Israel pledges to reach Hamas leaders in Khan Yunis
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant announced that the pace of fighting in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, will intensify and will continue until reaching the “heads” of the leaders of the Hamas movement and the return of the Israeli detainees, in confirmation of the Israeli army’s announcement to deepen its operations in Khan Yunis at a time when it reduced its forces in Areas north of the sector.
Gallant informed US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that the change in the fighting style that is being implemented in the northern Gaza Strip came to help achieve the goals of the war, but that this will not include the Khan Yunis area, because the operation there will intensify and will continue. He added: “We are determined to complete the objectives of the fighting and enhance regional stability in the Middle East by dismantling Hamas in the south and changing the security situation in the north.”
Gallant’s threat to continue fighting in Khan Yunis came in response to a request from Blinken to move to the third stage comprehensively in Gaza, and not just in the northern region from which Israel withdrew large forces, reduce the targeting of civilians, and allow the return of the residents of the north to their areas.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv today (AFP)
Gallant’s statements came with the escalation of clashes in the Khan Yunis area, which is witnessing very complex and difficult fighting.
An Israeli army spokesman said, “Commando Brigade fighters are operating in the heart of the Khan Yunis area, raiding infrastructure and (underground) complexes, and consolidating their operational control in the south of the Gaza Strip.” On combat means, rifles, grenades, types of ammunition and intelligence materials.
Videos broadcast by both sides show street fighting in Khan Yunis and from house to house.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, for its part, said that it destroyed soldiers and vehicles during the incursion south of the city of Khan Yunis with mortar shells, and was able to destroy a Merkava tank with an “Al-Yassin 105” shell south of Khan Yunis. It also targeted soldiers in a foot force with an anti-personnel device, leaving them dead and wounded in the attack. Bani Suhaila area, east of Khan Yunis. It also announced that it was able to snipe 4 Israeli soldiers with a “Ghoul” rifle east of the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
These difficult clashes were translated into the Israeli army announcing the killing of 9 of its officers and soldiers in one day, in one of the most difficult days of the war in recent weeks.
Israeli vehicles on the border with the Gaza Strip today, Tuesday (AFP)
According to Israeli media, 5 of them were killed in a truck bombing in the center of the Strip, and 4 in an attack on a house in the south.
A preliminary army investigation showed that the explosion of the ammunition truck in the Bureij camp was caused by gunfire from an Israeli tank.
The army also announced that 27 officers and soldiers were injured in the last 24 hours in the Gaza Strip, including the famous Israeli actor and singer Idan Amidi.
Israel is focusing on Khan Yunis because it believes that the Hamas leadership moved there with the detainees at the beginning of the war, and then discovered that the size of the tunnels and forces was much larger than it expected.
Israel says that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is in Khan Yunis.
As the fighting intensified, on the 95th day of the war, the Israeli occupation forces continued to bomb several different areas of the Gaza Strip, killing more Palestinians under the rubble of their homes.
The Government Information Office said that during the 95 days of the aggression, Israel committed 1,944 massacres, resulting in 30,210 martyrs and missing persons, more than 10,000 of whom were children and 7,000 women. The office confirmed that two million Palestinians in Gaza have become displaced, including hundreds of thousands who were displaced from north to south, and Israel refuses their return to their homes.
Israeli officials informed Blinken that reducing the intensity of fighting in the north and withdrawing forces from there does not mean allowing the displaced to return. Israeli sources said that the officials told Blinken that the situation on the ground and the failure to reach an exchange deal with Hamas did not allow for this.
But Israel agreed to allow a UN delegation to enter the northern Gaza Strip in order to assess the infrastructure situation and draw a map of the needs for the return of Palestinian civilians to the region at a later stage.
Most of the displaced are now concentrated in the small city of Rafah in the far south of the Strip, which has created a situation that has exacerbated human suffering.
A Palestinian woman holds her child in front of the rubble of homes destroyed by Israeli raids on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday (Reuters)
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said on Tuesday that “the Gaza Strip is turning into an unfit place to live,” more than 3 months after the Israeli war on the Strip.
UNRWA spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna added that Gaza is the worst place on earth, and that most of the Strip’s residents are being pushed towards the city of Rafah, near the Egyptian border.
He pointed out that the population of Rafah has now reached 1.4 million displaced people, amid an almost complete absence of humanitarian aid and basic services.
Family members of Ahed Musa, who was killed during an Israeli operation, participate in his funeral in Tulkarm today, Tuesday (AFP)
In addition, an escalation in the West Bank coincided with the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. On Tuesday, Israel shot dead Amid Jayyousi (31 years old) in the village of Umm Safa, northwest of Ramallah, just hours after the assassination of Youssef Ali Al-Khouli (22 years old), Ahed Salman Musa (23 years old), and Tariq Amjad Shaheen (24 years old) in A special operation in Tulkarm, then deliberately ran over one of the victims’ bodies.
Since October 7, Israel has killed more than 330 Palestinians in the West Bank.
#Palestinian #Foreign #Ministry #condemns #Israeli #army #running #body #young #man #killing
2024-01-09 20:22:59
