Smoke billows over Khan Younes, south of the Gaza Strip, heavy Israeli bombardment, January 19, 2024 (AFP/-)
Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip on Friday killed dozens of Palestinians, according to Hamas, the U.S., in the fourth month of Israel’s war against Palestinian Hamas. Examining relationships with partners.
For the first time since December 23, American President Joe Biden, according to his services, on Friday discussed the conflict with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, contrary to the American position, reaffirmed the day before the rejection of the Palestinian state.
On the ground, early Friday, witnesses reported heavy fire and airstrikes in Khan Yunis, the main city south of the Gaza Strip, where Israel says several members of the Hamas leadership, which it classifies as a group, are hiding. Terrorists such as the United States and the European Union.
According to the Health Ministry of Hamas – the movement in power in Gaza since 2007 – 77 people had been killed by midday in the territory besieged by Israeli strikes.
Entering Gaza on October 27, Israeli troops advanced from north to south, where thousands of Gazans fled in the first week of the conflict.
An Israeli tank faces destruction in the Gaza Strip on January 19, 2024 (AFP / JACK GUEZ)
The army, which on Friday announced the deaths of 194 soldiers in Gaza, still says it faces separate fighters in the north.
A Palestinian armed group affiliated with Hamas released a video of an injured Israeli hostage, claiming he had been killed in an Israeli strike.
– “Hell” –
The war began with an unprecedented attack by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, which left 1,140 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.
Israeli army shelling the Gaza Strip, January 19, 2024 (AFP / JACK GUEZ)
About 250 people were abducted and taken to Gaza, including about 100 released during a ceasefire in late November.
In return, Israel vowed to “destroy” Hamas. According to Hamas’ Ministry of Health, 24,762 people, mostly women, children and teenagers, were killed and 62,108 wounded in the Israeli crackdown.
The World Health Organization (WHO) condemned the “inhumane living conditions” in the small coastal region, whose 2.4 million residents lack everything.
Displaced Palestinians using eSIM cards try to get a signal on a hill in Rafah to contact their loved ones in the southern Gaza Strip on January 19, 2024 (AFP/-)
In the evening, Palestinian operator Paltel announced a “gradual return of telecommunications” after a week of almost total outage.
In Gaza, nearly 20,000 babies have been born in “hell”, in conditions “beyond understanding” since October 7, UNICEF criticized.
The UN also pointed to Israel’s detention of thousands of men, often subject to ill-treatment that could amount to torture, with the Israeli army reiterating to AFP that the detainees were being treated “in accordance with international law”.
– “whole territory” –
Unrelenting in his determination to continue the war until “total victory,” Israel’s prime minister insisted Thursday that Israel must have “security control over all territories west of Jordan” — including Gaza in the occupied West Bank — as a condition ” (Palestinian ) Contradiction of the Idea of Sovereignty”.
John Kirby, spokesman for the United States National Security Council, during a press briefing at the White House in Washington on January 19, 2024 (AFP / Brendan Smialowski)
White House spokesman John Kirby said Friday that Joe Biden still believes in the possibility of a Palestinian state (… two leaders.
The White House also said it was “deeply concerned” by information from the Palestinian Wafa agency about the death by Israeli fire of a 17-year-old Palestinian with an American passport, according to his father, near Ramallah in the occupied West. Bank, where violence has escalated since October 7.
Russian diplomacy, for its part, called on Hamas on Friday to release its hostages, calling the humanitarian crisis in Gaza “catastrophic” during talks in Moscow.
A map of the Red Sea and Yemen showing areas controlled by Houthi rebels (AFP / Valentin RAKOVSKY)
Of concern to the international community, the conflict is increasing tensions between Israel and the “axis of resistance” established by Iran against it, notably bringing together the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Yemeni Houthis along with Hamas.
The Israeli army said it attacked positions of the Islamist movement Hezbollah in southern Lebanon on Friday, where at least three houses were destroyed, according to the official Lebanese agency ANI. Hezbollah claimed three attacks on Israeli territory.
The Houthis, who say they are acting in “solidarity” with Gaza, have claimed responsibility for a new shot at an American oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden, prompting new American strikes against them on Friday, according to the White House.
