A deluge of fire fell on Gaza on Friday evening, just before the Jewish state announced that it was “expanding” its ground operations in the territory – without this, it seems, being the major offensive expected since the start of the conflict caused by the barbaric Hamas attack three weeks ago.
After the Israeli announcement, Hamas reported heavy fighting in the Gaza Strip overnight. “We are facing Israeli ground incursions in Beit Hanoun (north) and al-Boureij (center). Heavy fighting is underway,” Hamas’ military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement.
An Israeli army spokesperson told AFP overnight from Friday to Saturday that Israeli forces were operating “inside the Gaza Strip as they did” the previous night. . The Israeli army then led an incursion into the small territory before withdrawing.
These fighting took place after the army announced that it had intensified its strikes “very significantly” on the Gaza Strip and claimed it wanted to “expand” its ground operations there.
Human Rights Watch fears “mass atrocities” with communications cut
The Israeli strikes, very intense according to AFP images, have reached an unprecedented scale since the start of the war. On Friday evening, the sky over the Gaza Strip was red and orange, ablaze with explosions and the colors of fires ignited by the strikes, according to live AFP images.
At the same time, communications and the internet were cut in Gaza, according to the Hamas government, in power in this territory since 2007. AFP journalists explained that they could only communicate in areas where they received the Israeli network. The UN, WHO and many organizations have been unable to reach their staff in Gaza and have expressed concern
The cutoff of telecommunications risks “serving as a cover for mass atrocities”, warned the human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Saturday. “This blackout of information risks serving as a cover for mass atrocities and contributing to impunity for human rights violations,” lamented HRW official Deborah Brown in a statement.
The UN, which is calling for a truce, has said it fears an “unprecedented avalanche of suffering” in the small Palestinian territory of 362 km2, besieged and deprived of everything, where some 2.4 million inhabitants are crowded together.
Non-binding vote at the UN for a “humanitarian truce”
Hamas called on the world to “act immediately to stop Israeli bombing, while saying it is “ready” in the event of a ground offensive. The Palestinian Islamist movement also announced that it had fired “salvos of rockets” at Israel.
European Union leaders have called for “pauses” in the conflict and the opening of humanitarian corridors. The United States, Israel’s ally, also said it was in favor of “humanitarian pauses”. The UN General Assembly on Friday called by a large majority for an “immediate humanitarian truce”. The text was described as “infamy” by Israel, but praised by Hamas.
Since October 21, 74 trucks of humanitarian aid have arrived from Egypt in the Gaza Strip, according to the UN, when at least a hundred are needed per day.