The Israeli army and the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas are engaged in heavy fighting today in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of people are desperately trying to escape the fire.

Early this morning, the Israeli air force carried out “very heavy airstrikes” near Khan Yunis and on the road between this city and Rafah, near the border with Egypt, the Hamas administration announced. An AFP journalist found the strikes in the southern part of Gaza.

A few hours later, a source close to the military branches of Hamas and Islamic Jihad told AFP that the two movements were engaged in “violent clashes” over Khan Younis.

The Israeli army announced that it had “intensified” its operations in these areas of the southern Gaza Strip. “We have to increase the pressure”the chief of the army general staff, Herzi Halevi, said, citing an increasing number of dead among Hamas fighters.

At the beginning of its ground offensive, the Israeli army had asked the population in the northern part of the Gaza Strip to flee to the south.

But with the intensification of fighting in the south and after the American veto of the UN resolution proposing a ceasefire, fears are growing for the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and especially in its southern part.

“death sentence”

Much of Gaza’s 1.9 million residents who fled the fighting and bombing are crammed into Rafah, which has turned into a large refugee camp.

Diseases are spreading due to overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions in the UN refugee agency (UNWRA) camps in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

“Nearly a million children have been forcibly displaced and are being pushed ever further south into tiny overcrowded zones without water, without food and without protection,” said UNICEF Middle East Director Adele Hodre.

“Restrictions on the flow of vital aid into the Gaza Strip are an additional death sentence for children,” he added.

According to the Hamas Health Ministrythe number of victims exceeds 17,700 dead in this narrow strip of land, most of them women and children, since the beginning of the Israeli attack on Gaza which aims to “eliminate” this movement which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

Israel launched this operation after the unprecedented attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas commandos, who infiltrated from Gaza into Israeli territory, in which 1,200 people, most of them civilians, were killed. Hamas fighters also took hostages and drove to Gaza around 240 people, 137 of whom are still being held there.

“We’ll Dance Again”

In late November, 105 hostages, including 80 Israelis, were released as part of a seven-day ceasefire deal in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians held in Israel.

Yesterday, Saturday evening, hundreds of people gathered in Tel-Aviv to call on the government to negotiate the release of other hostages, whose families are anxious for them.

“I prefer to see my children released through negotiations and not through military action, because I am afraid of being killed by the army,” Jesse Yehud, father of Arbel and Dolev, told AFP.

Mia Shem, an Israeli who was kidnapped during the Nova music festival and then released as part of the ceasefire in late November, posted a photo on Instagram showing off a new tattoo on her arm: “We will dance again 71023” ( “We’ll Dance Again, October 7, 2023”).

A video showing an Israeli soldier smashing items in a small shop in Gaza has been circulating on Arab social media. Asked by AFP, the Israeli military described the behavior as “inappropriate” and is under investigation.

“Death follows us”

After little more than two months of war, entire neighborhoods of Gaza have been reduced to rubble and more than half of the homes have been destroyed or damaged, according to the UN.

Thousands of people have taken refuge in al-Sifa hospital, which is out of service after it was evacuated a fortnight ago by the Israeli army, according to an AFP journalist. Displaced persons have set up hundreds of makeshift tents, made of cloth covered with plastic or nylon, in gardens or courtyards.

“We took refuge in Al-Sifa Hospital. (…) We don’t know if they will raid the hospital again. It doesn’t matter where we go, death follows us,” Suhail Abu Dalfa, 56, whose house was hit by a shell and his 20-year-old son was wounded, told AFP.

The US administration has “urgently” approved, without passing it through Congress, the sale to Israel of nearly 14,000 120mm howitzers that equip the Merkava tanks used in the offensive against Hamas in Gaza.