• ANA SOUSA

    @anasousa_3

  • ALBERTO HERNANDEZ

    @albertohv_

Updated Tuesday,7November2023 - 23:34

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"As of today there is a north of Gaza and a south of Gaza," Daniel Hagari, an Israeli army spokesman, said on the evening of Sunday, November 5. Gaza City is under siege. As the first month of the war between Israel and Hamas approaches, this is the scene of Gaza's most populous area, ten days after the ground incursion by Netanyahu's troops.

The response of Israeli troops to the Hamas attack on several kibbutzim on October 7, in which 1,400 people were killed, leaves the Strip in a catastrophic humanitarian situation and a trail of death: more than 10,000 Palestinians killed, including more than 4,000 children, according to the Gaza Strip's Ministry of Health. 195 of them were provoked by an attack on the Jabalia refugee camp on 1 November.

The bombing of the Jewish state does not stop. Although the missiles fall throughout the Strip, they are focused on the north, where Israel believes Hamas' base of operations is. This virulence, expected by repeated warnings from the Israeli government for civilians to evacuate the area, has resulted in more than 1.5 million displaced people and more than 40,000 homes destroyed.

Such high numbers prompted U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to say on Monday that "Gaza is becoming a children's graveyard." And he pointed to another fact: "More journalists have been killed in a four-week period than in any other conflict in the last three decades."

The hardest face of the war is being taken by the Gaza Strip, before which all the figures pale in comparison. However, there are two other sources of conflict. In the West Bank, Israeli forces are carrying out numerous raids in search of suspected Hamas collaborators. Added to this is the violence of far-right settlers against the Palestinian population. In total, 371 Palestinians have been killed in these acts this year, more than in any year since 2008. Almost half of them reportedly lost their lives after the October 7 attacks.

On the border with Lebanon, the crossfire between the Israeli army and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah has already resulted in at least 90 deaths: 9 in Israel and at least 81 on Lebanese soil. In total, 15 civilians were reportedly killed, including three children.

The main milestones of the first weeks of the conflict are reviewed below.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21: FIRST RELIEF ARRIVES FOR GAZA

Egypt opens the Rafah crossing and a first convoy of 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid enters the Gaza Strip. After that, the door closes again. UN Secretary-General António Guterres says Gazans need "much more" and calls for a "humanitarian ceasefire".

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17: MASSACRE AT A GAZA HOSPITAL

Shortly after 19:30 p.m. local time (18:30 p.m. Spanish time), Hamas announced that an explosion at the Al Alhi Arab hospital in Gaza City left "200 to 300 martyrs" dead. The Islamist organization immediately attributed the incident to an Israeli bombing.

The attack provokes the unanimous reproach of governments and organizations around the world: the UN, the president of the European Council, even the president of the United States, Joe Biden, condemns it and says he is "outraged and deeply saddened". Protests have taken to the streets in Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Morocco, Syria, Qatar, Tunisia, as well as in various European and US cities.

Late into the night, the Israeli army claimed responsibility for the bombing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group. According to his version, the failed launch of a rocket would have hit the sanitary facility, a theory supported by US President Joe Biden.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 16: NO FUEL, NO DRINKING WATER

Water is scarce in Gaza, a week after Israel ordered a blockade of the Strip. The director of communication for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, Juliette Touma, warns that the lack of drinking water is leading the population to use precariously dug wells, with a high risk of contracting infectious diseases.

Before the blockade, most of the water consumed in the Palestinian enclave came from its desalination plants, but they run on fuel and are now stopped.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13: EVACUATION WARNING

The UN reports that the Israeli military has called for the evacuation of civilians from the northern Gaza Strip in the next 24 hours, an area where 1.1 million people live. All UN agencies are calling on Israel to rescind this order because, according to spokesman Stephane Dujarric, "it is impossible for this move to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences."

In particular, moving the sick would result in the death of many of them during transfer or after their arrival at the already overwhelmed hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip, according to the WHO.

Hamas dismisses the Israeli warning as "false propaganda" and urges citizens to ignore it, yet the streets of the enclave have been crowded with people trying to find safer places.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11: NO ELECTRICITY OR FUEL

On any given day, Gaza needs to import more than half of the electricity it needs from Israel, as the enclave has only one generation plant. After the blockade, the electricity company reports that the fuel reserves only cover 10 hours of electricity, so it announces that for every three hours of supply there will be another 24 hours of cut-off.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7: HAMAS ATTACKS BY SURPRISE, LEAVING HUNDREDS DEAD

Hamas, the militia that has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, fires thousands of rockets into Israeli territory. In addition, several groups of terrorists cross the border and enter several nearby towns and kibbutzim, where they indiscriminately kill hundreds of people. Initial figures speak of some 700 killed in Israel and at least 413 Palestinians killed. These figures soon pale as, heading into Thursday, they will well exceed a thousand on both sides.

Israel evacuates civilians from the 24 towns near the Gaza border. Hebrew state forces carry out an airstrike on targets in the northern Gaza Strip in Beit Hanoun. From Lebanon, the Hezbollah militia attacks Israeli targets and fighting ensues.