- LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
- Israeli forces kill a man in the West Bank
- Israel said three of its soldiers were killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip on Monday
- Israel considers flooding Gaza tunnels with seawater to drive out Hamas militants – WSJ
GAZA, Dec 5 (Portal) – Israeli forces continued their air and ground bombardment of the southern Gaza Strip, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians, despite repeated calls from the United States and United Nations to protect civilians.
Asked about the rising death toll since the collapse of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on Friday, Israel’s closest ally, the United States, said it was too early to say whether Israel was doing enough to protect civilians. and that it is expected that Israel will not launch any attacks on the areas there identified as safe.
Local residents and journalists on the ground said the intense Israeli airstrikes in the south of the densely populated coastal enclave affected areas where Israel had told people to seek shelter.
At the United Nations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Israel to avoid further measures that would worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and to spare civilians from further suffering.
“The Secretary-General is extremely concerned about the resumption of hostilities between Israel and Hamas… For people ordered to evacuate, there is no place of safety and very little possibility of survival,” said UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric.
Israel largely captured the northern half of the Gaza Strip in November and has rapidly advanced deep into the southern half since a week-long ceasefire collapsed on Friday.
The armed wing of Hamas ally Islamic Jihad said its fighters were engaged in fierce clashes with Israeli soldiers north and east of Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza.
Israeli tanks have crossed the border into the Gaza Strip, cutting off the main north-south route, residents said. The Israeli military said the central road leading north from Khan Younis “represents a battlefield” and is now closed.
Israel said on Tuesday that three of its soldiers were killed in fighting in Gaza on Monday, in what Army Radio described as a day of heavy fighting with Hamas militants. Seventy-eight soldiers have died in Gaza since the military’s ground invasion began.
Israel launched its attack to destroy Hamas in retaliation for a cross-border attack by Hamas gunmen on border towns, kibbutzim and a music festival on October 7. According to Israel, the militants killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages – the deadliest single day in Israel’s 75-year history.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 15,899 Palestinians, 70% of them women or under 18, were killed in the eight weeks of the war.
Philippe Lazzarini, who heads the U.N. Agency for Palestinian Refugees in Gaza (UNRWA), said the resumption of Israel’s military operation was a repeat of the “horrors of recent weeks,” as previously displaced people were displaced, hospitals overflowed and the upcoming humanitarian operation continued would be choked on limited supplies.
“We have said it repeatedly. We’ll say it again. No place in Gaza is safe, neither in the south nor in the southwest, neither in Rafah nor in a unilaterally so-called “safe zone,” he said.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated calls for Israel to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals.
“The WHO has received notification from the Israeli Defense Forces that we should remove our supplies from our medical camp in the southern Gaza Strip within 24 hours as ground operations would render it unusable,” he posted on Monday on X, formerly known as Twitter.
[1/2]An Israeli soldier points to a tank crew member crossing a road as part of the convoy, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, near Israel’s border with the southern Gaza Strip, in Israel, December 4, 2023. Portal /Amir Cohen acquires license rights
SOLD IN A CROWDED ENCLAVE
Up to 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have already fled their homes in eight weeks of war that has wreaked havoc across the crowded enclave.
On Monday, Israel ordered Palestinians to leave parts of Khan Younis and indicated that they should move toward the Mediterranean coast and Rafah, a town near the Egyptian border.
Desperate Gazans in Khan Younis packed their belongings and headed for Rafah. Most were on foot, marching past destroyed buildings in a solemn and silent procession.
In Washington, a State Department spokesman said it was an “improvement” that Israel was seeking to evacuate targeted areas rather than entire cities.
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Washington expects Israel to avoid attacks on areas of the Gaza Strip designated as “no-strike” zones.
He said the U.S. had spoken with Israel about how long the war with Hamas should last, but declined to share that timeline.
A senior Israeli official said it would take time to order more precise evacuations to limit civilian casualties, but Israel could not rule them out entirely.
“We didn’t start this war. We regret the civilian casualties, but if you want to confront evil, you have to operate,” the official said.
Over 100 of the hostages seized by Iran-backed Hamas were released during a seven-day ceasefire last month. According to Israeli authorities, seven civilians and an army colonel died in captivity, while 137 hostages remain in Gaza.
Gaza’s health ministry said about 900 Palestinians have been killed since the end of the ceasefire on Friday.
Israel accuses Hamas of endangering civilians by operating from civilian areas, including in tunnels that can only be destroyed by large bombs. Hamas denies this.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing U.S. officials, that Israel had assembled a pumping system that could flood Hamas tunnels.
It was not clear whether Israel would consider using the pumps before releasing all the hostages, the story said.
In the West Bank, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian and critically injured another person in separate areas on Tuesday, the Ramallah-based health ministry said.
Reporting by Mohammed Salem in Gaza, Maayan Lubell, Ari Rabinovich and Emily Rose in Jerusalem, Maggie Fick in Beirut and Andrew Mills in Doha; writing by Humeyra Pamuk and Stephen Coates; Edited by Lincoln Feast and Kim Coghill
Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.
Acquire license rights, opens new tab