“Large caliber” gunfire damaged the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza, which is surrounded by hundreds of displaced people, leaving 22 people dead and 45 injured, the organization said on Friday evening. social network
“This incident caused a massive influx of victims to the nearby Red Cross field hospital” which “received 22 dead and 45 injured,” writes the ICRC, which denounces the “numerous serious incidents” of in recent days “which endanger the lives of humanitarians and civilians.”
The Israeli army on Friday intensified its strikes on the Gaza Strip in which at least 30 Palestinians were killed according to doctors, and exchanged new cross-border fire with Lebanese Hezbollah.
The Ministry of Health of the government of the Gaza Strip, a territory ruled by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, reported 25 dead and 50 injured, accusing the Israelis of having “targeted the tents of displaced civilians in Al-Mawasi », area in the south of the Gaza Strip, near Rafah.
For his part, an Israeli army spokesperson told AFP that “an initial investigation suggests that there is no indication that a strike was carried out by the IDF (Israeli army, Editor’s note) in the Al-Mawasi Humanitarian Zone”.
“The incident is being investigated,” the spokesperson added.
According to the ICRC, the “large caliber shots landed a few meters from the office and residences of the International Committee of the Red Cross on Friday afternoon.”
“This is one of several serious security incidents that have occurred in recent days. Stray bullets have already hit ICRC structures,” the organization said.
“Firing so dangerously close to humanitarian structures, the location of which is known to parties to the conflict and which are clearly marked with the Red Cross emblem, endangers the lives of civilians and Red Cross personnel,” she also emphasizes.
The organization recalls that under international humanitarian law, parties to the conflict have the obligation to take “all possible precautions” to avoid loss of life among the civilian population, injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects, including humanitarian facilities.
On Friday, Israeli aerial and artillery bombardments intensified according to witnesses in several areas of the Palestinian territory besieged by Israel since October 9.
“It was a difficult and very violent day in Gaza City (North). So far, around 30 martyrs have been transported to Al-Ahli Hospital,” said Dr. Fadel Naïm, director of the facility.
The strikes also targeted the town of Rafah in the south where the army reported fighting with Hamas.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of May 17, only 750 people remained in Rafah, although the city was home to 1.4 million Palestinians, the vast majority of whom fled after the Israeli ground offensive launched on May 7.
In this small territory where some 2.4 million Palestinians are crowded together, “more than a million people are constantly on the move” in the hope of finding a safe place while “no place is safe,” said Dr Thanos Gargavanis, head of emergencies at WHO.
Furthermore, the government of Qatar assured Friday that it was continuing its mediation efforts in order to “bridge the gap” between Israel and Hamas and achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages retained by the Palestinian Islamist movement.
“We have continued our [mediation] efforts without interruption in recent days,” assured the Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, during a joint press conference in Madrid with the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares.
“There have been several meetings with the Hamas leadership to try to bridge the gap between the two sides and reach an agreement that results in a ceasefire and the release of the hostages,” he continued. .
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh confirmed Friday that his movement was open to examining “any document or initiative guaranteeing the foundations of the resistance position in the ceasefire negotiations,” in a statement.
In his speech, Haniyeh once again demanded “a permanent ceasefire” before considering an exchange of prisoners, specifying that “the priority is to end the criminal war against (his) people”.
On October 7, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza carried out an attack in southern Israel that killed 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data. Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 116 are still being held in Gaza, 41 of whom are dead.
In response, Israel promised to destroy Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007 and which it considers terrorist, as do the United States and the European Union.
His army launched a major offensive in Gaza that has so far left 37,431 people dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the local Hamas-led government’s Health Ministry.
The Israeli army announced the death of two soldiers, bringing to more than 310 the number of soldiers killed since ground operations in Gaza began on October 27.
Despite the humanitarian disaster in the Palestinian territory threatened by famine according to the UN, international aid cannot be transported and distributed by humanitarians due to the lack of security, according to the WHO.
A daily break announced by Israel on a southern route, and presented as a way to facilitate the entry of aid through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, had “no impact”, the WHO said. The entry of aid “has been minimal” and collecting it at Kerem Shalom is dangerous.
Mr Netanyahu said Israel was waging “a war for its existence” in Gaza and needed US weapons, amid tensions with the United States.
On Tuesday he accused the United States, Israel’s primary military supporter, of “withholding” arms deliveries.
Comments deemed “disappointing” and “offensive” by John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council, for whom “no other country does more to help Israel defend itself against the threat of Hamas”.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met with Israeli officials in Washington on Thursday, wanted to “reiterate the United States’ unwavering commitment to Israel’s security.”
Mr. Blinken also underlined “the importance of avoiding a new escalation in Lebanon”, a country located on the northern border of Israel and where Hezbollah, a very influential movement in Lebanon, has opened the front in support of Hamas, his ally, on October 8.
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, warned on Wednesday that “no place” in Israel would be spared from his movement’s missiles after the Israeli military announced that “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon” had been ” validated”.
On Friday, Hezbollah said it launched explosive drones at a military position on Israel’s northern border and carried out rocket and drone attacks against other border military targets.
In Lebanon, media reported Israeli strikes and bombings against several locations in southern Lebanon.
“The risk of the conflict spreading to the Middle East is real and must be avoided. One thoughtless move, one miscalculation, could cause a catastrophe far beyond the border, and frankly unimaginable,” warns Mr. Guterres.