Israel-Hamas war: first evacuation from Gaza still under bombing

For the first time on the 26th day of the conflict between Israel and Hamas. On Wednesday, more than 400 people from the Gaza Strip were evacuated to reach Egypt through the Rafah crossing, an Egyptian official told AFP. In detail, 76 wounded Palestinians on board ambulances and 335 people with foreign passports were able to leave the enclave on six buses.

Among the evacuated foreigners and citizens with dual citizenship are five French, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) told Le Parisien newspaper on Wednesday afternoon that 22 of its members, including four people with French citizenship, “are in the process of being evacuated.” The fifth French evacuee will also be an aid worker, an NGO source told AFP.

Evacuations in the south, explosions in the north

“We continue our efforts to ensure that all our compatriots, our agents and their families who wish to do so can leave Gaza as soon as possible,” the Quai d’Orsay also said. 54 French citizens and their families are still in the Palestinian enclave.

This first large-scale operation is due to continue from Thursday. “The Rafah terminal will reopen on Thursday to allow more foreigners and dual nationals to pass through,” an Egyptian security source told AFP.

While the evacuation process is progressing in the south of the Gaza Strip, fighting continues in the north of the territory. The Jabaliya refugee camp, home to more than 100,000 people, was the target of Israeli bombing on Tuesday evening. The attack killed more than fifty people and injured hundreds more, according to the Hamas Health Ministry. Hamas said the camp was the target of a new explosion on Wednesday. Although an exact estimate has not been released, AFP images indicate the impact caused massive destruction.

The North is a “war zone”

For its part, the IDF admitted that it carried out these strikes aimed at killing Ibrahim Biari, who is considered one of those responsible for the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. The latter was located in “a huge complex of underground tunnels from which he directed operations.” Ibrahim Bari, as well as “a large number of terrorists,” were killed in the blast, the Israeli army said.

What about the civilians affected by these shots? Jonathan Conricus, a spokesman for Israeli forces, recalled that for several weeks there had been numerous calls to flee the northern Gaza Strip, which had become a “war zone.” He hopes the last civilians present “will make the right decision and evacuate to safer areas in the south.”

Macron wants to ‘protect civilians first’ in Gaza

The UN reaction to these attacks was not long in coming. “Given the high number of civilian casualties and the scale of destruction following Israeli airstrikes on the Jabaliya refugee camp, we have serious concerns that these are disproportionate attacks that may amount to war crimes,” the International High Commissioner for Human Rights wrote. organization Wednesday night on X (formerly Twitter).

As repeated Israeli bombings split the international community, Emmanuel Macron, visiting Astana in Kazakhstan, asked to “protect civilians first” in the Gaza Strip as they “have nothing to do with the terrorist attacks” by Hamas. He also said he “hated the debate” about delineating the value of “Jewish lives” and “Palestinian lives.”