2023-10-08 18:45:31
The toll is growing. The conflict between Israel and Hamas has left nearly a thousand dead on both sides in less than 48 hours, according to new official counts published this Sunday. More than 600 people have been killed in Israel, data on the Government Press Office (GPO) Facebook account shows. Added to this are the 2,000 injured recorded in the country, 200 of whom are “in critical condition”, according to a GPO official. In the Gaza Strip under Hamas control since 2007, 370 Palestinians were killed, local authorities announced, and nearly 2,000 injured.
Israeli army aerial replicas
The Israeli army has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers to regain full control of the southern desert regions near the Gaza Strip, with the aim of rescuing remaining Israeli hostages and evacuating everyone residents of the region between now and Monday morning in order to comb the area. Hamas took “more than 100 prisoners,” the GPO said on Sunday.
Seeking to regain control after the surprise offensive launched on Saturday at dawn in the middle of Shabbat, the weekly Jewish rest, Israeli forces continued to track down Hamas elements infiltrated in southern Israel on Sunday and continued their airstrikes against targets in Gaza, where more buildings were destroyed.
“We will (…) kill every terrorist present in Israel,” declared army spokesperson General Daniel Hagari. Israeli forces said they had retaken the police station in Sderot, after having “neutralized 10 terrorists who were there.” An AFP journalist noted that the building was completely gutted.
A “long and difficult” war
“The first phase is being completed (…) with the elimination of the vast majority of enemy forces which have infiltrated our territory,” declared Benjamin Netanyahu, warning that “the war would be long and difficult”.
A 37-year-old Israeli woman said she was horrified to see several members of her family kidnapped in videos from Gaza, including her cousin and her children, aged nine months and three years. “This is the only confirmation we have,” Yifat Zailer told AFP by telephone, his voice breaking, adding that he had no information about his cousin’s husband and his elderly parents.
Under the cover of a barrage of rockets fired at Israel, Hamas fighters, aboard vehicles, boats and even motorized paragliders, made use of the imposing barrier around Gaza on Saturday, attacking military positions and civilians in the street.
A former Israeli soldier said the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, which remains a national trauma in Israel, was “small matter” compared to Saturday’s Hamas raid, adding that it was a “very serious failure “.
“A phase of destruction”
Israel was further attacked on its northern border with Lebanon. Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas and Iran, fired shells into a contested area of the border, prompting an Israeli drone strike on a Hezbollah target in southern Lebanon. But the front then remained calm.
In Egypt, two Israeli tourists were killed by a police officer who shot at them in Alexandria, according to a media report. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian armed group, claimed to have captured “many soldiers”. “What happened is unprecedented in Israel,” admitted Benjamin Netanyahu.
Faced with the Israeli counter-offensive, “we fear the destruction and the end of civil society in the Gaza Strip (…). We are entering a phase of destruction,” said Chadi al-Assi, a 29-year-old Gaza resident.
Security Council meeting
The Hamas offensive was launched 50 years and one day after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war which took Israel completely by surprise, leading to the deaths of 2,600 Israelis in three weeks of fighting.
Israel has occupied the West Bank, a Palestinian territory, and the eastern part of Jerusalem since 1967, and has imposed a blockade on Gaza for more than fifteen years. Deliveries of electricity, food and goods to the Palestinian territory are suspended.
The Hamas attack was condemned by the West, the United States will “probably” give details of new military aid to Israel on Sunday, said the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken. The UN Security Council is due to hold an emergency meeting on the situation on Sunday.
This offensive was launched while negotiations between Israel and Saudi Arabia under the aegis of the United States seemed to be accelerating with a view to normalization, a major rapprochement condemned by Hamas and its Iranian ally. “Iran supports the self-defense of the Palestinian nation,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi declared on Sunday.
At the Vatican, Pope Francis called for “attacks to stop” in Israel, saying “terrorism and war lead to no solution.”
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