Tia Goldenberg, Wafaa Shurafa and Samy Magdy | Associated Press
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Fourteen Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in Gaza over the weekend, the Israeli military said Sunday. This was one of the bloodiest days of fighting since the ground offensive began and a sign that Hamas is still fighting despite weeks of a brutal war.
The rising death toll among Israeli troops is likely a major factor in Israeli support for the war, which was sparked when Hamas-led militants stormed communities in southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostage. The war has devastated parts of the Gaza Strip, killing about 20,400 Palestinians and displacing nearly 85% of the 2.3 million people in the besieged territory.
According to the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, 166 people were killed in the coastal enclave last day.
Israelis still stand behind the country's stated goals of dismantling Hamas's government and military capabilities and releasing the remaining 129 prisoners. This support has remained largely stable despite increasing international pressure against Israel's offensive and the rising death toll and unprecedented suffering among Palestinians.
But the growing number of dead soldiers – 153 since the ground offensive began – could undermine that support. The death of soldiers is a sensitive issue in Israel, where most Jews are subject to compulsory military service. The names of fallen soldiers are announced at the beginning of the hourly newscasts.
As Christmas Eve arrived, smoke from the fighting was still rising over Gaza, while in Bethlehem in the West Bank there was silence and holiday celebrations were canceled.
Hamas demands a price
The 14 Israeli soldiers killed on Friday and Saturday died in the central and southern Gaza Strip, a sign that Hamas is still putting up tough resistance even as Israel claims it has dealt a major blow to the militant group.
According to Israeli Army Radio, four soldiers were killed when their vehicle was hit by an anti-tank missile. The others were killed in separate battles. Another soldier was killed in northern Israel by shelling from the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which continued to fight at low levels, raising fears of a wider regional conflict.
“The war exacts a very high price from us, but we have no choice but to keep fighting,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a Cabinet meeting on Sunday.
There was widespread anger against Netanyahu's government, which is criticized by many for failing to protect civilians on October 7 and for pursuing policies that have allowed Hamas to grow stronger over the years to win. Netanyahu has avoided taking responsibility for military and political failures.
On Saturday evening, thousands of people demonstrated in Tel Aviv, chanting “Bibi, Bibi, we don't want you anymore,” referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.
In the Gaza Strip
Israel's offensive was one of the most devastating military campaigns in modern history. According to Gaza's Health Ministry, which makes no distinction between civilians and combatants, more than two-thirds of the 20,000 Palestinians killed were women and children.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said Sunday morning that a 13-year-old boy was shot dead in an Israeli drone strike at Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, a part of Gaza where the Israeli military believes Hamas leaders are hiding.
An Israeli strike overnight hit a house in a refugee camp west of the city of Rafah on the Gaza-Egypt border. At least two men were killed at the hospital where the bodies were taken, according to Associated Press journalists.
Palestinians reported heavy Israeli bombing and shooting on Sunday morning in Jabaliya, an area north of Gaza City that Israel reportedly controlled. Hamas's military wing said its fighters fired on Israeli troops in Jabaliya and the Jabaliya refugee camp.
“The sounds of explosions and gunshots never stopped,” said Assad Radwan, a fisherman from Jabaliya.
Israel has come under heavy international criticism for the high number of civilian deaths, but blames Hamas and points to the militants' use of crowded residential areas and tunnels. Israel has carried out thousands of airstrikes since October 7 and has largely refrained from commenting on specific strikes.
Israel is also accused of mistreating Palestinian men and teenagers detained in homes, shelters, hospitals and elsewhere during the offensive. It has denied allegations of abuse and said those who have no ties to militants will be released quickly.
Khamis al-Burdainy of Gaza City spoke to the AP from a hospital bed in Rafah after his release, saying Israeli forces had detained him after tanks and bulldozers partially destroyed his home. He said the men were handcuffed and blindfolded.
“We didn't sleep. We didn’t get food or water,” he said, crying and covering his face.
Another released detainee, Mohammed Salem from the Shijaiyah district of Gaza City, said Israeli troops beat her. “We were humiliated,” he said. “A female soldier came and beat an old man, 72 years old.”
Israel claims it has killed thousands of Hamas militants without providing evidence and says it is dismantling Hamas' vast network of tunnels and killing top commanders – an operation that leaders say could take months.
International printing
The United Nations Security Council has passed a watered-down resolution calling for the rapid delivery of humanitarian aid to hungry and desperate Palestinians and the release of all hostages, but not a ceasefire.
But it was not immediately clear how or when aid deliveries, well below the prewar daily average of 500, would be accelerated. Trucks enter through two border crossings – Rafah on the border with Egypt and Kerem Shalom on the border with Israel. Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Border Crossing Authority, said 93 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip via Rafah on Saturday.
Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, reiterated the UN's calls for a humanitarian ceasefire.
“To ensure aid reaches people in need, hostages are released, further displacement is avoided and, above all, the devastating loss of life is prevented, a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza is the only way forward,” he wrote on X.
Israel's allies in Europe are loudly calling for an end to the fighting. But the United States, Israel's main ally, appeared to remain firmly behind Israel despite its increased calls for more protection for civilians.
US President Joe Biden spoke to Netanyahu on Saturday, a day after Washington protected Israel from a tougher UN resolution. Biden said he had not asked for a ceasefire, while Netanyahu's office said the prime minister had “made clear that Israel will continue the war until all of its objectives are achieved.”