While the possibility of an Israeli offensive on the city of Rafah worries observers and the international community, the United States and Qatar, which act as mediators, are working to obtain a truce for Ramadan.
According to Hamas, the threshold of 30,000 deaths has been crossed in Gaza.
Le Figaro
takes stock of the situation this Thursday, February 29.
The 30,000 dead mark crossed in Gaza, according to Hamas
Hamas announced this Thursday that the number of deaths in the Gaza Strip was
“more than 30,000”
since the start of the conflict with Israel, which began on October 7.
Figures to be considered with caution, as they are impossible to confirm.
This assessment comes as the main mediators in the war, the United States and Qatar, say they hope to obtain a truce allowing the release of hostages held in Gaza before the start of Ramadan, the holy Muslim month of fasting which begins around from March 11.
The war, which transformed the Palestinian territory into a
“death zone”
according to the UN, is already, by far, the deadliest of the five conflicts that have pitted Israel against Hamas since the latter took power in Gaza in 2007. On a daily basis, civilians pay the heaviest price of the fighting and bombings which spared no area, devastated entire neighborhoods and forced 1.7 million Palestinians out of the 2.4 million inhabitants to flee their homes.
Read alsoNetanyahu presents his first plan for the post-war in Gaza
Majority of population threatened by famine, says UN
After carrying out a campaign of bombings by land, sea and air, the Israeli army launched a ground offensive on October 27 in the north of the territory while advancing towards the south.
Since then, it has lost 242 soldiers.
In the territory besieged since October 9 by Israel, 2.2 million people, the vast majority of the population, are threatened with famine according to the UN, particularly in the North where destruction, fighting and looting make it almost impossible to deliver aid.
The UN also denounced obstacles imposed by Israel which controls the entry of aid from Egypt.
According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), humanitarian needs are
“unlimited”
.
“Famine is looming.
Hospitals have turned into battlefields.
A million children face daily trauma
,” she stressed.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, seven children died
of "dehydration and malnutrition"
at Al-Chifa hospital in Gaza City (north), and seven others at Kamal Adwan hospital, also in the north.
The international community is also concerned about an upcoming Israeli ground offensive on Rafah, where nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are massed, according to the UN, most of the displaced, trapped against Egypt's closed border.
Target of daily Israeli bombings, Rafah, which had 270,000 inhabitants before the war, is the main entry point for aid into Gaza, which arrives in very limited quantities.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) says it is discussing with Palestinian officials the opening of
“many more crossing points”
.
“It’s a matter of life and death
,” said its administrator, Samantha Power, on the social network X.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he wanted to defeat Hamas in its
“last bastion”
.
He said a truce would only
“delay”
such an offensive while ensuring that civilians would be evacuated from combat zones.
Also read: The United States asks Israel to spare civilians in Gaza
Mediating countries try to secure a truce for Ramadan
Faced with this devastating war, Qatar, the United States and Egypt are trying to secure a truce agreement covering a six-week break in fighting, during which a hostage, among women, minors and the elderly sick, would be exchanged every day for ten Palestinians detained by Israel, according to a Hamas source.
On Monday, US President Joe Biden spoke of
“an agreement by the Israelis that they would not engage in operations during Ramadan”
in order to
“get all the hostages out”
.
“I hope that by next Monday, we will have a ceasefire
,” he said, while emphasizing that it was
“not yet done
. ”
Demanding an agreement from their government to release the hostages, some 150 Israelis launched a four-day march from Reim in southern Israel to Jerusalem.
“There will be no victory if our citizens remain in captivity
,” said one of them, Niv Cohen, survivor of the October 7 attacks.
On the diplomatic front, representatives of Palestinian factions, including the rival movements of Hamas and Fatah, are in Moscow this Thursday for talks with the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov.
On Thursday, New Zealand, one of the last Western countries not to have done so, announced that it would now also designate
"the entirety of Hamas"
, that is to say including the branch political, as a
“terrorist entity”
.