The war turned the Gaza Strip into a placeuninhabitable“where the population, caught in the offensive launched by Israel against the Islamist movement Hamas, “die of hunger“two UN agencies warned on Wednesday.
“Gaza civilians are not part of this conflict and must be protected.” because “it is a population that is dying of hunger (…), that is on the brink of the abyss“warned the director of the health emergencies program of the World Health Organization, Michael Ryan.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) pointed out that the war turned the Palestinian territory of almost 2.4 million inhabitants into a place “uninhabitable“, where “50% of the structures (…) are damaged or destroyed”.
The conflict broke out on October 7 with the incursion of Islamist commandos that killed around 1,140 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped around 250 in southern Israel, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli data. .
In response, Israel launched an air and ground offensive to “annihilate” to Hamas, in power in Gaza, which has left almost 27,000 dead so far, mostly women, children and minors, according to the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian territory.
It also imposed a strict blockade on the supply of food, water, medicine and energy to this 362 km2 territory.
The army announced this Wednesday that 224 of its soldiers died during their ground operation, which began on October 27.
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The epicenter of the offensive is currently in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Strip. Artillery fire targeted the Nasser hospital, where there are thousands of civilian refugees, witnesses said. Staff at al Amal hospital also reported nearby fighting.
The situation “gets worse in these two hospitals“, indicated the Ministry of Health, which fears “the death of several injured”.
“We have abandoned the Nasser hospital under the bombs. We didn’t know where to go. We are […] abandoned to our fate”said a woman who fled to Rafah, about 20 km further south.
According to the Israeli army, the operations in Khan Younis allowed the elimination of “dozens of terrorists and destroy “a weapons manufacturing workshop”.
At least 150 people were killed in Israeli operations throughout the territory in the last 24 hours, the Hamas Health Ministry said.
Truce proposal in three phases
The United States, Egypt and Qatar are trying to convince Israel and Hamas to agree to a new truce, after the one-week truce at the end of November that allowed the release of a hundred hostages in Gaza in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners imprisoned in Israel.
The head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, based in Qatar, will go to Cairo this Wednesday or Thursday to discuss the truce proposal formulated over the weekend during a meeting in Paris between the director of US intelligence, William Burns, and Egyptian, Israeli and Qatari officials.
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A Hamas source indicated that the Islamist movement is examining a proposal consisting of three phases: the first would include a six-week truce during which Israel would release between 200 and 300 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 35 to 40 hostages. Between 200 and 300 trucks of humanitarian aid could also enter Gaza each day.
The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, will return to the Middle East “in the coming days“said a US official, without specifying which countries he will visit.
“Spine” of help
Hamas demands a complete ceasefire as a precondition to any agreement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday marked red lines for any agreement: “We will not withdraw the army from the Gaza Strip or free thousands of terrorists. None of that will happen“, he claimed.
According to the UN, 1.7 million Gazans have fled their homes since the start of the war, of which more than 1.3 million are crowded into Rafah, near the closed border with Egypt, due to the progress of the fighting.
The civilian aid operations of the UN Refugee Agency (UNRWA) are in danger since Israel accused a dozen of its employees of being involved in the October 7 attack.
The Israeli accusations pushed thirteen countries to suspend their financing and this Wednesday, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, stressed that UNRWA is the “spine” of aid to Gaza.
In the evening, Netanyahu insisted that that UN agency was “totally infiltrated” by Hamas.
Source: Gestion
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