On the 160th day of the war between Israel and Hamas, which began after the terrorist attack carried out by the Islamist movement on October 7, 2023, Israeli bombings continue without respite.
According to the Hamas health ministry, the strikes left at least 69 people dead in twenty-four hours. The Israeli offensive, whose stated ambition is to wipe out the Islamist movement, has so far left 31,341 dead, the health ministry of the Gaza Strip, administered by Hamas, said on Tuesday.
The Hamas government counted more than forty airstrikes on Thursday on Rafah and the neighboring town of Khan Younes (south of the enclave), as well as on Nousseirat, Jabaliya and Beit Hanoun, in the north of the territory.
Aid by land only enters the enclave in trickles, and its distribution, particularly in the north of the enclave, where the situation is critical for 300,000 people, remains difficult. “Everyone is scrambling violently to get a box for their children, to collect a can of tuna or beans,” a witness told AFP. “All the people are hungry and exhausted.” In the south of the territory, in Rafah, AFP images on Thursday showed a crowd rushing to collect a few bags of flour that had fallen from a truck delivering aid.
In addition to the airdrops, a maritime corridor was opened on Tuesday between Cyprus and Gaza (approximately 270 kilometers apart) to deliver aid with a first ship loaded with 200 tons of food. This boat from the Spanish NGO Open Arms was on Thursday afternoon off the Israeli city of Ashdod, north of Gaza, according to the specialist site Marine Traffic.
Israel on Thursday called on the United Nations to send more humanitarian convoys to the northern Gaza Strip, rejecting criticism from NGOs that its inspections are slowing down the delivery of aid. “If the UN wants to see more aid arriving in northern Gaza, it needs to coordinate more convoys,” said Elad Goren, an official with Cogat, the Israeli defense ministry arm that coordinates civilian activities. of the army in the Palestinian territories.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed economist Mohammed Mustafa as the new prime minister, following the resignation of the previous government on February 26, the official WAFa agency announced on Thursday. Mr. Mustafa, former chairman of the Palestine Investment Fund and economic adviser to President Abbas, takes office in the midst of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
This is the second time since the start of the year that Israeli settlers have been targeted by Washington, which is increasing its pressure on its ally in the context of the war with Hamas in Gaza. These new sanctions aim to “hold accountable those who perpetuate violence and provoke unrest in the West Bank,” Matthew Miller, spokesperson for the US State Department, said in a statement.
The Treasury Department specifies that these sanctions target three individuals, Zvi Bar Yosef, Neriya Ben Pazi and Moshe Sharvit, who, according to the United States, are young Israeli citizens who live in the West Bank. Thursday’s sanctions also target two agricultural communities, “Moshes farm” and “Zvis farm”.
Furthermore, the leader of the Democratic majority in the US Senate, Chuck Schumer, called on Thursday March 14 for the organization of elections in Israel, describing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “an obstacle to peace”.
“A coalition led by Netanyahu no longer corresponds to Israel’s needs after October 7 [2023]”, the start date of the war with Hamas, declared the influential American elected official, of Jewish faith, during a speech before the Senate.
“You must match us,” Brigadier General Dan Goldfus, commander of the 98th Division, deployed in Khan Younes, in the south of the Gaza Strip, told political leaders on Wednesday. “We will not shy away from our responsibilities. We regret our blatant failure on October 7 [2023], but we are moving forward,” he told reporters, calling on Israeli leaders “to move beyond extremism and come together.”
The general also called on political leaders to ensure that “everyone takes part” in the military effort, in a veiled reference to ultra-Orthodox (“haredim”) Jews, who may be exempt from military service. These comments, breaking the traditional neutrality observed by Israeli officers towards political power, led to General Goldfus being summoned by the military command.
An Israeli soldier was “seriously injured” Thursday in a stabbing attack in the south of the country, in a commercial area near Beit Kama. The soldier was “seriously injured,” Israeli police said. “The initial results of the investigation showed that a terrorist entered the restaurant, stabbed a soldier who returned fire and neutralized him,” police said in a statement.
Kobi Arush, a police spokesperson in southern Israel, later told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the attacker was dead. The soldier, aged around fifty, was evacuated to Soroka hospital in Beersheba, by the Magen David Adom (MDA), the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross.
