Raids continued in the besieged Palestinian enclave after Israel announced it had killed the man considered the architect of the unprecedented attack on the south of the country on October 7, 2023.
After a dawn airstrike, Gaza Civil Defense said it had exhumed the remains of three Palestinian children from the rubble of their home in the north of the territory.
“We always thought that when this moment came, the war would end and our lives would return to normal,” Gaza resident Jemaa Abou Mendi told AFP.
“But unfortunately, the reality on the ground is quite different, the war has not stopped and the killings continue unabated,” continues the 21-year-old young woman.
Large swaths of the northern Gaza Strip have been under siege by the Israeli army for almost two weeks.
And the United States threatened this week to suspend part of its military assistance if Israel did not quickly improve access to humanitarian aid.
Israel has certainly announced several times in recent days that it is working in this direction, but “the inhabitants of Gaza do not feel any difference”, according to the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini.
“They continue to be trapped, hungry and sick, often under intense bombardment,” he continued on X.
– “Enough bloodshed” –
Since the announcement of Mr. Sinouar’s death, many Gazans have cherished the hope that the Israeli authorities no longer consider there is any reason to continue the war in the territory.
“Enough death, enough hunger, enough siege!” says Mustafa al-Zaeem, a 47-year-old resident of the al-Rimal neighborhood in western Gaza City.
“Enough thirst and famine, enough corpses and bloodshed! If the assassination of Sinouar was one of the objectives of this war, there you have it, they killed Yahya Sinouar,” he blurted.
More than 42,500 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli military campaign of retaliation on the Gaza Strip, the majority civilians, according to data from the Hamas government’s Health Ministry for Gaza, deemed reliable by the UN.
– “Cursed war” –
In Israel and abroad, several voices have been heard calling for the death of the Hamas leader to be the starting point for a concrete plan to free the hostages, or for a cease-fire.
Following a meeting Friday between Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the implications of Yahya Sinouar’s death, a statement said that “a significant window of opportunity has opened – including in favor of the return of the hostages and for the elimination of Hamas.
Late Thursday, Mr. Netanyahu also called on Gazans who could help free the hostages to surrender, promising them that they would be spared: “whoever puts down his weapon and returns our hostages, we will allow him to continue to live.”
But on site, the Gazans interviewed by AFP correspondents do not trust Mr. Netanyahu.
“What we see is that Netanyahu is focused on Gaza, on murder, destruction and extermination, since the bombings and massacres continue across Gaza,” judge Mahmoud Obeid, 42, from the south from the Gaza Strip where he was displaced.
“What we fear most is the continuation of this cursed war.”
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