For the first time since the start of the war – and with the exception of the one-week truce last November – the Palestinian enclave is experiencing a relative lull. Israel seems more concerned about its northern border, where tension is rising daily with Lebanese Hezbollah. However, its bombings have not stopped in the Gaza Strip. They have just relatively decreased in intensity, tells us a Gazan, contacted from Jerusalem.
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“ We hear less bombing, but Israeli drones are still there », says Mohamed. Originally from Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, the young man found refuge in Deir al-Balah, in the center of the enclave. Forcibly displaced by fighting.
“ In Deir al-Balah the situation is more or less stable, thank God. But there are still strikes targeting Nusseirat, not far from here. As for Rafah, don’t ask me what the situation is there. No one has access to it anymore. Even Gazan journalists no longer go there. The city is completely sealed off by Israel. They took control », explains Mohamed to our correspondent in Jerusalem, Sami Boukhelifa.
“ The destruction stretches as far as the eye can see »
The Israeli army launched a ground offensive against Rafah a month and a half ago. Convinced that the Hamas command was entrenched there. The leaders of the Palestinian armed group are still nowhere to be found. But this operation forced more than a million Palestinian civilians to flee, according to the UN. Today, Mohamed hopes for the withdrawal of the Israeli army, in order to return home.
“ The army was positioned 200 to 300 meters from our house. The last we heard, our house was still standing when we fled. But I know that a large part of Rafah was completely razed by Israeli strikes. The destruction stretches as far as the eye can see “.
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After more than 40 days of fighting in Rafah, the Israeli army claims to have eliminated “ half of the Hamas forces present in this sector of the southern Gaza Strip “. But an army spokesperson expressed doubt as to the total eradication of the Palestinian armed group. It was immediately reframed by the Israeli government.
Climbing on the Lebanese border
The situation on the border with Lebanon in the north of the country is of great concern to Israel, writes AFP. Exchanges of fire between the army and Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, have intensified in recent weeks. On Thursday, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for several attacks, including the shooting of “ dozens of Katyusha rockets » on a military position in northern Israel, after the death of one of its fighters in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli army confirmed that it had “eliminated” a commander of the movement and struck “ a surface-to-air missile launch site » of Hezbollah, a group armed and financed by Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy. In an incendiary speech on Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned that “no place” in Israel would be spared from his movement’s missiles and drones in the event of an Israeli attack on Lebanon.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military announced that operational plans for a “ offensive in Lebanon ” had been ” validated ”, and the head of diplomacy Israel Katz affirmed that “ in a total war, Hezbollah will be destroyed “.
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