Deadly attacks, bitter fighting, constant displacement and tons of humanitarian aid: “Exhausted” by almost three months of war, the population of Gaza is dreaming of an “end” to the conflict on New Year’s weekend.
• Also read: The war in Gaza has claimed 21,507 lives, according to a new report
• Also read: Israeli attacks on Gaza, Hamas discusses ceasefire in Egypt
• Also read: Fear of an “expansion” of the conflict in Gaza
“People celebrate the coming of the New Year, but we can't. We are deprived of (the celebrations). The bombs continue to fall on us every day and every night,” said Oum Louay Abou Khater, 49, displaced by the fighting in Rafah, on the southern tip of the Gaza Strip.
“I hope the war ends soon. Enough of this war! We are completely exhausted. In cold weather, we are constantly being moved from one place to another,” she adds, in an improvised camp to accommodate displaced people.
AFP
“2023 was the worst year of my life. It was a year of destruction and devastation. We experienced a tragedy that even our grandparents didn’t know about,” adds Ahmed al-Baz, 33.
“I hope that the war ends and we can return to our homes and our normal everyday lives before 2024. We don’t ask for anything more,” sighs this Palestinian, who was also displaced by the clashes in Rafah.
The approximately 2.4 million residents of the Gaza Strip, 85% of whom have been forced to flee their homes according to the UN, continue to face a catastrophic humanitarian situation.
“The traumatized” and “exhausted” population is piling up on “an ever-shrinking piece of land” in the south of the territory, in the Rafah sector, the head of operations explained on Friday on X (ex-Twitter). UN Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths.
AFP
“The amount of necessary and urgent aid delivered remains limited and encounters numerous logistical obstacles,” denounced the Commissioner General of the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini.
The International Court of Justice also announced on Friday that South Africa had accused Israel of engaging in “acts of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza” before the United Nations judicial body. The allegations were immediately rejected “with disgust” by Israel.
From Gaza to Lebanon
On the 85th day of the war sparked by an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 that killed about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, in Israel, airstrikes and ground fighting in the Gaza Strip show no signs of easing.
Overnight, the Palestinian Islamist movement reported violent clashes in Khan Younes, the capital in southern Gaza, and in the center of this besieged area, including deadly airstrikes in the Nuseirat sector.
According to the Hamas government's health ministry, 187 people were killed in the Gaza Strip on Friday, bringing the death toll there since the start of the war to over 21,500.
AFP
Shortly after midnight on Saturday, the Israeli army announced attacks in Syria in retaliation for rockets fired from that neighboring country that fell into border areas it controls.
The Israeli military rarely claims attacks in Syria but has repeatedly said it will not allow its arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence there, including through militias or armed groups such as Lebanon's Hezbollah.
Since October 7, the border between Israel and Lebanon has been the scene of almost daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, with the head of the Israeli army speaking this week of a possible “expansion of fighting”.
“In the last two days we have carried out a series of large-scale operations against Hezbollah sites with our fighter jets, our tanks and our artillery (…) southern Lebanon will no longer be the same as it was.” “That said Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Friday evening.
Towards a ceasefire?
Amid clashes in Gaza and regional tensions, a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Friday to discuss an Egyptian plan that would likely lead to a ceasefire, according to a source close to the Palestinian movement.
The Egyptian plan calls for three-stage renewable ceasefires, staggered releases of Palestinian hostages and prisoners and, ultimately, a cessation of hostilities.
The Hamas delegation – a movement designated as terrorist by the European Union, the United States and especially Israel – was supposed to convey “the reaction of the Palestinian factions” to this plan, in particular regarding the conditions for the release of hostages and prisoners. a leader of the Islamist movement told AFP.
Around 250 people were kidnapped in Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israeli soil on October 7th. A week-long ceasefire in late November allowed around a hundred of them to be released in return for the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
But attempts by mediators from Qatar and Egypt to renew this pause in fighting have so far been unsuccessful. This comes as the hostages' families continue to put pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to secure their release.
According to the major Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot and the American website Axios, Qatari mediators told Israel that Hamas had “agreed in principle” to resume talks to secure the release of more than 40 hostages held in Gaza in exchange for up to “a” to allow a month break in combat.