Heavy fighting continued in the Gaza Strip on Sunday while Israel conducted operations in the West Bank, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterating his opposition to “Palestinian sovereignty.”
Israel must “ensure that Gaza no longer poses a threat” and this requirement “contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty,” Netanyahu said in a telephone interview with US President Joe Biden on Friday, according to the prime minister's office.
On Thursday, Mr. Netanyahu reiterated that Israel must control the security of “the entire area west of the Jordan,” including the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The conflict, sparked by an unprecedented Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7 and entering its 107th day, is testing its relations with its key American ally and supporter, particularly on the issue central to the postwar period of ” Two-state solution.”
“Illusion”
Joe Biden “still believes in the prospect and possibility” of a Palestinian state, but “recognizes that it will take a lot of work to get there,” the White House said after the telephone exchange.
“The illusion that Biden is preaching for a state of Palestine (…) does not deceive our people,” Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union, responded on Saturday.
For his part, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated that “the right of the Palestinian people” to a state must be “recognized by all” and that any “denial” is “unacceptable.”
The Islamist movement's bloody attack left 1,140 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures. About 250 people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza, and about 100 were released at the end of November.
Israel, which has vowed to “destroy” Hamas, is retaliating by shelling the small area where 24,927 people, the vast majority women, children and teenagers, were killed in bombings and military operations, according to a Hamas Health Ministry report dated Saturday emerges.
At least 1.7 million people have been displaced by the war, according to revised figures from the United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA).
Mr Netanyahu is rejecting calls from the United Nations and the international community for a humanitarian ceasefire as Washington has called on Israel to limit the number of civilian casualties in Gaza.
Hostage leaflets
On Sunday, Hamas reported dozens of airstrikes and artillery attacks in the Gaza Strip and said Israeli forces had attacked the area around Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals in the southern city of Khan Younes, now the epicenter of military operations.
Dozens of bodies “still lie under the rubble,” the Palestinian Islamist movement said.
According to testimony from an AFP correspondent, the Israeli army also resumed attacks around the Jabaliya refugee camp on Sunday morning.
In addition, the Israeli army is conducting several operations in the West Bank, Hebron, Qalqilya and Jenin, Palestinian news agency WAFA said. There were patrols and arrests, assures the same source who reported the destruction of two houses in Hebron. They belonged to Palestinian fighters.
The Israeli army dropped leaflets in Rafah on Saturday that showed photos of the hostages and called on residents of the city, where tens of thousands of displaced people are crowded, to share information about them.
According to Israel, there are still 132 hostages in the territory. At least 27 people were killed, according to an AFP count based on Israeli figures.
Thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday to demand the return of hostages held in the Gaza Strip since October 7 and the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been accused in particular of continuing the war to stay in power.
Attack on Damascus
The conflict is entering its fourth month and is ratcheting up tensions between Israel and the “Axis of Resistance,” which includes Hamas, Lebanon's Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthis and Iraqi groups centered around Iran, raising fears of a regional conflagration.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi threatened Israel with retaliation after at least five Iranian soldiers were killed in Damascus on Saturday in an attack by the Revolutionary Guards, Tehran's ideological army, that was attributed to Israel. According to Iranian media, the attack was particularly aimed at the intelligence chief of the Quds Force in Syria, the elite unit responsible for external operations.
The Israeli army did not comment to AFP.
On the Israeli-Lebanese border, where exchanges of fire occur daily, a civilian and a member of Hezbollah were killed in an Israeli attack on their car, according to the official ANI agency and the Islamist movement.
In western Iraq, 15 rockets targeted a base of American soldiers and the international anti-jihadist coalition, seriously wounding one of them, according to Iraqi and American officials. The “Islamic Resistance in Iraq,” a network of fighters from pro-Iranian armed groups, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Pentagon also announced Saturday that it had “destroyed” a Houthi anti-ship missile in new attacks described as “self-defense” amid repeated attacks by Yemeni rebels on merchant ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.