Determined to carry out its war against Hamas “to the end”, Israel is increasing air raids in the Gaza Strip this Thursday, December 14 despite signs of impatience from its American ally who is sending its national security advisor to Jerusalem. Without calling into question its support for the Israeli operation, the United States is beginning to become exasperated by the death toll in the Gaza Strip, with President Joe Biden referring to “indiscriminate bombings” and a possible “erosion” of Western support. to Israel.
Without stopping the strikes in Gaza, Israel must find a way to reduce their intensity, suggested Jake Sullivan, national security adviser to the White House, expected Thursday and Friday in Jerusalem for talks with Benjamin Netanyahu. “We need to move towards a different phase than the type of high intensity we have today,” he said.
Jake Sullivan will notably discuss the need to carry out “more surgical and precise” strikes in order to reduce civilian casualties. According to a report from the office which coordinates all American intelligence agencies, around 40 to 45% of the air-to-ground munitions used by the IDF since the start of the strikes in Gaza are “unguided”, which increases the risk for civilians. , underlines CNN. After more than two months of war, 18,600 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip according to Hamas.
“We want an end to this conflict (…) but we also do not think that it would be appropriate to stop the operation now (…) because the terrorist attacks against Israel would continue which, in the long run term, is not in the security interest of anyone in the region,” declared Matthew Miller, the spokesperson for American diplomacy.
Also read: The United States asks Israel to spare civilians in Gaza
Early this Thursday, the Hamas Ministry of Health announced the deaths of 19 Palestinians during Israeli strikes in Gaza City (north), Nuseirat (center) and Rafah (south) after a day of air raids and intense fighting of street. An Israeli raid left two people dead and others injured in Jenin, a stronghold of armed factions in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry said.
This Thursday, the Israeli army indicated that it had carried out “targeted interventions” on several sites around Khan Younes, in the south of the Gaza Strip, where it discovered an arsenal and destroyed two raids on Hamas tunnels. According to an army spokesperson, troops found “vast weapons depots and tunnels at multiple schools.”
In total, 67 people lost their lives in the enclave during the night from Wednesday to Thursday, according to Hamas. Israel also deplored the death of a soldier in the south of the Gaza Strip, bringing to 116 the death toll of Israeli fighters in the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli army announced the death of ten of its soldiers on Tuesday, December 12 in the Chajaya sector (north), its heaviest death toll in a single day since the start of its ground offensive in Gaza which cost 115 lives. of its members.
Violence has also intensified in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Authority spoke of ten deaths this Thursday during an Israeli raid. An AFP photographer saw Israeli soldiers deployed Thursday in the Jenin camp, from where families were trying to escape for shelter.
A total of 270 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire and settler attacks since October 7, according to Palestinian officials.
“Any arrangement in Gaza or regarding the Palestinian cause without Hamas or the resistance movements is an illusion,” Ismaïl Haniyeh, head of Hamas, based in Qatar, declared in a televised speech, saying he was ready for discussions on “a path policy that will ensure the right of the Palestinians to an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.
According to a poll published Wednesday by the Palestinian Policy and Polling Research Center (PCPSR), an independent institute in Ramallah, Ismaïl Haniyeh received 78% of voting intentions, compared to 58% before the war, in the Palestinian Territories. And 64% believe that Hamas will retain control of Gaza at the end of the fighting.
Conversely, the Israeli Prime Minister promised to continue the fight “until victory” and to “destroy” Hamas, after the attack carried out on October 7 by the terrorist group in Israel, which left 1,200 dead according to authorities. Some 240 people were also kidnapped and taken to Gaza by Hamas and other allied groups.
“What is happening” in the Gaza Strip “is a catastrophe,” declared Vladimir Putin, whose country launched a major assault against Ukraine in February 2022, during his major televised press conference. Before adding that the two conflicts were incomparable. “Look at the special military operation (in Ukraine) and look at what is happening in Gaza and see the difference. There is nothing like this in Ukraine,” the Russian president assured.
In the Palestinian territory, subject to an Israeli blockade for 16 years and a total siege since October 9, living conditions are worsening for the civilian population. Around 85% of the territory’s 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced, and entire neighborhoods destroyed by Israeli bombing.
