“The entire city is suffering from destruction and continuous bombing. Many come from the northern Gaza Strip, and most have no place to stay and are internally displaced. We are not numbers. We are people.” The testimony of Hassan, who recently arrived in Rafah from Khan Yunis, shows the desperation of Gazans who have no safe place to hide. This Thursday, December 7, will mark two months of war in the Gaza Strip, just a week after the end of a seven-day truce that gave way to even more intense fighting.

Khan Yunis, the second most populous city in the Gaza Strip, is the target of the third phase of Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. There is hand-to-hand combat between Israeli troops and Hamas terrorists. The war, which began on October 7 following a massacre carried out by terrorists on Israeli soil, has already surpassed 16,000 deaths in Gaza, adding to the 1,200 Israelis killed at the time. Shabbat tragic. Some 7,000 Gazans were also buried in the rubble. This is the deadliest outcome of all Arab-Israeli wars. More than 1.8 million Gazans, 80% of the population, were forced from their homes in an exodus reminiscent of the Nakba in 1948. Many people do this on foot. Or on a donkey.

Exactly the 60th day of the war, Tuesday, December 5, was the day when the most intense fighting was recorded. Israeli troops have reached the heart of Khan Yunis, where they believe Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, Yayha Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 massacre, the worst blow dealt to Israel since the Holocaust, and the leader of its military force, the Al-Qassam Brigades, Mohamed Deif. The Israeli army will search for them in the city’s network of tunnels.

Israel has questioned the Gaza casualty figures provided by the Hamas-owned Strip’s authorities, adding that at least a third of them will be from the terror group, which numbered about 30,000 combatants at the start of the war. Hamas stresses that more than half of those killed in the bombings are women and children. In the West Bank, the army detained more than a thousand Palestinians, and the death toll rose to 260 in those two months.

The risk of “strategic defeat”

The destruction of the Strip during those two months, during which operations were concentrated in the north, affected 60% of the buildings, according to Corey Sher of the CUNY Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of the University of Oregon cited in his honor. Financial Times. In some areas, barely 30% of buildings survived. Across Gaza, more than 82,000 buildings lie in ruins. According to Robert Pape, an American military historian, the destruction is greater than that seen during World War II in cities such as Dresden.

Even Israel’s staunchest ally, the United States, makes clear that the operation in the south will not follow the same course. As US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “the number of civilian casualties is unbearable.” He stressed that “the civilian casualties and displacement that we are seeing in the north must not be repeated in the south.” And Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warns that Israel risks “strategic defeat” if it does not protect the lives of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. Germany has also begun to emphasize that respect for human rights in Gaza is important. China called for a ceasefire.

Washington and European capitals are also concerned about what will happen in the sector after the war ends. There are still difficult days ahead. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on ABC that at the current rate it could last another two months.

The goal remains the destruction of Hamas. Its leaders? To all those who support the organization in Gaza? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then hinted that there would come a time when Israel would take control of the situation. The United States and its European allies advocate strengthening the Palestinian National Authority or transferring power to the UN for a transitional period. Reconstruction will take years, and Gazans fear they will be driven out of the strip.

Israel assured Washington that it would use data analysis techniques to determine population concentrations. Gazans complain that the warnings they are issuing barely give them time to move and will be of little use if many no longer have internet connections. Due to fuel shortages, 28 of the 35 hospitals in the sector have ceased operations.

The humanitarian disaster witnessed by international organizations in the north is now spreading to the center and south: hospitals where care is provided without resources, even without anesthesia or oxygen, and the dead are buried in graves or overcrowded for days, with a serious risk of epidemics. .

“Palestinians in the Gaza Strip live in absolute and deepening horror.”

Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

In the few shelters for survivors, there are inhumane conditions and a lack of basic resources. During the truce, aid began to arrive at a faster rate, but despite international pressure it declined again. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk admits that he is speechless: “The situation in the Gaza Strip is catastrophic, apocalyptic. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip live in absolute and deepening horror.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres invoked Article 99 for the first time this Wednesday to call on the Security Council to achieve a ceasefire and thus avoid a “human catastrophe” in the Gaza Strip.

In Spain, in late November, Spanish government president Pedro Sánchez’s reference to an “unbearable” number of Palestinian casualties and doubts about their compliance with international humanitarian law led to a diplomatic crisis between Israel. The Israeli government recalled Ambassador Rodica Rodian-Gordon for consultations. It is the diplomatic formula that presupposes a partial withdrawal of troops. The Sánchez government, which has succeeded in repatriating 143 Latino Gazatas in the past month, insists that Israel is a “friendly country,” hopes the water will return to normal and advocates an international peace conference that now seems a long way off.

There is considerable division within the EU regarding Israel, which regards Germany as its most loyal defender, but the person who best expressed the shared sentiment was High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Josep Borrell, who spoke after his recent visit to the EU. kibbutz near the Strip: “I understand your means and your pain. I understand your anger. But let me ask you not to give in to anger. I think this is what Israel’s best friends can tell you, because what distinguishes the society of a terrorist group’s civilization is its respect for human life. All lives have the same value.”

Mirage of Truce

For only seven days out of those two months did Israeli bombing and Hamas rocket attacks, as well as ground fighting, cease. From 24 to 30 November a fragile truce was maintained, initially for four days and then extended. Mediation by Qatar, home of Hamas’s top command, and pressure from the United States allowed the terrorist group to free 110 hostages from its notorious captivity, most of them Israeli citizens or dual citizens, as well as 23 Thais and one Filipino. . Israel released 230 Palestinian prisoners, most of them minors and women.

This truce was a mirage that gave the families of the hostages hope that they would all return to their homes. In those days, there were outbursts of joy among the lucky ones such as the Ashers and the Manders. Ruth Usher and her two young daughters were among the first to return. Many minors now have nightmares and are afraid of losing sight of their parents after returning from hell.

There are indications that some of the women were raped, and it is now known that terrorists also committed sexual violence on October 7th. This atrocity is shown on video recorded by terrorists and public cameras, which the Israeli government and embassies show to politicians and members of the public.

Hamas still holds 138 captives. Their families are not giving up, and those who have already been released have joined their fight. They just met with Prime Minister Netanyahu because they demand his return be a priority. There are fears that most of them are in Khan Yunis along with Hamas leaders. “I believe in our children, they are strong and will be able to cope with this, and I want our government and our military to intervene as quickly as possible and start negotiations,” said Idit Ohel, mother of 21-year-old Alon. -year-old hostage. “Too many days have passed. Not one more. We want them to come back.”

This Thursday, a candle will be lit in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square in memory of each of the hostages still held by Hamas. There are 138 of them. Hamas assures that there will be no more liberations until the war is over.