Gaza Strip | The Israeli army is bombing southern Gaza on Friday, while a Hamas delegation is expected in Egypt to discuss a ceasefire project that also includes the release of hostages in the hands of the Palestinian Islamist movement.
On Thursday night, Israeli forces stepped up their attacks in the Gaza Strip, particularly on Rafah in the south, where Palestinians rushed into piles of rubble in search of survivors.
“We were sitting quietly (at home, editor's note) and suddenly we heard a loud explosion and debris fell on us,” Tayseer Abou Al-Eish told AFP. “The apartment was completely destroyed and my daughters were screaming. There were several victims (…) we are trying to free the neighbors from the rubble, but there are martyrs.”
South of Jerusalem, a Palestinian injured two Israelis in a knife attack before being shot, according to police and rescuers. Hamas hailed a “heroic operation” carried out in “response” to the situation in Gaza.
Discussions in Cairo
A Hamas delegation is expected in Cairo on Friday to discuss a three-stage Egyptian plan that includes renewable ceasefires, staggered releases of Palestinian hostages and prisoners and, ultimately, a ceasefire to end hostilities.
The war, sparked by the Palestinian Islamist movement's bloody attack against Israel on October 7, left 21,320 dead in Gaza, most of them women and minors, according to the Hamas government's health ministry.
In Israel, the attack by Hamas commandos left about 1,140 dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on the latest official Israeli figures.
According to the Israeli army, which has vowed to “destroy” the Islamist movement that has been in power in Gaza since 2007 in retaliation for the October 7 attacks, around 250 people have been kidnapped by Hamas, 129 of whom are still in custody Gaza are imprisoned.
In Cairo, the Hamas delegation will convey to the Egyptians “the reaction of the Palestinian factions, which includes several observations on their plan,” an official from the Islamist movement told AFP, requesting anonymity.
These observations relate in particular “to the modalities of the planned exchange and the number of Palestinian prisoners released, as well as to obtaining guarantees for a full Israeli military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip,” this official added.
“We are currently in contact (with the mediators, editor's note). I cannot provide any further details. “We are working to bring them all back,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday at a meeting with the hostages’ families in Tel Aviv.
Dean of Hostages
Seventy-year-old Israeli-American Judith Weinstein Haggai, believed to be the oldest woman held captive in the Gaza Strip, was pronounced dead on Thursday at her kibbutz Nir Oz on the edge of the territory.
This mother of four, grandmother of seven grandchildren and, according to her kibbutz, an English teacher for children with special needs, had grown up in Toronto and also held Canadian citizenship.
Earlier this week, her kibbutz announced the death of her husband, Gadi Haggai, 73, also a hostage in Gaza, where his remains are believed to still be.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that Gaza's population remains in “great danger” and reiterates that “hunger and despair” are increasing in the territory, which, according to the United Nations, lives almost two million people (85% of the population). were pushed out.
Many fled several times, forced onto the streets by the advancing fighting and Israeli army evacuation orders, but unable to escape the incessant bombardment.
In recent days, with the intensification of operations in Khan Younes (south) and the central Gaza Strip, “at least 100,000 people” have been displaced to Rafah, in the very south of the territory, Ocha, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordination Office emphasizes, citing based on estimates from “humanitarian actors on the ground”.
“What Israel is doing to the Palestinians, and especially to Gaza, is 'the monstrosity of our century.'” “Western complacency is becoming complicity,” said Francesca Albanese, the UN rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, on
Damascus airport
The conflict in Gaza is also rekindling tensions across the Middle East, particularly on Israel's northern border with Lebanon, where the Israeli General Staff has spoken of a possible “expansion of fighting.”
The Israeli army reported numerous shots from southern Lebanon towards northern Israel, where warning sirens sounded several times on Thursday afternoon, and announced attacks on Hezbollah “positions”.
Late on Thursday evening, the Syrian Defense Ministry spoke of Israeli attacks near Damascus and in the south of the country. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the attacks particularly targeted the area around Damascus airport, 24 hours after flights resumed, suspended since an Israeli attack in late November.
Israel has stepped up its attacks in Syria in recent years, targeting Iranian-backed forces there.
That country threatened Israel with “direct action” following the death on Monday of Razi Moussavi, a Revolutionary Guard general, in a rocket attack in Syria that it blames on Israel.
Another front in this expanding conflict: Yemen, from where the Houthi rebels, allies of Tehran, are increasing their fire on the Red Sea to slow international maritime traffic in “support” of Gaza.
The US Navy said it shot down a Houthi-fired drone and an anti-ship missile in the Red Sea on Thursday evening. It is the “22nd. Attempted attacks of this kind by the Yemeni rebels since mid-October.