The Israeli army continued, on Sunday, November 5, to progress at the cost of fierce fighting in the besieged Gaza Strip, where strikes left dozens dead the day before in refugee camps, according to the Islamist movement Hamas, a an assessment that no independent source is able to verify.
New calls for a ceasefire came from the Arab world, after 30 days of a war triggered on October 7 by the Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli soil.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna made the appeal on Sunday. “An immediate, lasting and sustained humanitarian truce is absolutely necessary and must be able to lead to a ceasefire,” declared the head of French diplomacy, following a meeting in Doha with her Qatari counterpart. She stressed that France was working to have a text to this effect adopted by the UN Security Council, which has been very divided on the subject since the start of the war.
“2,500 terrorist targets” struck by Israel in Gaza
The Israeli army also indicated on Sunday that it had struck “more than 2,500 terrorist targets” in the Gaza Strip since the start of the ground offensive in the Palestinian territory around ten days ago, during land and air operations. and naval.
On Thursday, Israel said it had struck 12,000 targets in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war on October 7.
A bombed refugee camp
At least 45 people, mostly children and women, were killed and around 100 others injured in an Israeli bombardment on Saturday evening against the Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, according to the Ministry of Defense. the Health of the Hamas terrorist movement, an assessment that no independent source is able to verify.
Evacuation of foreigners and dual nationals to Egypt suspended
The Hamas government has suspended the evacuation of foreigners and dual nationals to Egypt due to Israel’s refusal to let wounded Palestinians leave for Egyptian hospitals, an administration official told AFP this Saturday. crossing points.
A source within the Egyptian security services confirmed to Agence France Presse that “no injured person or holder of a foreign passport arrived at the Egyptian terminal” of Rafah on Saturday. Crossings were suspended, added the same source, “after the bombing of ambulances transporting injured people en route to the Egyptian terminal”.
Biden announces progress toward humanitarian pause
US President Joe Biden on Saturday reported progress in obtaining the “humanitarian pause” demanded by Washington in the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, intended to help protect civilians and channel more aid to the besieged Gaza Strip.
For his part, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on an official visit to Jordan this Saturday, again pleaded Saturday in Amman in favor of “humanitarian pauses” while opposing a ceasefire , demanded by Arab countries. “We believe that a ceasefire will only keep Hamas in place,” he said. The head of American diplomacy was rejected by Benyamin Netanyahu this Friday regarding the possibility of humanitarian pauses in Gaza.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Al-Safadi, for his part, stressed that the Arab world was speaking with “one voice” to end the war in Gaza. He denounced Israel’s “war crimes”, which “will haunt generations”, while his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Choukri, demanded an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire.
The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken spoke on Sunday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, at a time when the international community fears that the war between Israel and Hamas could extend to the West Bank.
For its part, France called for an “immediate humanitarian truce”.
Families of Israeli hostages demonstrate in Tel Aviv
A demonstration by the families and supporters of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas brought together several thousand people in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening demanding more efforts from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to free them, AFP journalists noted.
Participants said they were determined to camp in front of the ministry until the return of their loved ones kidnapped by Hamas during its terrorist attack on October 7. “The families of the hostages and the missing will not return home until all the hostages are at home,” said the Forum of Families of the Hostages and the Missing, which called for the rally in Tel Aviv, in front of the Ministry of Security. Defense.
Israel will ‘find’ Hamas leader in Gaza and ‘eliminate him’
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Saturday that Israel will “find” and “eliminate” the leader of Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinouar. “I appeal to the residents of Gaza: the sooner you find it yourself, the sooner we will end the war,” the Israeli minister also added.
The Israeli Chief of Staff, General Herzi Halevi, for his part, went to the Gaza Strip on Saturday for a visit to the troops, a first since the start of the war.