Five or six kilometers from the Kerem Shalom checkpoint, on Israeli soil, a bomb dropped by a military plane fell. It was headed to Rafah, landed in Yated. «The bomb did not explode. This is an unusual event, the circumstances of which will be examined in depth” informs a statement from the Defense Forces. On the other side of the barrier, which runs very close to the Egyptian border wall, the escape from Rafah continues. So far, 630 thousand people have left, almost half of the million and a half displaced people who have flocked from the rest of the Gaza Strip. Nothing or anyone has entered or exited the southern crossings of Rafah and Kerem Shalom for over ten days. The Egyptian border is sealed, despite pressure from Tel Aviv for Cairo to allow the refugees to pass. The desert coast of al-Mawasi, without water or services, is the only “humanitarian” alternative to the destroyed city of Khan Yunis. The offensive on Rafah is in the air, hot and dusty. But it did not take place “on a large scale”, in defiance of the warning of American President Joe Biden. A letter from the foreign ministers of thirteen countries also arrives to avert it. Coordinated by Antonio Tajani for the Italian presidency of the G7, the ministers express to their counterpart Israel Katz their “opposition to a large-scale military operation in Rafah” which “would have catastrophic consequences on the population”. “In exercising its right to defense,” they write, “Israel must respect international law, including humanitarian law.” The letter was sent “in light of the devastating and growing humanitarian crisis” and calls on Israel for “urgent action.” It is signed by the Foreign Ministers of Italy, Canada, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Holland, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Australia and South Korea.
But the most violent fighting does not concern Rafah. They are concentrated in Jabaliya, the largest of the eight historic refugee camps in the North which since 1948 has welcomed Palestinians who left the territories passed to Israel (in the Nakba, “catastrophe”). The Reuters agency speaks of fierce clashes in the narrow alleys of Jabaliya. Residents report that the tanks have pushed as far as the market and that, as they advance, the bulldozers demolish houses and shops. The army says it has “intensified operational control of the area”: ”more than 60 terrorists have been killed” in “close clashes”. A twenty-year-old soldier also died. Palestinian victims would have risen to 35,303. However, the place where the Defense Forces, in a joint operation with Shin Bet secret agents, found the bodies of three Israelis brought to Gaza after being killed on October 7 at the Nova Festival was not disclosed. They are Amit Buskila (28 years old), Shani Luk (23) and Itzhak Galarenter (56). The photo of a battered Shani lying on the back of a pickup among Hamas terrorists had become a symbol of the massacre. «The heart breaks – said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu –. We will bring home all our hostages, dead and alive.”
Three more victims were counted on the northern front of Israel, in clashes with the Lebanese Hezbollah. It concerns a 13-year-old and two adults, a Lebanese and a Syrian, who were traveling in a small truck in Zahrani, in the Lebanese province of Sidon. Among the five injured, some minors. According to local media, they were day laborers. According to the army, “a terrorist infrastructure where Hezbollah operated and which contained numerous compounds used by their air defense system, which deliberately hides among civilians”, was hit. Over 70 rockets sounded sirens in the northern Galilee, before being shot down by Iron Dome. «We will bring our residents back to the North safely – said the Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, visiting a military base -. We want to do it through an agreement because we know that war has a price and we prefer to avoid it, but we also take into account that conflict could happen.” While the International Court of Justice in The Hague has begun to deliberate on the new requests from South Africa accusing Israel of crimes against humanity, the only good news coming from Gaza is the delivery of the first humanitarian aid arriving from the sea via the floating dock built by the USA in record time. These are 8,400 kits, which include plastic sheets for temporary shelters. Another shipment of food, the European Commission announces, has left by ship from Cyprus.
