The war against Hamas entered a new phase on Saturday and will be “long and difficult,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned, three weeks after the start of hostilities sparked by the deadliest attack in Israel’s history. “Israel.”
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Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinouar, said on Saturday evening for the first time since October 7 that he was ready to “immediately” complete the hostage exchange that the Palestinian Islamist movement is holding in the Gaza Strip. Gaza – 230 according to Israel – against “all Palestinian prisoners” held by Israel.
Since Friday evening, the Israeli army has been operating on the ground with soldiers and armored vehicles while intensifying its bombardment of the Gaza Strip following the October 7 attack that killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, on the Israeli side, according to local authorities.
Hamas, which controls Gaza, claims that those bombings killed 7,703 people, mostly civilians, the highest death toll since Israel’s withdrawal from Palestinian territory in 2005.
The UN fears a humanitarian catastrophe. Its Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday deplored the “unprecedented escalation of bombings” that “endangers humanitarian objectives” and reiterated calls for an immediate ceasefire.
International Committee of the Red Cross President Mirjana Spoljaric deemed it “unacceptable that civilians in Gaza have no safe place to go amid massive bombings” and said that “the world should not tolerate” what is happening in Gaza.
Around 2.4 million people live crammed together in Gaza (around 360 km2), without water, food, electricity and, since Friday, without communication and the Internet.
According to the United Nations, a total of 84 trucks carrying humanitarian aid were able to arrive via Egypt, but at least a hundred are needed per day.
“The war in Gaza will be long and difficult and we are prepared for it,” Netanyahu said at a news conference in Tel Aviv, adding that his army will “destroy the enemy on land and underground.”
A reference to the gigantic network of underground tunnels hundreds of kilometers away from which Hamas, according to the military, controls its operations.
Now begins “the second phase of the war, the aim of which is clear: to destroy Hamas’ military capabilities and leadership; Bring the hostages home,” Netanyahu said after meeting the families of the 230 people held captive in the Gaza Strip, according to authorities’ latest count.
The Israeli army on Saturday reiterated its call for residents of the Gaza Strip (north) to “immediately flee south,” saying it now considers that city and its region a “battlefield.”
According to Gaza Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal, “hundreds of buildings and houses were completely destroyed” during the day.
The bombings caused significant damage in the Shati refugee camp on the outskirts of Gaza City.
“What happened in Chati is worse than an earthquake,” 54-year-old resident Alaa Mahdi told AFP. “Everywhere was bombed, by the navy, the artillery and the planes.”
In Gaza City, “people on the streets have become lifeless bodies,” Jihad Mahdi, a resident, described to AFP.
The Israeli army reported “several Hamas terrorists killed,” including a leader “who was involved in organizing the October 7 massacre,” which deeply traumatized Israeli society.
During the day, volleys of rockets were also fired from Gaza into Israel, injuring three people, according to doctors.
After “a night of torment” due to the heavy bombing, the families of the hostages were finally welcomed by Mr. Netanyahu on Saturday.
So far only four female hostages have been released. Hamas, which had threatened to execute hostages, estimated the number of those killed in the bombings at “nearly 50.”
“We are ready to immediately conclude an exchange to release all prisoners in the prisons of the Zionist enemy in exchange for all hostages,” Hamas leader in Gaza, Mr. Sinouar, said in a statement.
The Israeli prime minister told the hostages’ families that he would consider “all options” to release them.
At the end of the meeting, Ifat Kalderon, whose cousin Ofer Kalderon is reportedly detained in Gaza with members of his family, told AFP that she supported this type of exchange.
The Gaza bombings coincided with a communications and internet blackout in Gaza.
NGOs and UN agencies have reported losing contact with their teams in Gaza.
Humanitarian operations and hospital activities “cannot continue without communication,” said Lynn Hastings, a U.N. official.
On October 9, Israel imposed a “total siege” on the Gaza Strip, cutting off water, electricity and food supplies, while the Palestinian territory had already been under an Israeli land, air and sea blockade for more than 16 years.
“Many more” people will soon die as a result of the siege, said the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini.
Due to a shortage of anesthetics, some surgical procedures are being carried out without patients being fully euthanized, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned on Saturday.
Léo Cans, head of the MSF mission in Jerusalem for the Palestinian territories, reported on the operation this week that “a 10-year-old child had to amputate half of his left foot on the hospital floor under semi-sedation.” Hallway because all the operating rooms were full.”