Israel destroys central Gaza… killing dozens of Palestinians
Israeli forces attacked the central Gaza Strip from land, sea and air on Wednesday, and Palestinian authorities said dozens of people were killed, including 20 in one attack.
In a manifestation of Israel’s insistence on crushing Hamas despite growing international calls for a ceasefire, Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy said Tuesday that the war will continue for many months and that there are “no shortcuts to dismantling a terrorist organization.”
A statement from the Gaza Ministry of Health said an Israeli airstrike killed 20 Palestinians today, near the Al-Amal hospital in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip. There has been no comment yet from the Israeli army.
The communications breakdown in most of the Gaza Strip hampered efforts to reach dead Palestinians overnight, but gradually eased in the morning.
A photo taken from southern Israel at the border with the Gaza Strip on December 27, 2023 shows smoke rising after Israeli bombing of the Palestinian territories (AFP)
Doctors said five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip, and health officials also said Al-Shifa hospital received the bodies of seven overnight. Palestinians killed in the city of Gaza, in the north of the Strip.
Residents said there was fierce fighting east and north of Bureij and in the nearby village of Juhr al-Dik, where they said Israeli tanks were stationed.
The Israeli army said today that three more soldiers were killed in clashes in the Gaza Strip, bringing the number of deaths among its ranks to 166 since the ground invasion of the Strip began on October 20.
Since Hamas killed 1,200 people and arrested 240 on October 7, according to Israeli statistics, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has responded with a comprehensive attack on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, which has led to the destruction of most of the Gaza Strip.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said Israeli forces killed 195 Palestinians and wounded 325 others in the past 24 hours, bringing the recorded toll to 21,110 dead and 55,243 wounded in Israeli attacks on the Palestinian coastal enclave since October 7.
Nearly all of the Strip’s 2.3 million residents have become homeless, many of whom have been displaced multiple times.
Meanwhile, a huge clock in Tel Aviv counts the time since Hamas took the hostages, as families continue to campaign for the release of their loved ones.
Lebanese border
This week, Israel has stepped up its attacks especially in the central Gaza Strip and has asked civilians to leave the area, even as many say there is no longer a safe place to go.
The Israeli military said today that its planes also targeted Hezbollah military sites and other sites in Lebanon. A large column of smoke was seen at the border.
Security sources say Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, launched the largest number of missiles and drones against Israel today, in a day since the wave of daily clashes began.
To highlight the difficulties in treating the wounded in Gaza, the World Health Organization published the photos, most of which were taken on Monday and Tuesday, in several hospitals in the Strip, while the coordinator of the emergency medical team of the organization, Sean Casey, described the current health situation. in the Strip 20% of that of 80 days ago.
“There’s blood everywhere in those hospitals right now,” Casey said describing the situation, adding that there is no safe place in the Gaza Strip.
He continued: “Almost everything we see are cases of very serious injuries, on a scale that is really hard to believe… It’s a bloodbath and, as we said before, it’s a massacre.”
Casey said there is no safe place in Gaza.
For its part, the International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed today that the compound of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Khan Yunis was bombed on Tuesday. The Red Cross reported on the “X” website that the raid caused damage and caused panic among workers and displaced people who took refuge in the facility.
Israel says it is doing everything it can to protect civilians and holds Hamas responsible for exposing them to harm by launching its attacks from areas where civilians are present, which Hamas denies. But even the United States, Israel’s closest ally, has said it must make more efforts to reduce the number of civilian deaths from what US President Joe Biden has described as “indiscriminate bombing”.
The Israeli military has said it continues to strike what it described as “terrorist targets” in the Gaza Strip, and has at times used the navy to strike suspects it believes pose a threat to its ground forces.
In the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, an Israeli army statement said an Israeli attack on gunmen on foot caused secondary explosions, indicating the area had been mined with explosives to attack soldiers.
West Bank
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said six people were killed in the West Bank town of Tulkarem during an Israeli raid.
An Israeli military statement on the incident said: “Israeli forces were carrying out a counter-terrorism operation and were attacked by armed men who threw explosive devices at them.”
The statement added that an Israeli Air Force plane bombed the attackers.
Residents said the youths were neither fighters nor extremists and were far from the areas where the fighting broke out.
Saida Al-Famawi, the mother of one of the young people, explained: “It was a sight I couldn’t see, it was something you can’t watch.”
In an interview on Egyptian television, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that Israel intends to remain in the Gaza Strip after the war, but the world does not agree on this.
He added that the United States could “order” Israel to accept the Gaza Strip becoming part of a future Palestinian state.
An Israeli soldier was killed
For their part, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, announced this evening that their fighters “sniped” an Israeli soldier east of the city of Khan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip. Gaza, during the ongoing attack. battles there. In the northern Gaza Strip, the Brigades reported on their Telegram account that they managed to kill and wound Israeli soldiers holed up in a house in the Jabalia al-Balad area, after targeting them with an anti-fortified missile. an attack on a helicopter with a SAM-18 missile in the Saftawi area.
2023-12-27 19:17:30
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