This is the third time Ibrahim al-Zatari has migrated south. Initially, he and his wife fled to Gaza City with their four children after their home in northern Gaza was razed down. Soon after, as the fighting intensified in Gaza City, they fled to the Breger refugee camp in the centre.
Today, the Breger refugee camp is no longer safe and has been forced to flee under continuous shelling. On the morning of December 27, Zaatari's family, along with thousands of others, walked for hours to the Deir al-Balah area.
The original population of this town was about 750,000, now crowded with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing from the north. Zaatari wandered the streets with his family, hoping to find an open place to stay. However, "there is absolutely no place to stay here", Zaatari reluctantly told the Associated Press, "where should we go?"
Since the outbreak of the new Palestinian-Israeli conflict on October 7, the death toll in the Gaza Strip has exceeded 210,000 people, most of them women and children. Currently, Israeli ground operations are expanding into the central Gaza Strip, and some southern cities are also experiencing heavy fighting.
Palestinian Abbas called Gaza's encounter "more than a war of annihilation." At the same time, the Israeli military said the operation in Gaza would continue for several more months.
Bombed refugee camps.
On December 27, local time, the Ministry of Health of Gaza announced the latest ** situation. According to the BBC, the Gaza Ministry of Health said on the same day that more than 21,100 people had died in the Gaza Strip in the 11 weeks since the fighting began, most of them women and children. There are more than 5 more50,000 people were injured.
The Gaza Ministry of Health further stated that at least 195 people had been killed in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours alone. In the days leading up to Christmas, Israel intensified its operations in the Gaza Strip.
The BBC, citing Palestinian**, reported that at least dozens of civilians were killed as a result of Israel's overnight bombing of various parts of Gaza. The central Gaza Strip has been bombarded, especially in the overcrowded refugee camps of Breje, Maghazi and Nuserirat.
On December 27, 2023 local time, in Deir al-Ballah in the Gaza Strip, a large number of Palestinians were forced to flee their homes and live in temporary tent camps. Fig. ic photo
While hundreds of people** were killed, the continued bombardment forced the residents of Gaza in the camps to flee again. Rami Abu Mosab, who fled from northern Gaza to the Brej refugee camp, told The Associated Press, "It was a hellish night, and we haven't seen such intense bombardment since the war began." ”
As Israeli ground operations continue to expand into central and southern Gaza, there is no safe place in Gaza. According to the Associated Press, the ongoing Israeli offensive is crowding people into several areas of southern Gaza, such as Deir al-Ballah, Rafah and a small rural strip near the southern coastline.
The Israeli military issued an evacuation order to Breger and nearby areas on 26 December, but many did not have time to flee and had nowhere to go. According to the United Nations, areas such as Breger were home to about 90,000 people before the war, and now more than 610,000 displaced Gazans.
Those who have fled like Zaatari will also find it difficult to find a place to stay in the Deir al-Balakh region. As the UN shelter was already overcrowded, many newcomers had to pitch tents on the sidewalks, and many gathered in the streets near the hospital in the hope that it would be safe from Israeli attacks.
About 85 per cent of the 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip have been forcibly displaced since the fighting began, and many others, like Zaatari, have been forced to move with the fighting. The United Nations** recently said that under the Israeli blockade, only a very small amount of basic supplies such as food, water, fuel and other basic supplies can enter the Gaza Strip, so that about a quarter of the Gaza population faces famine.
The UN Human Rights Office issued a statement on the 26th, saying that it expressed "grave concern" over the continued bombardment of the central Gaza Strip by Israeli forces. The statement said that all attacks must strictly comply with the principles of international humanitarian law, that the Israeli army must take all measures to protect civilians, and that the Israeli army's warnings and evacuation orders for civilians in Gaza do not exempt them from their obligations under international humanitarian law.
However, not only in the central region, but also in some cities in southern Gaza, there has been continued bombardment. According to the BBC, the Ministry of Health of Gaza said on the afternoon of the 27th that Israel airraided a house containing displaced people in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, resulting in the death of 20 people.
The Israeli military also said on the same day that another brigade had been deployed in Khan Younis. Many Palestinians fear that after much of northern Gaza has been razed to the ground, other areas, including the south, may be sparing a similar fate.
On December 27, 2023 local time, Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops continued to attack, and thick smoke billowed over the city. Fig. ic photo
In the face of the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution on December 22 calling for increased humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip and the creation of conditions for a "sustained cessation of hostilities." The resolution also calls on the UN Secretary-General to appoint a "Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator", a post to be ultimately filled by Sigrid Kag, Deputy Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer of the Netherlands. She will begin her duties on January 8, 2024.
