The 20th day in the war in Gaza: Israeli bombing Gaza continues and destruction is everywhere

Around 17 Palestinians, including children, were killed, and others were injured in an Israeli bombing, at dawn on Thursday, that targeted a house in the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.

Since October 7, the Israeli army has continued to target Gaza with intense air strikes that destroyed entire neighborhoods, killing 6,546 Palestinians, including 2,704 children, 1,584 women, and 295 elderly people, and wounding 17,439 people, in addition to more than 1,600 missing people under the rubble.

During the same period, Hamas killed more than 1,400 Israelis and wounded 5,132, according to the Israeli Ministry of Health, and captured more than 200 Israelis, including high-ranking military personnel.

Amnesty International said that the Israeli army’s threats ordering residents of the northern Gaza Strip to forcibly displace may amount to the level of war crimes, noting that on October 21, the Israeli army dropped leaflets in northern Gaza ordering residents to evacuate the area immediately… On the grounds that their lives are in danger.

The Israeli army threatened that anyone who chooses not to evacuate his home from northern Gaza to the south of the area of the Gaza Valley may be identified as an accomplice of a terrorist organization.

“Declaring an entire city or area a military target is completely contrary to international humanitarian law, which stipulates that those who carry out attacks must distinguish between civilians or civilian objects and military targets,” said Amnesty International’s Senior Crisis Response Program Advisor, Donatella Rovera.

She stressed that “violating the principle of discrimination by targeting civilians or civilian objects, or by carrying out indiscriminate attacks that lead to the death or injury of civilians, is considered a war crime”.

Rovera added, “The messages contained in these posts cannot be considered an effective warning to civilians; Instead, it provides further evidence that Israel aims to forcibly displace civilians in northern Gaza”.

She continued, “These threats may also amount to the war crime of collective punishment, because Israel holds hundreds of thousands of civilians responsible for actions they didn’t commit.”

Under the bombing and threats of the Israeli army, about 1.4 million Palestinians have already been displaced out of the 2.3 million people of Gaza, who are already suffering from extremely deteriorating living conditions.

As a result of an ongoing Israeli siege since Hamas won the legislative elections in 2006.

Amnesty International renewed its call to immediately cancel forced evacuation orders, as well as urgently cancel all conditions imposed on the distribution of humanitarian aid, and allow aid, including fuel, to enter Gaza in sufficient quantities to meet the urgent needs of the civilian population.

Since the start of the war, Israel has cut off supplies of water, food, medicine, and electricity to the residents of Gaza, amid warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe and the collapse of the health system in the besieged Strip.

Diplomatic activity has also accelerated over the past few days, in an attempt, in particular, to establish a humanitarian truce.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday from Cairo that launching a large-scale ground operation in the Gaza Strip would be a mistake, while his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al Sisi warned that such an operation would be a mistake because it conflicts with the rights of the civilian population and also because it won’t provide better protection for Israel.

US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that Israel has the right and responsibility to defend itself, but it must do everything in its power to protect innocent civilians.

Biden, who asked the new Speaker of the House of Representatives to quickly approve an aid program for Israel, confirmed that he didn’t demand Netanyahu to postpone any planned attack until the hostages held by Hamas are released.

Hamas has released four women hostages since Friday evening.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization requested the release of the hostages for humanitarian and health reasons.

A few dozen trucks carrying humanitarian aid have entered Gaza since October 21, through the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

At least 100 trucks are still needed daily, according to the United Nations.

The United Nations calls for the urgent introduction of fuel to operate electric generators in hospitals where thousands of wounded are flocking, to pump and purify water, and to operate its trucks.

However, Israel refuses, saying that this would benefit Hamas, which it classifies, along with the United States and the European Union, as a terrorist organization.

In Gaza City, the director of al Shifa Hospital, Dr. Muhammad Abu Salamiya, said, “The hospitals are in a state of complete collapse… Ten hospitals are out of service,” adding that “more than 90% of the medicines and medical tools have run out… Medical aid has arrived that isn’t enough for one day”.

Washington believes that the ceasefire at this stage will only benefit Hamas.

The White House instead proposed limited humanitarian truces to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid, a position that European Union countries are expected to adopt during Thursday’s and Friday’s meeting in Brussels, according to diplomatic sources.

Netanyahu acknowledged on Wednesday that he would have to provide answers ​​regarding the security failures that allowed Hamas to launch its surprise attack on the state on the seventh of October.

“The failures will be studied and everyone will have to provide answers, including me”.

he said in a televised speech, “But all that will happen later… As prime minister, I am responsible for securing the country’s future”.