On Tuesday, December 26, there were new bombings in the Gaza Strip, where Israel announced a new intensification of the fight against Hamas, despite international calls to silence the weapons and despite heavy civilian casualties in the besieged Palestinian territories .
On Tuesday morning, smoke rose after a bomb attack over the major city of Khan Younes in the southern Gaza Strip, where Israel announced it would now focus the bulk of its offensive against Hamas. The city is home to many displaced people who have fled the north.
According to a correspondent for Agence France-Presse (AFP), Israeli attacks continued overnight, particularly on Khan Younes and the neighboring town of Rafah on the Egyptian border, where tens of thousands of displaced people are crowding into makeshift camps. According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, 30 bodies of victims of the bombings were transported to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younes in the last 24 hours.
The Israeli army said on Tuesday it had struck more than 100 Hamas targets in the past day, including tunnel entrances and military sites used to attack soldiers, including Jabaliya in the north and Khan. Younes. “We will not stop, (…) we will intensify the fighting in the coming days.” “It will be a long war,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday after his visit to Gaza. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, 20,915 people, mostly women, teenagers and children, were killed and almost 55,000 injured in Israeli military operations in Gaza.
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In Israel, the unprecedented Oct. 7 attack by Hamas commandos infiltrated from the Gaza Strip left about 1,140 dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on the latest official Israeli figures. According to Israel, around 250 people have been kidnapped by Hamas, 129 of whom are still being held in the Gaza Strip. According to the army, 158 soldiers have been killed in combat since the ground offensive in Gaza began on October 27.
The last few days have been particularly deadly. The World Health Organization (WHO), which visited Deir Al-Balah hospital in the central Gaza Strip after an attack on a nearby refugee camp, heard “heartbreaking stories” of entire families killed, its director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told X on Monday. “This latest attack on a community in Gaza clearly shows why we need an immediate ceasefire,” he said.
The flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza has not increased significantly, despite the UN Security Council passing a resolution on Friday calling for its delivery “immediately” and “on a large scale”. Pressure continues to be exerted in Israel for the release of the hostages. Monday, Mr Netanyahu was harassed during a speech in parliament of families shouting “Now, now!” “. “What if it was your son?” », “80 days, every minute is hell,” read banners.
US attacks in Iraq
Beyond Gaza, the specter of a widening conflict still looms, with exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli army on the Lebanon-Israel border and attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on ships in the Red and Arabian Seas. Attacks on American troops attributed to pro-Iranian groups have increased in Iraq and Syria.
On Tuesday, the United States announced that it had carried out airstrikes against three sites in Iraq used by pro-Iranian groups. The Iraqi government condemned a “hostile act” in which a “member” of the security forces was killed and “eighteen people, including civilians,” were injured. Security sources said at least one member of a pro-Iran Iraqi faction was killed and 24 others were wounded.
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Iran also accused Israel of killing one of its senior officers in a rocket attack in Syria on Monday. The Revolutionary Guards identified this Brigadier General Razi Moussavi as the “logistical manager of the axis of resistance” against Israel, which unites in particular Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis. “We consider this assassination to be a blatant attack that goes beyond borders,” Hezbollah responded. The Israeli army declined to comment.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi warned that Israel would “certainly pay for this crime.”
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