The Israeli army continues their its intensive bombing of the Gaza Stripone of whom killed 31 Palestinians yesterday Sunday in a building that was hit, according to Civil Protection, while a US envoy met with the Israeli prime minister.

In the eighth month of the war between Israel and Hamas, which was triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement’s military arm on southern sectors of Israeli territory in October, fierce fighting continued to unfold in Jabalia (north), where Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades fighters regained footholds against Israeli sources, and in Rafah (south).

After a hasty evacuation of civilians was ordered on May 6, on the eve of a tank invasion of the eastern part of the city, “almost half of Gaza’s population,” numbering some 2.4 million inhabitants — or 800,000 people — “was forced to flee for once again,” underlined yesterday the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini.

In the early hours of yesterday morning, Israeli shelling hits family property in Nuseirat refugee camp (center), sources at Al-Aqsa Hospital and Civil Protection in the Gaza Strip said.

Civil Protection was able to recover “the bodies of 31 martyrs and 20 wounded from the wreckage,” said its spokesman Mahmoud Basal.

In the northern part of the ruined besieged enclave, Al Ahli Arab Hospital said three people were killed in an Israeli shelling of a school hosting displaced persons in the eastern part of Gaza City.

“Fierce Battles”

Eyewitnesses spoke of explosions and fighting throughout the night in Jabalia, where yesterday Saturday the Israeli army ordered the hasty evacuation of civilians from some districts after rockets were launched against Israel.

In early January, the Israeli army assured that it had neutralized Hamas units in the northern Gaza Strip.

In the south, the army has declared that will intensify its operations in Rafa, on the closed border with Egypt, where according to him the “last” battalions of Hamas are located. The fighting takes place mainly in the eastern part of the city.

Hamas, for its part, spoke of “ferocious fighting” using anti-tank missiles and heavy weapons.

Washington’s envoy, which like many other capitals says it opposes a large-scale ground attack on Rafah, national security adviser Jake Sullivan held talks yesterday with his counterpart Tchai Hanegby, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog. .

Mr. Sullivan called on Mr. Netanyahu to accompany Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip with a “political strategy” for the future of the Palestinian enclave to “eliminate” the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, according to a White House press release.

The White House national security adviser, who was in the Sunni kingdom on Saturday, also underlined the “possibility” that is now “offered” to conclude an agreement to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Speaking at a university in AtlantaJoe Biden, who is campaigning for re-election to the US presidency, said yesterday that he is working for “lasting peace” in the Middle East, based on the “two-state solution”, meaning the establishment of a Palestinian state — something the administration flatly rejects Netanyahu.

He also called again for an “immediate ceasefire” to be declared so that “the hostages can return home”. Indirect negotiations by the opposing sides have been suspended as the deadlock was absolute in the last round in Cairo.

“No safe location”

In Rafa “there is no security, no food, no water. There has been continuous shelling for months, day and night, we are terrified (…) What remains to be destroyed?” asked Rinad Jude, a resident.

Rafah’s evacuees are going en masse to Khan Younis, a few kilometers to the north, but “there is absolutely no safe location in the Gaza Strip,” UNRWA head Lazzarini reiterated yesterday.

On October 7, Hamas launched the bloodiest attack in history since the establishment of the state of Israel, killing more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data. Fighters from Hamas and other Palestinian armed movements also kidnapped 252 people during the attack, 125 of whom are in the Gaza Strip, but 37 of them are believed to be dead, according to the Israeli military.

Israel’s government has vowed in retaliation to wipe out Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, a movement labeled a terrorist organization by the US and EU.

The Israeli army’s relentless shelling and ground operations in the Gaza Strip have claimed the lives of at least 35,546 people so far, according to the latest figures from the Hamas Health Ministry, and have caused a humanitarian catastrophe as the entire population is threatened. from famine, according to the UN.

Help with the dropper

The continuation of the war, which shows no signs of coming to an end, seems to be deepening and exacerbating the division within the Israeli government.

Benny Gantz, who has joined Mr Netanyahu’s wartime government as a minister without portfolio, has threatened to resign if an “action plan” for the post-war situation in the Gaza Strip is not drawn up and adopted within three weeks. Defense Minister Yoav Gallad also called for “immediate preparation” to begin for an “alternative” government in the Palestinian enclave, in other words a scheme that would not involve Hamas.

The Israeli prime minister accused Mr. Gantz of seeking to “overthrow the government.”

After Israeli military operations began on May 7 in eastern Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, they closed two critical land crossings for aid and fuel deliveries to the enclave (the one on the border with Egypt and Kerem Shalom), further worsening the already disastrous situation. The lack of fuel in particular is an increasingly pressing problem, as without it it is not possible to operate the hospitals that are still open, nor can they refuel vehicles that distribute food and other essentials.

An artificial jetty temporarily installed by the US military on the coast of Gaza to facilitate material deliveries allowed 252 tons of food to arrive from the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, Abu Dhabi announced yesterday. For its part, the Kingdom of Jordan announced that three military aircraft – transports from Jordan, Germany and Egypt – proceeded with new aid drops.

But the United Nations does not stop repeating that only the opening of land passages can allow aid deliveries on the large scale required.

Once again, yesterday the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, warned against the potentially “apocalyptic” consequences of closing the land crossings.

A convoy of humanitarian aid bound for the Gaza Strip was attacked in turn yesterday, as had already happened to others, but Israeli pacifists who accompanied it to protect it assured that only a small amount of the food carried by some thirty trucks was destroyed .

In a statement, Hamas, which is supported by Tehran, also expressed its “total solidarity” with Iran, where a helicopter carrying the President of the Islamic Republic Ibrahim Raishi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and other officials crashed yesterday – according to Iranian state Media, they are all dead.