Israel has pressed ahead with an offensive against Hamas that it says could go on for weeks or months. War has already brought unprecedented death and destruction
Rafah (Gaza Strip), Dec 12: Israel and the United States were increasingly isolated as they faced global calls for a cease-fire in Gaza, including a non-binding vote expected to pass at the United Nations later on Tuesday. Israel has pressed ahead with an offensive against Gaza’s Hamas rulers that it says could go on for weeks or months.
The war ignited by Hamas’ October 7 attack into southern Israel has already brought unprecedented death and destruction to the impoverished coastal enclave, with more than 18,000 Palestinians killed, mostly women and minors, and over 80 per cent of the population of 2.3 million having fled their homes. Much of northern Gaza has been obliterated, and hundreds of thousands have fled to ever-shrinking so-called safe zones in the south. The health care system and humanitarian aid operations have collapsed in large parts of Gaza, and aid workers have warned of starvation and the spread of disease among displaced people in overcrowded shelters and tent camps.
Strikes overnight and into Tuesday in southern Gaza – in an area where civilians have been told to seek shelter – killed at least 23 people, according to an Associated Press reporter at a nearby hospital. In central Gaza, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah received the bodies of 33 people killed in strikes overnight, including 16 women and four children, according to hospital records. Many were killed in strikes that hit residential buildings in the built-up Maghazi refugee camp nearby. In northern Gaza, the aid group Doctors Without Borders said a surgeon in the Al-Awda hospital was wounded on Monday by a shot fired from outside the facility, which it says has been under “total siege” by Israeli forces for a week. There was no immediate comment from the military.
In a briefing with The Associated Press on Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant refused to commit to a firm timeline, but signalled that the current phase of heavy ground fighting and airstrikes could stretch on for weeks and that further military activity could continue for months. He said the next phase would be lower-intensity fighting against “pockets of resistance”. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will maintain security control over Gaza indefinitely.
The UN secretary-general and Arab states have rallied much of the international community behind calls for an immediate cease-fire. But the US vetoed those efforts at the UN Security Council last week as it rushed tank munitions to Israel to allow it to maintain the offensive. A non-binding vote on a similar resolution at the General Assembly scheduled for Tuesday would be largely symbolic. (AP)