The Israeli army is still shelling the Gaza Strip this Saturday, June 8, where it has been fighting the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas for eight months. At the same time, Benny Gantz, a key member of the war cabinet and former army chief who became Benyamin Netanyahu’s political rival, could announce his resignation amid disagreements with the Prime Minister, according to the press.
Information to remember
⇒ The Israeli army announces having released four hostages alive
⇒ Benny Gantz could announce his resignation from the Israeli war cabinet
⇒ Unemployment rate reaches nearly 80% in Gaza, according to ILO
Gaza: Israeli army announces it has released four hostages
The Israeli army announced in a press release this Saturday, June 8, that it had freed four Israeli hostages, alive, during “a difficult special daytime operation in Nousseirat”, in the center of the Gaza Strip. They are Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, all four “abducted” by Hamas on October 7 from the music festival site electro Nova, according to the Army.
The hostages, according to the same source, were “rescued” in two different locations in Nousseirat and are in good health. “Noa, Almog, Andrey and Shlomi, we are very happy to welcome you home”, welcomed Yoav Gallant, the Israeli Minister of Defense, on X, describing the operation which allowed their release as “ heroic”.
Israeli war cabinet: soon the resignation of Benny Gantz?
In Israel, Benny Gantz, the former army chief who became Benjamin Netanyahu’s political rival, could announce his resignation this Saturday evening, according to the Israeli press. He called a press conference at 8:40 p.m. in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv. On May 18, he issued an ultimatum to the Prime Minister, demanding the adoption, by June 8, of an “action plan” on the post-war in the Gaza Strip, failing which he would would see him “forced to resign from the government”, which he had joined after October 7.
His National Union party (center-right) tabled a bill on Thursday to dissolve Parliament and hold early elections, without much chance of succeeding at this stage because Benyamin Netanyahu’s Likud (right) still has a majority of deputies. But the Prime Minister also faces pressure from his far-right allies who have threatened to leave his government in the event of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. In the event of the fall of the government and early elections, Benny Gantz is the favorite to form a coalition, while Israel is the subject of increased international pressure.
The Israeli army is still shelling Gaza
The Israeli army continues to tirelessly shell the Gaza Strip. In the early hours of this Saturday, witnesses and AFP teams reported strikes in different sectors of the Gaza Strip, including the center of this micro-territory, the scene of violent bombardments in recent days. One of these strikes, Thursday, on a school of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), left 37 dead according to a local hospital.
Accusing Hamas of having purposely used this school to launch attacks, the Israeli army said it had killed “17 terrorists” during this strike. Hamas, which declared that 14 children had died, denounced “false information”. The head of Unrwa, Philippe Lazzarini, accused Israel of having struck “without prior warning” this school in Nousseirat which sheltered, according to him, “6,000 people displaced” by the fighting.
Gaza: unemployment rate reaches almost 80%
Since the start of the war after the bloody Hamas attack on Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, “the unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip has reached a staggering level of 79.1%,” the International Organization said on Friday. of Labor (ILO), citing a new report from the ILO and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. In the West Bank, the unemployment rate reached 32%, the organization said. These figures “do not take into account those who have left the labor market because employment prospects are inaccessible,” notes the organization. “The real number of those who have lost their jobs is therefore higher than the unemployment figures suggest,” she analyzes.
On the other hand, real GDP contracted by 83.5% in the Gaza Strip and 22.7% in the West Bank over the past eight months, according to the ILO. This new assessment “shows that the sad toll that the war in the Gaza Strip has taken in human lives, and the desperate humanitarian situation it has caused are accompanied by large-scale devastation of economic activities and resources. livelihoods,” said Ruba Jaradat, ILO regional director for Arab countries. Gaza’s economy now represents only 4.1% of the entire Palestinian economy, compared to 16.7% before the war. The report was released as the ILO holds its annual International Labor Conference in Geneva from June 3 to 14.