Israel launched new bombing strikes on Hamas militants Sunday with hospital officials saying at least 35 people were killed in Gaza City and no signs th
Israel launched new bombing strikes on Hamas militants Sunday, with hospital officials saying at least 35 people were killed in Gaza City and no signs that the fighting will end soon as the calendar turns to 2024.
Israeli forces targeted the central part of the Gaza Strip, the narrow Palestinian territory along the Mediterranean Sea, while also carrying out operations in Khan Younis, Gaza’s second largest city in the south toward the border with Egypt.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicted Saturday that the Jewish state’s offensive, sparked by the shock October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, will last for “many months” despite increasing international calls for a cease-fire.
Netanyahu Aims for Israeli Control on Gaza
The Hamas-run health ministry said 18 bodies had been recovered in the overnight bombing of Gaza City with many more believed buried under the rubble.
“After the explosion we arrived at the scene of the strike and saw martyrs everywhere,’ one local man told Agence France-Presse after a building was hit. ‘Children are still missing, we can’t find them.’
The Israeli army said it killed about a dozen enemy fighters in multiple ground battles, air and tank strikes and said it had located more Hamas tunnels, and explosives planted in a kindergarten.
Israeli battle tanks are deployed at a position along the border with the Gaza Strip and southern Israel on Dec. 31, 2023.
As the conflict neared the three-month mark, about 85 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced, according to the United Nations. The U.N. has warned of the increased risk of hunger and disease as desperate families shelter in makeshift tents against the winter cold.
Netanyahu said at his Saturday news conference the border zone between the Gaza Strip and Egypt should be under Israel’s control to ensure the demilitarization of the area.
