The Israeli army said on Thursday, September 4, after having taken control of 40% of the city of Gaza, the local civil defense that informs 61 dead in the Israeli raids through the Palestinian territory devastated by the war.
Almost two years after the beginning of the war, caused by an unprecedented attack of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, the Israeli army has intensified in recent weeks its bombings and land operations in Gaza-Ville.
But neither the army nor the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu publicly announced the beginning of the main offensive to seize the city, planned in an approved plan in August.
According to Civil Defense spokesman, Mahmoud Bassal, among the 61 killed Palestinians, 30 perished in the strikes in Gaza-Ville (North), presented by the Army as the last great bastion of Hamas in the Palestinian territory.
“Today we control 40% of Gaza-Ville territory,” said Army spokesman Effie Defrin, in a television statement.
“The operation will continue to expand and intensify in the next few days (…) We will increase the pressure on Hamas to its defeat,” he added. According to UN estimates, almost one million people live in Gaza-Ville and its surroundings. Thousands of Palestinians have fled the city in recent weeks according to witnesses.
75% of the gaza strip
On Wednesday, a senior military official said that Israel hoped that “one million” of people flee to the south. The Israeli army today controls around 75% of the Gaza Strip, a territory of 365 km2 where it site the two million inhabitants several times moved by the war. The UN declared the famine there, what Israel denies.
The Netanyahu government said they wanted to destroy Hamas, who took power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, and take control of territory from the territory on the southern border of Israel. He continued his offensive in Gaza despite the strong pressures in Israel as abroad, to silence weapons and obtain the release of hostages eliminated during the October 7 attack and held in Gaza.
Almost every day, civil defense reports dozens of deaths in Israeli operations. But taking into account the restrictions imposed on the media in Gaza and the difficulties of access to the field, AFP cannot independently verify the balance of civil defense and the information of the various parts.
In Gaza-Ville, a strike in the displaced tents killed five people, including three children, according to Mahmoud Bassal. “My children and I slept in the store when we listened to the sound of an explosion. The high ones fell on us and the children began to shout,” Israa Al-Basous told AFP, who saw the neighboring store.
“They kill our children”
In the Nousseirat (center) sector, Mahmoud Bassal said that an Israeli shot had killed seven people, including three children. In a tent affected by the raid, an older man and his granddaughter inspect the damage. The fabric pieces hang stakes and the personal effects destroyed on the ground, according to the images of the AFP.
“They swing, deprive us of water, move us and kill our children, all in the eyes of the world,” said Oum Nabil Al-Aish, a gazan who lost relatives.
After several manifestations in Jerusalem to demand an agreement of high fire and the release of hostages, dozens of people met Thursday night before the residence of Israeli President Israac Herzog to call the end of the war.
The October 7 attack led to the death of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data. Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 47 are still hostage in Gaza, 25 of which were declared dead by the Israeli army.
The Israeli retaliation campaign left at least 64,231 dead in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.
Source: BFM TV
