2023-11-09 01:45:00
According to the United Nations, thousands have been displaced from the Gaza Strip after the beginning of the conflict. /Photo: AFP.
Some 50,000 Palestinians fled this Wednesday from the northern Gaza Strip, where the Israeli Army is tightening the “circle” around the Islamist movement Hamas and fighting its militants hand-to-hand in the center of Gaza City, while calls for humanitarian truces and the UN warned that the reception centers are “overcrowded.”
“Today we have seen 50,000 Gazans leave northern Gaza towards the south. They leave because they understood that Hamas lost control of the north and that the south is safer”said military spokesman Daniel Hagari during a press conference in which he specified that in the south there is “a protected area where there is medicine, water and food.”
Despite the opening of the corridor, which took place between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. (5 a.m. and 10 a.m. in Argentina), a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces urged civilians to worry about their own safety, hinting that The bombings would continue.
70% of the Gazan population has abandoned their homes, according to UN figures.
“The majority, including children, the elderly and people with disabilities, arrived on foot and with a minimum amount of property”United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned this Wednesday about a drastic increase in Palestinians displaced from the north of the Gaza Strip during the day on Tuesday, in the midst of the intensification of the Israeli military offensive in the area after the attacks carried out on October 7 by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
According to OCHA, It is estimated that “more than 15,000 people” used the “corridor” opened by the Israeli Army on Tuesday for the departure of the population to the south of the enclave, a figure that “triples the estimate” of the previous day.
“The majority, including children, the elderly and people with disabilities, arrived on foot and with a minimal amount of property. Some internally displaced people said they had to cross Israeli checkpoints to reach the area and witnessed arrests by Israeli forces. Israelis,” he added.
????For the 4th day in a row, the @IDF opened an evacuation corridor for civilians in northern Gaza to move southwards. Since 10:00 am today, thousands of Gazans passed through.
The corridor will be open until 14:00 so that Gazans in the north can evacuate for their safety. pic.twitter.com/VTin4VduPW— COGAT (@cogatonline) November 8, 2023
The organization noted that “around 1.5 million people” are displaced within the Gaza Stripincluding approximately 725,000 people who have sought refuge in 149 facilities of the United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA), while 122,000 are in hospitals, churches and public buildings.
“Overpopulation remains a major concern,” warned OCHAwhich stressed that “more than 557,000 people are sheltered in 92 UNRWA facilities in the south, where the shelters cannot continue to receive new arrivals.”
Hamas, for its part, accused UNRWA of having “colluded” with Israel for the “forced displacement” of the population from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip.
“Unrwa and its leaders are responsible for this humanitarian catastrophe, (since they) bowed from the first moment to the dictates of the (Israeli) occupation, abandoning their positions and renouncing their responsibility towards hundreds of thousands of inhabitants” of the north. from Gaza, said the head of the press service of the Hamas Government, Salama Maruf.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied that there were negotiations with Hamas in Qatar to release hostages and establish a three-day truce.
“I would like to put an end to all kinds of false rumors that come to us from all sides and reiterate something clearly: there will be no ceasefire without the release of our hostages,” Netanyahu declared.
650 trucks carrying essential aid have entered #Gaza since 21 October. But people need much more.
Drinking water brought in serves just 4% of Gaza’s residents. Desperately needed fuel remains banned.
Bringing in vital supplies safely, repeatedly and at scale is critical. ????
— A Humanitarian (@UNOCHA) November 8, 2023
More attacks and victims
Israel has vowed to “destroy Hamas” in retaliation for the bloody attack on its territory on October 7, when fighters from the Islamist movement infiltrated Israeli territory, they killed around 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped around 240, including twenty Argentine nationals. Among those killed in the attacks were more than 300 soldiers.
Since then, the Israeli Army has bombed the Strip daily, despite multiple calls for a truce from abroad, and its soldiers are currently “in the heart” of Gaza City, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared last night.
There is, according to him, the “center” of Hamas. “Gaza is the largest terrorist base ever built,” Gallant said.
On the Palestinian side, at least 10,569 people, mostly civilians and including more than 4,000 children, were killed in Israeli bombings, according to the Health Ministry of the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by Hamas.
The Israeli Army released images this Wednesday in which you can see tanks and bulldozers advancing through the smoking ruins of Gaza.
Photo: ONU
Soldiers are operating in buildings destroyed by bombing, while explosions and combats occur on the groundThe Army said in a statement.
In Gaza City, the most densely populated part of this territory, where entire neighborhoods were reduced to rubble, many have remained and are waiting to stock up on water.
“There will be no humanitarian truce without the return of the hostages”Gallant reiterated, despite requests from the UN, NGOs and several Western countries for a ceasefire or a pause in the fighting, which would allow urgent aid to be delivered after the supply of food, water, electricity and medicine was cut off.
Humanitarian breaks
The idea of a ceasefire was also rejected by the United States, Israel’s main ally, which instead advocates “humanitarian pauses.”
Along these lines, the G7 foreign ministers, including the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, meeting in Tokyo, supported the idea of ”humanitarian pauses and corridors” in Gaza.
They also affirmed Israel’s “right to defend itself and its people, complying with international law,” and highlighted “the importance of defending civilians.”
The G7 calls for “pauses” in Israel’s attacks on Gaza and reaffirms its support for Ukraine
VER VIDEO
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his rejection of a ceasefire in Gaza without the release of the hostages held by Hamas, denying reports of a humanitarian truce mediated by Qatar.
“I would like to put an end to all kinds of false rumors that come to us from all sides and reiterate something clearly: There will be no ceasefire without the release of our hostages,” Netanyahu declared.
Previously, Hamas sources had assured the AFP agency that Qatar was mediating between that Palestinian group and Israel for the release of 12 hostages, including six Americans, in exchange for “a three-day humanitarian truce.”
In recent weeks, Doha played a key role in negotiations to free the hostages, getting the Islamist group to release four of them, two Israelis and two Americans.
Following the advance of Israeli forces on Gaza, Netanyahu said Tuesday that his country will assume “overall responsibility for the security” of the area after the war.
The Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, qualified the premier’s statements and assured that he “did not talk about occupying Gaza” after the end of hostilities with Hamas, which governs that coastal territory.
However, when asked how he will exercise this responsibility, Dermer – who participates as an observer in the Israeli war cabinet – said the question is still open.
In this framework, Blinken called on Israel not to occupy the Palestinian enclave, from which the Israelis unilaterally withdrew in 2005.
Speaking to the press after the meeting with his G7 peers, Blinken said that there should be “no reoccupation of Gaza after the conflict.”
#Palestinians #fled #warns #shelters #overcrowded