The war with Hamas leaves around 100,000 people internally displaced in Israel

Around 100,000 Israelis were displaced from their homes by the war against the Palestinian Islamic group Hamasthat broke out on October 7, especially residents of cities neighboring the borders with Gaza strip and Lebanon, the Israeli Ministry of Defense reported this Monday.

The Israelis currently evacuated or relocated are “around 100 thousand,” the ministry told EFE.

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Hamas, which de facto rules in the Strip, surprised Israel on October 7th with a massive attack that included the launch of rockets – more than 6,000 so far – and the incursion of more than 1,200 militiamen into Israeli territory, who tortured, killed and kidnapped hundreds of residents from Gaza border villages.

The attack has stopped so far more than 1,400 dead, almost 4,000 injured, at least 120 hostages and an unknown number of people missing in Israel.

Faced with this scenario, around 30,000 inhabitants of Sderot, the Israeli city closest to the Gaza Strip, and another 36,000 people who lived within a diameter of up to 7 kilometers around the border with the Palestinian enclave were resettled, according to data from the Defending.

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On the other hand, around 5,000 Israelis lack adequate personal protection and stable residence in Ashkelon, a city located a little further north of Sderot, on the Mediterranean coast.

All of these points were hit by rockets from Gaza and witnessed the death and destruction of numerous infrastructures that the militants left in their wake.

Meanwhile, the inhabitants of cities in northern Israel, along the border with Lebanon, also had to abandon their homes after the intensification of the exchange of projectiles between the Jewish State and the Shiite group Hezbollah together with Palestinian militias, as a result conflict with Hamas.

Thus, in that area, around 10,000 Israelis were evacuated from 28 cities by the authorities, while another 17,000 did so voluntarily, before the official request arrived this Monday.

People prepare to board a bus as local residents are evacuated from the city of Sderot, Israel, October 15, 2023 | EFE/EPA/MARTIN DIVISEK

The high point of tension came yesterday, when Hezbollah claimed responsibility for launching six anti-tank missiles and nine rockets, to which Israel responded by bombing the group’s positions in southern Lebanon.

A projectile hit the headquarters of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL), in the southern city of Naqura, the origin of which is being investigated by the Blue Helmets, without any casualties being reported.

It is the biggest increase in tension in the region since the 2006 escalation, which has raised fears that Hezbollah may decide to become directly involved in the war.

In nine days of tension between Israel and Lebanese militias, 17 people died: five on Israeli territory – four soldiers and one civilian – and at least 12 on Lebanese soil, including three civilians – one of them a Reuters cameraman. four members of Hezbollah and five members of Palestinian militias.

Source: Elcomercio