The Israeli army launched an operation last Thursday in Shujaiya, a neighborhood in eastern Gaza City. “Dozens of terrorists are eliminated every day” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, as tens of thousands of people were forced to flee bombings and fighting.
On the border between Lebanon and Israel, in the Golan Heights, a drone attack injured 18 Israeli soldiers on Sunday. Israeli forces say they responded by targeting Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon.
In Turkey, an Israeli airline accuses airport staff of refusing to refuel a plane that had to make an emergency landing in Antalya. Relations between the two countries have deteriorated since the start of operations in the Gaza Strip.
We take stock of recent developments in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Netanyahu speaks of a “difficult fight” in Gaza City and Rafah
“Our forces are operating in Rafah, Shujaiya, all over the Gaza Strip,” Benjamin Netanyahu said at the weekly government meeting, a week after he said that « la phase intense » the war was coming to an end. “Dozens of terrorists are eliminated every day. It is a difficult fight that we wage on the ground, sometimes in hand-to-hand combat, and also underground,” he said, referring to the tunnels dug underground by Hamas during its years in power.
While the Israeli army announced in January that it had dismantled the Hamas command structure in the north of the territory, its soldiers launched an operation on Thursday in Shujaiya, a district of Gaza City, under air cover and artillery. . Bombings and fighting continued on Sunday for the 4th consecutive day.
In the past 24 hours, 43 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip, the health ministry of the Hamas government that seized power in the Palestinian territory in 2007 said on Sunday. According to witnesses, numerous Israeli airstrikes targeted Gaza City in the north, as well as Rafah and Khan Younis in the south.
18 Israeli soldiers injured on the border with Lebanon
The Israeli military said Sunday that 18 of its soldiers were injured, one seriously, when a drone struck their position in the Golan Heights on the border with Lebanon.
The attack occurred earlier on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, adding that it has since hit Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon with airstrikes and artillery fire.
Islamic Jihad fighter dies in West Bank
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization said a fighter from its armed wing was killed Sunday in an Israeli strike near Tulkarem, in the northern occupied West Bank.
The Israeli army said its forces had struck “wanted terrorists” in the surroundings of Tulkarem. “Jaber, a terrorist in charge of directing terrorist activities, was in the residence” which was the target of strikes, the same source added in a statement.
Said Izzat Jaber, “one of the leaders of the Tulkarem-Saraya Al Quds brigade (armed branch) was martyred today in the strike of an occupation aircraft (Israel) on the Nour Shams camp”, Islamic Jihad said in a statement. “The martyr had escaped several assassination attempts,” added the same source.
Türkiye: Staff refuses to refuel Israeli plane
A plane from the Israeli company El Al, which had to make an emergency landing at Antalya airport on Sunday to evacuate a sick passenger, was refused refueling by Turkish personnel, the carrier reported. Flight LY5102 from Warsaw to Tel Aviv was forced to return to Rhodes, Greece, El Al said in a statement. “Local workers (in Antalya) refused to refuel the company’s plane even though (the emergency landing) was for medical reasons,” did she say.
Turkish diplomatic sources confirmed to AFP that the aircraft had been authorized to make an emergency landing because a passenger on board was unwell. “The fuel had to be transferred to the aircraft […] but as the proper procedure was about to be finalized, the captain decided to leave on his own accord,” said a Turkish diplomatic source.
Relations between Israel and Turkey, the rare Muslim-majority country to acknowledge this, have deteriorated since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the attack by the Islamist Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7. Flights between the two countries have been suspended.
