The Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip claimed almost 100 lives in the last 24 hours alone. Human losses are mounting after bombings by the troops of the Jewish-majority country between the night of Wednesday and the early hours of this Thursday, February 22, hit Khan Younis and Rafah in the south of the enclave with special forces. The World Health Organization (WHO) stressed that the Gaza Strip area had become a “death zone” after denouncing recorded atrocities. At least one person was killed and five injured in a shooting attack by three Palestinians near Jerusalem.
Rafah is under constant air fire, while a ground attack by the Israeli army has not yet been completed.
The Al-Farouk Mosque was reduced to rubble and several houses and the facades of adjacent buildings were destroyed on Wednesday night and in the early hours of February 22 in this city in the far south of the Gaza Strip, where most are located. destroyed by Israeli bombings. The population is internally displaced.
“We could not sleep. The noise of the explosions and the planes above us didn't stop,” said Jehad Abouemad, 34, who lives in a tent with his family in Rafah.
The attacks also affected the neighboring city of Khan Younis and other cities. At least 97 people have died and 130 have been injured in these operations in the last 24 hoursstated the local health ministry.
But the death toll could be higher because several residents were left under the rubble or in areas inaccessible to emergency services, local officials emphasize.
“Israeli occupation aircraft attacked a home belonging to the Qatifan family in the Al-Sabra neighborhood in the center of the city, causing the deaths of seven people and several victims, mostly children,” Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, citing medical sources to attacks in Gaza City, in the north of the enclave, where some families still remain.
File-A house destroyed after an Israeli attack in Rafah on February 21, 2024. © Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Portal
Gaza health authorities also reported the deaths of at least 20 people in airstrikes on two houses in the central Gaza Strip.
The loss of life is unceasing, the vast majority of which are civilians. All in a besieged area that its residents cannot leave. According to the latest Health Portfolio report published this Thursday, 29,410 Palestinians have died under Israeli fire since the offensive began more than four months agoin response to the Hamas attack on October 7, in which 1,200 people were killed and around 240 were kidnapped.
Israel wants to return displaced people to the northern Gaza Strip
Amid reports of deaths at the hands of Israeli troops That country's army assured that it had resumed its operations in Gaza City, where it said it had killed about 20 suspected Hamas militants. and destroyed dozens of targets belonging to the Islamist group.
However, human rights organizations and several governments, including recently the United States, point out that Israel's retaliation is “excessive.”
According to local press reports, it emerged this Thursday that the Israeli Prime Minister had indicated that his forces aimed to send the residents of this part of the enclave back to the northern Gaza Strip as soon as security was restored.
“In the south, we have a simple goal: total victory (…) We are on the path to eliminating Hamas and releasing our hostages.” “We will not rest until we have achieved total victory,” one said Netanyahu statement quoted by the Times of Israel newspaper.
Thousands of Palestinians fleeing the northern Gaza Strip move south as Israeli tanks advance and attack more sites in the enclave, including several hospitals and a school, November 10, 2023. © Portal/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
“In the north, our goal is simple: to give something back to the residents. “To bring residents back, we have to bring back a sense of security, and to bring back a sense of security, we have to bring back security, and that’s what we’re going to do,” he continued.
It is not clear when these new transfers would occur. Meanwhile, the international community continues to call for the Jewish-majority state to refrain from invading the south, as it recently warned. Benjamin Netanyahu's government is promising “evacuations” to “minimize as much as possible” the number of civilian deaths. So far he hasn't reported how he would do it.
WHO: Gaza has become a “death zone”.
After more than four months of siege on the population of the Gaza Strip, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed that conditions in Gaza were “inhumane” and the enclave had become a “zone of death.”
“What world do we live in when people can't get food or water, when they can't walk to get medical care?” What world do we live in when health workers are at risk of being bombed while “It saves lives, or when hospitals have to close because there is no electricity or medicine… or because they become military targets,” Tedros asked.
In addition, the WHO representative denounced that since the beginning of the current war Severe malnutrition has increased from 1% to over 15% and the situation will worsen as violence continues and access to humanitarian aid is prevented.
“We need a ceasefire now. We need the hostages to be released,” demanded the WHO Director General in a press conference.
At least one dead and five injured after armed attack near Jerusalem
Violence from the Gaza war continues to spread to other Palestinian areas. According to Israeli authorities, this Thursday three Palestinians opened fire on motorists near an Israeli checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, near the disputed Jerusalem.
One person died and five were injured in the incident, emergency services said. The Israeli rescue service said a woman was seriously injured.
Regarding the alleged attackers, the police assured that facility officials and civilians at the scene shot two of the gunmen and injured the third.
BREAKING: Gunshot attack on Route Highway 1 near Ma'ale Adumim, 7.0 km east of Jerusalem in Judea on Thursday morning. Three terrorists came with automatic weapons and started firing at vehicles. One dead and seven wounded. The murdered man was later identified as Matan… pic.twitter.com/53FGAzuJQB
— The Jewish Voice (@TJVNEWS) February 22, 2024
Likewise, Israeli authorities said the attackers were residents of Bethlehem, a Palestinian city in the West Bank.
Israel's national security minister, the far-right Itamar Ben-Gvir, used the opportunity to call for more roadblocks to be set up and asserted that Israel's security was “above” Palestinians' freedom of movement.
Since the escalation of the conflict, deaths of Palestinian citizens at the hands of the Israeli military and extremist settlers have also increased, which is why the US government even imposed sanctions on those involved in these events.
Israel assures it is looking for future Gaza officials “without ties to Hamas.”
As discussions continue about what would happen to the Gaza Strip if the ongoing deadly war ends, new plans are being released from Israel.
The Jewish-majority government is trying to recruit Palestinians with no ties to Hamas to manage civil affairs in areas of the Gaza Strip that are earmarked as testing grounds for future administration of the territory after the end of the current conflict, a government official said. Netanyahu government.
The plan would exclude all employees of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. “Those who participated or did not condemn October 7 are excluded,” the source explained.
“We are looking for the right people to take power (…) But it is clear that it will take time, because no one will want to run if they believe that Hamas will put a bullet in their head,” the Israeli official added.
The new scenario for Gaza would progress once Israel achieves its stated goal of “eliminating” Hamas.
File Palestinians walk along a main street in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on February 19, 2024. © Mohammed Abed/AFP
The project “could end once Hamas is destroyed and does not pose a threat to Israel or Gaza,” the official quoted by Portal added.
However, Benjamin Netanyahu's government has not yet confirmed this information.
Until last November, Netanyahu had a different plan. Then, in an interview with American broadcaster ABC News, the prime minister said his troops would take control of the enclave for an “indefinite” period of time to ensure the security of Israelis.
His government has subsequently clarified this position and some of its officials have indicated that their country has no intention of reoccupying Gaza.
With Portal, EFE and local media