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Family members and friends of Hamas hostages plan to walk 63 kilometers to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office
Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg / AP
The Israeli army reports control of several Hamas government buildings and the death of an Israeli soldier held hostage. Relatives of other hostages have embarked on a five-day protest march, and Finance Minister Smotrich has called for a "voluntary exodus" of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. The overview.
The military situation
More than five weeks after the start of the Gaza war, the Israeli army has apparently taken control of several Hamas government buildings. These included the Hamas parliament and police buildings in Gaza, the Israeli military said. In addition, it has also taken control of an engineering faculty. This had served as an "Institute for the Production and Development of Weapons". Online media showed images of Israeli soldiers unfurling the Israeli flag at the podium of the speaker of parliament. In addition, the footage showed soldiers in front of a wall on which was written "Headquarters of the Military Police."
According to the army, it also discovered a tunnel entrance "located in a mosque in the Gaza Strip." In addition, fighter planes and helicopters were used to bomb a "terrorist cell" that fired "anti-tank missiles against soldiers."
Israel also said it had attacked targets in southern Lebanon from the air after coming under fire from there. Israeli positions as well as some border towns were attacked from the northern neighboring country by the Shiite militia Hezbollah with anti-tank missiles and grenade launchers, the Israeli military said.
Fighter jets then bombed the places in Lebanon from which the projectiles were fired, the army said. A tank also shelled Hezbollah's "terrorist facilities" in Lebanon. Hezbollah announced in Beirut that it had attacked positions of "enemy soldiers" with "adequate weapons" in the morning. Initially, nothing was known about possible losses on both sides.
Tel Aviv was again hit with rockets from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. Alarm sirens wailed in the city. A man was taken to a hospital with serious injuries, a woman suffered minor injuries, and a third man suffered minor injuries, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance service. Most recently, the city was the target of missiles from the embattled coastal strip on Friday. Hamas' armed wing in the Gaza Strip, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack.
This is what Israel says
Israel has confirmed the death of a hostage in the hands of Hamas. The military listed the 19-year-old soldier, who was reportedly abducted to the Gaza Strip, among those killed since October 7. A date and the exact circumstances of her death were not disclosed. It was also initially unclear where the military got the information about the woman's death and whether her body was in the custody of the army. It was the first time Israel confirmed a death among the hostages previously claimed by Hamas.
On Monday, the armed wing of the Islamist Hamas published a video of the woman via Telegram. In it, she reported in Hebrew of heavy bombardments and called for an end to the attacks. It was unclear whether she had been coerced into testifying by her captors. Later, footage was shown showing her with the most serious injuries, according to the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Hamas' armed wing claimed it had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip on November 9. The information could not be independently verified.
In Israel itself, relatives of the hostages have embarked on a five-day march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to demand that the government step up its efforts to secure their release. The 63-kilometer walk to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office was initially attended by more than a hundred people. Black T-shirts and posters featured photos of some of the hostages.
The protest march was called by the Forum of the Families of Hostages and the Disappeared, which was founded after Hamas' large-scale attack on Israel on October 7 to keep public attention alive for the approximately 240 people who had been deported to the Gaza Strip at the time. Several banners read, "A deal for the hostages, now."
Netanyahu had spoken on Sunday on the US broadcaster NBC of a possible agreement on the release of hostages. On Monday, Hamas' armed wing accused Israel of delaying Qatari-brokered talks on a possible exchange of hostages for those detained in Israel.
In a statement on Tuesday, the forum called on the Israeli government to disclose what demands it had made during the talks. The brother of one of the hostages, Danni Elgarat, accused the government of "psychological terror" against the families because of its silence. At the same time, Elgarat rejected an agreement on the release of only part of the hostages.
Israel's far-right finance minister, meanwhile, has called for a "voluntary migration" of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to several countries. The voluntary exodus and reception of Arab Gazans by the countries of the world is a humanitarian solution that will put an end to the suffering of Jews and Arabs at the same time," Bezalel Smotrich wrote on Platform X, formerly Twitter.
In a lengthy statement on Facebook, he added that the reception of the refugees could be done with "generous financial assistance from the international community, including Israel." He referred to a similar opinion piece by two members of parliament in the Wall Street Journal.
What the international community says
Egyptian Foreign Minister Samih Shukri rejected Smotrich's statements, especially with regard to allegedly voluntary evacuations. The expulsion of the people in the Gaza Strip was the result of Israeli attacks as well as the siege of the coastal area, he wrote on Facebook. He accused Israel of deliberately creating circumstances so that people would leave their homes. This constitutes a war crime.
Fearing a mass exodus, both Egypt and Jordan have refused to accept refugees from the Gaza Strip. This also has to do with the fear that this could end up being a permanent expulsion.
US President Joe Biden, meanwhile, expressed confidence that the Israeli hostages in the hands of the radical Islamic Hamas will be released. For this reason, he is holding daily talks with those involved in the negotiations on the release of the abductees and he believes that this will succeed. "Hang in there, we're coming," he told reporters in Washington, addressing the hostages' families.
What the Gaza Strip says
According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, dozens of bodies have been buried in a mass grave on the grounds of the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip. The burial of around 180 already decomposing bodies as well as recently deceased patients in one of the courtyards of the Shifa hospital has begun, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health said. The statements could not be independently verified.
The largest hospital in the Gaza Strip is not out of service, contrary to statements by Palestinian authorities over the weekend, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced in Geneva on Tuesday. Despite power outages and attacks, staff at Shifa Hospital are trying everything in their power to care for around 700 remaining seriously ill patients, the WHO spokeswoman said, citing local health authorities. Within the past 24 hours, 20 people have died.
There are fierce clashes between Israeli soldiers and Hamas around the hospital. The Israeli army accuses Hamas of using patients and asylum seekers as "human shields" and hiding fighters, equipment and command centers in or under the buildings. Hamas rejects this.
Israel had called on civilians and patients to leave the hospital. The Israeli mission in Geneva had condemned criticism by the WHO, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
In the entire Gaza Strip, according to Hamas, 25 of the 35 hospitals are no longer usable as a result of the Israeli attacks. "They also destroyed 94 government buildings and 253 schools," said Hamas official Osama Hamdan in Beirut.
svs/dpa/AFP/Reuters