The Israeli army waged “fierce” fighting in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, where Hamas denounced the bombing of a refugee camp that killed dozens of people.
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The war, sparked by the Palestinian Islamist movement’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, has already left thousands dead and threatens to engulf the entire region.
Since this weekend, the Israeli army has gradually deployed ground troops and intensified its air strikes. She regretted the deaths of two soldiers on Tuesday, the first casualties since the start of the war.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, a bomb attack occurred in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north of the Palestinian territory, killing “more than 50” people.
The Israeli army confirmed that this bombing was part of an operation that killed a Hamas commander believed to be one of those responsible for the October 7 attack.
AFP
In an AFPTV video, at least 47 bodies wrapped in shrouds can be counted lying on the ground in a hospital courtyard after being recovered from the rubble. The images also show a huge crater and the destruction caused by the bombing. “It was an earthquake scene,” camp resident Ragheb Aqel, 41, told AFP.
Almost a month after the war began, calls for a “humanitarian ceasefire” to ease the suffering of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents, including children and the wounded crowding hospitals, remain unanswered despite alarm calls from the United Nations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out a ceasefire on Monday.
“300 goals”
“Fierce fighting (…) deep in the Gaza Strip” pitted Israeli soldiers against Hamas, the Israeli army said on Tuesday, adding that dozens of Palestinian fighters had been killed in the last few hours.
“We brought heavily armored vehicles, tanks, armored fighting vehicles and bulldozers,” described army spokesman Jonathan Conricus, reporting around “300 targets” hit within 24 hours.
AFP
For its part, Hamas’s military wing claimed to have fired anti-tank grenades at “two Israeli armored vehicles” and claimed that the Gaza Strip would become “a graveyard and a swamp” for Israeli soldiers.
She also promised to inflict a defeat on Benjamin Netanyahu “that will mean the end of his political career.”
When fighting is intense, it is impossible to obtain casualty figures from independent sources.
The day before, the Israeli army attacked “600 targets” within 24 hours, weapons depots, rocket firing positions or hideouts belonging to Hamas, which Israel, the US and the EU consider a “terrorist” organization.
AFP
“Even if it’s only three hours”
In Israel, authorities say more than 1,400 people have died since October 7, mostly civilians killed on the day of the Hamas attack. According to the same source, almost 240 hostages are still in the hands of the Palestinian movement.
Hamas’ military wing assured Tuesday that it was ready to release “a certain number of foreigners in the coming days.”
The Palestinian Islamist movement says Israeli bombings have killed more than 8,500 people, mostly civilians, in the Gaza Strip, which it has controlled since 2007.
AFP
The humanitarian situation in the small area, which has been under a “complete siege” by Israel since October 9, is alarming, leaving residents without water, food and electricity supplies.
On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated the number of Gazans suffering from “severe or moderate mental disorders” at “more than 485,000.”
In Rafah, South, tons of aid continues to pile up on the Egyptian side of the border crossing, awaiting inspection by Israel, according to an American official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Around 117 trucks have been able to enter so far, but these “handfuls of convoys (…) are nothing compared to the needs,” denounced the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi implored the Security Council on Tuesday to “overcome its fractures” to “demand” a ceasefire and end the “deadly cycle” of war between Israel and Hamas.
In Gaza City, near a Greek Orthodox cultural center that was hit overnight, 50-year-old Ahmed al-Kahlout pleads. “The minimum they could give us would be a ceasefire, just give us three hours,” he told AFP.
AFP
In Jerusalem, the Orthodox Patriarchate condemned the bombing of its cultural center in Gaza and deplored Israel’s “unjustified determination to destroy civilian infrastructure.”
Children in danger
The Gaza Strip, where Hamas says 3,450 children have died, has become a “graveyard for thousands of children,” according to the United Nations.
“Our deepest fears that the number of children killed would rise to dozens, then hundreds, and finally thousands within two weeks came true,” James Elder, a spokesman for UNICEF, said in a news release.
Paris announced on Tuesday the deaths of two French children in the Gaza Strip.
More than a million children of the 2.4 million people living in this 360 km2 Palestinian territory also suffer from a lack of drinking water, Elder said.
The situation in the hospitals is also worrying NGOs, as thousands of civilians have sought refuge there.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported new attacks near Al-Quds Hospital on Tuesday. Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals to hide weapons or fighters, something the Palestinian Islamist movement denies.
Egyptian authorities said on Wednesday they were ready to receive wounded Palestinians through the Rafah border crossing, medical sources and security services told AFP.
Tensions
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday he was “deeply concerned” about the “intensification of the conflict” and warned of the risk of a “dangerous escalation beyond Gaza”.
The war has heightened tensions in the occupied West Bank, where at least 122 Palestinians have been killed by shelling by Israeli soldiers and settlers since October 7, according to the local health ministry.
And the risk of a regional conflagration remains. On Tuesday, Israel said it had intercepted a missile fired from the Red Sea region after Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen claimed they had fired drones at the Jewish state. They then vowed to continue their “missile and drone attacks until Israeli aggression ends.”
On the Israeli-Lebanese border, where clashes are occurring daily, the Israeli army claimed to have carried out new airstrikes against Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.