2023-12-18 18:08:15
Up to 19,453 people have been killed, of which an estimated 70% are women, girls and boys, and another 52,286 have been injured since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip..
Israel continues to hit hard all of Gaza and the people who live there, and focuses its attacks on the areas around Gaza City and Jabaliya in the northern half, and around Khan Yunis in the southern area. While, the civilian population remains in a desperate situation, fleeing bombing and death with a complete lack of supplies.
The situation in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza as of December 18 / Infographic: EA
Israeli attacks have diversified in recent days since, although previously they had focused more on the northern half, In recent weeks they have begun to have a dual objective: both the northern half with Gaza and Jabaliya, and the southern half with Khan Yunis.
In the northern half, Israel continues its systematic attacks by land and air. In the already badly damaged city of Gaza, Israel continues to harass various infrastructures, once again affecting several hospitals, most of them already unusable, and the Gaza University. This advance and persistence of the attacks has caused, according to the Israelis, some Hamas members to begin to surrender. On the outskirts of the Gazan capital, one of the most talked-about events of recent days took place, when three Israeli hostages from Hamas were mistakenly shot dead by the Israeli army itself, even though they were carrying a white flag.
Near the capital is the Jabaliya refugee camp, also badly hit in recent days with more systematic attacks. Israel called on the civilian population to leave, subsequently carrying out a massive bombardment over the weekend that caused more than a hundred fatalities.
As for the southern half, Khan Yunis continues to be surrounded by Israeli tanks, being subjected to a ground attack, with tanks and infantry, and continuous bombing. that affect the population that had fled there from the north of the Strip. These attacks have affected the road that connects this town with neighboring Rafah, a town that has also been bombed during Israel’s offensives.
Israel’s excuse for these methodical bombings is its struggle to deactivate and destroy the various infrastructures that Hamas would have in Gazan territory.. In this sense, Israel has announced the discovery of a tunnel of more than 400 meters near the northern Erez Pass. To put an end to these underground networks, in addition to bombing them, Israel would have pumped seawater through some tunnels to render them useless.
As the Israeli offensives progress, the situation for Gaza’s civilian population is becoming more desperate, if it were possible. The absolute lack of supplies and basic survival materials that the civilian population has experienced since the beginning of the conflict is increasingly aggravated., as the arrival of humanitarian aid was delayed again due to the evolution of the conflict towards the south. The lack of physical supplies has been joined in recent days by a new communications blackout, this time lasting for several days.
The exodus of the Palestinian population is continuous, with successive calls from Israel to the Palestinian civilian population to flee from this or that settlement: first from the northern half to the south, then those who had arrived in Khan Yunis also had to leave and, recently, they also urged the population of Jabaliya to flee from there. In this continuous dynamic of expulsion of the civilian population, the last The general message was to try to confine the Gazans around the city of Rafah and the small southern coastal strip of Al Mawasi.
But violence does not continue only in Gaza, but in the countries around Israel there is no progress towards peace either. Clashes in the West Bank continue on an almost daily basis, reaching almost 300 deaths since the beginning of the war in Gaza.. In fact, a general strike was declared in the West Bank to protest against Israeli violence in both Gaza and the West Bank.
While clashes with Hezbollah continue on the border with Lebanon and skirmishes even reach into Syrian territory, foreign attention has somewhat shifted towards the activities of Yemen’s Houthi rebels. This group has announced its intention to attack merchant ships entering the Red Sea bound for Israel, where several boats of various nationalities have already been disabled with drones launched by the Houthis.
But the greatest progress on the foreign issue has occurred in the diplomatic field. It’s been several days since At the UN, a request for a ceasefire in Gaza was rejected in a vote where the US showed its refusal, and has exercised its right of veto, where the United Kingdom abstained.. After that first failed attempt at a common international position, there have been attempts to achieve a UN resolution to stop the violence in Gaza. In recent days, a new call for a ceasefire has emerged led by Germany, France and the United Kingdom, while The US is beginning to lean towards a more moderate stance, sending hidden messages to Israel in which it asks for greater caution in its attacks as well as the protection of the civilian population. to avoid unnecessary deaths.
#Map #war #Israel #Gaza #December