “no change in the policy of the Israeli army”, particularly in Rafah (south) where it launched a ground operation at the beginning of May, causing people to flee hundreds of thousands of people.
In a statement, the army said it continued to operate in Rafah and the central Gaza Strip, and was engaged in “close combat” with Palestinian fighters, several of whom were killed.
Doctors at the Baptist Hospital in the northern Gaza City reported five deaths and several wounded in two airstrikes.
Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told AFP that the Israeli army carried out two nighttime strikes on an apartment and a house, “causing martyrs, including a child and an elderly man.” , transferred to Baptiste hospital.
“The rest of the Gaza Strip is relatively calm,” he added.
Tanks fired on areas east and south of Rafah, according to local officials. Witnesses reported explosions in the city.
The center of the Palestinian territory was also targeted by an airstrike in the Boureij camp, according to residents.
“We are not in an Eid state of mind, Eid is when we return home, when the war ends […]. When every day there is a martyr, it is not Eid,” said Amer Ajour, a resident of Rafah displaced to Deir el-Balah (center).
The “tactical” and “local” pause should allow an “increase in the volume of humanitarian aid entering Gaza”, the army announced on Sunday, the day after the death of 11 soldiers in the territory, including eight in the explosion of a bomb.
This toll is one of the heaviest for the Israeli army in the Palestinian territory in a single day since the start of the war.
This broke out on October 7 when Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza in southern Israel carried out an attack which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count established from official Israeli data.
Of 251 people kidnapped, 116 are still held hostage in Gaza, of whom 41 are dead, according to the army.
In retaliation, the Israeli army launched an offensive on the Gaza Strip that has so far left 37,337 people dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.
The UN “welcomed” Israel’s “pause” announcement, but called for it to “lead to further concrete steps” to facilitate humanitarian aid deliveries.
Kerem Shalom has become the only crossing point for humanitarian aid in the south of the Gaza Strip since the army launched its ground offensive on Rafah, bordering Egypt, and took control of the post. border.
Despite international mediation efforts, hopes for a ceasefire still face conflicting demands from Israel and Hamas.
