The war in the Gaza Strip has caused “unprecedented” destruction, the UN said Thursday as Hamas’s response to a proposed truce with Israel is awaited, casting doubt on a possible agreement after almost seven months of conflict.
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Israel and the mediating countries are still awaiting a response from the Islamist movement to a proposal for a 40-day truce associated with the release of hostages held in Gaza, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Hamas is studying this proposal in a “positive spirit,” its leader, Ismaïl Haniyeh, said Thursday in a telephone conversation with the head of Egyptian intelligence, Abbas Kamel. He also spoke with the Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohammed bin Abdelrahmane Al-Thani, to whom he repeated the wish of the Islamist movement to “reach an agreement”.
A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, told AFP earlier that the movement’s position was for the moment “negative, but that discussions were continuing.
In the absence of progress, Israel is continuing its deadly offensive launched on October 7 after an unprecedented attack carried out by Hamas on Israeli soil.
At least 28 people were killed in 24 hours, according to the Hamas health ministry. Bombings targeted the territory besieged by Israel, largely transformed into a field of ruins.
30 to 40 billion dollars
Reconstruction is expected to cost between 30 and 40 billion dollars (between 28 and 37 billion euros), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) estimated on Thursday.
“The scale of the destruction is enormous and unprecedented (…) This is a mission that the international community has not faced since World War II,” said the director of the regional office for States Arabs of the UNDP, Abdallah al-Dardari.
According to Rola Dashti, executive secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), “the destruction of Gaza (…) could have profound and systemic repercussions for decades”, jeopardizing the future of future generations.
The war in the Gaza Strip was launched on October 7, after an attack by Hamas commandos infiltrated from the Gaza Strip in southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mainly civilians, according to a report. from AFP established from official Israeli data.
More than 250 people were kidnapped that day and 129 remain captive in Gaza, including 34 who died, according to Israeli officials.
In retaliation, Israel launched an offensive in the Palestinian territory which left 34,596 dead, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
For almost seven months, the international community has been working to obtain a ceasefire. At the end of November, a one-week truce allowed the release of 105 hostages, including 80 Israelis and dual nationals exchanged for 240 Palestinians detained by Israel. Since then, attempts at mediation by Qatar, the United States and Egypt have been unsuccessful.
Hamas, which took power in 2007 in Gaza, maintains its demands, first and foremost a permanent ceasefire, which Israel has always refused.
Visiting Israel on Wednesday, American Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Hamas to say “yes” to an agreement deemed “extraordinarily generous” on the part of Israel.
He also urged Israel, which says it is determined to continue the war until “total victory” over Hamas, to abandon a potentially devastating ground offensive on the town of Rafah, on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, where a million and a half Palestinians are crowded, the majority displaced by the war.
Concerns for civilians
“We will do what is necessary to win and defeat our enemy, including in Rafah,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated Thursday at the start of a cabinet meeting, after promising to launch a ground offensive there. , “with or without” truce agreement.
“If we have to defend ourselves alone, we will defend ourselves alone,” he said later while receiving survivors of the Nazi genocide.
According to Mr. Netanyahu, Rafah is the last major stronghold of Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union in particular.
Many capitals and humanitarian organizations fear heavy civilian losses, in the absence of a plan deemed credible to protect the population.
In the south of the Gaza Strip, airstrikes targeted the town of Khan Younes (south) on Thursday, already razed after months of fighting, and artillery fire was reported on the outskirts of Rafah, according to witnesses and an AFP correspondent.
Witnesses also reported bombings and fighting accompanied by artillery fire in Gaza City (north), as well as in Nousseirat (center).
A humanitarian aid truck driver was also killed Thursday by Israeli army fire southeast of Gaza City, according to medical sources at Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza.
An official from the territory’s Civil Defense, Mohammed Al-Mughayyir, warned on Thursday of the danger linked to the presence of unexploded ordnance scattered on the ground. “There are more than ten explosions every week due to their handling by children and civilians, which cause deaths or serious injuries,” he told AFP.
In terms of international aid, strictly controlled by Israel, it continues to arrive in trickles, mainly from Egypt, via Rafah, in the territory of 2.4 million inhabitants threatened with famine.
The United States is pressuring Israel to let in more humanitarian aid.
