Israel has promised “terrible revenge” and to “eradicate” Hamas in response to what constitutes the deadliest attack on its soil in its 75-year history. The latest toll from the assault carried out on Saturday by the terrorist group, against several kibbutzims and an open-air music festival in southern Israel, rose to 1,200 dead and more than 2,700 injured, while Dozens of people have been kidnapped and are being held hostage in Gaza.
“The house collapsed on me”
Since then, retaliatory airstrikes carried out by the army of the State of Israel against the Palestinian enclave have left 1,100 dead and more than 5,330 injured, according to the local Ministry of Health, also indicating that around 250,000 people are left homeless after the destruction of 535 residential buildings. “I was sleeping here when the house collapsed on me,” says a man on the spot, in tears, as he searches, with other Palestinians equipped with flashlights, for survivors on the stairs of the building. a building hit by missiles.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams are also struggling to organize care. “The situation in Gaza is catastrophic, the health structures are overwhelmed. There is an extremely large number of injured, a continuous influx into all the hospitals in the Gaza Strip. The medical teams are of course exhausted, they work 24 hours on 24”, relates Léo Cans, MSF head of mission based in Jerusalem, on his site.
“They don’t even know where to go.”
“In Gaza, the population is terrified, they see no way out and wonder how this will all end. They are in terrible mental distress. People sometimes receive a text message in the middle of the night telling them to evacuate their homes. They need to wake up their children. But very often, they don’t even know where to go, and they find themselves in the middle of the night, outside, under a rain of bombs,” he emphasizes. “The declaration of war should, in no case, lead to a collective punishment of the population in Gaza, adds Léo Cans. Cutting off water, electricity and fuel supplies is unacceptable, because it condemns the entire population.”
Trapped
Gaza, densely populated with some 2.3 million inhabitants, was thus placed under a “total siege” by Israel. A practice “prohibited by international humanitarian law”, recalls the UN, as does the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell. The WHO, like several NGOs, is calling for the opening of a humanitarian corridor to transport essential goods and evacuate civilians, while the only power plant in Gaza is now shut down.
“There is no electricity in Gaza,” the Israeli energy minister declared on Wednesday, October 11, confirming that he had cut off “the supply of water, electricity and fuel” to the enclave. Egypt fears a massive exodus of Gaza residents towards its Sinai peninsula. Israel bombed the Rafah border crossing, the only access point to the Gaza Strip that escapes its control. Civilians now seem, like the terrorists, trapped.
This article is originally published on centrepresseaveyron.fr
