As of: January 31, 2024, 4:39 a.m
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The Israeli army has confirmed that it has flooded tunnels belonging to the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
© Sam McNeil/AP/dpa
The Gaza war has been raging for almost four months.
The destruction in the sealed-off coastal strip on the Mediterranean is enormous.
Israel's army is taking action against Hamas by flooding tunnels.
The overview.
Gaza/Tel Aviv - Almost four months after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, at least half of all buildings in the coastal strip on the Mediterranean have been damaged or destroyed, according to a media report.
As the BBC reported after evaluating satellite data, between 144,000 and 175,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed.
That is between 50 and 61 percent of all buildings.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army confirmed for the first time on Tuesday evening that it had flooded the Islamist Hamas tunnels in the sealed-off coastal area.
The Israeli military said the aim was to “neutralize the underground terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.”
Israel's Foreign Minister: Hamas must be eliminated
Meanwhile, Israel's foreign minister emphasized that his country wanted to retain security responsibility in the Gaza Strip for several more years.
This will apply “until we are sure that we will no longer be killed by the residents of Gaza,” said Israel Katz to the “Bild” newspaper, Welt TV and Politico.
With regard to Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel on October 7th with around 1,200 deaths, Katz said: "The new "Nazis" are Hamas, which must be eliminated." Israel's message for Holocaust Remembrance Day was: "It must be clear that what happened must not be allowed to happen again.”
According to Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy, at least 13 employees of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) were involved in the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7th.
Because of the allegations, several countries have temporarily stopped their payments to the controversial aid organization, including Germany.
The aid organization separated from the employees and wants to investigate the allegations.
UN Coordinator: Currently no replacement for UNRWA
However, the new UN coordinator for humanitarian aid for those in need in the Gaza Strip, Sigrid Kaag, currently sees “no replacement” for UNRWA.
Given, among other things, the capacities and structure of the aid organization that have been built up over decades, there is currently no possibility that any other organization can quickly replace the aid organization, said Kaag in New York.
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FDP parliamentary group deputy Michael Link spoke out in favor of a fundamental reorganization of the UN structures in the Middle East.
“UNRWA is in danger of becoming a black hole.
Its structure is error-prone and outdated,” Link told the German Press Agency in Berlin.
UNRWA tasks should be divided between the UN Development Program, the World Food Program and the UN Refugee Agency.
The United Nations fears that UNRWA's current funding will not be enough to support the more than two million civilians in Gaza in February.
Hamas Authority: Nearly 27,000 Dead in Gaza
According to the Hamas-controlled health authority, the number of deaths in the sealed-off coastal area has risen to 26,751 since the start of the war.
A spokesman said 65,636 people have been injured since then.
The numbers cannot currently be independently verified.
According to the Israeli army, around 10,000 members of terrorist groups have been killed in the Gaza Strip so far.
This cannot currently be independently verified.
Because of the many civilian victims and the great suffering of the population in the Gaza Strip, there is a lot of international criticism of the Israeli army's actions.
Satellite images show that the bombardment of the southern and central Gaza Strip has intensified since early December, with the southern coastal town of Khan Yunis particularly badly hit, the BBC reported.
An analysis of the images showed that more than 38,000 or more than 46 percent of the buildings there were destroyed or damaged.
Israel: Tunnel flooding technical breakthrough
Israel suspects that the Hamas leadership and Israeli hostages are in the tunnels below Khan Yunis.
According to US media, Hamas' entire tunnel network in the Gaza Strip is between 480 and 720 kilometers long.
Israel's army confirmed that it had released large amounts of water into such tunnels and spoke of a "significant technical and technological breakthrough" in the fight against terrorism.
However, according to information from the US newspaper “Wall Street Journal”, 60 to 80 percent of the underground routes are still intact.
US military destroys Houthi missile again
Meanwhile, the US military says it has once again destroyed a Houthi anti-ship missile.
The United States Central Command announced on the online portal X (formerly Twitter) that the projectile was fired late Tuesday evening from the militia-controlled area in Yemen towards the Red Sea.
According to the information, there were no injuries or property damage.
Since the beginning of the Gaza war, the Houthis have repeatedly targeted merchant ships.
The militia acts in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza and directs its attacks off the Yemeni coast on freighters with alleged Israeli connections.
What is important today
According to information from the Qatari news channel Al Araby, a Hamas delegation wants to meet with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel in Cairo.
According to its leader Ismail Haniya, Hamas is examining a draft agreement with Israel that would lead to an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners and a longer ceasefire.
At the weekend, representatives of the USA, Israel, Egypt and Qatar discussed this in Paris.
According to Haniya, Egypt invited the Hamas leadership to Cairo to discuss the framework of the draft.
dpa