Han Younis remains today the focus of Israeli military hostilities and the military arm of Hamas in the southern Gaza Strip, the day after the deadly fire, which caused an international outcry, against a UN facility where internally displaced persons had taken refuge due to the war.

Tank fire against building of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) on Wednesday killed at least “nine people” and wounded “another 75”, said Thomas White, its official in the Gaza Strip. Medical sources and executives expressed concern that the toll of victims will become even heavier.

Philip Lazzarini, its head UNRWAemphasized that the reception center for displaced persons was identified “clearly”, that its coordinates had been sent “to the Israeli authorities” and condemned this “flagrant violation of the most fundamental rules of war”.

The Israeli army says it has “surrounded” Khan Younis and ordered the civilian population to flee to Rafah, on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip. But the fighting makes any movement very dangerous. Today, eyewitnesses speak of shelling towards Rafah, which has turned into a vast refugee camp, after the vast majority of the 1.7 million Palestinians who were forced to leave their homes have gathered.

Following the deadly shooting at the UNRWA facility, the Israeli military told AFP it had launched an “examination” of ongoing operations and added that it “ruled out” the possibility of an “airstrike” of its own or being hit by “artillery”. , leaving open the “possibility” that it was Hamas fire.

The US, Israel’s main ally, said it “condemns” the strikes and called for UN facilities in the enclave to be “protected”.

In Europe, Rome and Paris respectively announced that a hundred children injured in the Gaza Strip would be transferred to Italian hospitals for treatment and that seven children had arrived in French hospitals.

Protests inside Israel

The war was sparked by an unprecedented attack by Hamas on October 7 in southern sectors of Israeli territory, which killed some 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official statements.

About 250 more people were abducted and taken to the Gaza Strip, of whom about a hundred were released in late November in a Palestinian prisoner swap during a week-long truce. According to Israeli authorities, 132 remain in the enclave, but at least 28 are believed to be dead.

In retaliation for the Hamas attack, Israel’s civil-military leadership vowed to “wipe out” the Palestinian Islamist movement and its military operations since then, the most extensive ever conducted in the Gaza Strip, have killed at least 25,700 people, the vast majority women and children, according to the latest report from the Hamas Health Ministry.

On the 111th day of the war, the humanitarian situation in the besieged Palestinian enclave continues to worsen.

Meanwhile, Israeli protesters blocked a key thoroughfare in Tel Aviv yesterday to demand that Israel’s government strike a cease-fire deal, if not a ceasefire.

“Arrives! (…) We don’t want the hostages to come back dead, enough with the bombing in Gaza, we can’t see any more dead children, we want to send a clear message: the people of Israel want an agreement, they want peace,” said Sapir Schlutsker Amran, protester.

Netanyahu vs. Qatar

Qatar, Egypt and the US are currently brokering a new, longer ceasefire in the Gaza Strip that would allow for another exchange of hostages and prisoners.

But according to Israeli media, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as “problematic” the mediating role of Qatar, the emirate where the political leadership of Hamas is based.

“I have no illusions about them. They have the means to put pressure (on Hamas). Why; Because they are funding it,” Mr. Netanyahu continued in Hebrew, according to an audio recording obtained by the Israeli television network Channel 12.

Qatari diplomacy said that there is “horror” in the emirate over the statements attributed to the head of the Israeli government, who is “undermining the mediation process, for reasons that seem to serve his political career” rather than “the Israeli hostages”. as a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed out late at night.

The conflict has sharply increased tensions in the region, between on the one hand Israel and its main ally, the USA, and on the other the “axis of resistance”, which is close to Iran and includes organizations such as Hamas, the Lebanese Hezbollah, Iraqi paramilitary groups and the Yemeni Houthis.

The latter fired missiles at two US-flagged ships yesterday, forcing them to run aground.

While, in France, the number of anti-Semitic acts “exploded” since October 7, which was a “catalyst of hatred”, according to a report by the Representative Council of Jewish Organizations of France (CRIF). Within three months, their number (1,676) reached that of “the last three years combined”, according to the same source.