Israel bombed several areas of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including the town of Rafah where the army is preparing for a ground operation in its war against Hamas, despite warnings from the international community, in particular the American ally .
The Palestinian Islamist movement released a video on Wednesday showing one of the hostages kidnapped during the unprecedented October 7 attack by Hamas on Israeli soil, which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army indicated Thursday morning that its planes had struck “30 Hamas targets” in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, including buildings where weapons and “terrorist infrastructure” were stored, and eliminated several fighters from the Islamist movement.
A plane “eliminated a cell of snipers” in the area of the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, she added.
Fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters took place north of this camp, according to witnesses.
AFP correspondents and witnesses also reported artillery fire and airstrikes on the Zeitoun neighborhood, in the south of Gaza City, throughout the night. Airstrikes also hit the town of Rafah.
“Two brigades mobilized”
Many foreign capitals, including Washington, are particularly concerned about the ongoing preparations for a ground offensive on the city of Rafah.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has assured for weeks that this city, located at the southern end of the Palestinian territory, where there are a million and a half people, is the last bastion of Hamas.
“Israel is moving forward with its operation targeting Hamas in Rafah,” Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said on Wednesday.
“Two brigades of reservists were mobilized for operations” in Gaza, he added, specifying that there were “four (Hamas) battalions still in Rafah” which were targeted by the army.
According to Egyptian officials, cited by the Wall Street Journal, Israel is preparing to move civilians from Rafah to the nearby town of Khan Younes, in particular, where it plans to set up shelters and food distribution centers.
The evacuation of Gazan civilians would last two to three weeks and would be carried out in coordination with the United States, Egypt and other Arab countries such as the United Arab Emirates, according to these officials.
The war was triggered on October 7 by an unprecedented attack carried out from Gaza against Israel by Hamas commandos, which resulted in the death of 1,170 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP report based on official data. Israelis.
More than 250 people have been kidnapped and 129 remain captive in Gaza, 34 of whom have died according to Israeli officials.
In retaliation, Israel promised to destroy Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007 and classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union in particular.
Its vast military operation in the Gaza Strip left 34,305 dead, mostly civilians, according to Hamas.
“Bring them back”
The White House on Wednesday demanded “answers” from the Israeli authorities after the discovery of mass graves in the two main hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including that of Nasser in Khan Younes.
Gaza Civil Defense said it had exhumed since Saturday 340 bodies of people killed and buried according to it by Israeli forces in mass graves in the Nasser hospital.
The Israeli military called the allegations “baseless” and said it had dug up, then reburied, bodies because it was searching for hostage corpses.
One of Mr. Netanyahu’s stated objectives in the war in Gaza is to bring back the hostages, whose families and loved ones regularly gather to try to put pressure on their government to obtain their release.
Hamas broadcast a video on its Telegram channel on Wednesday of a hostage kidnapped during the Nova music festival.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, accuses the Israeli Prime Minister and members of his government of having “abandoned” the hostages.
On Wednesday evening in Jerusalem, dozens of protesters gathered outside Mr. Netanyahu’s residence with signs reading: “Bring them home.”
While the Gaza Strip faces a dramatic humanitarian situation, with its population at risk of famine according to the UN, Joe Biden on Wednesday promulgated a law including aid for the besieged territory, calling on Israel to ensure that it reaches the Palestinians “without delay”.
The war in Gaza has exacerbated violence in the region, particularly on the Lebanese-Israeli border, where Israel and the powerful Hezbollah movement, ally of Hamas, have exchanged fire daily since October 7.
The Israeli army announced Wednesday that it had struck 40 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and killed half of its commanders in this sector.
The official Lebanese agency and a Hezbollah source also reported a drone strike Thursday morning against a truck in eastern Lebanon, leaving one injured, attributing the attack to Israel.
reference: www.lapresse.ca