“The war will last a long time,” Benjamin Netanyahu warned his government on Sunday, December 24, paying tribute to the 154 Israeli soldiers killed since the ground offensive in Gaza began on October 27. “We are paying a very high price for the war, but we have no choice but to continue fighting,” said the prime minister of the Jewish state.
The Israeli military announced on Sunday that it would intensify operations against Hamas in the besieged southern Gaza Strip. After fighting that caused immense destruction in the north of the Palestinian territory, it declared that it was now concentrating its main operations in search of Hamas leaders in the large city of Khan Younes in the south, where numerous civilians fled the war to the north .
According to her, on Sunday in the north of the Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers discovered “a weapons depot next to schools, a mosque and a medical center” that contained “explosive belts suitable for children, dozens of mortar shells, hundreds of grenades and intelligence equipment.” The Israeli army also announced the death of a new soldier late Sunday afternoon, bringing the number of Israeli soldiers killed to 154.
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The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, an area between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean, is catastrophic: most of the hospitals there are out of operation and in the next six weeks the entire population is at risk of suffering from high levels of food insecurity, which results in famine, according to the United Nations. According to the United Nations, around 1.9 million people – or 85% of the population – have fled their homes, many of them displaced multiple times during the fighting.
“A future of hate”
Due to heavy Palestinian civilian losses, the United States, Israel's historic ally, is increasingly insisting that Israel favor more targeted operations in its war against Hamas, which began on October 7 after the Islamist movement's unprecedented attack on its soil.
Although the UN Security Council voted on Friday on a resolution calling for the “immediate” and “large-scale” delivery of humanitarian aid vital to the population of Gaza, there had been no significant increase on Saturday. “For aid to reach those who need it, for the hostages to be freed, for further displacement to be avoided and, above all, for these devastating human losses to stop, a humanitarian ceasefire is the only way out,” the UN High Commissioner said Refugee Filippo Grandi on Sunday.
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“War defies logic and humanity and prepares a future of more hatred and less peace,” he added. In Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of refugees are seeking refuge in makeshift camps, the population is pushing for food rations, but they are not enough.
For their part, Egyptian and Qatari mediators are still trying to broker a new ceasefire after fighting halted for seven days in late November, allowing the release of 105 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners and the entry into Gaza with large humanitarian aid convoys. However, both camps remain adamant.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh visited Cairo on Wednesday as part of negotiations for a new pause in fighting that would allow the release of more Israeli hostages after a seven-day ceasefire that ended on December 1.
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