Despite growing international pressure to curb its military violence in the Gaza Strip, Israel killed more than a hundred Palestinians in fierce fighting with Hamas on Monday. The human rights organization Human Rights Watch meanwhile accused Israel of it to use hunger as “a weapon of war” by deliberately preventing the supply of sufficient food, water and fuel to the civilian population.
There was heavy fighting on Monday, especially at the Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian authorities ninety people died. It was not clear how many of them were civilians. There were also deaths in fighting around the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. In the southern town of Khan Younis, tanks shelled Nasser’s hospital, killing a 13-year-old girl, while at least four Palestinians were killed in the border town of Rafah.
It is somewhat surprising that the Israeli army still does not have full control of the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Military analysts predicted a few weeks ago that it would take Israel only a few days to eliminate the last remnants of resistance by Hamas fighters. But Hamas is apparently able to offer Israel more resistance than expected.
Tunnel of four kilometers
Israel also continues to encounter surprises. This is what the armed forces showed journalists on Sunday Hamas’s largest tunnel that they had found so far. It involved a tunnel four kilometers long, which in some places ran to a depth of fifty meters underground. The tunnel was so wide that smaller vehicles could also drive through it.
A large part of the civilian population now faces a serious shortage of water and food. The Reuters news agency was in contact with a family with one-month-old twins. The mother was unable to feed her babies because she could not produce milk herself due to lack of nourishment. Both babies had not had a bath since they were born.
In a report published Monday, Human Rights Watch stated that “the Israeli government uses starvation of civilians as a method of combat.” “The world’s leaders should speak out against this heinous war crime,” HRW said.
Israel reacted angrily to the report and in turn accused the organization through a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of anti-Semitism and an anti-Israel attitude. According to the spokesperson, the insufficient aid was due to the aid organizations, not to Israel. This weekend, trucks carrying aid entering the area were looted by desperate young Palestinians.
Later Monday, the United Nations Security Council in New York could vote on a resolution demanding Israel land, sea and air access for humanitarian aid. According to the Palestinian authorities, the Palestinian death toll has now risen to 19,453.
Possible new exchange
The American also arrived in Jerusalem on Monday afternoon Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for a conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Austin is expected to urge Israel to switch to a strategy that requires fewer civilian deaths within a few weeks at most. According to Austin, this is also in the interests of Israel itself, because otherwise the Palestinians will become further radicalized and driven into the arms of Hamas.
In Warsaw on Monday, US CIA chief William Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani were due to hold talks on a possible new swap of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners and a temporary ceasefire.
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In Israel itself, pressure for a new exchange has increased after Israeli soldiers mistakenly shot three Israeli hostages last weekend. Despite their bare torsos and an improvised white flag, the soldiers mistook them for fleeing Hamas fighters. One of the killed Israelis even spoke to the soldiers in Hebrew but was nevertheless killed.
The Yemeni Houthis, who have declared solidarity with Hamas and the Palestinians, attacked two ships again on Monday. The US and other states are considering appropriate countermeasures.
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