Can words be enough to describe the reality of the Gaza Strip? After 15 months of war, and while discussions on a ceasefire, Wednesday January 15, are at “stade final”, according to Qatar, which mediates, the Palestinian enclave is today practically annihilated. Launched in response to Hamas terrorist attacks, the Israeli army's offensive has evolved, over the months, into a methodical and brutal operation of massive destruction of the territory, justified by the desire to eradicate the Islamist organization.
Let us remember that access for journalists to the Palestinian enclave remains impossible, and that the situation still relies solely on the testimonies of residents, humanitarians and the work of researchers. All describe a hell, and a landscape of ruins and desolation, which makes the reference to what existed before October 7, 2023 almost incongruous. The city of Gaza, which had nearly a million inhabitants, is thus almost entirely razed, and studies carried out using satellite images estimate that more than 75% of the buildings have been completely wiped off the map.
More generally, the Israeli army seems to have crisscrossed the territory with corridors and military bases, which now separate this 40 km long piece of land into three or four hermetic zones. A road was even built from West to East, the “Netzarim corridor”, to cut the Gaza Strip in two, and isolate the northern third of the enclave, a priority target of military operations in recent months. The vast majority of the population is crowded into the last refugee camps, in the southern part, along the sea.
In these makeshift installations, not spared by bombs, living conditions appear absolutely inhumane. Electricity is lacking, like fuel, and above all, there is no water or food, apart from the food provided by the rare humanitarian convoys authorized to circulate. Trucks have become the target of looting by gangs and militias that have emerged due to a lack of police or public services.
-The report from a reference institute estimated at the end of 2024 that the famine threshold had been crossed in places, which had never happened until now. And regarding the human toll, the Hamas Ministry of Health, the only available source, has recorded more than 46,000 dead and hundreds of thousands of injured, but this toll could be higher, according to a recent study published in The Lancet.
Faced with this dramatic present, it is difficult to imagine a tomorrow in a territory that has become unlivable. Even if the war were to end, all the basic infrastructures of a society have disappeared: no more hospitals, no more schools, no more administrations or shopping centers, in short, nothing that would allow the inhabitants to to live with dignity.
Behind the possible ceasefire agreement, several major points will need to be observed to outline the future of the region. The opening or not of the border with Egypt, where thousands of refugees could be tempted to flee. The installation or not of Israeli settlers in the enclave, supported by the most extremist movements of the coalition in power in Israel since the dismantling of the last colonies in 2005. And then the reorganization of Hamas, decimated by Israeli operations, but whose new leaders will be able to count on the fuel offered by this deadly war to recruit new fighters. “We estimate that Hamas has recruited as many new militants as it has lost since the start of the war“, affirmed, prophetically, Anthony Blinken, who is preparing to leave his post as American Secretary of State. As if to warn that the cycle of violence is undoubtedly far from ending with these negotiations.
