DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back Saturday against growing international calls for a ceasefire, saying Israel’s fight to crush Gaza’s ruling Hamas militants would continue with “full force.”
A ceasefire would only be possible if all 239 hostages held by militants in Gaza were released, Netanyahu said in a televised address.
The Israeli leader also insisted that Gaza would be demilitarized after the war, now in its sixth week, and Israel would retain security control there. Asked what he meant by security control, Netanyahu said that Israeli forces must be able to freely enter the Gaza Strip to hunt militants there.
He also rejected the idea that the Palestinian Authority, which currently administers autonomous areas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, would eventually control Gaza. Both positions contradict the post-war scenarios put forward by Israel’s closest ally, the United States. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. opposed Israel’s reoccupation of the Gaza Strip and envisioned a unified Palestinian government in both Gaza and the West Bank as a step toward Palestinian statehood.
At the moment, Netanyahu said, “the war against (Hamas) is moving forward with full force and has one goal: to win. There is no alternative to victory.”
Pressure mounted on Israel after desperate doctors at Gaza’s largest hospital said the last generator had run out of fuel, leading to the deaths of a premature baby, another child in an incubator and four other patients. Thousands of war-wounded people, medical personnel and displaced civilians were caught up in the fighting.
In recent days, fighting has intensified near Shifa and other hospitals in northern Gaza and supplies have run out. The Israeli military has alleged, without providing evidence, that Hamas has set up command posts in and under hospitals, using civilians as human shields. Shifa’s medical staff have rejected such claims and accused Israel of hurting civilians through indiscriminate attacks.
Shifa Hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia said the facility lost power on Saturday.
“Medical equipment has been stopped. “Patients, especially in the intensive care unit, started dying,” he said by phone, as gunfire and explosions could be heard in the background. He said Israeli troops “shot at anyone outside or inside the hospital” and prevented movement between buildings.
The Israeli military confirmed clashes outside the hospital, but Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari denied that Shifa was under siege. He said troops would help transport babies being treated there on Sunday, saying “we speak directly and regularly” to hospital staff.
Amos Yadlin, a former Israeli military intelligence chief, told Channel 12 that taking control of the hospitals was crucial because Israel wanted to destroy Hamas, but that doing so would require “a lot of tactical creativity” without patients, other civilians and injuring Israeli hostages.
Six patients died in Shifa after the generator was switched off, including the two children, spokesmen for the Hamas-run health ministry said.
The “unbearably desperate situation” in Shifa must now end, said International Committee of the Red Cross Director General Robert Mardini on social media. UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said: “Acts of war in health facilities cannot be justified.”
Elsewhere, the Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli tanks were 20 meters (65 feet) from Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, causing “a state of extreme panic and fear” among the 14,000 displaced people seeking refuge there. triggered.
The Israeli military released footage that purportedly showed tanks in the Gaza Strip. The images showed destroyed buildings, some in flames, and destroyed streets with no one but troops on them.
A 57-nation gathering of Muslim and Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia called for an end to the war in Gaza and the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid in its communique. They also called on the International Court of Justice, a United Nations body, to open an investigation into the Israeli attacks, saying the war “cannot be described as self-defense and is in no way justifiable.”
Netanyahu said responsibility for any damage to civilians lay with Hamas, which denied it had stopped people in Gaza City from fleeing.
The spokesman for Hamas’s military wing said the militants were ambushing Israeli troops and vowed that Israel faces a long battle. The Qassam Brigades spokesman, who calls himself Abu Obaida, acknowledged in an audio recording broadcast on Al Jazeera that the fighting was disproportionate, “but it frightens the strongest force in the region.”
The Israeli military said soldiers encountered hundreds of Hamas fighters during the fighting in underground facilities, schools, mosques and clinics. Israel said a main goal of the war was to destroy Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for 16 years.
After Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on October 7, which killed at least 1,200 people, Israel’s allies have defended the country’s right to self-protection. But now, in the second month of the war, there are growing disagreements over how Israel should fight its battle.
The U.S. has pushed for temporary pauses that would allow for more widespread distribution of urgently needed aid to civilians in the besieged area, where conditions are becoming increasingly dire. However, Israel has agreed to only short daily periods during which civilians can flee the ground combat zone in northern Gaza and travel south on foot along the territory’s main north-south artery.
Since these evacuation windows were first announced a week ago, more than 150,000 civilians have fled the north, according to UN monitors. On Saturday, the military announced a new evacuation window and said civilians could use the main road and a coastal road.
A stream of people fled south along the main road, some on donkey carts. A man was pushing two children in a wheelbarrow.
“Where should they go and what do they want from us?” said Yehia al-Kafarnah, a fleeing resident.
Palestinian civilians and human rights activists have pushed back against Israel’s portrayal of the southern evacuation zones as “relatively safe.” They note that Israeli bombings continued across the Gaza Strip, including airstrikes in the south that Israel said targeted Hamas leaders but also killed women and children.
The demonstrations and outrage continued. According to police, 300,000 Palestinian supporters marched peacefully through London, the largest such event there since the start of the war. There were clashes between right-wing counter-demonstrators and the police.
FEAR IS GROWING IN SHIFA
“The shelling and explosions never stopped,” said Islam Mattar, one of thousands seeking shelter in Shifa. “Children here are afraid of the constant sound of explosions.”
The Ministry of Health told Al Jazeera that there were still 1,500 patients, 1,500 medical staff and between 15,000 and 20,000 people seeking shelter in Shifa.
Thousands have fled Shifa and other hospitals under attack, but doctors said it was impossible for everyone to get out.
“We cannot evacuate ourselves and leave these people inside,” Mohammed Obeid, an Médecins Sans Frontières surgeon in Shifa, was quoted as saying by the organization.
The number of accidents is increasing
According to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilian and militant deaths, more than 11,070 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, two-thirds of them women and minors. About 2,700 people have been reported missing and are believed to be possibly trapped under the rubble or dead.
Israeli officials said at least 1,200 people were killed in Israel, mostly in Hamas’s first attack. The military confirmed the deaths of five reserve soldiers on Saturday; 46 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began.
Nearly 240 people kidnapped from Israel by Hamas remain in captivity.
About 250,000 Israelis were forced to evacuate from communities near Gaza and along the northern border with Lebanon, where there have been repeated gun battles between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters.
“Hezbollah is dragging Lebanon into a possible war,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said after meeting soldiers stationed at the border.
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Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, Samy Magdy in Cairo and Baraa Anwer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, contributed to this report.
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Complete AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.