As the war between Israel and Hamas enters its 21st day this Thursday, the latest IDF strikes in the Gaza Strip have been deadly and could constitute “war crimes” according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of ONU.
The war waged by Israel against Hamas in Gaza, in response to the terrorist organization’s attacks on October 7, is once again raising concern and indignation. Successive Israeli strikes hit Gaza’s largest refugee camp this Wednesday, with “dozens” of deaths recorded by Hamas. A report which could not be immediately confirmed.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “appalled” by these strikes on the Jabaliya camp, targeted since Tuesday and where 116,000 refugees live in the north of the Gaza Strip. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights estimated last night that these bombings, which follow those of the Nuseirat camp further south, could constitute “war crimes”, “given the high number of civilian victims and the extent of the destruction. UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths previously denounced the Israeli bombing as “the latest atrocity to hit the people of Gaza.”
In Gaza, AFP was able to see significant destruction at the scene, where survivors were moving through the rubble in search of survivors. Rescue workers said “entire families” had been wiped out.
Israel justified the strikes by saying it had eliminated the head of Hamas’s anti-tank unit, Muhammad Atzar.
In images, in pictures
First evacuations
A first group of foreigners and dual nationals crossed the Rafah crossing towards Egypt, from the Gaza Strip, this Wednesday, November 1. According to a Palestinian official, more than 80 injured people were allowed out, including 40 children, women and the elderly. Egyptian caregivers and rescuers transferred the injured Palestinians and carried them on stretchers to Egyptian ambulances. According to a Hamas spokesperson, a list of 4,000 wounded was submitted to Egypt for treatment that cannot be provided in the war-torn enclave.
At the same time, Hamas announced in a video broadcast late Tuesday that it intended to release foreign hostages in the coming days. As a reminder, between 200 and 250 people have been held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, with the Israeli army citing the figure of 240 hostages, including 30 children.
Two French children killed
Tuesday October 31, the French report was updated. According to the Quai d’Orsay, two French children lost their lives in the Gaza Strip. Their mother would be injured. We do not know the condition of her third child, also injured, as the French consulate general in Jerusalem has been unable to get in touch with her. It appears that this woman and her children are among the 54 French nationals who have been stuck in the Gaza Strip since the start of the conflict, and not hostages.
The death toll from the war between Israel and Hamas, which still stood at 35 French deaths on Thursday October 26, therefore rises to 37 deaths. Thursday October 26, the Minister of Foreign Affairs announced that nine French nationals were still missing since the Hamas raid in Israel on October 7, some of them having been taken hostage, according to her. Catherine Colonna also indicated that she had “proof of life” of the hostages.
Around a hundred people who work for organizations are also in the Palestinian enclave, according to French authorities. At the end of a European summit in Brussels on Friday October 27, Emmanuel Macron announced that France was preparing the evacuation of 170 nationals in Gaza.
The toll of the war
The results of the war taking place in Gaza are difficult to establish, the figures provided by Hamas being difficult to verify and distinguish from propaganda. At least 195 Palestinians are believed to have been killed in Israeli airstrikes this week, according to the latest estimates as of Wednesday, November 1. A figure given by the press service of the Gaza government, controlled by Hamas, in a press release.
If confirmed, this figure would bring to nearly 9,000 deaths, including more than 2,000 women and more than 3,500 children, since the start of the war. There are more than 21,000 injured. The UN deplored on Tuesday October 31 the fact that the Gaza Strip has become “a cemetery for thousands of children”. Washington nevertheless questions Hamas’s record, saying it does not have confidence.
On the Israeli side, the death toll is still estimated at 1,400 deaths. Hamas is still holding 240 hostages, including 30 children, according to the Israeli army. While the release of these people is a priority for Israel and the countries affected by these war captures, Hamas set its conditions on Saturday, October 28, and demanded the release of all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel in exchange for the release of hostages. Around 5,000 Palestinians are detained in Israel’s prisons, according to the latest UN estimate as of July 2023.
Israel’s goal in Gaza
If Israel has exchanged its “massive offensive” for a “methodical” progression organized by “measured and very powerful stages” in the Gaza Strip, the goal remains the same: to destroy Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated this on the evening of Monday October 30. The Israeli army claimed strikes on “around 300 targets” belonging to Hamas, including “anti-tank grenade launch sites (…), tunnel entrances and military sites”. These tunnels, whose networks extend under an entire part of Gaza, are strategic for the Islamist group taking refuge there and their destruction is just as important for Israel.
The IDF aims to attack the underground network: it “can hit them with gravity bombs that can be dropped from an airplane and which will go deep and explode at a depth of around ten meters” and on the ground these are the bulldozers that could be used, according to General Jérôme Pellistrandi interviewed by BFMTV. For the moment, Israel does not communicate on the presence of bulldozers, but assures that tanks are still present inside the enclave, especially in the north of the Gaza Strip.
In addition to air strikes, there are also clashes on the ground. The Israeli army refers in particular to “fierce fighting against Hamas terrorists” in a press release published on October 31. Also touting its military successes, Hamas claims to have targeted “two armored vehicles” and “annihilated” an Israeli force in an ambush thanks to its mastery of the terrain.
When can we expect a ceasefire?
As calls for a ceasefire multiply, with the UN regularly calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” which would allow the aid that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip need to be delivered quickly and effectively , the Israeli Prime Minister assured, Monday October 30, that the Hebrew State will not give in.
“Just as the United States would not agree to a ceasefire after the bombing of Pearl Harbor or after the 9/11 terrorist attack, Israel will not accept a cessation of hostilities with Hamas after the horrific attacks of October 7,” Benjamin Netanyahu declared Monday evening. And anyone who judges that such a choice would amount to giving in to the “barbarity” of Hamas adds: “There is a time for peace and a time for war.”
For its part, the White House reaffirmed its position Monday evening regarding a ceasefire. Saying it was in favor of “temporary and localized humanitarian pauses”, Washington however judged that a ceasefire was “not the right answer for the moment”. For the United States, this would especially benefit Hamas.
On Tuesday, October 31, however, calls for a ceasefire came from the Jewish community. 85 Jewish figures – teachers, academics, activists, trade unionists and others – demanded in a column published in Release “the immediate cessation of Israeli bombings and the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from Gaza”, “the lifting of the blockade and siege of Gaza” and “international sanctions against the Israeli state”. And they add: “We understand and share the pain and fear felt by many Jews in France following the war crimes of Hamas. (…) But this pain cannot justify ethnic cleansing in Gaza . The continuation of the war and occupation will bring neither peace nor the return of hostages.”
The context
The war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, 2023 with a surprise and massive strike launched by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on the Jewish state. Many fighters carried out incursions near the Gaza Strip border while airstrikes were launched. These terrorist attacks gave rise to scenes of horror and massacres in several Jewish kibbutzim in Israel.
Israel ordered the response within hours of the attack before imposing a siege on Gaza on Monday, October 9. The same day, the Israeli army announced that it had regained control of the border with the Gaza Strip. Since then it seems to be preparing a ground attack on Palestinian territory.