Cairo/Jerusalem/Gaza:
Israeli forces attacked central Gaza from land, sea and air on Wednesday, and Palestinian officials reported dozens more dead, including 20 in an attack.
Israeli military chief Harzi Halevi said on Tuesday the war will last for several months, reflecting Israel’s resolve to eliminate Hamas despite international calls for a ceasefire amid the humanitarian crisis. “There are no shortcuts in destroying the terrorist organisation,” he said.
Twenty Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on Wednesday near al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, a Gaza health ministry statement said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Efforts to reach Palestinian casualties were hampered overnight due to a telecommunications outage across much of the enclave, but it was slowly coming back up by mid-morning.
An Israeli soldier stands near the Israel-Gaza border in southern Israel on December 27, 2023. Photo: Reuters
In the al-Maghazi district of central Gaza, five Palestinians were killed in an airstrike, medics said, while health officials in Gaza City in the north said the bodies of seven Palestinians killed overnight arrived at Al Shifa hospital.
Residents also reported heavy fighting in the east and north of al-Bureij district and in the nearby village of Zuhr ad-Diq, where they said Israeli tanks were deployed.
Israel’s military reported three more soldiers killed in action in Gaza on Wednesday, bringing total military losses in the enclave to 166 since the ground operation began on October 20.
The war broke out after Hamas killed 1,200 people and captured 240 hostages in cross-border violence on October 7, the deadliest day in Israel’s history. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has responded with attacks that have devastated much of Hamas-ruled Gaza.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Israeli forces killed 195 Palestinians and wounded 325 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of Israeli attacks in the coastal Palestinian territory since October 7 to 21,110 killed and 55,243 wounded.
Almost all of the enclave’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes multiple times.
Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, a large clock counted down the time since hostages were taken by Hamas, as families continued their campaign for the release of their loved ones.
lebanon border
Israel has stepped up its raids this week, particularly in a central area just south of the waterway that bisects the narrow coastal strip. Israeli forces asked civilians to leave the area, although many said there was nowhere left to go.
The Israeli military said on Wednesday that its warplanes had also targeted Hezbollah military positions and other locations in Lebanon. A huge plume of smoke was seen on the border.
Hamas ally Hezbollah fired the most rockets and armed drones against Israel on Wednesday in a single day since the daily clashes began, security sources said.
Highlighting the difficulties faced in treating the wounded in Gaza, the World Health Organization released footage taken on Monday and Tuesday at several hospitals, in which Sean Casey, WHO emergency medical team coordinator, said Gaza’s health capacity was 80 days. 20% compared to before. ,
“We are seeing almost only trauma cases come through the door and on such a scale that it is quite difficult to believe. It is a bloodbath as we said before, it is genocide.”
Casey said that nowhere in Gaza is safe.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday that the Palestinian Red Crescent Society compound in Khan Yunis was attacked on Tuesday. It says the strike at the facility has caused damage and caused panic among workers there and displaced people sheltering at the facility.
Israel says it is doing what it can to protect civilians, and accuses Hamas of harming them by operating among them, which Hamas denies. Even the US, Israel’s closest ally, has said it must do more to reduce civilian deaths from what President Joe Biden has called “indiscriminate bombing.”
The Israeli military said it continued to attack resistance targets in Gaza, at one point using its navy to attack suspects deemed a threat to ground troops.
In the Shejaiya district of Gaza City, an Israeli attack on fighters on foot caused secondary explosions, indicating the area was equipped with explosives to attack troops, a military statement said.
Western coast
The Palestinian Health Ministry said six young men were killed in an Israeli strike in the town of Tulkarm, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. An Israeli military statement said Israeli forces on counter-terrorism operations were attacked by fighters who threw explosive devices at them. It said that the attackers were attacked by Israeli Air Force aircraft.
Residents said the youth were neither fighters nor militants.
Saida Famawi, the mother of one of the youth, said, “It was a scene I couldn’t see, it was something you can’t see.”
In an interview with Egypt TV, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that Israel intends to stay in Gaza after the war “but the whole world does not agree with that”.
He said the US could “order” Israel to agree that Gaza become part of a future Palestinian state.
