The United States announced Tuesday that they would continue à parachute humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, despite the the call of Hamas à cease these operations after the death of 18 Palestinians, including 12 drowned at sea, while trying to recover food packages . Despite Monday's vote on a UN Security Council resolution demanding an “immediate” ceasefire, the war still rages in the Palestinian territory besieged by Israel and threatened with famine . The Hamas Ministry of Health announced Tuesday that 12 people, including children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the tent of a Hamas family. displaced in Khan Younes, in the south of the Gaza Strip. The strike hit the al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younes, which became a camp planted with thousands of tents which shelter displaced people driven by the war from regions further north. Contacted by AFP, the army indicated that it verified this information. Israeli tanks near the border with the Gaza Strip, southern Israel, March 26, 2024 © AFP – Jack Guez AFP images showed a thick cloud of smoke rising overnight over the nearby town of Rafah and a ball of fire in the sky. In a sign of a desperate humanitarian situation, the Hamas Ministry of Health announced Tuesday the deaths of 18 people, including 12 drowned at sea while trying to recover parachuted food and six killed in stampedes in the same circumstances. Hamas called on the countries concerned to cease these operations and requested the opening of land access for humanitarian aid, strictly controlled by Israel. – “Die for a can of tuna” – A Palestinian family in the ruins of Gaza City, March 25, 2024 © AFP – – The aid, very insufficient given the immense needs of the 2.4 million inhabitants, arrives mainly from Egypt via Rafah, and only reaches the north of the territory with great difficulty.< /p> “Aid airdrops are one of the many ways we are using to provide the aid that the Palestinians in Gaza so desperately need and we will continue to do so” , while “working tirelessly to increase the arrival of humanitarian assistance by land,” the White House said Tuesday. The head of German diplomacy, Annalena Baerbock, visiting Israel, pleaded for massively expanding food deliveries to Gaza by facilitating the passage of trucks. Parachuting of humanitarian aid over the Gaza Strip, March 25, 2024 © AFP – – Hamas said it had “warned” the countries involved of the “danger” of these operations, in particular “because part of this aid falls into the sea”. On the ground , residents watch the parachutes and rush when they land, jostling and even fighting. “People die for a can of tuna,” said the one of them, Mohamad Al-Sabaawi, brandishing the only can of tuna he was able to recover. Back at his home in Gaza City, another Palestinian considers his situation miserable. “We are waiting for aid drops, we are ready to die to get a can of beans, which we then share between 18 people”, he confides . Relatives of hostages held in the Gaza Strip demonstrate in Tel Aviv on March 26, 2024 © AFP – JACK GUEZ The war broke out on October 7 when Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza carried out an unprecedented attack in southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of at least 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count established from official Israeli data. According to Israel, around 250 people were kidnapped and 130 of them are still hostages in Gaza, of whom 34 are believed to have died. A woman cries over the remains of a relative killed in an Israeli bombardment, in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, March 26, 2024 © AFP – MOHAMMED ABED In retaliation, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007, which it considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union. Its army launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip that has so far killed 32,414 people, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health. Tuesday , Israel confirmed having “eliminated” the number 2 of Hamas's armed wing, Marwan Issa, in a strike carried out two weeks ago. The death of this man, considered by Israel to be one of the organizers of the October 7 attack, had already been announced by the White House. – Israel furious – Destruction in the Asra neighborhood, near Nousseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, after an Israeli bombardment on March 25, 2024 © AFP – – On Monday, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling for a ceasefire, by 14 votes in favor and one abstention, that of the United States which had until then blocked three draft resolutions mentioning a “ceasefire”. Furious with the United States, Israel canceled the visit of an expected delegation to Washington. The United States has increased pressure in recent weeks on Israel to spare civilians and abandon its announced ground offensive against the city of Rafah, where massed, according to the UN, nearly a million and a half Palestinians, the majority displaced. The American Minister of Defense, Lloyd Austin, on Tuesday judged civilian losses “too high” and humanitarian aid “much too low” in the Gaza Strip , while welcoming his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, to the Pentagon. A man collects belongings from a house destroyed by bombing, March 26, 2024 in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. © AFP – SAID KHATIB Hamas welcomed the call for a ceasefire and accused Israel of causing the “failure” of the talks carried out in Doha through Qatar, Egypt and of the United States for a truce accompanied by the release of the hostages. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas had reiterated ” extreme demands”. Qatar indicated on Tuesday that talks were continuing in Doha. – Three hospitals targeted – While less than a third of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip are operational, and only partially, according to the UN, three hospitals, accused by Israel of housing Hamas bases, are targeted by army operations. An operation began on March 18 around and in the al-Chifa hospital in Gaza City, in the north, the largest in the territory, where the army said he killed 170 Palestinian fighters. Gaza Strip: Israeli operations around hospitals © AFP – Sylvie HUSSON, Sabrina BLANCHARD In Khan Younes, soldiers surround the Nasser hospital, according to Hamas and witnesses who reported shooting. About one kilometer away, the al-Amal hospital has also been targeted since Sunday. It is now “out of service”, the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Tuesday, after the army evacuated its occupants. All rights of reproduction and representation reserved. © (2024) Agence France-Presse
By Teilor Stone
Teilor Stone has been a reporter on the news desk since 2013. Before that she wrote about young adolescence and family dynamics for Styles and was the legal affairs correspondent for the Metro desk. Before joining Thesaxon , Teilor Stone worked as a staff writer at the Village Voice and a freelancer for Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, GQ and Mirabella. To get in touch, contact me through my teilor@nizhtimes.com 1-800-268-7116