Israel intensifies strikes in Gaza, Netanyahu wants to increase pressure on Hamas

Israel has stepped up its efforts its deadly strikes on Wednesday on the Gaza Strip after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his intention "to increase the pressure" military attack on Hamas, in the 10th month of a war which caused a humanitarian disaster in the Palestinian territory.

Indirect negotiations for a ceasefire remain blocked. On Sunday, a Hamas leader said the Islamist movement was suspending its participation in the talks after the “massacres of the enemy”, but stressed that it was “ready” to return if Israel showed a “serious desire” to succeed.

Despite the heavy human toll and the worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza where some 2.4 million inhabitants have been besieged by Israel for more than nine months, the war triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israeli soil on the 7 October knows no respite.

© AFP – Bashar TALEB

On Wednesday, two Palestinians were killed in Israeli bombings in Rafah (south), according to a medical source, and nine others in a drone strike in Gaza City (north) according to Civil Defense dependent on Hamas.

The day before, 57 people died in five strikes, one of which targeted a school administered by the UN and housing displaced people in the Nousseirat camp (center), according to Civil Defense. The army said it had targeted “terrorists using a school in Nousseirat”.

In front of the al-Aqsa martyrs hospital in Deir el-Balah (center), Meqdad, a displaced person, mourns the death of his 18-month-old son in a knock on Nousseirat.

“I gave him something to eat and as soon as he fell asleep I closed the bedroom door. And suddenly a knock We are just displaced people, we have nothing to do with all this”, he throws his son's body in his arms.

Palestinians cry in front of the body of a relative killed during Israeli bombings, at the Nasser hospital in Khan Younes, in the south of the Gaza Strip, July 16, 2024 © AFP – Bashar TALEB

Several injured people, including children, were transported to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, according to AFP images. In front of the establishment, bodies lie on the ground wrapped in blankets. Relatives cry or recite prayers for the dead.

While the UN says no place is safe in Gaza, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced several times since the start of the war. Many are sheltering in schools, in dispensary or hospital courtyards.

– “We have him by the throat” –

Palestinian children mourn the death of loved ones at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younes, southern Gaza Strip, July 16, 2024. © AFP – Bashar TALEB

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The army claimed to have carried out 25 strikes in the past 24 hours in the Gaza Strip, bombing a rocket launch site, “eliminating terrorist cells” and targeting “military structures”.

On October 7, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza into southern Israel launched an attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to a AFP count established from official Israeli data. Of the 251 people kidnapped, 116 are still being held in Gaza, of whom 42 are dead, according to the army.

In response, Israel launched an air and then land offensive in the devastated Palestinian territory threatened with famine, which has so far left 38,794 dead, mostly civilians, including 81 in the last 24 hours, according to ministry data. of Health of the Gaza government, led by Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a ceremony commemorating soldiers killed in the 2014 Gaza war, in Jerusalem, July 16, 2024 © POOL – ABIR SULTAN

“It is time to further increase the pressure” on Hamas, said Tuesday Mr. Netanyahu, who wants to continue the war until the destruction of Hamas and the release of all the hostages .

“Hamas is under pressure because we are eliminating its commanders and its terrorists (…) We have it by the throat,” he said Wednesday.

– “We beg you” –

Photo released by the Israeli army on July 16, 2024 showing Israeli soldiers during military operations in the Gaza Strip © Israeli Army – –

On Tuesday, the families of five female soldiers held hostage in Gaza called for an agreement for their release.

“Mr. Prime Minister (Israeli), we beg you (…) Please make this deal happen,” said Sasha Ariev, sister of soldier Karina.

Classified as terrorist by Israel, the United States and the European Union, Hamas took power in Gaza in 2007, two years after Israel's unilateral withdrawal from this territory that it occupied for 38 years.

Before besieging Gaza on October 9, Israel had imposed a blockade on the small, poor and overpopulated territory since 2007.

The northern Gaza Strip © AFP – Nalini LEPETIT-CHELLA, Jean-Michel CORNU, Hervé BOUILLY

Warning about the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, several NGOs blame the cessation of aid entry on insecurity. According to them, 50% of households are classified in an “urgent” situation due to the risk of famine in the north of the territory.

On the northern front of Israel, in Lebanon, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned that his movement would bomb new locations in Israel if the Israeli army “continues to target civilians”, the day after the death of three children in a strike in southern Lebanon . Hezbollah opened the front against Israel on October 8 in support of Hamas.

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