Israel-Hamas war: for the United States, the occupation of Gaza would be a “serious error” – L’Express

Any attempt by Israel to re-occupy the Gaza Strip would be a “serious mistake”, said US President Joe Biden. After Hamas’ bloody attack on its territory on October 7, Israel launched retaliation against the Palestinian Islamist group with numerous strikes and ordered residents of northern Gaza to move south for a ground intervention.

Questioned in the program 60 Minutes on the American channel CBS, Joe Biden assured that Hamas “does not represent all the Palestinian people”. But “eliminating extremists” is a “necessary measure.”

The American president also condemned this Sunday the murder of a six-year-old Muslim boy who was stabbed near Chicago, denouncing a “horrible act of hatred”, linked according to the police to the war between Israel and Hamas. The child, who received 26 stab wounds on Saturday, died in hospital. His 32-year-old mother is expected to survive, according to a statement from the Will County Sheriff’s Office in Illinois (northeast), which described the attack as “heinous.”

“Investigators were able to determine that the two victims of this violent attack were targeted by the suspect because they are Muslim and because of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East involving Hamas and the Israelis,” said the statement, which specifies that the killing took place approximately 64 kilometers west of Chicago.

Many foreigners have been killed, taken hostage or have disappeared since the attack on October 7 by the Islamist movement Hamas against Israel, which left more than 1,400 dead on the Israeli side. In the Gaza Strip, local authorities reported 2,670 deaths in Israeli retaliatory strikes.

According to an AFP count, the deaths of more than 160 foreign nationals, many of whom also had Israeli nationality, were confirmed by the authorities of their respective countries. Among them, at least 30 Americans, 28 Thais, 19 French and 16 Russians died.

The Israeli army said on Sunday that it had notified the families of 155 hostages of their captivity, updating a report which previously showed 126 captives in the hands of Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

More than a million people have fled in panic from the north of the Gaza Strip, on the outskirts of which Israel continues to mobilize its troops for an imminent ground offensive against Palestinian Hamas. A figure which could “rise” according to the UN since “people continue to leave their homes”, said Juliette Touma, director of communications for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

Israel has urged residents of the north of the besieged Palestinian territory – around 1.1 million people out of a total population of 2.4 million – to flee south, saying it would strike the northern city of Gaza to destroy the center of operations of the Islamist movement.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that “Hamas’s policies and actions do not represent the Palestinian people.”

Emmanuel Macron “warned” Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi on Sunday “against any escalation or extension of the conflict” between Israel and Hamas, “particularly in Lebanon”, during a telephone interview with his counterpart on Sunday, announced the Elysium. “Iran, given its relations with Hezbollah and Hamas, has a responsibility” and “must do everything possible to avoid any regional conflagration,” insists the French presidency.

In an interview for the Ebra group’s newspapers published Sunday evening, the Minister of the Armed Forces recognized that France “provides intelligence” to Israel. Paris assured Saturday that it had not been asked at this stage to provide military aid to Israel to join military operations.