RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinian militants ambushed Israeli troops in a densely populated neighborhood of Gaza City, killing at least nine of them, media reported Wednesday, as Hamas isolated and launched airstrikes in areas Israel has isolated for more than nine years bombed, offered fierce resistance for weeks.
The air and ground offensive has resulted in the deaths of over 18,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, since the October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war. Nearly 85% of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have been forced from their homes, and much of the territory's north resembles a lunar landscape.
U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has repeatedly called on Israel to take greater action to spare Palestinian civilians, even as it has blocked international calls for a ceasefire and rushed to provide military aid to its close ally.
More than six weeks after Israeli soldiers entered the north of the Gaza Strip, ground troops are still engaged in heavy fighting with Palestinian fighters in and around Gaza City. Clashes broke out in several areas overnight and into Wednesday, with particularly heavy fighting in Shijaiyah, a densely populated neighborhood that was the scene of a major battle during the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas.
“It's scary. We couldn’t sleep,” Mustafa Abu Taha, a Palestinian farmworker who lives in the neighborhood, said by phone. “The situation is deteriorating and we have no safe place to go.”
Army Radio said troops searching a cluster of buildings in Shijaiyah on Tuesday lost communication with four soldiers who had come under fire, sparking fears of a possible kidnapping. As the other soldiers launched a rescue operation, they were ambushed with heavy gunfire and explosives.
Among the nine dead were Col. Itzhak Ben Basat, 44, the highest-ranking officer killed in the ground operation, and Lt. Col. Tomer Grinberg, a battalion commander.
The military confirmed the deaths but did not respond to a request for further comment. Several Israeli media outlets reported the battle similarly.
SUFFERING IN THE SOUTH
Heavy rains overnight flooded tent camps in southern Gaza, where Israel has advised people to seek refuge even as that region also came under repeated airstrikes.
Because of the fighting and the Israeli blockade of Gaza, the health system and humanitarian aid operations have collapsed across much of the territory, and aid workers are warning of famine and the spread of disease among the displaced.
Israeli strikes hit two residential buildings overnight in the southern province of Khan Younis, where Israeli ground forces launched a new line of attack earlier this month.
Two boys aged 2 and 8, a woman in her 80s and a woman in her 80s were killed in an attack on a house near the main road between Khan Younis and the southern border town of Rafah, according to Mohammed al-Beiyouk, a relative of The deceased was killed in his thirties. Another strike killed a baby and his grandfather, according to hospital records at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
The military rarely comments on individual attacks. Israel says it is trying to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for the high death toll because it hides fighters, tunnels and weapons in residential areas.
BIDEN CREATE THE FAR RIGHT, BUT MOST ISRAELI SUPPORT THE WAR
Biden said Tuesday that he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel was losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing” and that Netanyahu should change his government, which is dominated by far-right parties.
But the offensive is being carried out by a war cabinet that includes two politically centrist retired generals and enjoys overwhelming support from Israelis across the political spectrum.
In Israel, attention is still focused on the October 7 atrocities in which about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and about 240 people were taken hostage, about half of whom are still in captivity.
Although international outrage continued to grow, there was little media coverage or public discussion about the plight of civilians in Gaza.
On Tuesday, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire. The non-binding vote was symbolic, but served as a barometer of world opinion. None of the major powers joined Israel and the United States in their resistance.
Still, the US has called on Israel to do more to reduce civilian casualties as the number of casualties continues to rise rapidly.
More than 18,400 Palestinians have been killed in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, according to the health ministry, comparing figures from previous conflicts with Israeli and UN figures. The ministry does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths, but says about two-thirds of the dead were women and minors.
Contradictory to post-war plans
Israel and the United States say any ceasefire that leaves Hamas in power would mean a victory for the militant group, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and has pledged to destroy Israel. But the two allies disagree about what should happen if Hamas is defeated.
The US hopes to revive the peace process, which stalled more than a decade ago. She wants the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to also govern Gaza, which Hamas seized from it in 2007.
But President Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, is deeply unpopular, in part because of his security cooperation with Israel, and he has ruled out any return to Gaza unless a solution to the conflict that creates a Palestinian state is found.
The Netanyahu government firmly rejects Palestinian statehood.
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Magdy reported from Cairo and Lidman from Tel Aviv, Israel.
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Complete AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war