Israel Strikes Gaza Despite Ceasefire Calls

While UN relief organizations denounced the rising number of civilian deaths in the conflict that has lasted for a month, Israel today bombarded Gaza with heavy attacks using its soldiers engaged in combat with Hamas fighters in the beleaguered region.

In Gaza, where 1.5 million Palestinians have fled to other areas of the enclave in a desperate attempt to find safety, Israeli troops and Hamas fighters fought house to house.

“We are striking Hamas, and we are going stronghold after stronghold, according to our plan, in a systematic effort to dismantle Hamas from its military capabilities,” Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus told CNN.

“We have troops on the ground; infantry, armour, combat engineers. They are striking and they are also directing fire from the air,” he said, adding efforts were focused on the “underground infrastructure” network of Hamas tunnels.

“This strike is like an earthquake,” Gaza City resident Alaa Abu Hasera said, in a devastated area where entire blocks were reduced to rubble.

The Palestinian militants staged the worst attack in Israel’s history, prompting Israel to start a huge air campaign on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. More than 240 individuals were taken captive and over 1,400 people, predominantly civilians, were killed by Hamas gunmen during their attack on October 7.

Since the start of the conflict, Israeli attacks and the escalating ground campaign have claimed the lives of over 9,770 individuals, the majority of them civilians, according to the health ministry in Gaza, which is overseen by Hamas.

“We’ve had enough.”

Although Israel has ordered Palestinian people in northern Gaza to go south through leaflets and text messages, a US official stated on Saturday that at least 350,000 civilians were still living in what is becoming an urban combat zone.

On Sunday, the health ministry said 45 people were killed in Israeli strikes on a refugee camp in central Gaza, leaving survivors desperately searching through the rubble.

“Are there any survivors?” shouted Said al-Najma, as he tried to shift the blocks of concrete strewn across the road in the camp.

“They brought down an entire street on the heads of women and children without any notice,” he said.

Deepening the desperation in the crowded territory, the sole border crossing into Egypt was closed Sunday for a second day in a row, with Hamas suspending the evacuation of foreign passport holders after Israel refused to allow some injured Palestinians to be evacuated.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) confirmed the closure, saying more than 1,100 people had been allowed out in the two days previous.

The Israeli army has encircled Gaza City, effectively splitting the territory in two, with “significant” strikes carried out, army spokesman Daniel Hagari said late Sunday.

Shortly before the strikes, internet and telephone lines were cut, and the strikes would continue overnight and in the days to come, Hagari added.

Since Israel sent ground forces into the north of Gaza late last month, “over 2,500 terror targets have been struck” by “ground, air and naval forces”, the army said Sunday.

The fighting comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken presses a whirlwind Middle East tour focused on humanitarian aid for the Palestinians, which has taken him to Israel and the occupied West Bank, as well as to Jordan, Iraq, and Cyprus.

Blinken, who has rebuffed calls for a ceasefire and backed Israel’s goal of crushing Hamas, met Sunday with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank.

Abbas denounced “the genocide and destruction suffered by our Palestinian people in Gaza at the hands of Israel’s war machine, with no regard for the principles of international law,” the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said.

The war has exacerbated tensions in the West Bank, where more than 150 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces and settlers since the start of the war, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

As concern grows at mounting casualties, the heads of all major United Nations agencies issued a joint statement expressing outrage at the civilian death toll in Gaza and calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”.

“For almost a month, the world has been watching the unfolding situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory in shock and horror at the spiraling numbers of lives lost and torn apart,” the UN chiefs said, including the heads of Unicef, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization.

“We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. It’s been 30 days. Enough is enough. This must stop now.”

‘Continue until we win’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has remained firm on his position, vowing that “there won’t be a ceasefire until the hostages are returned”.

“Let them remove this from their lexicon. We are saying this to our enemies and our friends,” the right-wing premier said after meeting troops.

“We will simply continue until we win. We have no alternative.”