Israel launched new bombing strikes on Hamas militants Sunday, with hospital officials saying at least 35 people were killed in Gaza City and no signs that the fighting will end soon as the calendar turns to 2024.
Israeli forces targeted the central part of the Gaza Strip, the narrow Palestinian territory along the Mediterranean Sea, while also carrying out operations in Khan Younis, Gaza’s second largest city in the south toward the border with Egypt.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicted Saturday that the Jewish state’s offensive, sparked by the shock October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, will last for “many more months” despite increasing international calls for a cease-fire.
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The Hamas-run health ministry said 18 bodies had been recovered in the overnight bombing of Gaza City with many more believed buried under the rubble.
“After the explosion we arrived at the scene of the strike and saw martyrs everywhere," one local man told Agence France-Presse after a building was hit. "Children are still missing, we can't find them."
The Israeli army said it killed about a dozen enemy fighters in multiple ground battles, air and tank strikes and said it had located more Hamas tunnels, and explosives planted in a kindergarten.
As the conflict neared the three-month mark, about 85% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced, according to the United Nations. The U.N. has warned of the increased risk of hunger and disease as desperate families shelter in makeshift tents against the winter cold.
Netanyahu said at his Saturday news conference the border zone between the Gaza Strip and Egypt should be under Israel's control to ensure the demilitarization of the area.
If Israel takes control of the border zone, it would be a de facto reversal of its 2005 withdrawal from Gaza and place the enclave under Israeli control again after years of control by Hamas.
"The Philadelphi Corridor — or to put it more correctly, the southern stoppage point (of Gaza) — must be in our hands. It must be shut. It is clear that any other arrangement would not ensure the demilitarization that we seek," Netanyahu said.
He said that about 8,000 militants have been killed in Israel's military campaign in the Palestinian territory. Since the war began in October, 21,672 Palestinians have been killed and more than 56,000 wounded, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said Saturday. It does not distinguish between civilian and combatant casualties.
Israel began its military campaign to erase Hamas control of Gaza after the October attack when Israel said about 1,200 people were killed and some 240 captives taken hostage, with 129 believed still held by Hamas in Gaza. The Israeli military says 170 of its military personnel have been killed so far in the fighting.
"Step by step we are depriving Hamas of their capabilities,” Netanyahu said. “We will also eliminate the leaders."
He vowed to bring all the hostages back.
Hundreds of demonstrators rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday, demanding the government secure their release.
600,000 vaccines delivered
While the fighting rages on, UNICEF said it has delivered at least 600,000 doses of vaccines to Gaza. Nearly 17,000 Palestinian children in Gaza have missed their routine vaccinations, including polio and measles, since the start of the fighting, according to the agency.
UNICEF said it is working with the World Health Organization and UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinians, to reach the children who have missed their shots.
Israel’s widening attacks in central and southern Gaza have pushed tens of thousands of Palestinians seeking shelter into Rafah, where the population has more than tripled to 850,000, according to U.N. figures.
“We don't have water. We don’t have enough food,” Nour Daher, a displaced woman, told The Associated Press Saturday from the sprawling tent camp. “The kids wake up in the morning wanting to eat, wanting to drink. It took us one hour to find water for them. We couldn’t bring them flour. Even when we wanted to take them to toilets, it took us one hour to walk.”
Juliette Touma, a UNRWA spokesperson, said people are using any empty space to build shacks or sleep in cars or in the open.
Most available water is polluted. The sanitation system has broken down, and working toilets are a rarity.
Almost the entire population of Gaza is dependent on international aid, including for food, UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said Friday. Lazzarini said the aid operation faces “severe restrictions” from Israeli authorities. Trucks face long delays at the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt and the newly reopened Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel, he said.
Israel has told residents of central Gaza to head south, but even there, people are not safe, he said.
Israeli forces have flattened much of the Gaza enclave going after Hamas militants and destroying the tunnel systems allegedly used by the group.
Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, United Kingdom, European Union and others.
Some material for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
