To better understand the latest events in the conflict between the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and Israel, 20 minutes takes stock every evening. Between the strong declarations, the diplomatic advances or the dramatic results of the fighting, here are the main points of the day.
The fact of the day
Bombs are still raining in the south of the Gaza Strip while on the ground fighting rages. Israeli aircraft and artillery bombarded a humanitarian aid crossing point. Four people, including its director Bassem Ghaben, were killed in the strikes, according to the Hamas government. Alongside the air and ground bombings, the Israeli army is carrying out a ground offensive in this overpopulated territory of 362 km2, where it has lost 137 men and where its soldiers have taken several sectors. In the past 24 hours, its air force struck 230 targets in Gaza, the army said, claiming that its troops had “eliminated hundreds of terrorists” and seized weapons, rocket launchers and explosives.
Opposite, after a two-day break, Palestinian fighters fired around thirty rockets towards Israeli territory, where alert sirens sounded in several localities in the south and in Tel Aviv in the center, according to the media. The shots caused damage but no casualties.
The number of the day
39. This is the number of French deputies who are calling for the lifting of the parliamentary immunity of MP Meyer Habib. “While the minister [des Affaires étrangères Catherine Colonna] was invited to react to the death of a Quai d’Orsay agent following Israeli bombings on a residential building housing civilians, MP Meyer Habib distinctly and twice pronounced the words: “And this is not finished!” Comments that could “akin to the apology of war crimes”, believe the deputies of the environmentalist groups, PS and LFI.
The latter demand “a heavy disciplinary penalty” against Meyer Habib, as well as the meeting of the commission responsible for article 26 of the application of the Constitution “so that it examines the lifting of parliamentary immunity by Mr. Meyer Habib.
Sentence of the day
If the enemy wants to recover his hostages alive he has no other choice but to stop the aggression”
Hamas’ military wing said Israel’s goal of eliminating the ruling Palestinian Islamist group in the Gaza Strip was “doomed to failure.” In a sound recording, the spokesperson for the Ezzedine al-Qassam brigades, Abou Obeida, also conditioned the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza on “the cessation of aggression”, referring to the war waged against Hamas since October 7 in retaliation for its bloody attack on Israeli territory.
“The enemy’s goal of eliminating resistance is doomed to failure. This is a reality that is becoming indisputable,” the masked spokesperson said in the recording. He further claimed that the continuation of the war would lead to the death of Israeli hostages in Israeli bombings.
Today’s trend
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, for its part, called for the opening of an investigation by Israel into “the possible commission of a war crime” by its armed forces in Gaza, saying it had received “disturbing information » on the death of “11 unarmed Palestinian men”. Accusations described as “defamation” by an Israeli official.
For the head of UN humanitarian operations Martin Griffiths, who continues to deplore the catastrophic situation in Gaza, the toll of Palestinian victims is a “dramatic and shameful milestone”. According to a latest report Wednesday from the Hamas government, 20,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war – including at least 8,000 children and 6,200 women – and more than 50,000 injured.