In the Palestinian territory besieged and devastated by nearly eight months of war, at least 40 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours in Israeli bombings which continued Monday on several sectors including Rafah, according to the Islamist movement’s Ministry of Health. Hamas.
In a statement, the army said it had “informed the families of Chaïm Peri, Yoram Metzger, Amiram Cooper and Nadav Popplewell” of the death of these four hostages kidnapped during the unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 in the south of Israel and taken to the neighboring Gaza Strip. Their bodies are still in the hands of Hamas, she added.
“We believe that the four (hostages) were killed while they were together in an area of Khan Younis (southern Gaza), during our operation there against Hamas,” said Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. , army spokesperson.
Amiram Cooper, 84, Yoram Metzger, 80, and Chaïm Peri, 80, were from Kibbutz Nir Oz, where they were kidnapped. Nadav Popplewell, a British-Israeli citizen, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nirim.
“They should have returned alive to their country and to their families,” said the Hostage Families Forum, as pressure intensifies on Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to reach an agreement for the release hostages.
The plan announced on Saturday by Mr. Biden – a road map proposed by Israel according to him – provides in a first phase for a six-week ceasefire accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas of Gaza, the liberation of certain hostages — women and sick — and Palestinian prisoners.
“Only obstacle”
But Israel deemed this proposal “incomplete,” according to government spokesperson David Mencer.
“Allegations that we agreed to a ceasefire without our conditions being respected are incorrect,” Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
Israel constantly repeats these conditions: the “destruction” of Hamas and the release “of all the hostages”.
Hamas, which has not yet given its final response, said it considered the plan “positively” while reiterating its demands for a permanent ceasefire and a total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza before any agreement. What Israel refuses.
“Hamas is now the only obstacle to a complete ceasefire,” said Joe Biden, “confirming Israel’s desire to move forward on the basis” of the plan he announced.
But the contradictory demands reiterated by the belligerents and the reactions coming from Israel cast growing doubts on this plan as calls around the world multiply to stop the conflict which has so far left 36,479 dead in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.
A Palestinian walks past debris, marked with graffiti, after an overnight Israeli strike in the al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip. (EYAD BABA/Agence France-Presse)
Bombings in Rafah
This offensive was launched after the attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza in southern Israel, which resulted in the death of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count. based on official Israeli figures.
Of the 251 people taken as hostages during the attack, 120 are still detained in Gaza, of whom 41 have died, according to the army.
The G7 countries said they “fully” supported the ceasefire plan and asked Hamas to accept it.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and Egypt also supported this proposal.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007 and which it considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union.
On Monday, the Israeli army continued its ground offensive launched on May 7 in Rafah, a town in the south of Gaza and bordering Egypt, to destroy, according to it, the last Hamas battalions.
Air strikes and artillery fire mainly targeted the west of Rafah while the ground offensive pushed, according to the UN, around a million Palestinians to flee the city.
“This is not a life”
Strikes and artillery fire also left six dead in Bureij (center), ten in Khan Younes and four in Gaza (north), according to medical sources.
In the ruins of Khan Younès, fate befell the displaced people who found themselves submerged by wastewater. With small containers or plastic bottles, they try to evacuate dirty and foul-smelling water from their tents after a pipe burst.
“It’s not a life,” says Abdellah Barbakh, a resident. “There is no drinking water. There isn’t even a water seller on the streets. There is not even sea water,” said another, Said Ashour.
“Children are dying of hunger,” said World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Margaret Harris on Saturday, commenting on the situation in the Gaza Strip where the majority of the approximately 2.4 million people residents are threatened with hunger and have no safe place to go according to the UN.
