2023-11-03 06:57:00
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pleaded Friday for “humanitarian pauses” during a visit to Tel Aviv, calling for “do more” to protect the population of Gaza, where the Israeli army is at war against Hamas, continues its ground operations and its deadly strikes.
The powerful leader of Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, ally of Hamas and supported by Iran, accused the United States of being “entirely responsible” for this war triggered on October 7 by the bloody attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement. against Israel, which raises fears of a regional conflagration.
In his first speech since the start of the war, he warned Israel against the “stupidity” of an attack on Lebanon, adding that stopping the “aggression against Gaza” would prevent regional conflict.
In Tel Aviv, Antony Blinken affirmed that it was necessary to “do more” to protect civilians, during his second tour of the Middle East since the start of this war which left thousands dead.
He pleaded for “humanitarian pauses” to allow “a more effective and sustained distribution of aid”, during an interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He indicated shortly after that he refused any “temporary truce” without “the release of the hostages” kidnapped by Hamas.
Mr. Blinken’s visit continues to Jordan, where he is scheduled to meet on Saturday in Amman with the foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as a representative of the Palestinian Authority, to discuss ways to “stop the war in Gaza”, according to Jordanian diplomacy.
“Humanitarian Conference
In France, President Emmanuel Macron announced a “humanitarian conference” on November 9 in Paris, also calling for a humanitarian truce, “because the fight against terrorism does not justify sacrificing civilians.”
For almost a month, the 2.4 million inhabitants of the besieged Gaza Strip have been living under Israeli bombardments, in a catastrophic humanitarian situation.
According to a report published Friday by Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, 9,227 people, including 3,826 children, were killed in Israeli strikes on the territory.
The Hamas Health Ministry further announced that 14 people were killed Friday in an Israeli strike on displaced people fleeing to the south of the Gaza Strip.
In the evening, he reported 13 deaths in a strike that targeted an ambulance at the entrance to al-Chifa hospital, the largest in Gaza, Israel confirming that it had targeted the vehicle used, according to him, “by a cell Hamas terrorist.
In Israel, at least 1,400 people have been killed according to the authorities since the start of the war, the majority of them civilians massacred on the day of the Hamas attack, of violence and on a scale unprecedented since the creation of Israel. in 1948.
More than 240 people were taken hostage by the Islamist movement, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel.
Israel, which promised to “annihilate” Hamas, announced Thursday evening that it had managed to encircle Gaza City, where entire neighborhoods have been transformed into fields of ruins.
“Huge” damage
Visiting a military base near Tel Aviv on Thursday, Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed “impressive successes” on the ground, but also recognized “painful losses”.
Hamas’ military wing warned Israelis on Thursday to expect soldiers to return “in black bags”, and posted videos of fighters emerging from tunnels to attack Israeli tanks.
The army, which reports 341 soldiers killed since October 7, has been carrying out fierce ground fighting, accompanied by bombings, in the north of the Gaza Strip for a week in order to destroy Hamas infrastructure.
Several bombings hit the Palestinian territory on Friday where machine gun fire echoed, according to an AFP journalist.
Hamad Hamada, 28, a resident of Gaza City, survived a bombing. “There was no warning, the house was targeted by a direct strike. It was completely destroyed,” he told AFP on Friday. “Three children from the same family were taken out, the damage is enormous and all the other residents are still under the rubble,” he added.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported incessant strikes around Al-Quds hospital, sowing panic among the 14,000 civilians who took refuge there.
And according to the Hamas government, seven people were killed in a bombing in Jabaliya, a Palestinian refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip already targeted by deadly strikes in previous days, and 15 others in the Zaytoun neighborhood , in Gaza City.
Dismissed workers
Adding to concerns about the fate of civilians, Israel began on Friday to send back to the Gaza Strip, despite the bombings, thousands of Palestinian workers who had been stuck on its soil for almost a month.
On Friday, streams of exhausted Palestinian workers began crossing the Karem Abou Salem border crossing (called Kerem Shalom on the Israeli side), between Israel and the Gaza Strip, at the southeastern tip of the small territory.
“We’ve been in prison for 25 days and today they brought us here, we don’t know at all what’s happening in Gaza,” Nidal Abed told AFP.
On Friday, 17 wounded and 448 foreigners, including 96 children, were able to leave Gaza towards Egypt via the Rafah border post, the only window on the world for the territory, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Health.
The day before, sixty injured Palestinians and some 400 foreigners had left Gaza via this crossing point.
Hospitals at risk
Exchanges of fire are daily on the border between Israel and southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah is very present.
These clashes have left 72 dead in southern Lebanon since October 7, according to an AFP count, including 54 Hezbollah fighters. Six soldiers and a civilian were killed on the Israeli side, according to authorities.
The war has also exacerbated tensions in the occupied West Bank, where more than 140 Palestinians have been killed since October 7 by fire from Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to the Palestinian Authority.
Since October 9, the “complete siege” imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip has deprived the population of deliveries of water, food and electricity.
The territory was already subject to an Israeli land, air and sea blockade since Hamas took power there in 2007.
More than 370 trucks of humanitarian aid have arrived since October 21 according to the UN, which is calling for more massive aid.
At Al-Shifa hospital, the largest in the territory, doctors have repeatedly sounded the alarm about the lack of fuel to run the generators, and are forced to treat patients by the light of their cell phones. .
11/03/2023 21:43:29 – Tel-Aviv (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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