The Israeli army is concentrating its operations in the center of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, despite the situation being critical for the civilian population and calls for a ceasefire and a possible “expansion” of operations on the border with Lebanon.
According to the official Wafa agency, in addition to the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces are also carrying out increased nighttime raids in major cities in the occupied West Bank, particularly in Jenin and Ramallah, where Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority is based.
The army general staff warned of an intensification of shootings along the border with Lebanon, the country from which Hezbollah operates, a movement that, like the Palestinian Hamas, is part of the “Axis of Resistance,” a grouping of armed groups that opposes the Iran is hostile to Israel.
Near the Lebanese border, in the Golan annexed by Israel, a drone crashed on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, the Israeli army told the AFP news agency, after a fog of fighters from gun-friendly groups in Iran claimed responsibility for an attack on the area.
In addition, Iran threatened Israel on Wednesday with “direct actions and other actions by the resistance front” after an attack in Syria on Monday killed Razi Moussavi, one of its senior officers, for which it blamed Israel.
Israeli army chief of staff Herzi Halevi said Israeli forces were “at a very high state of readiness for an expansion of fighting in the north,” where there have been almost daily clashes between Israel and Hezbollah since fighting began in Gaza.
Give birth to quadruplets
In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said it was continuing operations in Khan Younes, the capital in the south, but also in refugee camps in the center of the territory.
The Hamas government's Health Ministry in Gaza reported deadly attacks overnight in Nuseirat and Deir al-Balah, in the center of this territory of 2.4 million people, 1.9 million (85%) of whom have been displaced by the war.
In Deir al-Balah, Iman al-Masry says she gave birth to quadruplets in the middle of the war – two boys and two girls.
“You're so thin. It's cold, it's windy and there's no baby bathtub to wash them in. […] I can't bathe them, I wash them with cloths,” the 28-year-old mother, herself displaced by the war, told AFP.
“There are no diapers or formula. I try to breastfeed them, but there is a lack of really nutritious food,” she adds, fearing that the bombing could break windows everywhere and injure the newborns.
“I didn't think the war would last so long. I thought after ten days we could go home [à Beit Hanoun, nord de Gaza]. “We didn’t take anything with us,” admits Ammar, her husband, next to her.
The war, sparked by the Palestinian Islamist movement's bloody attack against Israel on October 7, left 21,110 dead in the Gaza Strip, including 6,300 women and 8,800 children, according to Hamas' 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.
Around 250 people have been kidnapped by Hamas, 129 of whom remain held in the Gaza Strip, according to Israel, which has vowed to “destroy” the Palestinian Islamist movement, which has been in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, in retaliation for its unprecedented attack. So far, 167 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive in Gaza, including three on Wednesday, the army said on Thursday morning.
“Permanent ceasefire”?
In Gaza, the local population is facing “great danger” as “hunger and desperation” worsened to the point where “hungry people blocked our convoy in the hope of finding food,” the World Health Organization (WHO) said ).
In a telephone interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated his call for a “permanent ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip, the Élysée said.
The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, whose country led a mediation that led to a ceasefire in late November, spoke to U.S. President Joe Biden this week about the need for a “cease and desist” statement – and not only a sustained fire would be a simple cessation of fighting.
A ceasefire in late November allowed the release of 105 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, as well as the entry of a large amount of humanitarian aid into Gaza. But the efforts of Egyptian and Qatari mediators have not made it possible to renew it while the toll increases daily.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, 195 people were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in 24 hours. The ministry said on Wednesday that the army particularly attacked a house near Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younes, leaving 22 dead and 34 injured.
To escape incessant bombing, Palestinians who had taken refuge at a U.N. school in Nuseirat camp (center) fled south on Wednesday, loading mattresses, blankets and luggage onto carts or onto the roofs of their cars.
“Even UN schools are no longer safe,” “first we were moved to Nuseirat, then to Rafah.” People don’t know where to go anymore,” said one man. “Our message to the whole world: create a ceasefire,” he added.