Israeli jets intensified attacks on central Gaza yesterday, residents and medics said, as battles raged through the rubble of towns and refugee camps in a war that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would take ‘many more months’ to end.
Netanyahu’s comments signal no let-up in a campaign that has killed many thousands and levelled much of Gaza, while his vow to restore Israeli control over the enclave’s border with Egypt raises new questions over an eventual two-state solution.
Air strikes pounded Al Maghazi and Al Bureij in the centre of Gaza, killing 10 people in one house and driving more to flee to Rafah on the border with Egypt from front lines.
As 2023 drew to a close, Palestinians in Gaza prayed for a ceasefire but had little hope the new year would be better.
Israel’s air and artillery bombardment has killed more than 21,800 people according to health authorities in Gaza, with many more feared dead in the rubble, and pushed nearly all its 2.3 million people from their homes.
The Palestinian health ministry has said 70 per cent of Gaza’s dead are women and under-18s.
Israel blockaded most food, fuel and medicine after the October 7 attack by Hamas. It said it was ready to let ships from some Western countries deliver aid directly to Gaza’s shores after security checks in Cyprus.
Gemma Connell, an official with the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, said many of the tens of thousands of people fleeing to Rafah had no possessions and nowhere to sleep.
“I just am so fearful that the amount of deaths that we’ve been seeing is going to increase exponentially both because of this renewed offensive but also because of these conditions which are literally unbelievable,” she said.
The US, Israel’s main ally, has urged it to scale down the war and European states have signalled alarm at the extent of Palestinian civilian suffering.
However Netanyahu’s comments on Saturday, when he said he would not resign despite opinion polls showing his government is broadly unpopular and defended his security record despite the October 7 attack, indicate there will be no easing any time soon.
He said ‘the war is at its height’ and Israel would have to retake control of Gaza’s border with Egypt – an area now crammed with civilians who have fled the carnage across the rest of the enclave.
In his last comments as Israeli Foreign Minister before switching to the energy portfolio, Eli Cohen said the border was the likely source of weaponry Hamas had obtained over recent years.
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group, which has been attacking shipping in the Red Sea for weeks in what it calls a response to Israel’s war in Gaza, attacked a Maersk cargo ship on Saturday and yesterday, the US military said.
U.S. naval helicopters sank three of the four small boats the Houthis had used in the attack and drove the fourth back to shore, the military said.
Maersk suspends sailing after Houthi attack – Page 17
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