New bombings targeted the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, December 26, where Israel announced a new intensification of fighting against Hamas, despite international calls to silence the weapons and heavy civilian losses in the besieged Palestinian territory. The UN said “deeply worried” of the continuation of these bombings on the central Gaza Strip, and urged Israeli forces to take all possible measures to protect civilians.
For his part, the chief of staff of the Israeli army, Herzi Halevi, reiterated that the war “will last[it] many more months »emphasizing that “the objectives of this war [la destruction du Hamas, pour Israël] are not easy to reach. The day before, Benjamin Netanyahu had said the same thing: “We won’t stop, (…) we will intensify the fighting in the days to come. It will be a long war. »
Tuesday morning, smoke rose after a bombardment above the large town of Khan Younès, in the south of the enclave, where Israel has announced that it is now concentrating most of its offensive and which shelters many displaced people having fled the North. Bombings also took place above the neighboring town of Rafah, on the Egyptian border, where tens of thousands of displaced people are crowded into makeshift camps.
In response to the intensification of Israeli bombardments on the center and south of the Gaza Strip, the spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Seif Magango, again warned on Tuesday , in a press release: “ We are deeply concerned about the continued bombardment of central Gaza by Israeli forces. (…) All attacks must strictly respect the principles of international humanitarian law, including the distinction [entre civils et militaires], proportionality and precaution. »
New telecommunications outage
The last few days have been particularly deadly in the enclave. In the past day alone, the Israeli army said it struck more than 100 Hamas targets, including tunnel entrances and military sites used to attack soldiers, including Jabaliya in the north and Khan Yunis. . She published images of her soldiers accompanied by tanks, advancing on foot between the dusty ruins, while shots rang out.
For its part, the Ministry of Health of the Gaza Strip, administered by Hamas, declared that in twenty-four hours thirty bodies of victims of the bombings were transported to the Nasser hospital in Khan Younes and that 241 people had been killed. In its report, the latter reports 20,915 people – mostly women, adolescents and children – killed in Israeli military operations in Gaza, which also left nearly 55,000 injured.
On Tuesday, the Israeli army also announced, through the Red Cross, that it had returned to local authorities the bodies of 80 Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip during the fighting. According to sources at the enclave’s Ministry of Health, these bodies had been recovered in recent days by the Israeli army from hospital morgues and collective graves and taken to Israel.
The Palestinian telecommunications company, Paltel, also announced, at midday, a new cut of telecommunications in the enclave, the fourth since the start of the war, “due to the continuation of the aggression”, in a press release. She specified that her technical teams “work[ai]ent to restore services despite the dangerous conditions on the ground”.
The entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza has, for its part, not increased significantly, despite the vote on Friday by the UN Security Council of a resolution calling for its delivery. ” immediate “ And ” in large scale “.
Meanwhile, in Israel, pressure continues to free the hostages. Monday, Mr Netanyahu was heckled during a speech in Parliament by families who chanted “Now, now!” ». “What if it was your son?” », “eighty days, every minute is hell”could we read on banners.
US strikes in Iraq
Beyond Gaza, the specter of a widening of the conflict still looms, with almost daily exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli army on the border between Lebanon and Israel, and attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels against ships in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea. Attacks attributed to pro-Iranian groups against American troops have also increased in Iraq and Syria.
On Tuesday, the United States announced that it had carried out airstrikes against three sites used by pro-Iranian groups in Iraq. The Iraqi government denounced a “hostile act” who killed a “member” security forces and injured “eighteen people, including civilians”. According to security sources, at least one member of a pro-Iran Iraqi faction was killed and twenty-four others injured.
Iran also accused Israel of killing one of its senior officers in a missile strike in Syria on Monday. The Revolutionary Guards identified this brigadier general, Razi Moussavi, as a “logistics manager of the axis of resistance” to Israel, which includes Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis. “We consider this assassination to be a blatant attack that crosses the line”, Hezbollah reacted. The Israeli army declined to comment. Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi warned that Israel “would certainly pay for this crime”.