Residents and medics said that Israeli aircraft intensified their attacks on the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, at a time when battles raged around the ruins of towns and refugee camps in a war that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would take “several more months” before it ended.
Netanyahu’s statements do not indicate any possible calm in the military campaign that killed thousands and flattened most of the Gaza Strip, while his pledge to restore Israel’s control over the Gaza Strip’s borders with Egypt raised new questions related to the two-state solution.
The Israeli army announced the demobilization of some reserve soldiers who were called up to fight Hamas in Gaza, a move it said Sunday would help the economy as the country prepares for a long-term war.
Palestinians inspect the damage following Israeli strikes on the Zawayda area of the central Gaza Strip on December 30, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Hamas movement. (Photo by AFP)
Air strikes targeted the Maghazi and Bureij areas in the central Gaza Strip, killing 10 people in one house and forcing more residents to flee to Rafah on the border with Egypt, far from the front lines where Israeli tanks are clashing with Hamas fighters.
A video posted by the Red Crescent on Sunday showed paramedics working in the dark, carrying an injured child from smoke-filled rubble in central Gaza.
Health officials said that six people were killed in an air strike on the Al-Mughraqa area outside Gaza City.
A wish for the year 2024
In the last days of 2023, the Palestinians in Gaza pray to their Lord for a ceasefire, but they do not have enough optimism that 2024 will be better.
Zainab Khalil (57 years old), a resident of northern Gaza but currently residing in Rafah, said, “Tonight, the skies of countries around the world will be lit up with fireworks and the sounds of laughter will fill the place. And while we are in Gaza, our skies are now lit up with Israeli missiles and tank shells… Only one wish, for the war to stop.” Let the killing stop.”
Israel’s declared goal is to eliminate Hamas after it launched a surprise attack on Israeli towns on October 7, which Israel says killed 1,200 people and detained 240.
A man dozes while leaning on a crutch as he sits outside a tent where displaced Palestinians are camped outside the European Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on December 31, 2023 amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the…
The Gaza Ministry of Health said on Sunday that 21,822 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli raids on the Palestinian Strip since October 7, amid fears that others may be buried under the rubble.
The war led to the displacement of almost the entire population of the Strip, numbering 2.3 million people.
Palestinian Ministry of Health data does not differentiate between the number of civilians and combatants killed, but it says that 70 percent of those killed in the Gaza Strip were women and under the age of eighteen. Israel disputes these numbers and says it killed eight thousand militants.
Aid
Israel has prevented the entry of most food, fuel and medicine supplies since October 7.
Israel said on Sunday that it is ready to allow ships from some Western countries to deliver aid directly to the coast of the Gaza Strip after security inspections in Cyprus.
Trucks carrying humanitarian aid near the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip on December 10, 2023.
Gemma Connell, an official at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that tens of thousands of people were displaced to Rafah without property or a place to sleep.
“I am very afraid that the number of deaths we are seeing will increase dramatically because of this ongoing attack and also because of these literally unbelievable circumstances,” she added.
To where?
The United States urged its ally Israel to reduce the severity of the war, and European countries expressed concern about the extent of the suffering of Palestinian civilians.
But the statements made by Netanyahu on Saturday indicate that the war will not witness any easing any time soon. In his speech, he said that he would not resign despite opinion polls showing a decline in support for his government, and he defended his security record despite the Hamas attack.
He said “the war is at its height” and that Israel will have to take full control of the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt, an area now crowded with civilians fleeing heavy bombardment across the Strip.
Members of the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip
Such a step would de facto represent a reversal of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, raising new questions about the future of the Strip and the prospects for establishing a Palestinian state.
Washington has said Israel must allow a Palestinian government to take control of Gaza when the conflict ends.
John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said in an interview with ABC: “We have a completely different point of view here regarding what Gaza should look like after the conflict.”
Smotrich positions
The far-right Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, raised concerns about Israel’s goals in the attack by calling on Sunday for the Palestinians to leave Gaza and make way for the Israelis who can “turn the desert into thriving valleys.”
This contradicted the official position of the Israeli government that Gazans would be able to return to their homes. Smotrich and other hard-line ministers in the ruling coalition have been excluded from the war cabinet, but are doing their best to participate in decisions related to the conflict.
Smotrich again calls on the Palestinians to leave Gaza
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday called on the Palestinian residents of Gaza to leave the besieged Strip to make way for the Israelis who can “turn the desert into thriving valleys.”
In his latest statements before he left the position of Foreign Minister and assumed the position of Energy Minister, on Sunday, Eli Cohen said that the border is the most likely source of the armament that Hamas has obtained over the past years.
Hussein Al-Sheikh, a senior official in the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, said on a social networking site that Israel’s control of the borders is evidence of a decision to “completely re-occupy.”
Umm Muhammad (45 years old), one of the displaced women at the border, said, “We came here from Khan Yunis on the basis of Rafah, a safe place. There is no place in Rafah because it is crowded with displaced people… If they control the border, where will the people go?” She described it as a “disaster.”
Attack on a ship
The war risks spreading conflict across the region involving Iran and allied groups in the Middle East.
Israel and the Iranian-allied Lebanese Hezbollah group regularly exchange fire across the border, and the Israeli army said it struck targets in Lebanon on Sunday.
Israel also struck targets linked to Iran in Syria, while groups allied with Iran launched attacks on American targets in Iraq.
The United States leads a coalition to protect shipping traffic in the Red Sea
The US military said that the Houthi movement in Yemen attacked a cargo ship belonging to Maersk. The group has been launching attacks on ships in the Red Sea for weeks and says it is a response to Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.
The US military added that US Navy helicopters sank three out of four Houthi boats they used in the attack on Sunday and forced the fourth boat to flee the area.
Israel says that 174 soldiers were killed in battles in the Gaza Strip, but its operations are making progress, including the destruction of some Hamas tunnels in the Strip.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad say they will continue to target Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.
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2023-12-31 21:09:30
