France announces the freezing of Hamas leader’s assets in Gaza – L’Express

After weeks of fighting against Hamas in the north of Gaza, the Israeli army is intensifying its deployment in the south of the territory this Tuesday, raising fears of an “even more hellish scenario” for civilians.

⇒ France announces the freezing of the assets of the leader of Hamas in Gaza.

⇒ All telecommunications stopped in Gaza.

⇒ The UN warns “that an even more hellish scenario” is looming in Gaza.

France has decreed a six-month freeze on the assets of the leader of the Palestinian Hamas movement in Gaza, Yahya Sinouar, considered the architect of the October 7 attack against Israel, according to a decree published Tuesday in the Official Journal.

“The funds and economic resources which belong to, are possessed, held or controlled by Mr. Yahya Sinouar (…) are subject to an asset freezing measure”, specifies the order of the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire November 30, which comes into force Tuesday. Bercy was not immediately available to specify the amount of these assets.

The Palestinian telecommunications company, Paltel, announced Monday evening that “all telecommunications services in the Gaza Strip” were at a standstill, due to “a cut in the main fiber networks on the Israeli side.”

Telecommunications have already been cut twice in the Gaza Strip, the first time on October 27 when the Israeli army launched its ground operations in the north of the Palestinian territory. The second, on November 16, due to lack of fuel to power the company’s generators.

International organizations are alarmed by the risks for civilians in Gaza. “An even more hellish scenario is about to materialize, to which humanitarian operations may not be able to respond,” declared the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Palestinian Territories, Canadian Lynn Hastings, whose Israel had announced last week that he will not renew the visa.

Since the resumption of hostilities on December 1 after a seven-day truce, “Israeli military operations have extended to southern Gaza, forcing tens of thousands more people to flee into increasingly concentrated spaces, with a in desperate need of food, water, shelter and safety,” Lynn Hastings said in a statement. “The necessary conditions to provide aid to the people of Gaza do not exist,” she added.

The Israeli army denied on Tuesday having asked the World Health Organization (WHO) to empty a medical aid warehouse in the south of the Gaza Strip within 24 hours, as its leader had claimed.

“Today, WHO received notification from the Israel Defense Forces to remove our supplies from our medical warehouse in the southern Gaza Strip within 24 hours, as ground operations will render it unusable,” announced WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on the social network X (formerly Twitter). “We call on Israel to withdraw this order and take all possible measures to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and humanitarian facilities,” he added.

The Israeli Defense body overseeing civilian activities in the Palestinian Territories (Cogat) responded to this tweet with another. “The truth is that we did not ask to evacuate the warehouses and we made this clear and in writing to the relevant UN officials. We expect a UN official to be at least accurate (in his remarks),” indicated the (Cogat).

An American official said Monday that the renewal of the truce in Gaza has failed because the Islamist movement Hamas, suspected of rapes against female hostages and sexual violence during its assault, does not want them to testify.

“It seems that one of the reasons they don’t want to release women that they’re holding hostage and why this break has been shattered is that they don’t want these women to tell what they are told. arrived during their detention,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.

About two civilians were killed for every Hamas fighter killed in the Gaza Strip, senior Israeli military officials said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“I’m not saying it’s good that we have a two-to-one ratio,” one official said in a press briefing, adding that the use of human shields was part of the “basic strategy “of Hamas. “It is to be hoped that this ratio will be much lower in the next phase of the war,” he added.

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric, who arrived in the Gaza Strip on Monday, denounced the “intolerable” suffering of the population and called for a “political solution”.

In a video sent to the media, the head of the ICRC calls for the “protection of civilians” in the face of the “moral failure” of the international community. “The ICRC will do everything in its power to help alleviate and reduce the suffering, but we cannot do it alone. Furthermore, the solution is not only humanitarian, there must be a political solution,” emphasizes Mirjana Spoljaric.