REPORTING. “It’s becoming extremely dangerous”: in Gaza, the Israeli army continues its operations

Will the war resume in the Palestinian enclave? The director of the Peace Council, the body in charge of implementing Donald Trump’s peace plan, the Bulgarian Nickolay Mladenov was in Israel on Monday May 4 to advance negotiations, which have been at a standstill since the American president declared a ceasefire last October.

On the ground, the Israeli army continues to target suspected enemies, humanitarian aid is lacking, Palestinians from Gaza are trickling out via Rafah, to the south, and the Jewish state is still nibbling a little more territory. The yellow line which separates the occupied enclave from the space administered by Hamas is moving.

The yellow line is a poorly demarcated and now shifting virtual border. On one side, the Israeli army and its auxiliary militias, on the other two million Palestinians, more than half of whom live in the most exposed tents, live near this yellow line. This is the case of Ahmani, a resident of the al-Touffah neighborhood, northeast of Gaza City: “Yes, they are advancing, it is becoming extremely dangerous. We are afraid of drones and gunshots.”

“A stray bullet could go through the windows, so we don’t stay close to it.”

Ahmani, resident of the al-Touffah neighborhood in Gaza

à franceinfo

According to the Forensic Architecture consultancy, the occupied area increased from 53 to 58% of the total area of ​​Gaza and the assessment dates from last December. Mahmoud Basal, the spokesperson for the enclave’s civil defense, speaks to Ferial Abdou. According to him, “The yellow line is a serious problem. Anyone who comes within 200 or 300 meters is targeted. The line moves all the time and, in particular, when there is an escalation of violence, it does not correspond to the terms of the ceasefire.”

According to the United Nations, Israel has killed more than 700 Palestinians since the truce last October, 269 died near this yellow line and, among them, a hundred were children or adolescents. Asked by franceinfo, the Israeli army assures that it will not act “only against hostile elements and immediate threats in accordance with international law”.