Heavy fighting raged overnight and into Sunday across Gaza, including in the devastated north, as Israel pressed ahead with its offensive after the US blocked the latest international push for a cease-fire and rushed more munitions to its close ally.
Israel has faced rising international outrage and calls for a permanent cease-fire after the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians. Nearly 85 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced within the besieged territory, where UN agencies say there is no safe place to flee.
The United States has lent vital support to the offensive once again in recent days, by vetoing United Nations Security Council efforts to end the fighting that enjoyed wide international support, and by pushing through an emergency sale of over USD 100 million worth of tank ammunition to Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked US President Joe Biden for the “important ammunition for the continuation of the war”, and for supporting Israel at the Security Council.
The US has pledged unwavering support for Israel’s goal of crushing Hamas’ military and governing abilities, and returning all the hostages captured in the October 7 attack that triggered the war.
Hamas and other Palestinian militants stormed into southern Israel that day, killing some 1,200 people and capturing around 240, over 100 of whom were released during a weeklong cease-fire late last month. In response to the attack, Israel launched an air and ground war that has killed thousands of Palestinians, mostly civilians, and forced some 1.9 million people to flee their homes. With only a trickle of aid allowed in, and delivery rendered impossible in much of the territory, Palestinians face severe shortages of food, water and other basic goods.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who invoked a rarely-used power last week to call for a cease-fire, said “we are facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system”.
“The situation is fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for the Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region,” he told a forum in Qatar.
Israel’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, told Israel’s Channel 12 TV late Saturday that the US has set no deadline for Israel to achieve its goals of dismantling Hamas and returning all the hostages. “The evaluation that this can’t be measured in weeks is correct, and I’m not sure it can be measured in months,” he said.
FIGHTING AND ARRESTS IN THE NORTH
Israeli forces continue to face heavy resistance, even in northern Gaza, where entire neighbourhoods have been flattened by air strikes and where ground troops have been operating for over six weeks.
Israel’s Channel 13 TV broadcast footage showing dozens of detainees stripped to their underwear with their hands in the air. Several held assault rifles above their heads, and one man could be seen slowly walking forward and placing a gun on the ground before returning to the group.
Other videos in recent days have shown groups of unarmed men held in similar conditions, without clothes, bound and blindfolded.
Detainees from a separate group who were released Saturday told The Associated Press they had been beaten and denied food and water. Israel has not commented on the latest video or the allegations of mistreatment, but government spokesman Eylon Levy said “increasing numbers” of Hamas fighters were surrendering and handing over their weapons, calling it a sign of “collapsing” morale.
WAITING FOR FOOD
In central Gaza, hundreds of Palestinians waited for flour outside a UN distribution centre.The price of food has soared as much of the territory faces severe shortages. Abdulsalam al-Majdalawi said he has come every day for nearly two weeks, hoping to get food for his family of seven. “Every day, we spend five or six hours here and return home (empty handed),” he said. “Thank God, today they drew our name.”
With the war in its third month, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 17,700, the majority women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. Israel holds Hamas responsible for civilian casualties, saying the militants put civilians in danger by fighting in dense, residential neighbourhoods. The military says 97 Israeli soldiers have died in the ground offensive. Palestinians militants have also continued firing rockets into Israel.
Netanyahu’s office said Sunday that Hamas still has 117 hostages, as well as the remains of 20 people killed in captivity or during the October 7 attack. The militants hope to exchange them for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Israel says it has provided detailed instructions for civilians to evacuate to safer areas, even as it continues to strike what it says are militant targets in all parts of the territory.
Thousands have fled to the southern town of Rafah and other areas along the border with Egypt in recent days — one of the last areas where aid agencies are able to deliver food and water.
The war has raised tensions across the region, with Lebanon’s Hezbollah trading fire with Israel along the border and other Iran-backed militant groups targeting the US in Syria and Iraq.
France said one of its warships in the Red Sea shot down two drones that had approached it from Yemen, where Iran-backed Houthi rebels have vowed to halt Israeli shipping through the key waterway.
Hanegbi said Israel has called on its Western allies to address the threat and would give them “some time” to organise a response. But he said if the threats persist, “we will act to remove this blockade”.
