An attack of unprecedented magnitude launched by the Israeli army in Gaza plunged the Palestinian enclave into chaos. In some areas, electricity and water supply valves have been cut.
Horror continues in Gaza. This Wednesday, March 19, the civil defense of the Palestinian enclave announced the death of 13 people in new Israeli strikes since midnight. Israel “led several air strikes (…) who led to thirteen people and made dozens of injured, including women and children, Khan Younès and Gaza,” said Mahmoud Bassal, spokesperson for first aid, to AFP. During the night of Monday to Tuesday, the Israeli army launched an attack of unprecedented magnitude since the start of the truce, killing at least 413 according to the latest assessment of the Ministry of Health of Hamas.
According to Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, “what happened in Gaza is only the start”. “Now, negotiations will only take place under fire,” he said on Tuesday evening during a television address. Israel claims that the bombings were carried out “in total coordination” with the United States. Since January, negotiations have suggested the possibility of an end of conflict. From now on, this horizon seems to be moving away. By breaking the cease-fire agreement with Hamas on Tuesday, the Israeli army assures that the “rules of the game have changed”, as indicated by the Israeli defense minister Israel Katz.
“More water, the valves have been cut”
Beyond the hundreds of deaths in the Gaza Strip, the situation on site in general degrades and worries. “We fear a lot at night that happens, to know what will happen,” said France Info Amande Bazerolle, emergency coordinator for doctors without borders (MSF) in the Gaza Strip. “The situation is really terrible, last night was catastrophic,” she abounds. In addition, the equipment of the association “will quickly diminish” in Gaza “if the conditions remain the same”. “Today, the number of patients we have received is unimaginable,” said the latter.
As if that were not enough, the Israeli army also seems to have attacked the water network of the Palestinian enclave. There is “no more water, the valves were cut on the main source in the north”, deplores Amande Bazerolle. But that’s not all, “the electricity of the main unit of Dessalinization of the South has” also “been cut, so access to water will be extremely complicated if it continues in this way in the days to come,” she continues. It also fears that children fall into malnutrition due to living conditions in Gaza, and successive actions and destruction and isolation operated by Israel.
The new strikes of the Israeli army mark the third phase of what the Israelis call the “Plan de l’Enfer”, aimed at exerting maximum pressure on Hamas so that it releases new hostages, without the Israeli troops leaving the Palestinian enclave. And the fighting should not stop soon, at least, “as long as not all hostages have returned home,” assured Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz. 58 are still retained in Gaza, 34 of them were declared dead.