Israel bombed the Gaza Strip on Saturday night after announcing it would intensify its attacks in preparation for a ground invasion following a two-week war sparked by the bloody attack by the Palestinian movement Hamas.
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At the same time, the United States announced it would strengthen its military resources in the region to prevent a widespread conflagration as tensions rise on the border between Israel and Lebanon.
According to the Hamas government ruling in the Gaza Strip, at least 80 people were killed in Israeli bombings overnight.
According to AFP journalists, the attacks particularly targeted the southern town of Rafah, near the border with Egypt, and clouds of smoke rose over the northern city of Gaza.
“From today we will increase attacks on the Gaza Strip,” Israeli army spokesman General Daniel Hagari warned on Saturday. The aim is to “reduce the risks for our armed forces in the next steps”. of the conflict.
Another source of tension is northern Israel, where exchanges of fire have become increasingly frequent between the army and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, a Hamas ally based in southern Lebanon, as residents evacuate the border area on both sides.
Hezbollah is “dragging Lebanon into a war from which it will have no benefit but in which it risks major losses,” another army spokesman, Jonathan Conricus, warned on Sunday.
Since the Hamas attack on its territory on October 7, Israel has vowed to “destroy” the Palestinian Islamist movement, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel.
“We will invade the Gaza Strip, we will do it for operational reasons, to destroy Hamas and terrorist infrastructure, and we will do it in a professional manner,” Israeli Chief of Staff General Herzi said on Saturday. Halevi.
According to Israeli authorities, more than 1,400 people have been killed by Hamas in Israel since October 7, most of them civilians who were shot, burned alive or mutilated from Gaza on the day of the attack.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, at least 4,385 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the Gaza Strip by incessant bombing by the Israeli army.
The Israeli army has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers along the borders of this cramped area, home to 2.4 million Palestinians.
A ground operation is likely to be dangerous in this overpopulated area, which is littered with death traps and tunnels and faces experienced Hamas fighters holding more than 200 Israeli or foreign hostages.
“Gaza is complex, Gaza is densely populated, the enemy is preparing many things there, but we are also preparing for him,” General Halevi warned. “And we will remember the photos and images and the deaths from two weeks ago.”
Six kilometers from the Gaza border, the kibbutz of Beeri, where Hamas commandos massacred at least 100 people on October 7, is preparing for new burials on Sunday.
“I’m not sure any of us will be able to process and understand what happened,” said Romy Gold, a 70-year-old former paratrooper who is preparing for the funeral of five members of the same family.
“We need reassurance that something like this won’t happen again,” he said, “and that’s not the feeling we have.”
According to the army, around 1,500 Hamas fighters were killed as Israel regained control of the areas attacked.
On October 15, Israel urged civilians in the northern Gaza Strip to flee south to protect themselves from bombing.
But the strikes also continue in the south. Hamas authorities reported nine dead in a nighttime bombing in the town of Khan Younes.
The United Nations says at least 1.4 million Palestinians have been displaced since the conflict began and the humanitarian situation in the area is “catastrophic.”
“Time is running out before mortality rates skyrocket due to disease outbreaks and a lack of healthcare capacity,” five UN agencies warned on Saturday.
The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli land, air and sea blockade since Hamas seized power in 2007 and has been under a “complete siege” since October 9 by Israel, which has cut off water, electricity and food supplies.
On Saturday, a convoy of twenty trucks carrying humanitarian aid from Egypt entered the Rafah crossing, the only non-Israeli-controlled exit from the Gaza Strip, which was later closed.
According to the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), these twenty trucks represent only 4% of Gaza’s daily imports before the war began and would require at least 100 trucks per day.
On Sunday in Rafah, dozens of people lined up outside a bakery or waited to fill jerry cans with water, while others searched through the rubble of destroyed homes.
In light of “escalations by Iran and its allied forces,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the deployment of several missile defense systems “across the region,” without specifying the exact location, and the return to “pre-deployment” status. of additional military resources, without specifying their number.
“These actions will strengthen regional deterrence efforts, increase the protection of U.S. forces in the region and contribute to the defense of Israel,” Austin said.
After October 7, the United States already stationed two aircraft carriers and their escort ships in the eastern Mediterranean to protect Israel.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 90 people have been killed by the Israeli army or residents of the settlements in the occupied West Bank since October 7th.
Israeli strikes on Sunday also shut down Syria’s two main airports, in Damascus and Aleppo, state media said, citing a military source.