Israel’s Defence Minister on Monday, December 11, 2023, pushed again towards worldwide calls to wrap up the nation’s navy offensive within the Gaza Strip, saying the present section of the operation towards the Hamas militant group will “take time.
Yoav Gallant, a member of Israel’s three-man war cabinet, remained unswayed by a growing chorus of criticism over the widespread damage and heavy civilian death toll caused by the two-month military campaign. The U.N. secretary-general and leading Arab states have called for an immediate cease-fire. The United States has urged Israel to reduce civilian casualties, though it has provided unwavering diplomatic and military support.
Israel launched the campaign after Hamas militants stormed across its southern border on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping about 240 others.
Two months of airstrikes, coupled with a fierce ground invasion, have resulted in the deaths of over 17,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run territory. They do not give a breakdown between civilians and combatants but say that roughly two-thirds of the dead have been women and minors. Nearly 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes.
In a briefing, Mr. Gallant refused to commit to any firm deadlines, but he signaled that the current phase, characterized by heavy ground fighting backed up by air power, could stretch on for weeks and that further military activity could continue for months.
“We are going to defend ourselves. I am fighting for Israel’s future,” he stated.
Mr. Gallant stated the subsequent section can be lower-intensity combating towards “pockets of resistance” and would require Israeli troops to keep up their freedom of operation. “That’s a sign the next phase has begun,” he stated.
Mr. Gallant spoke as Israeli forces battled militants in and across the southern metropolis of Khan Younis, the place the navy opened a brand new line of assault final week. Battles have been additionally nonetheless underway in elements of Gaza City and the city Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, the place giant areas have been diminished to rubble and lots of 1000’s of civilians are nonetheless trapped by the combating.
Israel has pledged to maintain combating till it removes Hamas from energy, dismantles its navy capabilities and will get again all the hostages. It says Hamas nonetheless has 117 hostages and the stays of 20 individuals who died in captivity or in the course of the preliminary assault. More than 100 captives have been freed final month throughout a weeklong truce.
Mr. Gallant retains a framed image on the desk of his spacious workplace with footage of all the kids taken hostage. All however two are marked with small hearts, signaling their launch from captivity.
In central Gaza, an Israeli airstrike in a single day flattened a residential constructing the place some 80 individuals have been staying within the Maghazi refugee camp, residents stated.
Ahmed al-Qarah, a neighbor who was digging by the rubble for survivors, stated he knew of solely six individuals who made it out. “The rest are under the building,” he stated. At a close-by hospital, relations sobbed over the our bodies of a number of of the lifeless from the strike.
In Khan Younis, Radwa Abu Frayeh noticed heavy Israeli strikes in a single day across the European Hospital, the place the U.N. humanitarian workplace says tens of 1000’s of individuals have sought shelter. She stated one strike hit a house near hers late Sunday.
“The building shook,” she stated. “We thought it was the end and we would die.”
Mr. Gallant blamed Hamas for the heavy civilian demise toll, saying that the militant group maintains a community of tunnels beneath colleges, streets and hospitals.
He claimed that Israel has inflicted heavy harm on Hamas, killing half of the group’s battalion commanders and destroying many tunnels, command facilities and weapons amenities.
Israeli officers have stated some 7,000 Hamas militants — roughly one-quarter of the group’s combating drive — have been killed all through the battle and that 500 militants have been detained in Gaza the previous month. The claims couldn’t be independently verified. Israel says 104 of its troopers have been killed within the Gaza floor offensive.
The end result, he stated, is that within the northern Gaza Strip, Hamas has been diminished to “islands of resistance” appearing on the whims of native commanders.
In southern Gaza, he stated the state of affairs is completely different. “They are still organized militarily,” he stated.
Mr. Gallant additionally stated Israel has recovered “hundreds of terabytes” of details about Hamas from computer systems its troops have seized.
Despite the reported battlefield setbacks, Hamas on Monday fired a barrage of rockets that set off sirens in Tel Aviv, the place Mr. Gallant’s workplace and Israeli navy headquarters are situated.
One particular person was frivolously wounded, in response to the Magen David Adom rescue service. Israel’s Channel 12 tv broadcast footage of a cratered street and harm to vehicles and buildings in a suburb.
The U.N. humanitarian workplace, generally known as OCHA, described a harrowing journey by the battle zone in northern Gaza by a U.N. and Red Crescent convoy over the weekend that made the primary supply of medical provides to the north in additional than every week. It stated an ambulance and U.N. truck have been hit by gunfire on the best way to Al-Ahly Hospital to drop off the provides.
Hundreds trapped
The convoy then evacuated 19 sufferers however was delayed for inspections by Israeli forces on the best way south. OCHA stated one affected person died, and a paramedic was detained for hours, interrogated and reportedly overwhelmed.
The combating in Jabaliya has trapped a whole bunch of workers, sufferers and displaced individuals inside hospitals, most of that are unable to perform.
Two workers members have been killed over the weekend by clashes exterior Al-Awda Hospital, OCHA stated. Shelling and reside ammunition hit Al-Yemen Al-Saeed Hospital, killing an unknown variety of displaced individuals sheltering inside, it stated. It didn’t say which aspect was behind the hearth.
With Israel permitting little assist into Gaza and the U.N. largely unable to distribute it amid the combating, Palestinians face extreme shortages of meals, water and different fundamental items.
Israel stated it should begin conducting inspections of assist vehicles Tuesday at its Kerem Shalom crossing, a step meant to extend the quantity of aid getting into Gaza. Currently, Israel’s Nitzana crossing is the one inspection level in operation. All vehicles then enter from Egypt by the Rafah crossing. Aid staff, nonetheless, say they’re largely unable to distribute assist past the Rafah space due to the combating elsewhere.
Israel has urged individuals to flee to what it says are secure areas within the south. The combating in and round Khan Younis has pushed tens of 1000’s towards the city of Rafah and different areas alongside the border with Egypt.
Still, airstrikes have continued even in areas to which Palestinians are informed to flee.
A strike in Rafah early Monday closely broken a residential constructing, killing not less than 9 individuals, all however one in every of them girls, in response to Associated Press reporters who noticed the our bodies on the hospital.
The assist group Doctors Without Borders stated individuals within the south are additionally falling in poor health as they pack into crowded shelters or sleep in tents in open areas.
Nicholas Papachrysostomou, the group’s emergency coordinator in Gaza, stated “every other patient” at a clinic in Rafah has a respiratory an infection after extended publicity to chilly and rain. In shelters the place a whole bunch share a single rest room, diarrhea is widespread, notably amongst kids, he stated.
Source: www.thehindu.com
