Deadly fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas raged on Saturday, January 27, in the south of the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of trapped civilians survived in disastrous humanitarian conditions, in the rain and cold . Several countries have suspended funding to the UN agency responsible for aiding civilians, UNRWA, in the besieged and devastated Palestinian territory, after Israeli accusations that some of its employees were involved in the attack bloody attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas against Israel.
The town of Khan Younes, in the south of Gaza, considered by Israel as a stronghold of the Islamist movement, is now at the heart of the war triggered by this attack. The fighting continued on Saturday, according to witnesses, particularly around the city’s two main hospitals, Nasser and Al-Amal, which house sick people but also thousands of displaced people and are now only operating slowly.
The health ministry in the Hamas-administered Gaza Strip announced that 135 people were killed overnight in the city. The attack by Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel, resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to a count by Agence France-Presse ( AFP) based on official Israeli figures. In response, Israel vowed to “annihilate” Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007, and launched a vast military operation which left 26,257 people dead, the vast majority women, children and adolescents, according to an updated report. of the Ministry of Health administered by the movement.
As the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Finland and Italy have suspended their aid to UNRWA, after the United States which had announced the day before to suspend all future financing. Israel wants to “ensure” that UNRWA no longer plays any role in Gaza after the war, its head of diplomacy, Israel Katz, said on Saturday, while the Islamist movement denounced “threats” from Israel to against this agency.
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) needs “maximum support” and “not that support and assistance be cut off,” Palestinian Civil Affairs Minister Hussein Al told X -Sheikh. “We call on countries that have announced the cessation of their support for UNRWA to immediately reverse their decision, which involves serious risks” for humanitarian assistance, while the war rages between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, added Mr. Cheikh, also secretary general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
A few kilometers south of Khan Younes, hundreds of thousands of civilians are massed in Rafah, stuck in a cramped perimeter against the closed border with Egypt. More than 1.3 million people are crammed into the crowded city, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha). “Heavy rains flood thousands of displaced people in Rafah, Khan Younes” as well as in Nouseirat, Deir Al-Balah and Gaza City further north, said civil defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal . But Rafah is not spared from the bombs either.
“Massive tank fire has been targeting the western sectors of the city, the Khan Younès refugee camp and the surroundings of the Nasser hospital since the morning,” where they caused “a power cut,” said Saturday the Hamas government. The “surgical capacity” of the Nasser hospital is “virtually non-existent” and the “few members of the medical staff who remained must contend with very low stocks of medical equipment,” according to Doctors Without Borders.
“Hundreds of patients and health staff” from this hospital “fled. There are currently 350 patients and 5,000 displaced people remaining in the hospital,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said on X. “The hospital is running out of fuel, food and supplies,” he added, calling for an “immediate ceasefire.” The Palestinian Red Crescent on Saturday once again condemned the siege “for the sixth consecutive day” of its hospital, Al-Amal, by the Israeli army and announced that a 28-year-old man had been killed at the entrance of the establishment’s emergencies by Israeli fire.
African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat has welcomed the ruling by the International Court of Justice which called on Israel to prevent any possible acts of “genocide” in Gaza. “The decision confirms respect for international law and the need for Israel to imperatively comply with its obligations under the Genocide Convention,” Mr. Faki said in a statement posted on social media.
The International Court of Justice in The Hague delivered its first judgment on Friday in this historic case at the initiative of South Africa, a member of the African Union. While the war knows no respite, Qatar, Egypt and the United States are trying to mediate to reach a new truce, which would include the release of Palestinian hostages and prisoners.
The director of the CIA, the American intelligence service, will meet “in the coming days in Paris” his Israeli and Egyptian counterparts, as well as the Qatari prime minister, to try to conclude a truce agreement, according to a security source in the AFP.
“It’s not a war, it’s a genocide”: some 20,000 people (according to the prefecture), carrying Palestinian flags and chanting slogans against Israel, marched in Madrid on Saturday to protest against the war in Gaza.
Behind a banner reading “Stop the genocide in Palestine”, the crowd waved Palestinian flags as well as a few South African flags, much rarer, the day after the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which called on Israel to “take all measures in your power” to avoid genocide in Gaza. Many participants carried a “Boycott Israel” or “Genocidal Israel” sign.
Within the European Union (EU), Spain has been one of the most critical voices towards Israel in the conflict sparked by the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,140 dead, mostly civilians.
