Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credits: AFP 7:35 p.m., January 18, 2024

Israeli strikes killed 93 people overnight, particularly in the south of the Gaza Strip where Israel intensified its operations, Hamas said on Thursday.

The Israeli army is also continuing its raids in the West Bank, where a 27-year-old man was killed by a bullet in the chest, according to local authorities.

Europe 1 takes stock.

Dozens of Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes Thursday in the Gaza Strip, where the army announced an advance of its soldiers in the southern town of Khan Younes and violent fighting against Hamas.

At the same time, the army intensified its raids in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, where a 27-year-old man was shot and killed, according to the Palestinian Authority.

The main information:

  • New Israeli strikes have left dozens dead according to Hamas, which announces a total death toll of nearly 25,000.

  • Israeli army advances in southern town of Khan Yunis, continues raids in West Bank

  • The United States bombs the Houthi rebels in Yemen, the latter claim a new attack on an “American ship” in the Gulf of Aden

US bombs Houthi rebels in Yemen

While the war between Israel and Hamas raises fears of a regional conflagration, the United States has once again bombed the Houthi rebels in Yemen and these insurgents, who say they are in solidarity with the Palestinians, have claimed responsibility for a new attack against an "American ship" in the Gulf of Aden.

In the Gaza Strip, "93 people died in Israeli attacks, including 16 in a strike against a house in Rafah", in the far south of the besieged territory where some 1.3 million Palestinians fleeing the fighting have found refuge , Hamas said.

After the raid, Umm Walid al-Zamli rushed to the hospital to find that his children were all dead.

“They are very small. What have they done wrong?” she cries in this town located a few km south of Khan Younes.

The conflict in brief

The war, which devastated the Palestinian territory and displaced more than 80% of the population, was triggered by an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 in southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,140 people, the majority of them civilians, killed that day, according to an AFP count based on official figures.

Some 250 people were taken hostage and taken to Gaza during the attack, around 100 of whom were released during a truce at the end of November.

According to Israel, 132 remain detained, of whom 27 are believed to have died.

In retaliation, Israel vowed to annihilate Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007. According to Hamas, 24,620 people, the vast majority women, children and adolescents, were killed and 61,830 injured in Israeli operations.

After carrying out incessant bombardments by land, sea and air against the small territory where some 2.4 million inhabitants are crowded, the Israeli army launched a ground offensive there on October 27 in which it deplored the death of 193 soldiers.

"Hand-to-hand combat"

The latter, who entered the north of the neighboring Gaza Strip from southern Israel, advanced towards the south of the Palestinian territory, under air cover, after fierce clashes with Hamas fighters.

Khan Younes is now the epicenter of the fighting.

According to Israel, officials from Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, are hiding in the city's Nasser hospital.

“We are focused on reaching Hamas leaders,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said.

In a statement, the army said its soldiers had reached "the southernmost sector of the Gaza Strip since the start of the ground operation."

“In Khan Younes (...), soldiers supported by artillery and aviation eliminated dozens of terrorists (in hand-to-hand combat).

Symbolic anniversary

Israeli bombings have razed entire neighborhoods in Gaza, caused a major humanitarian crisis and knocked out more than half of the hospitals in the Palestinian territory, on which Israel has imposed a total siege since October 9 after a land, air and sea blockade dating back of 2007. The UN said it feared a "risk of famine" and "deadly epidemics" and the World Health Organization said that patients were "awaiting death" in hospitals rendered inoperable by the war.

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Before dawn on Thursday, convoys of medicine intended for the hostages and humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians "entered Gaza", according to Israeli and Palestinian sources, as part of an agreement negotiated by the Qatari mediator.

At least a third of the hostages suffer from chronic illnesses requiring treatment, according to the Collective of Hostage Families “Bring them home now”.

In Tel Aviv, a crowd of Israelis gathered to symbolically celebrate the birthday Thursday of the youngest hostage, Kfir Bibas, kidnapped on October 7 when he was nearly nine months old.

Hamas announced in November the death of the baby, his brother and his mother, in an Israeli bombardment.

Israeli authorities have not confirmed.

Risk of overflow

The Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu is under great pressure to return the hostages home and remains inflexible in the face of calls for a ceasefire.

The international community fears that the conflict will spill over with daily exchanges of fire on the Israeli-Lebanese border between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, and the increase in Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

The United States has classified as a “terrorist” entity the Houthis who continue their attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

They targeted Houthi targets in Yemen for the fourth time in less than a week.