the body of Franco-Israeli hostage Elya Toledano discovered in Gaza – L’Express

Fighting continues to intensify in northern Gaza. The Israeli military ignores calls to reduce the intensity of attacks and protect civilians from its allies, and promises a protracted war.

⇒ The remains of a Franco-Israeli hostage discovered in Gaza.

⇒ Fighting intensifies in the north.

⇒ The war will last “more than a few months” according to the Minister of Defense

The Israeli army announced on Friday December 15 that it had recovered from the Gaza Strip and brought back to Israel the remains of 28-year-old Franco-Israeli hostage Elya Toledano. He was kidnapped on the morning of October 7 from the scene of the Tribe of Nova music festival in which he participated with his friend Mia Shem, a Franco-Israeli who was released as part of a truce agreement at the end of November.

“During the operation in Gaza, the body of hostage Elya Toledano (28 years old) was recovered by army special forces and repatriated to Israel,” the Israeli army said in a statement, specifying that the forensic doctors had correctly identified the remains. The families of the hostages said they were “shocked” this week by the announcement by the director of Mossad of the refusal to carry out new negotiations to free them and demanded explanations from the authorities.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned American Secretary of State Jake Sullivan, visiting Israel on Thursday, December 14, that this war was expected to last “more than a few months.” The White House encourages “lower intensity operations” in the “near future”, and is concerned about the number of civilian deaths, said Jake Sullivan. “Hamas has established underground and aerial infrastructures that are not easy to destroy. It will take time – more than a few months – but we will defeat and destroy” Hamas, Yoav Gallant responded.

“There will be more difficult battles in the coming days,” warned one of the military spokesmen. During the night from Thursday to Friday, the Israeli army reported “fighting” particularly in the Choujaya sector (north), where earlier this week it had suffered its biggest losses (10 soldiers killed in one day) since the start of its ground offensive in this small, densely populated Palestinian territory. Telecommunications are once again cut “due to the ongoing aggression”, according to the Palestinian operator Paltel.

The leader of Hamas, Ismaïl Haniyeh, in exile in Qatar, on Wednesday December 13 described any post-war plan that imagines the Gaza Strip without his organization and other “resistance movements” as an “illusion”. According to a poll by the Center for Palestinian Policy and Polling Research (PCPSR), 64% of Palestinians surveyed believe that Hamas will retain control of Gaza after the fighting ends, a scenario they say is more likely than a return of Palestinian Authority.

In recent weeks, Israel has suggested that its aim is not to administer Gaza after the war, while commentators have questioned the possibility of the Palestinian Authority managing the territory from which it was expelled in 2007 by Hamas. American advisor Jake Sullivan will meet several of his members in Ramallah this Friday, December 15.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Thursday claimed responsibility for an attack on a cargo ship in the Red Sea, the Maersk Gibraltar, which was heading to Israel, “by targeting it with a drone.” They say the ship was hit head-on, adding having acted in response to “the oppression of the Palestinian people.” An American official nevertheless indicated that the missile had “missed the ship” and fell into the water. According to Centcom, the missile was fired just north of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a narrow passage between Yemen and Djibouti, a key route to the Suez Canal and the Israeli port of Eilat, through which a significant part of the world’s maritime traffic passes.

The German federal prosecutor’s office, responsible for terrorism cases, announced Thursday the arrest of four suspected members of Hamas suspected of having planned “possible attacks against Jewish institutions in Europe.” The four men are suspected of belonging to this Islamist movement for a long time and of having had the mission of gathering weapons in Berlin with a view to possible attacks, the prosecution said in a press release.