The Israeli army shelled the Gaza Strip on Sunday, where Hamas said the death toll exceeded 25,000 on the 107th day of the war for control of the small Palestinian territory, ratcheting up tensions in the region.
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Israel must “ensure that Gaza no longer poses a threat.” “contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated in a renewed rejection of American, European and UN calls for the creation of a Palestinian state.
On the ground, Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007, reported numerous airstrikes and artillery fire, particularly in Khan Younes, the large southern city that is now the epicenter of the fighting.
According to the Palestinian Islamist movement, 178 people died in the last 24 hours. During these operations, the Israeli army announced that it had “eliminated terrorists” in Khan Younes.
According to witnesses, the army is also conducting operations around Jabaliya in the north of the Gaza Strip.
In southern Israel, sirens sounded in the community village of Kissoufim, warning of rockets fired from Gaza.
The war was sparked by Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israeli soil on October 7, which killed 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.
About 250 people were kidnapped in the attack, about a hundred of whom were released in late November. One hundred and thirty-two remain in Gaza, of whom at least 27 have been killed, according to the same count.
The army said on Saturday it had discovered a tunnel in Khan Younes where “around twenty hostages” were trapped “without daylight,” with “little oxygen and terrible humidity.” The soldiers found drawings by a five-year-old captured child there.
Israel's air and ground offensive to “annihilate” Hamas in Gaza killed 25,105 people, the vast majority civilians, and injured 62,681, the Palestinian movement's health ministry said on Sunday.
According to the UN, at least 1.7 of the approximately 2.4 million inhabitants of the small besieged area had to leave their homes. The population lacks everything and is exposed to the risk of famine and epidemics, warns the UN.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, there has been “no progress” in increasing humanitarian aid to Gaza.
On Sunday, dozens of displaced people waited with doses in hand during a water distribution organized by Doctors Without Borders in Rafah, in the far south of Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have sought refuge, AFP reported.
Qatar-based Hamas leader Ismaïl Haniyeh discussed “establishing a ceasefire in Gaza as quickly as possible, increasing humanitarian aid, releasing hostages and a two-state solution” in Turkey on Saturday with Turkish diplomat chief Hakan Fidan. Solution for lasting peace,” diplomatic sources said on Sunday.
The Netanyahu government remains deaf to international calls for a humanitarian ceasefire and vows to prolong the war “until complete victory” against Hamas, which the United States and the European Union label as terrorist.
Thousands of Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Saturday to demand the resignation of the prime minister, who was accused of wanting to remain in power above all else.
The war is heightening tensions between Israel and Hamas's allies within the “Axis of Resistance,” which also includes Iran, Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthi rebels.
Iran has threatened Israel with retaliation after accusing Israel of killing five Iranian “military advisers” in an attack in Damascus on Saturday.
On the same day, there was another attack in western Iraq on a base of American troops claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a fog of pro-Iranian fighters.
A civilian and a fighter were killed in an Israeli attack on Saturday on the Israeli-Lebanese border, where there have been daily exchanges of fire between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah fighters since October 7.
And the United States launched new strikes against Houthi sites on Saturday amid repeated attacks by those rebels on commercial vessels off the coast of Yemen.
The West Bank, the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, is experiencing a resurgence of violence on a scale not seen in nearly 20 years. The Israeli army has carried out deadly operations there in recent days, destroying two family homes of Palestinian fighters in Hebron.
According to the Palestinian Authority, at least 364 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank, which is separated from the Gaza Strip by Israeli territory, since October 7.