A new convoy of 17 trucks with humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip this Sunday. Loop in moments when Israel intensified its bombings against this besieged Palestinian enclave, two weeks after the outbreak of a war triggered by an unprecedented offensive by the Islamist movement Hamas in Israeli territory.
The Israeli army, in preparation for a ground operation, has concentrated tens of thousands of soldiers on the borders of this narrow territory where 2.4 million Palestinians live overcrowded.
The international community fears that the war that began on October 7 between Hamas and Israel will escalate and spill over to other countries in the Middle East.
Faced with this risk, US President Joe Biden spoke by phone this Sunday with the leaders of Canada, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and France.
According to Israeli authorities, more than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel since October 7, most of them civilians that same day at the hands of Hamas fighters who launched an offensive from the Gaza Strip.
Inside Gaza, more than 4,600 people, mostly civilians, died in incessant Israeli bombardments, according to the latest balance from the Ministry of Health of Hamas, which has controlled this Palestinian territory since 2007.
For its part, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) announced this Sunday that 29 of its employees have died since October 7.
“Continuous flow” of aid
This Sunday’s convoy of 17 trucks is the second humanitarian shipment to arrive in this enclave that Israel has kept under siege since October 9, without water, food, fuel and electricity.
In the convoy there were six tanker trucks with fuel for the hospitals’ electricity generating groups.
On Saturday, a first caravan entered through the Rafah crossing, on the border with Egypt.
According to the UN, at least 100 trucks a day would be needed to meet the needs of all Gazans.
For its part, the White House announced an agreement between Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu so that Gaza receives a “continuous flow” of help.
Airstrikes launched by Israel have leveled entire neighborhoods in Gaza. The city of Rafah, near the border with Egypt in the south, was one of the targets of the bombings, and clouds of smoke were also seen over Gaza in the north, according to AFP journalists.
“We were at home sleeping, we woke up when the windows exploded and the bricks fell. “We were saved by a miracle”said Om Ahmad Abu Sanjar, a resident of Rafah.
On October 15, Israel asked civilians in the northern Gaza Strip to move south to shelter from shelling.
According to the UN, at least 1.4 million Palestinians have been displaced since the conflict began and the humanitarian situation in the territory is “catastrophic.”
According to Hamas authorities, 165,000 homes were damaged by Israeli bombing, or half of those in the Gaza Strip, and 20,000 were destroyed or uninhabitable.
Funerals in Israel
Following the attack and hostage taking by Hamas, Israel promised “annihilate” to the Palestinian Islamist movement.
But a ground operation in this overcrowded enclave, riddled with traps and tunnels, represents multiple dangers for Israeli troops, who also take into account that the seasoned Hamas fighters have more than 200 Israeli and foreign hostages captured on the first day of the operation. offensive.
In Israel, this Sunday the warning sirens sounded again for rocket launches in the south and center of the country, the army said. Near Gaza, a soldier was killed by a Palestinian rocket.
Six kilometers from the border with Gaza, in Kibbutz Beeri, where Hamas commandos massacred at least 100 people, several funerals were organized this Sunday.
“I’m not sure that any of us will be able to assimilate and understand what happened.”said Romy Gold, a 70-year-old former paratrooper, before the funeral of five of his relatives.
Tension on the border with Lebanon
The hostilities also reached the border between Israel and Lebanon, with recurring exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas. Residents on both sides of the border were evacuated.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Lebanese group Hezbollah that it would commit “the mistake of his life” if he decides to go to war with Israel and that this would be “devastating” for Lebanon.
The head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin, stated that the United States “will not hesitate to act” militarily against any “organization” either “country” may be tempted to “expand” the conflict.
In the West Bank, another occupied Palestinian territory, more than 90 people have died since October 7, due to attacks by the army or Israeli settlers, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Source: AFP
Source: Gestion
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