The Israeli army shelled the south of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, January 16, the day after Israel announced the imminent end of the “intensive” phase of the fighting against Hamas, one hundred and two days later. the start of the war which exacerbates regional tensions.
In the morning, explosions and artillery fire rang out in the south of the Gaza Strip, noted a journalist from Agence France-Presse (AFP). During the night, the Israeli army bombarded the Khan Younes sector, the epicenter of its operations for several weeks. Its troops also targeted around a hundred rocket launch facilities in Beit Lahya in the north, killing “dozens of terrorists”, it announced on Tuesday.
Rockets were fired Tuesday morning from Gaza towards southern Israel without causing any injuries, according to Israeli authorities. They were mostly intercepted by the anti-missile system above Ofakim, according to images from AFP-TV.
The health ministry in the Hamas-administered Gaza Strip said Tuesday that 24,285 people have been killed in the enclave since the start of the war between the Israeli army and the Palestinian Islamist movement, the majority of them women, adolescents and children.
According to this report, 61,154 people have also been injured since October 7 and many others remain buried under the rubble. On Israeli soil, 1,140 people were killed, according to a count by Agence France-Presse (AFP) based on official Israeli data.
The Israeli army reported the deaths of two soldiers, bringing to 190 the number of soldiers killed since entering the Gaza Strip on October 27.
Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement to bring in humanitarian aid for the population of the besieged Palestinian territory and medicine for Israeli hostages, the Qatari foreign ministry announced.
The agreement, negotiated by Qatar and France, concerns “the entry of a shipment of humanitarian aid for civilians in the Gaza Strip, particularly in the most affected areas, in exchange for the delivery of medicines to the hostages,” according to ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari.
“The medicines and aid will be sent tomorrow [Wednesday] to the city of Al-Arich” in Egypt, “on board two planes of the Qatari armed forces, with a view to their transfer to the Gaza Strip,” added Mr. Ansari, quoted by the official Qatar News Agency (QNA).
On Tuesday, the European Union added to its list of “terrorists” Yahya Sinouar, the 61-year-old leader of Hamas in Gaza, considered the architect of the October 7 attack on Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz welcomed a “just and moral decision.”
Described as “dying on borrowed time” by the Israeli army, Yahya Sinouar shrouds his movements in the greatest secrecy and has not appeared in public since October.
Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union, reported Monday the death of two Israeli hostages, broadcasting a video where we see a young woman, also hostage and visibly under pressure , announce these deaths. Hamas’ military wing blamed their deaths on “Zionist” bombings; the Israeli army rejected these “lies.”
On the Israeli-Lebanese border, where exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces are daily, the Israeli army announced Tuesday afternoon new air and artillery strikes against “dozens of positions, military structures and weapons infrastructure” of the Lebanese movement in Wadi Slouqi in southern Lebanon.
In Lebanon, a security source spoke of “fourteen raids against Wadi Slouqi” carried out by Israel, adding that these were the “most intense” bombings on the same area since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
The war is exacerbating regional tensions between Israel and its allies, primarily the United States, and the “axis of resistance” established by Iran, which brings together the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah and the Yemeni Houthi rebels.
The Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, announced on Tuesday that they had fired ballistic missiles in Syria, and especially near Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan. According to the official Iranian news agency IRNA, they destroyed a “spy” center attributed to Israel, the existence of which a senior Iraqi official denied by denouncing “false allegations”. The Iraqi government, an ally of Iran but also a partner of the United States, condemned an “aggression” of its sovereignty and recalled its ambassador to Tehran “for consultations”.
Off the coast of Yemen, a Greek bulk carrier was hit by a missile, maritime risk company Ambrey announced on Tuesday. An American cargo ship was hit on Monday in the Gulf of Aden by a Houthi missile. At the end of last week, Washington and London bombed Houthi positions in Yemen to try to stop their attacks in the Red Sea, which they say they are carrying out in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.
Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s “targeted” “multiple missile” operation against a Greek bulk carrier, saying they will continue their attacks “to defend Yemen and in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”
The Zografia ship was heading towards Israel when it was targeted off the coast of Yemen, after “its crew refused repeated calls (…) and warning messages from the naval forces” of the Houthis, according to a statement from the latter .