Thousands of Palestinian civilians fled again on Thursday from the devastated northern Gaza Strip, where bombings and ground fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas are raging, while talks on a humanitarian ceasefire take place in Qatar.
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After more than a month of Israeli attacks in retaliation for the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, several hundred thousand civilians remain trapped in a catastrophic humanitarian situation in northern Gaza, according to the United Nations.
In Israel, authorities say at least 1,400 people have been killed since the war began, most of them civilians killed on the day of the attack. The violence and scale were unprecedented since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. In addition, 239 people were kidnapped and are being held in Gaza.
AFP
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip caused 10,812 deaths, mostly civilians, including 4,412 children.
While Israel has ruled out a ceasefire without first releasing the hostages, Israeli Mossad chief David Barnea and American CIA chief Bill Burns discussed a “possible humanitarian ceasefire” in the area with Qatari officials in Doha, according to an official familiar with him Conversations.
Discussions also focused on “the release of hostages and more aid to the Gaza Strip,” this official told AFP on condition of anonymity, indicating that they had made “good progress toward an agreement.”
A source close to Hamas in Gaza told AFP on Wednesday that Qatar-led negotiations focused on the release of 12 hostages, including six Americans, in exchange for a three-day humanitarian ceasefire.
AFP
Islamic Jihad, which is allied with Hamas in Gaza, said in a video on Thursday that it was ready to release two Israeli hostages, a woman in her 70s and a teenager, “if security conditions are met.”
Hamas said its Qatar-based leader Ismaïl Haniyeh traveled to Egypt on Thursday to hold talks with Egyptian intelligence chief General Abbas Kamel about Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is deteriorating, according to NGOs.
Daily “breaks”
According to an AFP journalist, on Thursday, as the day before, a crowd of men and women on foot, carrying their children in their arms, empty-handed or carrying small bundles, invaded the road leading south.
Israel said 50,000 people fleeing the fighting passed through a secure “evacuation corridor” that was open for several hours during army “tactical breaks,” the same number as the day before.
The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt reopened on Thursday to allow the evacuation of foreigners, dual nationals and the injured stranded in the south.
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Israel has been bombing the small area relentlessly since October 7 and has vowed to “destroy” the Islamist movement in power in Gaza, which is designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel.
AFTV images show massive bombings near the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahia (north) on Thursday evening, causing panic in the establishment.
According to Israeli air defense, around 9,500 rockets have been fired at Israel since October 7, most of them intercepted. But their numbers have “decreased significantly” since October 27 and the start of the army’s land operations, which are strengthening its grip on Gaza City.
The army operated in the heart of the city for several days and claimed on Thursday that it had “eliminated more than 50 terrorists during intense fighting.” “Tunnel entrances, anti-tank missile manufacturing workshops and anti-aircraft missile launch sites were destroyed,” it added. According to the army, the area is home to Hamas’ “military district,” anchored by a vast network of underground tunnels.
Headlight
In Khan Younes (south), families found refuge in al-Nasser hospital after several days of walking. Oum Alaa al-Hajin told AFP that he left his village in northern Gaza on October 7. She stayed in Jabaliya for 15 days, including ten days in a UN Refugee Agency (UNRWA) clinic, but decided to leave for the south because of the ongoing bombing.
His situation remains difficult. “We have no water, no toilets, no bakery,” she says. “We have a loaf of bread every three or four days and have to wait in line for several hours.”
An International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) surgeon, Tom Potokar, described a “catastrophic” situation at the European Hospital in Khan Younes.
“In the last 24 hours I have seen three patients with maggots in their wounds,” he told AFP.
According to the United Nations, 1.5 million people of Gaza’s 2.4 million population have been displaced by the war. According to the United Nations, hundreds of thousands of refugees in distress are pouring into the south, where food supplies are dangerously declining.
However, Israel has denied the existence of a “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza while acknowledging the “many difficulties” facing civilians as international aid arrives from Egypt through the Rafah border crossing.
U.S. humanitarian affairs envoy David Satterfield said Thursday that around 100 trucks loaded with aid were entering the Gaza Strip every day, a number he said was insufficient for the area, which has been under a total siege since then imposed by Israel There is a lack of water, electricity, food and medicine on October 9th.
In the north of the territory, hundreds of thousands of people are still “in a catastrophic humanitarian situation,” according to the UN.
Hospitals that have not yet closed are lacking medicine and fuel to run generators.
Ahmad Mhanna, a doctor at Al-Awda Hospital in Jabaliya, describes a “sad and tragic” situation. In the maternity ward, “doctors use headlamps,” just as they do in the operating room, where surgeons operate “under local anesthesia.”
“Crisis of Humanity”
It is “more than a humanitarian crisis, it is a crisis of humanity,” said UNRWA on Thursday, whose chief Philippe Lazzarini attended an international humanitarian conference organized by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.
This conference made it possible to reach commitments of one billion euros, aimed in particular at addressing the needs of the United Nations to support the population of the Palestinian territories, estimated at 1.2 billion dollars by the end of 2023.
In the occupied West Bank, where violence is increasing, 18 Palestinians were killed in several locations on Thursday, including 14 in an Israeli raid on the city of Jenin, a stronghold of armed groups, according to the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry.
According to AFP journalists, “fierce fighting” broke out in Jenin and the noise of explosions and small arms fire continued throughout the day.
According to the Palestinian Authority, at least 170 Palestinians have been killed by fire from Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank since October 7.