At least 35 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza
Hamas is not ready to give up on the threat of a permanent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, according to a senior Israeli official
Despite calls from the international community for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes struck two urban refugee camps in central Gaza on Saturday.
A brief stop in fighting isn’t possible. A senior Hamas official told The Associated Press in Beirut on Saturday that the group has not budged from its position that a permanent cease-fire has to be the starting point for any further releases of Israeli and foreign hostages the group holds, which runs counter to a recent proposal by Egypt for a staged end to the war.
Israel wants to destroy Hamas’ military capabilities in Gaza, from where it launched its attack on southern Israel. The militants killed some 1,200 people and took 240 others hostage after breaking through Israel’s extensive border defenses, shattering its sense of security.
Israel argues that ending the war now would be a victory for Hamas, while the Biden administration urged it to do more to avoid harm to Palestinians.
172 soldiers have been killed since late October, when the ground offensive was launched by Israel, according to the military.
In the area of Zweida in central Gaza, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 13 people and wounded dozens of others, according to witnesses. The bodies were draped in white plastic and laid out in front of a hospital, where prayers were held before burial.
“The (Israeli) occupation is doing everything to force people to leave,” he said over the phone while searching along with others for four people missing under the rubble. “They want to break our spirit and will but they will fail. We are here to stay.”
The U.N. mission to the Gaza Strip: a militant attack on the Al-Quds TV channel in the wake of an Occultary Shooting
A second strike late Friday in Nuseirat targeted the home of a journalist for Al-Quds TV, a channel linked to the group Islamic Jihad whose militants also participated in the Oct. 7 attack. The journalist, along with six of his family, were murdered, according to the channel.
A vast camp of thousands of tents and shacks set up on empty land by the U.N. warehouses can be seen in aerial footage. People arrived in Rafah in trucks and on foot. Those who did not find space in the already overwhelmed shelters put up tents on roadsides slick with mud from winter rains.
The Secretary of State told Congress on Friday that he had approved a sale of $150 million in equipment for the purchase of 155mm shells, the State Department said.
This was the second time this month the Biden administration bypassed Congress and sold emergency weapons to Israel. The department said the need for Israel’s defensive needs was a reason for approval.
Aid officials said the aid entering Gaza is woefully inadequate. It is more difficult to get aid convoys to arrive because of long delays at two border crossing, ongoing fighting, Israeli airstrikes and cuts in internet and phone services.
Nearly the entire population is fully dependent on outside humanitarian aid, said Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. A quarter of the population is starving because too few trucks enter with food, medicine, fuel and other supplies — sometimes fewer than 100 trucks a day, according to U.N. daily reports.
U.N. monitors said operations at the Israeli-run Kerem Shalom crossing halted for four days this week because of security incidents, such as a drone strike and the seizing of aid by desperate Gaza residents.
They said there were 81 aid trucks entered Gaza through Kerem Shalom and the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border, which was less than the usual 500 trucks a day.
Israeli officials, meanwhile, have vowed to bring back more than 100 hostages still held in Gaza, after militants seized more than 240 in the Oct. 7 assault that also killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Egypt proposed a multi-stage plan that would include a swap of hostages for prisoners and a temporary cease-fire. In November, a deal saw Hamas free more than 100 hostages and Israel free more than 200 Palestinian prisoners.
In a subsequent phase, talks would begin on forming a transitional Palestinian government of experts who would run both Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
“We have been clear that a complete cease-fire is the first step,” Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official in Beirut, said Saturday. It is a position that seems to be derailing the Egyptian plan.
We have not given any final answer so far, despite the fact that we have received several ideas, including one from our brothers in Qatar. This might take some time. We are keen to talk about the details, because the idea put forward today may develop in different ways and may no longer be raised at all.”
The Gaza Strip Crisis: Israel’s First Emergency Plan for a Unified Palestinian Government after the Israeli-Palestinian War and the Defenses of Statehood
The Israeli military said it was in battle with Hamas in the Khan Younias area. The bomb was found in a kindergarten in the urban Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza. Hamas launched rockets toward southern Israel.
The war has raised fears of a broader regional conflagration. The US military said Sunday it shot and killed a number of Iranians in the Red Sea when they tried to attack a cargo ship.
The war’s length and massive destruction in the Gaza Strip raises questions about whether Israel can succeed in its goal of dismantling Hamas.
Netanyahu said Israel needed to maintain security over the Gaza Strip. He said that the war would last many more months and that Israel would assume control of the border with Egypt.
Netanyahu said he wouldn’t allow the Palestinians to participate in any future rule over Gaza, putting him at odds with the Obama administration, which has provided military aid for the offensive.
The U.S. wants a unified Palestinian government to run both Gaza and parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a precursor to eventual statehood. The last peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians broke down over 10 years ago, and the Israeli government continued to be opposed to Palestinian statehood.
On Saturday night, thousands of people took to the streets in protest against Netanyahu. The country has been mostly united since Oct. 7 as it is sharply divided over the leader and the judicial reform plan.
The state of Israel has many enemies and threats but Prime Minister Netanyahu’s continued rule is the greatest threat to the country and society.
