On Monday, Israel persisted in its ruthless bombardment of the main city of southern Gaza, following a warning from Hamas that unless its demands for prisoner releases were met, no Israeli captive would escape the region alive.
Israel’s savage attack has killed at least 18,000 people, the majority of them women and children, and left half of Gaza in ruins.
In addition to the Israeli army reporting rocket fire from Gaza into Israel, the Palestinian health ministry announced on Monday that scores of people had died as a result of Israeli strikes throughout the Gaza Strip.
Israeli attacks on Monday struck Khan Yunis, the main city in the southern region, according to an AFP correspondent. Meanwhile, Palestinian rebels affiliated with Islamic Jihad claimed to have blown up a house where Israeli forces were looking for a tunnel shaft.
Following a warning from Hamas on Sunday, Israel would not accept “their prisoners alive without an exchange and negotiation and meeting the demands of the resistance”.
While activists estimate that some 7,000 Palestinians are detained by Israel, Israel claims that there are still 137 prisoners in Gaza.
Gaza’s health system is in danger of collapsing due to months of relentless bombardment and fighting, which has resulted in the closure of the majority of hospitals and the displacement of around two million people.
When AFP inspected the bombed-out remnants of Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, they discovered that at least 30,000 Palestinians had sought safety among the debris following an Israeli military strike on the medical center last month.
Mohammed Daloul, 38, who left there with his wife and three kids, said, “Our life has become a living hell; there’s no electricity, no water, flour, bread, and medicine for the children who are all sick.”
Of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents, the UN estimates that 1.9 million have been forced from their homes; about half of these are children.
Israel had advised residents to flee to the south, but there aren’t many safe havens for civilians to go to once the battle was extended to encompass southern targets.
Humanitarian groups persisted in exerting pressure on Israel to provide enhanced protection for civilians amidst the conflict.
UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories Lynn Hastings denounced on Sunday the inadequacy of mapping software used by the Israeli army in an attempt to lower the number of non-combatant casualties.
“A unilateral declaration by an occupying power that patches of land where there is no infrastructure, food, water, health care, or hygiene are ‘safe zones’ does not mean they are safe,” she stated.
The United Nations humanitarian organization OCHA reports that only 14 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are operating at full capacity.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared, “Gaza’s health system is on its knees and collapsing,” as the organization demanded prompt, unhindered relief supplies.
Israel’s army chief, Herzi Halevi, praised “significant achievements” in the battle and said on Sunday that his troops were using “significant force” in Gaza.
The army had earlier estimated that there had been some 600 wounded in the ground battle in Gaza, but on Monday it informed AFP that 101 troops had lost their lives.
The Hamas military command center in Shejaiya, Gaza City, “underground tunnel shafts” in southern Gaza, and “a Hamas military communications site” were among the more than 250 targets it claimed to have hit in a day on Sunday.
According to Tzachi Hanegbi, the Israeli National Security Advisor, some 7,000 “terrorists” had been murdered.
The president of the UN General Assembly announced that Tuesday’s meeting will focus on the Gaza situation. On Friday, the US vetoed a resolution for a ceasefire in the Security Council.
The language of the failed Security Council resolution on Friday, which expressed “grave concern over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip,” is closely aligned with a draft of the text obtained by AFP.
The Security Council’s “authority and credibility were severely undermined” by the US veto, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at a leaders’ meeting in Qatar on Sunday.
The top leadership of Hamas is based in Qatar, which stated that it was still working on a new ceasefire similar to the one that it helped broker last month, which saw 240 Palestinian captives and humanitarian aid exchanged for 80 Israeli hostages.
However, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the prime minister of Qatar, claimed that Israel’s unrelenting bombardment was “narrowing the window” for success.
Gaza in ruins. pic.twitter.com/9svFa4ptQc
— Clash Report (@clashreport) December 10, 2023
On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken once more dismissed calls for a ceasefire.
“With Hamas still alive, still intact and… with the stated intent of repeating October 7 again and again and again, that would simply perpetuate the problem,” he asserted to ABC News.
But Blinken added that America was “deeply, deeply aware of the terrible human toll that innocent men, women, and children are suffering as a result of this conflict.”
With Israel and Lebanese fighters frequently exchanging gunfire across borders and pro-resistance organizations attacking US and ally forces in Iraq and Syria, there are concerns about a potential regional escalation.
Israel carried out strikes close to Damascus late on Sunday, according to Syria’s official news agency, but air defense systems stopped any serious damage.
In the meantime, unless more supplies was permitted into Gaza, Houthi fighters from Yemen threatened to attack any ships that were sailing toward Israel.
On Sunday, France reported that two drones fired from Yemen had been shot down by one of its Red Sea frigates.
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