However, nearly a week after the resolution was passed, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on December 27 that the resolution "has not yet had any impact" on Gaza. He posted on social media that UN Security Council members must translate the recently adopted resolution into a reality in Gaza as soon as possible, "What the people of Gaza need now is action, not words." ”
The war will also "last for several months."
Despite concerns expressed about the expansion of the fighting, the intensification of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, and even the demand from Israel's key ally, the United States, to reduce the intensity of its military operations and reduce civilian deaths, Israel is sending signals that the war will continue and intensify.
According to Reuters on December 26**, IDF Chief of Staff Hezi Al-Halevi made a televised statement on the Gaza border that day. He said the war would continue for "months." "There is no magic solution to dismantle terrorist groups, there are no shortcuts, only a resolute and protracted fight. "Our [fighting] will extend to Hamas's leadership, whether it takes a week or a few months." ”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently expressed a similar attitude. On the morning of December 25, Netanyahu inspected Israeli forces fighting in the northern Gaza Strip and reiterated that Israel would "continue to fight." "We're not going to stop. We will continue to fight, and we will intensify the fighting in the coming days. It will be a long war, and it is far from the end. Netanyahu said in a statement issued by the Likud party he leads.
On 7 October this year, Hamas raided Israel and took more than 200 hostages, and Israel subsequently launched a war against Hamas and has continuously increased its military operations in the Gaza Strip, from initially fighting mainly in the northern Gaza Strip to gradually expanding to the central and southern regions.
In late November, Israel and Hamas, coordinated by Qatar, the United States and others, reached a four-day temporary ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement, which was extended several times before finally lapsing on November 30, and Israel resumed operations in the Gaza Strip the next day. About 110 people were released by Hamas during the ceasefire, but the Israeli side said that about 132 hostages were still being held.
Inside Israel, Netanyahu is under increasing pressure over hostages. On the afternoon of December 25, while Netanyahu was addressing parliament, some of the hostage's families demanded that their loved ones be rescued immediately, according to the BBC. Netanyahu still said on the same day that "without military pressure, it will not be possible to rescue those who have been kidnapped......."We will not stop fighting. The hostages' families shouted "Now!".Now!”。
In addition, in the middle of this month, Israeli soldiers shot at three released hostages, killing three people, causing an uproar in Israel, and activities broke out in Tel Aviv and other places, demanding that Israel immediately rescue all the hostages.
On December 26, 2023 local time, in the Gaza Strip, after the Palestinian-Israeli conflict continued, and the Israeli army issued a warning to intensify military operations, people living in the Bleger refugee camp and Nuserrat refugee camp evacuated one after another. Fig. ic photo
In fact, Israeli and Arab reports say that Egypt recently proposed a comprehensive peace agreement, which not only involves a ceasefire to free the hostages, but also proposes a plan for the future management of Gaza, which is considered the most comprehensive ceasefire agreement in Gaza at present.
The agreement was divided into three phases, the first of which was a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, with Hamas releasing all hostages and Israel releasing 140 Palestinian prisoners. In the second and third phases, Egypt and Qatar will work with all Palestinian political groups (including Hamas and the Palestinian National Authority) to establish a professional ** to govern Gaza and the West Bank during the transitional period, and the Palestinian political groups will prepare for the transition period** and parliamentary elections.
But Netanyahu insisted that Hamas be eliminated before peace could be ushered in. In a December 25 message in the United States, he made clear three prerequisites for ending the fighting, namely that Hamas "must be destroyed," that the Gaza Strip is demilitarized, and that the Gaza Strip is deradicalized.
As for Gaza's future, the Israeli side has previously said that after the end of the war, Israel will "take over the security affairs of Gaza." On December 25, Netanyahu reiterated that "Israel will retain control of Gaza's security responsibilities for the foreseeable future." ”
As the war in the Gaza Strip continues, the conflict between Israel and Allah in Lebanon is at risk of intensifying. There are fears that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could extend to the entire region.
According to the Associated Press, cross-border firefighting between the Israeli military and Allah has occurred almost daily since the outbreak of a new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict. During this period, at least nine soldiers and four civilians were killed on the Israeli side and at least 150 on the Lebanese side, including 17 civilians.
Benny Gantz, a member of Israel's wartime cabinet and former defense minister, recently said that if the international community and Lebanon** do not take action to prevent Allah** from attacking northern Israel** and keeping Allah away from the border areas, the IDF will take action to achieve this goal.
Reporter |Xie Lian
Edit |Fan Yijing.