The war between Israel and Hamas has left 31,726 dead in the Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, according to a report released Monday March 18 by the Palestinian Islamist movement’s health ministry. On the Israeli side, around 1,160 people died – most of them also civilians, killed during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 – according to a count by Agence France-Presse (AFP), established from official Israeli sources.
The Israeli army announced that it had “eliminated” twenty Palestinian fighters at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, where it launched an operation before dawn on Monday. “Dozens of arrested suspects are currently being questioned,” she added in a statement.
Justifying its operation by “the presence of high-ranking Hamas terrorists”, the Israeli army declared, earlier in the day, to have exchanged fire with members of the Islamist movement “shooting at it from several buildings of the hospital “. She then claimed to have “eliminated” during these battles Faiq Mabhouh, presented as “responsible for coordinating Hamas terrorist activities” in Gaza.
Residents of the Al-Rimal neighborhood, where the hospital is located, said that “more than forty-five Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers” had entered their part of the city. An AFP journalist reported that airstrikes had targeted several buildings in the neighborhood around the establishment. He also assured that he had seen “hundreds of people, mostly children, women and the elderly fleeing their homes” towards other areas of the city.
According to the Hamas health ministry, “tens of thousands” of people were in the hospital, where people displaced by the fighting live.
The Gaza Strip is now “the largest open-air cemetery” after having been “the largest open-air prison”, denounced Monday the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell. In the Palestinian enclave, “we are no longer on the verge of famine, we are facing a famine that affects thousands of people,” he also said. Yet “hundreds of trucks” carrying food and humanitarian aid are waiting to enter Gaza, failing to be authorized by Israeli authorities. “Famine is used as a weapon of war,” Mr. Borrell again denounced, as he had already done last week before the United Nations in New York.
“It is time for (…) Josep Borrell to stop attacking Israel and recognize our right to defend ourselves against the crimes of Hamas,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz immediately responded on X. “Israel is authorizing a major humanitarian aid to Gaza, by land, air and sea for anyone who wants to help,” he said.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, announced on Monday on X that Israel had banned him from entering Gaza. Contacted by AFP, Israeli authorities refused to comment.
UNRWA has been at the center of controversy since Israel accused twelve of its employees at the end of January of being involved in the attack perpetrated by Hamas. On Monday, Israeli government spokesperson Avi Hyman reiterated these accusations, saying that some UNRWA employees had “actively participated in the October 7 [2023] massacre.”
Around fifteen countries, notably the United States, had suspended the equivalent of more than half of the funds received in 2023 by UNRWA at the end of January. Since then, several countries have resumed their payments, like Australia on Friday.
Benjamin Netanyahu told Joe Biden he was determined to “achieve all the objectives of the war”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Joe Biden on Monday that Israel was determined to “achieve all the objectives of the war” in Gaza, and in particular “the elimination of Hamas”, according to a press release published by his services.
For his part, Joe Biden considered that a major ground offensive by the Israeli army in Rafah would be “a mistake”, and he told Benjamin Netanyahu that he was “deeply concerned” about it, said his security adviser National, Jake Sullivan. During this exchange, the American president requested that an Israeli delegation be sent to the United States to discuss this planned offensive, and the head of the Israeli government accepted, he said.
This telephone conversation was, according to the White House, the first between the two men in more than a month. Joe Biden, who has supported Israel almost unconditionally since the Hamas attack, is increasingly distancing himself from Benjamin Netanyahu. He recently estimated that the Israeli Prime Minister was “doing more harm than good” to his country with his conduct of the war in Gaza.
On Sunday, the Israeli prime minister warned that “international pressure” would not prevent him from launching an operation in Rafah, while assuring that he would not do so while the population was “stuck in place”.
