Middle East, fighting resumes. Hamas: more than 170 dead in Gaza

It took just minutes after the end of the truce for Israeli airstrikes to hit the Gaza Strip again. The Ministry of Health, which reports to Hamas, has already reported at least 178 deaths. Palestinian militiamen also resumed firing rockets into Israel, where air warning sirens sounded in the north of the country and in Tel Aviv. The exchange of missiles also took place between Israel and Lebanon, from where Hezbollah claims to have attacked a military position, while Tel Aviv soldiers announced that they had hit “a terrorist cell operating in the territory”. However, according to Lebanese media, those most affected were a woman and her son, who were shot and killed in the city of Houla. Meanwhile, on the approximately 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, most of them crowded in the south of the enclave, where Israel urged the population to evacuate at the beginning of the war, other leaflets rained down inviting civilians to move further south of the city. from Khan Younis, destination of the first wave of displaced people and now defined as a “dangerous zone”, to head to Rafah and the border with Egypt, which however remains closed. The UN has described the resumption of hostilities as catastrophic, stressing that the situation in Gaza has “gone beyond crisis point” as more Palestinians are at risk of being killed or “forcibly displaced into areas of Gaza that are already severely overcrowded and unhealthy.”

Qatar said negotiators were still trying to reach an agreement on restoring the ceasefire, but that “continuous shelling in the Gaza Strip in the first hours after the end of the truce complicates mediation efforts and worsens the humanitarian catastrophe ”. “We seriously wanted and are still interested in a truce, despite renewed Israeli aggression,” said Osama Hamadan, Hamas representative in Lebanon, blaming Israel for having “refused to accept the offer that emerged in the latest talks.” The opinion of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was completely opposite and stated: «The truce ended due to Hamas’ violation of the agreement. In fact, he committed a heinous terrorist attack in Jerusalem, killing three people and injuring others, including Americans. He began firing rockets before the break ended and reneged on his commitments to release some hostages.” Sources close to the negotiations revealed to CNN that the truce could be renewed if Hamas provided an “adequate” list of hostages to be released. However, the The New York Times revealed that Tel Aviv officials had obtained Hamas’ plan for the October 7th attack more than a year ago, but that they had not taken it seriously, considering it too ambitious and difficult to execute. document of approximately 40 pages, which the Israeli authorities called the “Wall of Jericho”, outlined the operation point by point, for which no date was set. The plan was designed to dominate the fortifications around the Gaza Strip, take over control of Israeli cities and attack key military bases. Hamas then followed this strategy, writes the NYT, “with shocking precision.” The document also included details about the location and size of Israeli military forces, communication routes and other sensitive information that raises questions about how Hamas may have gathered this information and suggests that there were leaks within the Israeli security system.