Deadly fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas raged on Saturday in the south of the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of trapped civilians survived in “conditions of despair” according to the UN.
The large city of Khan Younes, in the south of Gaza, considered by Israel as a stronghold of the Palestinian Islamist movement, is now at the heart of the war.
The fighting continued there on Saturday, according to witnesses, particularly around the two main hospitals, Nasser and al-Amal, which are now operating only slowly.
At the Nasser hospital, "short of fuel, food and supplies", there remain "currently 350 patients and 5,000 displaced people", described Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), calling again for an “immediate ceasefire”.
Civilians stranded in Gaza
About ten kilometers south of Khan Younes, more than 1.3 million displaced Gazans are massed in Rafah, forced, in “conditions of despair”, against the closed border with Egypt, according to the UN.
The streets littered with waste where sewage flows are filled with hundreds of thousands of tents, paltry shelters against torrential rains.
“What’s happening doesn’t make sense.
Let them open the crossing points so we can leave!
There is nothing left in Gaza,” laments Hind Ahmed, a mother.
“We will not leave Gaza, the Jews came here and they are the ones who should leave,” interrupts an angry passerby.
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Along the roads, dozens of traders sell aid transported to the besieged territory at double the price, including canned goods, mattresses and blankets.
The city was not spared from bombs either.
“There is no safe place in the Gaza Strip.
Everything that is said is false,” testifies Mohammed Al-Chaer, a resident of the city, in his devastated neighborhood.
Towards a new truce?
As the war, on its 113th day, sees no respite, Qatar, Egypt and the United States are trying to mediate to reach a new truce, which would include the release of Palestinian hostages and prisoners.
Some 250 people were kidnapped in Israel during the October 7 attack and taken to Gaza, including around 100 released at the end of November during a truce.
According to Israeli authorities, 132 hostages are still held in the Gaza Strip, including 28 presumed dead.
The director of the CIA, the American intelligence service, will meet "in the coming days in Paris" his Israeli and Egyptian counterparts, as well as the Qatari Prime Minister, to try to conclude a truce agreement, according to a security source.
Several thousand people also took part in rallies in Israel on Saturday evening, particularly in the center of Tel Aviv, to demand the return of the hostages and the resignation of the government with a view to holding elections.
But in a televised address, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again hammered home his determination: “If we do not eliminate the Hamas terrorists (…) the next massacre is only a matter of time,” he said. he assures.