Israel x Hamas: war completes 200 days with no signs of truce | World and Science

The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza completed 200 days this Tuesday, 23rd, with no signs of slowing down or that the Islamist movement is preparing to release its hostages or that Israel will give up on invading Rafah, in the south of the Palestinian territory. .

“After 200 days, the enemy is still trapped in the sands of Gaza. No objective, no horizon, no illusion of victory or release of prisoners,” said the spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing, Abu Obeida, in reference to the hostages carried out in Israel by Islamist commandos on October 7th.

“As long as a single inch of our lands remains (subject) to occupation aggression, we will continue to attack and resist,” he added in a televised statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday reaffirmed his “unwavering determination” to secure the release of nearly 100 hostages (according to Israeli estimates) still held in Gaza.

In the last 24 hours, Israeli bombings killed 32 Palestinians, according to the Ministry of Health of the Gaza Strip, governed by Hamas, bringing the total number since the start of the conflict to 34,183 deaths, the vast majority of them civilians.

The Israeli Army bombed the center of the Strip on Tuesday morning, reaching the vicinity of the Bureij refugee camp and the Nuseirat camp, according to an AFP correspondent.

AFP cameras also captured shelling in Jabalia, in the north of the Strip, and the army said it had attacked several Hamas positions in the south of the Palestinian territory.

The conflict began on Oct. 7 with an incursion by Islamist fighters that killed about 1,170 people in southern Israel and kidnapped about 250, according to a count based on official Israeli data.

Qatar, which together with Egypt and the United States acts as a mediator to achieve a truce and the release of the hostages, stated that Hamas representatives will remain in Doha as long as their presence is “useful and positive” for the advancement of negotiations. These talks are stalled and both sides accuse each other of blocking them.

Netanyahu faces growing domestic pressure to release the hostages. On Monday night, coinciding with the start of the Jewish Passover, hundreds of demonstrators protested in front of his home in north Tel Aviv.

Offensive in Rafah

To defeat Hamas, Netanyahu has vowed to continue his offensive against Rafah, a city on the border with Egypt that Israeli authorities say is the Islamist movement’s last major stronghold.

The international community is asking to refrain from this operation, fearing a humanitarian catastrophe in a city of 1.5 million people, the vast majority displaced from other areas of Gaza by the war.

According to Egyptian officials cited by the American newspaper Wall Street Journal, Israel plans to transfer civilians from Rafah to Khan Yunis, where it intends to set up tents and food distribution centers.

The evacuation of civilians would last two to three weeks and would be carried out in coordination with the United States, Egypt and other Arab countries such as the United Arab Emirates, according to Egyptian officials.

However, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) regional director for the Middle East, Fabrizio Carboni, highlighted that such an evacuation would be impossible under current conditions.

“When we see the level of destruction in the center and north, it is not clear to us where they could move people (…) so that they have decent shelter and essential services,” said Carboni. “So today, with the information we have and the way we are, we don’t see that being possible.”

Climate of impunity

After more than six months of war, the almost 2.4 million inhabitants of Gaza, besieged by Israeli forces, are at risk of starvation, according to the UN, which demands the arrival of more humanitarian aid.

The UN called on Tuesday for an independent international investigation into the mass graves found in the Strip’s two main hospitals, Al Shifa and Nasser, denouncing the “reigning climate of impunity”.

Gaza Civil Protection claims that in recent days it has exhumed 340 bodies that had been buried by Israeli forces in mass graves excavated on the grounds of the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis. Israel called these accusations “unfounded.”

According to the Israeli Army, during its intervention at the Nasser hospital, “the bodies buried by the Palestinians were carefully examined” to discover whether there were hostages among them.

Violence also increased on Israel’s border with Lebanon, between the army and the Lebanese Shi’ite movement Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.

Hezbollah said it launched “dozens” of rockets at Israel, while the Lebanese movement also attacked two military positions in northern Israel with drones.