The Israeli army bombed the Gaza Strip on Saturday for the second consecutive day since the expiry of a ceasefire with the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas that allowed the release of hostages and the delivery of emergency aid.
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The health ministry of Hamas, the ruling movement in this besieged Palestinian territory, reported on Friday nearly 200 deaths in those Israeli attacks.
“We are currently attacking Hamas military targets across the Gaza Strip,” Jonathan Conricus, an army spokesman, said early Saturday.
Israel and Hamas blame each other for the end of the ceasefire, which allowed the release of around a hundred hostages in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners and the importation of more aid into the Gaza Strip.
AFP
Hamas said it had proposed “an exchange of prisoners and elderly people” among the hostages, as well as handing over to Israel the bodies of Israeli hostages who “died in Israeli bombings.”
The Israeli army also confirmed the deaths of five captured hostages in the Gaza Strip late Friday, naming them and adding that it had “informed the families of their deaths.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Islamist movement of “violating the agreement” and firing “missiles” into Israel. And his government promised Hamas “the worst possible beating.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he “deeply regrets” the resumption of clashes in Gaza, which “just shows how important a genuine humanitarian ceasefire is.”
Hamas and Hezbollah
There were renewed exchanges of fire on Israel’s northern border between the Israeli army and the Lebanese movement Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas. Hezbollah regretted the death of two of its members due to Israeli bombings in southern Lebanon, which also killed a civilian. Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for attacks against Israel.
Israel carried out airstrikes near the Syrian capital Damascus on Saturday without immediately reporting any casualties, according to the Syrian Defense Ministry. When asked by AFP, the Israeli army did not comment on this information.
AFP
The Israeli Air Force has struck “Hezbollah targets” in southern Damascus, according to Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), an NGO that has an extensive network of sources in Syria.
The war between Israel and Hamas was sparked by an unprecedented attack by Hamas in Israel on October 7, which authorities said killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
In retaliation, Israel carried out devastating bombings of Palestinian territory and launched a ground offensive on October 27. According to the Hamas government, more than 15,000 people, including more than 6,150 under the age of 18, have died in Israeli attacks since October 7.
“If violence returns to this scale and intensity, we can expect hundreds more children to be killed and injured every day,” UNICEF Director-General Catherine Russell said in New York.
“To everyone, to our country”
Following the release of a total of 110 hostages since the start of the conflict, including 105 during the ceasefire, mostly women and minors, 136 hostages remain in Gaza in the hands of Hamas and other affiliated groups, according to Israeli authorities.
On Friday, relatives and supporters of the hostages gathered in a Tel Aviv square now known as “Hostage Square” with Torah scrolls representing the number of hostages remaining in Gaza in the hands of Hamas or affiliated groups.
“We were given the chance for people to come out, join us and resume their former lives,” said an emotional Ilan Zecharya, the 20-year-old uncle of hostage Eden Yerushalmi. “To everyone, to our country, we demand a new system” for the “liberation of all,” he implored.
The day after a visit to Israel, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States, Israel’s key ally, remained “focused” on the release of the hostages.
“We continue to work with Israel, Egypt and Qatar to restore the ceasefire,” said US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Qatar, the emirate that announced the ceasefire, called on the international community to act as the resumption of bombings “exacerbates the humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.
“Human being”
The ceasefire had given Gazans respite and allowed humanitarian aid to accelerate, but that flow, despite being described by the United Nations as very inadequate, has now dried up.
“No aid truck has arrived since Israeli bombing resumed, but preparations are underway to evacuate several injured people,” Waël Abou Omar, head of communications at the Rafah (south) terminal, told AFP. , border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
The need is immense in the area already under Israeli blockade, where more than half of the territory’s housing has been damaged or destroyed and 1.7 million people have been displaced by the war, according to the UN.
The health situation is deteriorating: the World Health Organization (WHO) describes 111,000 cases of acute respiratory infections and 36,000 cases of diarrhea in children under five among the displaced people in the Gaza Strip.
“There are bombings everywhere, we have no food, no water, no clothing. The shops are empty, it is cold, the border post with Egypt is closed, Marwa Saleh, 47, who arrived in Khan Younes (south) after being expelled from Gaza City (north), is desperate.
“When will the world see us as humans? “My family and I, we are civilians, we have nothing to do with this war,” she laments to AFP.