“In the coming days, we will increase military and political pressure on Hamas, because this is the only way to free our hostages and achieve our victory. » This is what Benjamin Netanyahu declared this Sunday in a video message broadcast on the eve of Jewish Easter.
More than six months after the start of the war, triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, the Prime Minister continues to proclaim his determination to launch a ground offensive in Rafah, south of Gaza, that it considers to be the last great bastion of Hamas.
Fear of bloodshed in Rafah
According to the UN, nearly a million and a half displaced Palestinians are massed in this city located at the southern tip of the territory. On Friday, the G7 reaffirmed its opposition to “a large-scale military operation” in this border town with Egypt, fearing a bloodbath.
A few kilometers from Rafah, in Khan Younes, the Gaza Civil Defense announced that it had exhumed at least 50 bodies of Palestinians buried in the courtyard of a hospital. Questioned by AFP, the Israeli army indicated that it verified these assertions. According to Gaza Civil Defense, some of the bodies found in Khan Yunis “were stripped of their clothes, which certainly indicates that they were arrested, tortured and subjected to ill-treatment by the occupying army.” , according to the same source. An AFP photographer saw members of the Civil Defense exhuming human remains in the courtyard on Sunday.
Financial aid to Israel
This macabre discovery comes at a time when the United States, Israel’s staunch ally, approved military aid of $13 billion for its ally. For Hamas, in power since 2007 in Gaza, Washington gave Israel the “green light” to continue “aggressing” the Palestinians.
Israel welcomed this financial aid voted in Washington on Saturday, despite tensions with the United States arising from American concerns over the fate of civilians in Gaza. President Joe Biden called it “crucial aid.” But for Russia, this aid allocated to Israel, as to Ukraine and Taiwan, “will exacerbate global crises”.