Israel bombs northern Gaza, reports mounting military casualties

GAUZE:

Israel bombed areas of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip overnight, with fighting throughout Sunday morning, residents and Palestinian media reported, as the Israeli military reported a rising death toll in clashes with Hamas militants.

Israel claims to have achieved almost full operational control of northern Gaza and is preparing to expand a ground offensive to other areas, but residents of Jabalia reported persistent shelling and shelling by Israeli tanks, which they said had advanced further into the town on Saturday. Resistance fighters continue to carry out attacks in areas claimed by Israel.

The Israeli army appeared to be meeting stiff resistance. It said eight soldiers were killed in the Strip on Sunday, bringing its published combat casualties to 154 since the start of its ground invasion.

The White House said US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the Israeli campaign.

Israeli strikes on Gaza killed more than 200 people in 24 hours, Gaza authorities said.

Biden “stressed the critical need to protect the civilian population, including those supporting the humanitarian relief operation, and the importance of allowing civilians to be safely removed from areas of ongoing fighting,” the White House said in a statement.

“The leaders discussed the importance of securing the release of all remaining hostages,” the White House said.

Netanyahu “made it clear that Israel will continue the war until all of its objectives are fully met,” his office said.

Despite growing calls for restraint and more aid to reach war-torn Palestinians, Israel has shown little sign of modifying its 11-week “Operation Iron Sword” — which aims to wipe out Hamas.

The fighting is now centered on Gaza City and the southern city of Khan Yunis, considered strongholds of the Palestinian resistance group.

Following reports of heavy Israeli shelling, gray and black smoke rose to the north of the besieged coastal region and Khan Yunis.

The refugee camp-turned-city is the birthplace of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza and the man Israel holds most responsible for the October attacks.

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi visited troops in Khan Yunis, telling them the operation was “very impressive, really very impressive, both the attack here and the execution of the operation in a safe manner.”

Outside a mortuary at the city’s Nasser Hospital, grieving relatives prayed, cried and stared blankly as they tried to cope with the immeasurable loss.
The Palestinian Authority has stated that the death toll from this war has now exceeded 20,000.

“This is genocide,” said resident Rafat Al-Aidi.

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has had testy relations with a series of US presidents. But disagreements over how the war in Gaza is being prosecuted, when it will end and what happens the next day have strained ties even further.

On Friday, the United States allowed a UN Security Council resolution to pass that essentially called on Israel to allow “immediate, safe and unhindered” deliveries of life-saving aid to Gaza “at scale.”

World powers sparred for days over the wording and, at Washington’s insistence, watered down some provisions — including removing the call for a ceasefire.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres accused Israel of “creating enormous obstacles” to aid deliveries.

For Palestinians in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the prospect of aid alone was not enough. “We don’t want food, we want a ceasefire,” Mahmoud al-Saer said.

Ahmad al-Burawi, who was displaced from Beit Lahia further north, added: “We just want to go back to our lands, that’s all. We want a solution” to end the war. “People are dying,” he said.

The war has displaced about 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.4 million people, according to UN estimates.

Israelis, including friends and relatives of the 129 prisoners still believed to be held in Gaza, demonstrated again on Saturday in Tel Aviv.

Hamas’ armed wing said it had “lost contact” with fighters tasked with guarding five of the captives, including three elderly men who appeared in a hostage video released this week.

“We believe these hostages were killed” in Israeli strikes, spokesman Abu Obeida said. Talks aimed at reviving the ceasefire and prisoner exchange appeared to have stalled.

An earlier ceasefire allowed the release of 80 Israeli prisoners in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners, but expired after a week.

Far from Gaza, a new attack on shipping on Saturday showed that the war has already spread to the wider region.

Shipping agencies said a drone strike damaged a chemical tanker in waters off India’s Veraval. There was no claim of responsibility, but the Pentagon said it was a “one-way attack drone launched by Iran.”

Yemen’s Houthi fighters have repeatedly fired drones and missiles at ships in the Red Sea, saying they were targeting ships linked to Israel in a show of solidarity with Gaza.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri said on Saturday that the Houthis were acting based on “their own decisions and capabilities”.

There have also been cross-border skirmishes between Israeli forces and Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement.