The Israeli army carried out deadly bombings on several sectors of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the most violent having hit the town of Rafah in the south of the Palestinian territory devastated by more than eight months of war.
Even if Israeli strikes and fighting against Palestinian Hamas have decreased in intensity since Sunday’s announcement of a humanitarian pause in an area of Gaza, local civil defense announced the death of 13 Palestinians in Israeli bombings on the Nesseirat camp.
Reiterating their call for early elections in Israel, thousands of Israelis demonstrated Monday evening against the conduct of the war by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu and in favor of a ceasefire which would allow the release of the hostages still being held in Gaza.
They were kidnapped during an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 that sparked the war, with Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to destroy the Islamist movement in power in Gaza since 2007.
All night long, the sound of explosions was heard in Rafah, the target of intense artillery fire, according to an AFP correspondent on site. Clashes broke out between Palestinian fighters and soldiers in several neighborhoods.
In the center of the Palestinian territory, where some 2.4 million inhabitants are under siege by the Israeli army, 13 Palestinians were pulled from the rubble of two homes hit by Israeli strikes in the Nousseirat camp, Defense said civil.
Shells and air raids also targeted the al-Bureij refugee camp, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City, according to witnesses.
Despite the multiple efforts and pressures from the international community, including the United States, an ally of Israel, to cease hostilities, the prospect of a ceasefire seems distant, with the protagonists sticking to intangible demands.
Mr. Netanyahu wants to continue the war until the total defeat of Hamas and the release of all hostages, while the Palestinian movement demands a permanent ceasefire and a total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. A truce plan announced on May 31 by President Joe Biden has so far remained a dead letter.
Announcing a daily break “from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.” (5 a.m. to 12 p.m. Eastern Time) on Sunday until further notice to facilitate the delivery of badly needed aid to Gazans, the Israeli army has also affirmed that its operations will not cease.
The break concerns a road section of around ten kilometers going from the Kerem Shalom crossing, at the southern end of Israel, to the European Hospital in Rafah, a little further north.
The UN, while welcoming this measure, called for the removal of “all obstacles” to the delivery of aid.
Kerem Shalom has become the only crossing for humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory threatened by famine according to the UN, since the army launched its ground offensive in Rafah on May 7 and took control of the border post with the ‘Egypt.
On October 7, 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 based on official Israeli data.
Of 251 people kidnapped, 116 are still held hostage in Gaza, of whom 41 are dead, according to the army.
In response, the Israeli army launched a major offensive on the small, crowded territory of Gaza that has so far killed 37,347 people, most of them civilians, according to data from the health ministry of the Gaza government, which is run by Hamas, a movement considered a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States.
According to a senior Israeli official who requested anonymity, “dozens” of hostages held in Gaza are alive. “We can’t leave them there for long, they will die. »
” All ! NOW ! », chanted Monday evening thousands of Israelis gathered near the residence of Benjamin Netanyahu and the seat of Parliament in Jerusalem, to call for a ceasefire which would allow the release of the hostages.
The war led to the opening of a front on the Israeli-Lebanese border, where exchanges of fire intensified between Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, and the Israeli army.
Joe Biden’s special envoy, Amos Hochstein, arrived in Jerusalem on Monday to push for de-escalation with pro-Iranian Hezbollah.
“The risk of miscalculations leading to a wider conflict is very real,” warned the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.
