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
As night falls, thick clouds of black smoke and flames rise from Gaza. The Israeli army carried out new deadly strikes on Wednesday on the besieged town of Khan Younes, in the south of the Palestinian enclave, where residents and displaced people are trying to shelter from the bombings. The fighting is among the most violent in two months of war against Hamas.
Across the small, crowded territory, the bodies of more than 200 Palestinians killed in the bombings have been taken to hospitals in the past 24 hours, and more than a hundred injured, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health and ‘according to hospital sources. Thousands of residents continue to desperately flee towards the south and the neighboring town of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, responding to orders from the Israeli army.
“The whole city suffers from incessant destruction and bombardment. Many people arrive from the north in disastrous conditions, without shelter, in search of their children,” Hassan Al-Qadi, a resident of Khan Younes displaced in Rafah, told AFP. “We want to understand. If they want to kill us, let them surround us in one place and eliminate us all together. But pushing us to move from one place to another is not fair,” he added.
The number of the day
1,738. This is the number of new settler housing units that will be built in East Jerusalem. “If there was no war” between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, “it would make a lot of noise. It is a very problematic project for the continuity of a Palestinian state between the south of the West Bank and East Jerusalem,” underlined Hagit Ofran, a leader of the NGO Peace Now to AFP.
“Although approximately half of the plan area is located beyond the Green Line [c’est-à-dire dans la partie occupée et annexée de la ville] and that the other half is located inside the Green Line, its strategic location between the neighborhoods [de colonisation] of Givat Hamatos and Har Homa makes it particularly problematic from a political point of view,” underlines the NGO in a press release published on Wednesday.
Sentence of the day
I expect a total breakdown of law and order”
This is an unprecedented letter addressed to the Security Council. The UN Secretary General warns, once again, of the catastrophic situation in Gaza. “With the constant bombing by the Israeli armed forces, and with no shelter or basic survival, I expect a complete breakdown of law and order soon due to the desperate conditions, which would make aid impossible humanitarian, even limited,” writes Antonio Guterres.
For the first time since his arrival at the head of the United Nations, he invokes Article 99 of the Charter, which allows him to “draw the attention of the Council” to a matter which “could endanger the maintenance of peace and of international security”. “An even worse situation could occur, including epidemics and increased pressure towards mass movements to neighboring countries,” he adds.
Today’s trend
Tension is still high between Lebanon and Israel, even if the escalation is contained for the moment. Two people, including a Lebanese soldier, were killed Tuesday in Israeli bombardments in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army and the official news agency said.
In a statement, the army, deployed in the border area, indicated that “the Israeli enemy bombed” one of its military posts in the Aadaissé region, “killing one soldier and injuring three others”. The Israeli army acknowledged the incident and claimed to have targeted a position of the Lebanese armed movement Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian movement Hamas, “to eliminate an imminent threat”.