Israel bombed several areas of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, such as the town of Rafah where the army is preparing for a ground operation in its war against Hamas. This despite warnings from the international community, in particular the American ally.
The Palestinian Islamist movement released a video on Wednesday showing one of the hostages kidnapped during the unprecedented October 7 attack by Hamas on Israeli soil, which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army indicated Thursday morning that its planes had struck “30 Hamas targets” in the Gaza Strip the day before, including buildings where weapons were stored, and killed several fighters from the Islamist movement.
A plane “eliminated a cell of snipers” in the area of the Nusseirat refugee camp, in the center of the Gaza Strip, she added. Fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters took place north of this camp, according to witnesses.
AFP correspondents and witnesses also reported artillery fire and airstrikes on the Zeitoun neighborhood, in the south of Gaza City, during the night. Airstrikes also hit the town of Rafah, in the far south of the territory.
“It went too far”
Residents of this town were trying to salvage items from the rubble of destroyed buildings on Thursday morning.
“Enough destruction, enough war. Enough bloodshed of children, women, the elderly and unarmed civilians (…) it has gone too far (…) Let the people live,” says Samir Daban, in the middle of the rubble.
Many foreign capitals, including Washington, are particularly concerned about the ongoing preparations for a ground offensive on Rafah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been ensuring for weeks that this city, where there are a million and a half people, the majority of whom are displaced, is the last bastion of Hamas.
Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said Wednesday that Israel was making progress in this operation, saying that “four battalions” of Hamas were still in Rafah.
Civilian displacement
According to Egyptian officials, cited by the Wall Street Journal, Israel is preparing to move civilians from Rafah to the nearby town of Khan Younes, in particular, where it plans to set up shelters and food distribution centers.
The evacuation of Gazan civilians would last two to three weeks and would be carried out in particular in coordination with the United States, Egypt and other Arab countries, according to these officials.
Washington wants “answers”
The White House on Wednesday demanded “answers” from the Israeli authorities after the discovery of mass graves in the two main hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including that of Nasser in Khan Younes.
Gaza Civil Defense said it had exhumed since Saturday 340 bodies of people killed and buried according to it by Israeli forces in mass graves in the Nasser hospital.
The Israeli army called the allegations “baseless” and said it had dug up, then reburied, bodies because it was searching for hostage corpses.
One of Mr. Netanyahu’s stated objectives in the war in Gaza is to bring back the hostages, whose families and loved ones regularly gather to try to pressure their government to obtain their release.
“Bring them back”
Hamas broadcast a video on its Telegram channel on Wednesday of a hostage kidnapped during the Nova music festival. Probably speaking under duress, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year-old Israeli-American, accuses the Israeli Prime Minister and members of his government of having “abandoned” the hostages.
On Wednesday evening in Jerusalem, dozens of protesters gathered outside Mr. Netanyahu’s residence with signs reading: “Bring them home.” The leaders of 18 countries, including the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Germany, also called in a joint text for “the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.”
While the Gaza Strip faces a dramatic humanitarian situation, with its population at risk of famine, according to the UN, the Jordanian army announced Thursday that American, German, British Jordanian and Egyptian planes had dropped aid in parachute over the northern Gaza Strip, operations which have been taking place for weeks.
Strikes in Lebanon
The war in Gaza has exacerbated violence in the region, particularly on the Lebanese-Israeli border, where Israel and the powerful Hezbollah movement, ally of Hamas, have exchanged daily fire since October 7.
The Israeli army announced Wednesday that it had struck 40 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and killed half of its commanders in this sector. A Source from the pro-Iran movement on Thursday rejected “false” allegations.
The official Lebanese agency and a Hezbollah Source also reported a drone strike Thursday morning against a truck in eastern Lebanon, leaving one injured, attributing the attack to Israel.
This article was automatically published. Sources: ats / afp
