Dec 23, 2023 at 7:30 PM Update: an hour ago
The whole world is counting down to Christmas, but the bloody battle in Gaza drags on. Hundreds of people have been killed by Israeli bombings in recent days. Israel is desperately seeking military success, while pressure from allies is mounting.
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Nearly eleven weeks after Hamas’s massive surprise attack on Israel on October 7, in which 1,200 Israelis were murdered and some 240 people taken hostage, fears of a bloody conflict have become reality. An estimated 20,000 people were killed and twice as many were injured.
The past 24 hours don’t seem to indicate that the bloodshed will stop anytime soon. Local rescue workers make according to news agency AP report of two Israeli bombings of homes, killing around ninety Palestinians.
One of those bombings, in Gaza City, killed 56-year-old UN employee Issam al-Mughrabi and 76 of his relatives. It was one of the deadliest attacks in the Gaza war to date. This brought the death toll in the past 24 hours to 200, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health reported.
Israel claims control over northern Gaza Strip
As the death toll rises and international pressure on Israel increases, the authorities in Jerusalem are looking for successes. The government claims to have arrested hundreds of people on Saturday accused of links to Hamas.
Two hundred of them were brought from Gaza to Israel for interrogation. This brings the total number of suspected militants in detention to seven hundred, Israel reports. These arrests are not without controversy. Israel releases little information about the arrests and human rights activists are critical of the way the detainees are treated, it was reported AP before.
Israel also called on some 150,000 residents in the center of the Gaza Strip to evacuate. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) claim to have almost complete control of the northern part of the strip. The army is advancing in the south, reports say BBC News.
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Israel blows up Hamas tunnels under Gaza City
Only one hostage freed during military raid
The question is how many victims Israel is willing to accept to free the hostages from Hamas. After a weeks-long operation with tens of thousands of bombs and just as many deaths, including many Palestinian civilians, 130 hostages are still held captive.
On Saturday it was announced that Hamas had lost contact with militants who were holding five hostages. It is likely that both the militants and hostages were killed in an Israeli airstrike. The army is trying to free hostages through targeted raids. However, the IDF only managed to rescue one hostage from Hamas during such a raid, wrote the The Economist this week. The rest were exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
In doing so, Hamas is doing exactly what Israel feared prior to the operation in Gaza. A complicated tunnel network under the densely populated Gaza Strip ensures that the hostages remain out of Israeli hands. As the death toll above ground rises, pressure from Israeli allies is mounting.
International pressure is increasing
From Western countries there are increasingly calls for a ceasefire. Pressure from Washington in particular could shake Israel’s determination to continue bombing.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to mainly listen to the radical right allies in his government, who do not want to hear about a ceasefire. Netanyahu, who is under enormous pressure in Israel after Hamas’ surprise attack on October 7, is trying to survive politically with the support of his most extreme allies.
But it is a fine line that Netanyahu is walking. More bloodshed on both the Palestinian and Israeli sides will increase pressure from both home and abroad. And time is ticking in Hamas’ favor.
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War in Gaza enters a new phase: what does that mean?
2023-12-23 18:30:00
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