The ones they pull out of the rubble of bomb-hit buildings in Gaza are the gray color of concrete. They are completely covered in dust. Cement mixed with blood from the wounds on the face and body. The still living adults trapped under the pillars look at the rescuers wide-eyed and in a state of shock. The children, on the other hand, have their eyes closed, they seem to be sleeping, for many of them it is the sleep of death. “Help me, I am here, my God protect me, God bless you, save me,” some shout to the rescuers. Others with mortal wounds raise their index finger and pray before taking their last breath. Everywhere people walk around or stand still for minutes, paralyzed with fear, immersed in clouds of dust and concrete that take your breath away. Then the wail of sirens from ambulances arriving on the scene or driving along blast-ravaged streets toward hospitals that can do little for the injured. There are nurses and drivers who haven’t slept for days but don’t give up, who lack the courage to leave the survivors of an air raid in the rubble. And doctors, exhausted by fatigue and a feeling of helplessness. Similar faces and similar despair were shown yesterday by the survivors of the attack that destroyed the Abu Dallah supermarket in Nusseirat, the largest in Gaza. 18 dead, but there were still people under the rubble, some of whom, according to witnesses to the massacre, were still alive. Their rescue is almost impossible with the few resources available and while the bombs are falling from above. Another 18 casualties occurred in the nearby towns of Deir al Balah and Rafah in the same hours. The bodies, wrapped in blankets, were lined up in the parking lot of Shuhada Hospital in Khan Yunis.
What we can see of Gaza – which remains closed to the international press – is thanks only to the photos and amateur videos sent over the small internet connection that still remains in the Gaza Strip. Often images from the markets, from refugee camps, from Shujayeh (flashed back in 2014 during the Protective Edge offensive), from Gaza City, from the north and south of the Strip. In a video released by Turkish television TRT, Palestinian children write their names and place of residence on their hands so they can be recognized alive or dead once they are rescued from the rubble.
For the Israeli armed forces, the air strike that reduced the Gaza Strip to rubble was intended solely to hit Hamas and its infrastructure, not the civilian population. But it does not appear that the network of underground tunnels in which the Islamic movement’s military wing hides has been destroyed. The stories about the freed Israeli hostages who remained in these tunnels for two weeks did not, at least to our knowledge, report any collapse or destruction. And almost twenty days after the October 7 attack, Hamas yesterday fired a hundred rockets towards south and central Israel, making it clear that it has not lost its capabilities. Israeli media reports new weapons to “destroy Hamas.” Are they talking about “seismic attacks,” i.e. bombs designed to penetrate the Gaza tunnels – US-made bunker busters? – causes strong tremors, similar to those of an earthquake. In any case, the thousands of airstrikes – 400 between Monday and Tuesday – that the military spokesman reports every morning, together with the killings of Hamas men, are enough to make the civilian population and everything that remains in Gaza tremble. .
The numbers reported by the Ministry of Health in Gaza vary. As of last night, 5,791 Palestinians had been killed (about half of them minors) and 16,297 injured in just over two weeks. Figures that Israel believes are false and that have been inflated for propaganda purposes by the Palestinian ministry, which is not independent because Gaza is controlled by Hamas. Version openly disputed by journalist Ziad Amali, who moderates a chat with essential information for the work of the local and international press. “Some foreign journalists are quick to point out that the Ministry of Health is linked to Hamas,” Amali told us, “but the ministry’s staff in Gaza is made up of civil servants and health workers who are not affiliated with any political party.” Many of the staff in Gaza are Palestinian Authority officials and the ministry in Ramallah (under the authority of President Abu Mazen) always confirm the figures reported by Gaza.”
Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi yesterday visited the special forces that were training for the invasion of Gaza and were still about to launch, according to local media, and said that at some point fuel will be allowed to enter the Gaza Strip, which has never been brought into the Gaza Strip before by humanitarian convoys of the Red Crescent due to the Israeli ban. However, according to Halevi, only if it is intended for civilian purposes and is not used by Hamas. So the tankers remain on the Egyptian side of the Gaza border while they can no longer wait for the United Nations and hospitals. Juliette Touma of UNRWA, the organization that helps Palestinian refugees, warned that the UN would suspend its operations in the next few hours if there were no urgent supplies. He also confirmed that 35 UN staff were killed in the bombings.
While general attention focuses on the beleaguered Gaza Strip and rocket fire in southern Israel, attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank are increasing. The latest, writes journalist Younis Tirawi, happened last night when unknown people shot at Palestinian cars from a hill. The Israeli NGO Yesh Din has mapped which Palestinian communities in the West Bank have been attacked by settlers. Since October 7, more than 100 attacks have been carried out in at least 62 West Bank towns and villages. Yesh Din reports that the settlers killed six Palestinians and displaced entire pastoralist communities, burning homes and vehicles, uprooting trees and destroying property. Another 90 Palestinians were killed by the army in clashes or raids in cities and refugee camps.
The Israeli human rights center B’Tselem received reports “of settlers entering Palestinian communities, some armed and escorted by soldiers, who attacked the residents, in some cases threatening them with weapons and shooting at them,” in response to the Hamas attack Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (far right) to arm “civilian security teams” in West Bank settlements and cities where Palestinians and Jews are present. So far, around 150,000 weapons have been distributed to settlers. For Palestinian and Israeli activists, settlers are taking advantage of the political climate to commit violence and occupy more land.