“Gaza will burn. ” Thursday, May 13, in a short video message addressed to the inhabitants of the Palestinian enclave, the Israeli defense minister Benny Gantz, martial, recalled the bad memory of the inhabitants of the territory by presenting them his “wishes” for the feast of Aid al-Fitr, the celebrations that mark the end of the month of Ramadan, started on Thursday.
Commander of the Israeli armed forces during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, he pledged fire and destruction if the Palestinian armed factions do not stop firing at Israeli territory. The fighting between Israel and Hamas then lasted 50 days and left at least 2,251 dead on the Palestinian side, mostly civilians, and 74 on the Israeli side.
“No party today”
“Gazans, the last time we met on Eid, I was chief of staff during Operation Protective Edge. Gaza has been trying to rebuild itself ever since. Today, I am Minister of Defense. If Hamas does not stop its violence, the war of 2021 will be harsher and more painful than that of 2014. If the citizens of Israel have to sleep in shelters due to rocket fire, then Gaza will burn. There is no other equation. Gazans, you could have celebrated [l’Aïd] but through the fault of Hamas and the terrorist organizations, there will be no party today. “
Throughout the day, Israeli forces continued their aerial bombardment campaign on the Palestinian enclave of 2 million inhabitants. The toll of these strikes had exceeded 100 dead, including 27 children, on Thursday evening, and nearly 600 people were injured, according to the local health ministry. The IDF said 160 planes had targeted Hamas infrastructure overnight, hitting 150 “targets.”
“Israel renews its strategy of destroying houses above the heads of their inhabitants”, denounces the NGO Al-Mezan
“Israel renews its strategy of destroying houses above the heads of their inhabitants”, denounces the NGO Al-Mezan, a human rights organization in Gaza, which qualifies the destruction of civilian infrastructure as “War crimes” and estimates that several thousand people had to leave their homes, destroyed, or to flee the strikes. In Israel, seven people, including a six-year-old child and a soldier, were killed in rocket fire and attacks along the high security fence along the Palestinian enclave.
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