© Reuters. Israeli army operates close to Gaza, amid a brief truce between Hamas and Israel, in South Israel, November 30, 2023. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
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By Nidal al-Mughrabi, Arafat Barbakh and Dan Williams
CAIRO/GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli jets intensified assaults on central Gaza on Sunday, residents and medics stated, as battles raged via the rubble of cities and refugee camps in a battle that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated would take “many more months” to finish.
Air strikes pounded al-Maghazi and al-Bureij within the centre of the Palestinian enclave, killing eight folks in a single home and driving extra to flee to Rafah on the border with Egypt from entrance strains the place Israeli tanks are battling Hamas fighters.
A Pink Crescent video revealed on Sunday confirmed the chaotic aftermath of strikes in central Gaza, as rescuers labored in the dead of night to hold an injured baby from smoking rubble.
The said purpose of Israel’s army is to get rid of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that launched a shock cross-border assault on Israeli cities on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 folks, principally civilians, and grabbing 240 hostages.
Israel’s air and artillery bombardment has killed greater than 21,800 folks in keeping with well being authorities in Hamas-run Gaza, with many extra feared lifeless within the rubble, and pushed almost all its 2.3 million folks from their properties.
Palestinian well being ministry casualty figures don’t differentiate between fighters and civilians however the ministry has stated 70% of Gaza’s lifeless have been ladies and under-18s. Israel disputes Palestinian casualty figures and says it has killed 8,000 fighters.
The battle and lack of provides has left 40% of Gazans susceptible to famine, the Gaza director of the U.N. company for Palestinian refugees stated on social media on Saturday. Israel blockaded most meals, gasoline and drugs after the Oct. 7 assault.
The USA, Israel’s foremost ally, has urged it to scale down the battle and European states have signalled alarm on the extent of Palestinian civilian struggling.
Nevertheless Netanyahu’s feedback on Saturday, when he stated he wouldn’t resign regardless of opinion polls exhibiting his authorities is broadly unpopular and defended his safety report regardless of the Oct. 7 assault, point out there can be no easing any time quickly.
He stated the “the war is at its height” and Israel must retake management of Gaza’s border with Egypt – an space now full of civilians who’ve fled the carnage throughout the remainder of the enclave, main support companies to arrange “tent cities” for displaced households sleeping tough on the streets.
Retaking the border may additionally represent a de facto reversal of Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, inserting it again below unique Israeli management and elevating new questions over the way forward for the enclave and prospects for a Palestinian state.
In his final feedback as Israeli Overseas Minister earlier than switching to the power portfolio on Sunday, Eli Cohen stated the border was the possible supply of weaponry Hamas had obtained over latest years.
Egypt’s Overseas Ministry didn’t instantly touch upon Israeli plans to retake the border space or on whether or not Hamas weapons had entered Gaza from Egypt.
“We moved here from Khan Younis on the basis that Rafah was a safe place. There is no space in Rafah as it is overcrowded with displaced,” stated Umm Mohammed, 45, a displaced Palestinian girl sheltering by the border.
“If they control the border where will people go?” she requested, saying this might be “a disaster”.
WIDER CONFLICT
The battle dangers morphing right into a wider regional battle involving Hamas ally Iran and teams Tehran helps throughout the Center East.
Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah have exchanged common cross-border hearth. Israel has hit Iran-linked targets in Syria. And Iran-backed teams have attacked U.S. targets in Iraq.
On Sunday Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group, which has been attacking delivery within the Pink Sea for weeks in what it calls a response to Israel’s battle in Gaza, attacked a Maersk cargo ship, the U.S. army stated.
U.S. naval helicopters sank three of the 4 small boats the Houthis had used within the assault and drove the fourth again to shore, the army stated.
Israel says 174 of its army personnel have been killed within the Gaza preventing however that its operations are making progress, together with by destroying some Hamas tunnels below the enclave.
Hamas media reported on Saturday that Abdel-Fattah Maali, a senior member of the group’s armed wing, was killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza. It stated Maali, initially from the West Financial institution, was freed throughout a 2011 prisoner swap and expelled to Gaza. The experiences didn’t specify when he was killed.
Palestinian media reported {that a} strike on Saturday evening had killed a senior cleric, Sheikh Youssef Salama, who had acted as non secular affairs minister in Gaza earlier than Hamas took over the enclave.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad – each sworn to Israel’s destruction – have stated they proceed to focus on Israeli forces working within the enclave.
