Today (Thursday), the Gaza Strip is witnessing air strikes and fierce battles between the Israeli army and Palestinian fighters, resulting in 66 deaths overnight, according to Hamas, at a time when Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has reopened the door to discussions with the American ally regarding a possible ground attack on Rafah. .
The Hamas Ministry of Health announced, at dawn today, that at least 66 people had been killed in the Gaza Strip overnight, mainly in Israeli strikes, while a senior local official spoke of battles near Gaza City in the north and Khan Yunis in the south.
In parallel, the Palestinian News Agency (Wafa) reported confrontations in several towns in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli army, which accuses Hamas fighters of hiding in hospitals, continues an attack it launched on March 18 on the Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City.
In Khan Yunis, soldiers are launching operations in the area of Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals, which are one kilometer apart.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported earlier this week that the association’s Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Yunis was out of service “after the occupation forces forced the hospital crews and the wounded to evacuate it and closed its entrances with dirt barriers.”
A Palestinian helps an injured person by carrying an intravenous fluid bag during their escape from the Arab National Hospital in Gaza City (AFP)
In response to the United States abstaining from voting on a resolution in the UN Security Council that called, on Monday, for an “immediate ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government canceled sending a delegation to Washington to research Israel’s intention to launch a ground attack on Rafah in the far south of the Gaza Strip. .
However, a high-ranking American official announced, on Wednesday, that “the Prime Minister’s Office said that it wanted to set a new date for the meeting dedicated to Rafah.” We are coordinating with him now to set a suitable date.”
After Gaza City and Khan Yunis, Israel wants to continue its ground offensive until the city of Rafah, located on the closed border with Egypt, where 1.5 million Palestinians are gathered, most of them displaced from fighting in other areas.
The United States, Israel’s main ally, fears the human toll of a similar attack and prefers other options.
In parallel, Qatar, the mediator with Egypt and the United States, confirmed the continuation of negotiations to reach a truce extending for several weeks in the fighting, accompanied by the release of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.
“Threats” and “Support”
The war broke out following an attack launched by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7, when about 250 people were kidnapped, 130 of whom are still hostage in Gaza, and 34 of them are believed to have died.
In response to this unprecedented attack, Israel pledged to “eliminate” Hamas and launched a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip, which, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, resulted in the deaths of 32,490 people and the wounding of 74,889, most of whom were children and women.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, said that she had received “threats” after she confirmed in a report that “there are logical reasons” that lead to saying that Israel has committed many “acts of genocide.”
Palestinians, including children, wait to receive free meals during the holy month of Ramadan in Jabalia refugee camp (dpa)
A large number of countries, most of them Arab and Muslim, as well as Latin American, expressed their support this week for the Special Rapporteur, who is causing controversy, as observers believe that she sometimes makes very strong statements.
“Kilometers away”
The war left a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. The United Nations says that famine has become difficult to avoid in the Strip, which has a population of 2.4 million people, most of whom are displaced and have been living for about 6 months the horrors of war and siege, which resulted in the destruction of infrastructure and deprivation of food, water, fuel and electricity.
Since the outbreak of the war, Israel, which controls the crossings, has only allowed the entry of a limited number of aid trucks and subjected them to lengthy inspections.
In order to alleviate the suffering, especially of the most deprived residents of the North, some countries have resorted to dropping food from the air.
James Elder, spokesman for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said: “Food aid is usually dropped by parachute when people are isolated, hundreds of kilometers away. But here, the help we need is just a few kilometers away. “So we have to use land routes.”
Hamas called for a halt to the landing operations after 12 people were killed by drowning and six as a result of a stampede when they were being collected.
Uday Nassar (27 years old) told Agence France-Presse about those who drowned on the Sudanese beach, north of Gaza City: “Young men and children entered the sea to get food from the umbrellas and boxes in it. They died. They don’t know how to swim. They left and did not return.
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2024-03-28 19:24:05
