Gaza Strip (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Israeli troops and Hamas militants waged heavy fighting in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, continuing to push thousands of displaced people living in “desolate conditions” towards the Palestinian territory's border with Egypt.
In the besieged area, the UN refugee agency (UNRWA) is in the crosshairs of Israeli authorities, who allege some of its employees were involved in the bloody Hamas attack on October 7 that sparked the war.
Israel wants to “ensure that UNRWA no longer plays a role in Gaza after the conflict,” said its diplomatic chief Israel Katz on Saturday. The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas condemned Israeli “threats” against the agency.
Eight countries have suspended their funding of UNRWA since Friday: the United States, Australia, Canada, Finland, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany.
The director of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, considered it “shocking to see funding for the agency suspended in response to the allegations against a small group of its staff”, given that measures have already been taken and aid ” depends on the survival of two million people in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Authority, which partially administers the occupied West Bank, called on those countries to give in and instead provide “maximum support to this international organization” that implements programs essential to the lives and survival of millions of Palestinians in the Middle East.
A broken mirror reflects a person checking the damage to a building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip after an Israeli bomb attack on January 27, 2024 © – / AFP
Fighting is currently focused on Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza, whose two main hospitals have become reception centers for thousands of displaced people.
A 28-year-old displaced man was killed by Israeli gunfire at the entrance to the emergency room of Al-Amal Hospital, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported.
Further south, hundreds of thousands of civilians are gathering in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, where they are living in “catastrophic conditions,” according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
– “Not a safe place” –
According to the United Nations, about 1.7 million of Gaza's more than 2.3 million residents have left their homes since the war began.
Even Rafah, where many sought refuge, was not spared from the bombs. “There is no safe place in the Gaza Strip. Everything that is being said is false,” Mohamed al Chaer said amid the ruins of his former neighborhood in this city near the border with Egypt.
According to AFP images, heavy rains flooded the refugee camps overnight.
“What’s happening doesn’t make any sense. Open the border crossings so we can leave! There is nothing left in Gaza: there are no schools, no education, no basic needs,” said Hind Ahmed, 29.
Map of the southern Gaza Strip with the battle areas and the Nasser and Al Amal hospitals © Nalini Lepetit-Chella, Sophie Ramis, Aníbal Maíz Cáceres, Sophie Ramis, Aníbal Maíz Cáceres, Aníbal Maíz Cáceres / AFP
But an intern reprimands him: “We won’t leave Gaza! These are the Jews who came here, and they are the ones who have to leave!” he says.
On the side of the road, dozens of vendors sell goods from humanitarian aid convoys at double the price, especially canned goods, mattresses and blankets.
The war erupted on Oct. 7 with an invasion by Islamist commandos that killed about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250 in southern Israel, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli data.
According to the Gaza Strip's Ministry of Health, the retaliation with incessant bombings and ground operations in Gaza has so far claimed 26,257 lives, mostly women, children and teenagers.
“Since the morning, massive tank shots have been fired at the western parts of the city, the Khan Younis refugee camp and the area around Nasser Hospital,” where they caused “a power outage,” the Islamist movement Hamas, which is in power, reported. in Gaza since 2007.
At this hospital, the city's largest, Doctors Without Borders said surgical capacity was “almost non-existent” and that “the few remaining medical professionals” lacked supplies.
“Stop the genocide,” a demonstrator shouts during a protest in solidarity with the Palestinian people in front of the Israeli embassy in Athens on January 27, 2024 © Aris Messinis / AFP
According to the World Health Organization, there are 350 patients and around 5,000 displaced people there.
Israel accuses Hamas of digging tunnels under hospitals in the Gaza Strip and using these buildings as command centers.
Meeting in Paris
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague ruled on Friday that Israel must prevent possible acts of “genocide” in Gaza and facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid. However, this court, the UN's highest judicial body, lacks the means to enforce its rulings.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his determination on Saturday to continue the offensive until “Hamas is eliminated.”
“If we do not eliminate the Hamas terrorists (…), the next massacre will only be a matter of time,” he said in a televised speech.
Qatar, Egypt and the United States are trying to mediate in favor of a new ceasefire that would include the release of Palestinian hostages and prisoners, as happened in late November.
A security source told AFP on Friday that the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) would meet with authorities from Israel, Egypt and Qatar “in the coming days in Paris” to try to reach a ceasefire agreement with Hamas achieve.
© 2024 AFP