2023-10-30 02:19:00
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas reported, this Sunday (29), “intense fighting” with Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip, where the United Nations fears a collapse of “public order” in the face of looting of its distribution centers and humanitarian aid. limited that reaches the territory, besieged and under intense bombardment.
World authorities urged to increase aid to the territory, governed by Hamas, and protesters around the world called for a ceasefire, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu anticipated a “long and difficult war”.
The Gaza Strip, where more than two million people live confined in 362 km2, has been subjected to intense Israeli bombing since the attack launched by Hamas on October 7 on Israel, which left 1,400 dead, most of them civilians, and in which 230 people were taken hostage.
Retaliatory bombings left 8,000 people dead in Gaza, according to the territory’s Ministry of Health, under Hamas power since 2007.
Despite calls for a truce, Israel has intensified its airstrikes and ground incursions into Gaza since Friday.
“Our fighters are currently engaged in intense fighting with machine guns and anti-tank weapons against enemy occupation forces in northwestern Gaza,” the Ezzedin al Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister, conservative Benjamin Netanyahu, warned the day before that the war against the Islamist group – which he promised to “annihilate” – would be “long and difficult”.
His Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, reported, in turn, that with the land incursions a “new phase” of the war had begun.
This Sunday, the Israeli army reported having hit hundreds of Hamas targets and increasing its ground troops in the territory. It also reported rocket fire from Gaza into central and southern Israel.
– Looting of UN supply centers –
Tens of thousands of people protested this Sunday in Morocco, Spain and Greece, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
In the Russian republic of Dagestan, with a Muslim majority, dozens of protesters invaded Makhachkala airport, following the announcement that a plane from Israel was arriving.
The disturbances led the Russian air controller, Rosaviatsia, to suspend all flights to and from this terminal. At night (afternoon in Brazil), the authorities reported that the forces of order had regained control of the situation.
The situation in Gaza becomes “increasingly desperate” as the hours pass, warned UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres.
The Gaza Strip has been subject to an Israeli land, sea and air blockade for 16 years, in addition to, since October 9, a “total harassment” of the territory. Its residents desperately seek food, water, medicine and refuge.
The Palestinian Red Crescent organization reported that Israel repeatedly bombs the surroundings of the Al-Quds hospital, in central Gaza.
The UN Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) reported that thousands of people ransacked several of its distribution centers in search of flour or hygiene items.
“This is a worrying sign that civil order is beginning to crumble,” the agency warned.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron insisted on the need for “urgent humanitarian support in Gaza”, the Prime Minister’s office said, following a conversation between the two leaders.
Hamas, in turn, urged Egypt to act “decisively” to speed up the entry of aid into Gaza.
Similarly, International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan warned that “preventing the arrival of aid [a Gaza] may constitute a crime.”
– Dropper aid –
In Rafah, in southern Gaza, Etidal al Masri was queuing in the hope of being able to buy some bread.
The inhabitants of Gaza “now we have to queue to get bread, take a shower and even sleep”, lamented this displaced person from northern Gaza.
The UN estimates that there are around 1.4 million people displaced in Gaza by the incessant bombings and Israel’s orders to evacuate the north of the territory.
Ten trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered this Sunday from Egypt, increasing to 94 the total number of vehicles that have managed to enter Gaza since October 21, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan called on Israel to “take all possible steps … to distinguish between Hamas – the terrorists who are legitimate military targets – and civilians, who are not.”
– Netanyahu rene-se com parentes de refns –
Netanyahu met on Saturday with family members of the hostages, who are increasingly unhappy with the “complete uncertainty” about their return, according to Haim Rubinstein, his spokesman.
Four women have been released so far and the leader of the Islamist group in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, said he was ready for an “immediate” exchange of the hostages in his possession for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
Israel’s ground operations increase fears that the conflict will spread and that other countries will decide to intervene.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, whose country supports Hamas, declared that Israel had crossed “red lines” by intensifying its offensive.
Tensions are multiplying on the border between Israel and Lebanon, with new exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and the Hezbollah group.
Violence is also increasing in the occupied West Bank, where the Ministry of Health has reported more than 110 Palestinian deaths since October 7.
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