War between Israel and Hamas: what to remember from Sunday January 7th Franceinfo

Al Jazeera announced the deaths of two Palestinian journalists working for Al Jazeera in Gaza. They were killed by an Israeli attack on their car, she said.

Published on July 1, 2024 8:07 p.m

Reading time: 4 minutes

Waël al-Dahdouh, head of Al-Jazeera's Gaza bureau (back), during the funeral of his son Hamza, also a journalist with the Qatari channel, in Rafah, Gaza Strip, January 7, 2024. (AFP)

The war entered its fourth month on Sunday, January 7, with no sign of respite. The Israeli army has carried out new deadly attacks on the Gaza Strip. Among the victims were two Palestinian journalists working for Al-Jazeera and AFP. An “unimaginable tragedy,” commented Antony Blinken. On a trip to the region, the American Secretary of State works to prevent a regional conflagration. Here's what to remember about the day on the front lines of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Two Palestinian journalists killed in strike

Two Palestinian journalists were killed in an Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip, the Hamas Health Ministry said on Sunday. According to the ministry and rescuers, Moustafa Thuraya, a freelance videographer working for AFP, and Hamza Waël al-Dahdouh, a journalist for Al-Jazeera channel, died while driving.

Waël al-Dahdouh, father of Hamza al-Dahdouh, is Al-Jazeera's bureau chief in the Gaza Strip. He was recently injured in an Israeli attack and had already lost his wife and two children in another Israeli attack in the first weeks of the war. Al Jazeera broadcaster “condemned” this deadly attack, which, according to the report, also injured journalist Hazem Rajab.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, as of December 31, at least 77 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas. Seventy were Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese. “There is a real eradication of journalism in the Gaza Strip,” denounced Anne Bocandé, editorial director of Reporter sans Frontières, on franceinfo.

Bombings in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank

On Saturday night, the Israeli army carried out several attacks, including at least six in Rafah near the Egyptian border, an AFP correspondent reported. According to the Hamas health minister, at least 64 people were killed in these bombings. According to witnesses, Khan Younes, the capital in southern Gaza and the new epicenter of the fighting, was also bombed.

In the occupied West Bank, eight Palestinians were killed on Sunday, including seven in a new Israeli raid in Jenin, a stronghold of armed Palestinian groups in that territory, where the violence also killed two Israelis, a policewoman and a civilian, Palestinian sources said. and Israelis to AFP.

According to the latest Hamas report, the Israeli offensive in Gaza has left 22,835 dead, mostly civilians. The bombings there destroyed entire neighborhoods, displaced 85% of the population and triggered a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations.

Antony Blinken warns that the conflict could “metastasize” in the region

“This is a conflict that could easily metastasize and cause even more uncertainty and more suffering,” Antony Blinken said at a news conference, reiterating that the United States was working to “prevent the spread of conflict in the Middle East.”

The US Secretary of State also said it was “imperative” that Israel do more to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza. “Palestinian civilians must be able to return home as soon as conditions permit,” said the head of American diplomacy in Doha along with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdelrahmane Al-Thani as part of his new trip to Arab countries and Israel.

King Abdullah II of Jordan calls for immediate “ceasefire”

Receiving Antony Blinken in Amman, Jordan, King Abdullah II warned of the “catastrophic consequences” of a continuation of hostilities and called on the United States to pressure Israel to achieve an “immediate ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip. He affirmed that “without a just solution to the Palestinian question and without the achievement of a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution,” Palestinian and Israeli, the region would not experience stability. The sovereign also stressed the need to end the “tragic humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.”

“We must continue until complete victory,” emphasizes Benjamin Netanyahu

Despite international pressure and calls for a ceasefire, Israel remains inflexible. “I have a clear message to our enemies: What happened on October 7 will never happen again,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday. “This is the commitment of my government (…) We must continue until complete victory,” he continued.

The day before, the Israeli army, which launched its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip on October 27, announced that it had “completed the dismantling of the Hamas military structure in the north” and stated that it was “from now on focusing on the Gaza Strip “will focus on the “centre and south” of the territory.