CAIRO/GAZA/JERUSALEM - Israel’s war on Hamas will last for months, Israel’s military chief said, as a string of incidents outside the Gaza Strip highlighted the risk of the conflict spreading.
Israel’s Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi told reporters in a televised statement on Dec 26 the Gaza border that the war would go on “for many months”.
“There are no magic solutions, there are no shortcuts in dismantling a terrorist organization, only determined and persistent fighting,” Mr Halevi said. “We will reach Hamas’ leadership too, whether it takes a week or if it takes months.”
Israeli actions intensified around Christmas, particularly in a central area just south of the seasonal waterway that bisects the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army told civilians to leave the area, though many said there was no safe place left to go.
“We are gravely concerned about the continued bombardment of Middle Gaza by Israeli forces, which has claimed more than 100 Palestinian lives since Christmas Eve,” said UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Seif Magango.
“Israeli forces must take all measures available to protect civilians. Warnings and evacuation orders do not absolve them of the full range of their international humanitarian law obligations.”
Israel is determined to destroy Hamas despite global calls for a ceasefire in the 11-week-old war.
Since Hamas killed 1,200 people and captured 240 hostages on Oct 7 in the deadliest day in Israeli history, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has responded with an assault that has laid much of Hamas-ruled Gaza to waste.
Palestinian health authorities said nearly 21,000 people had been killed in Israeli strikes, with thousands more feared buried under rubble. Nearly all of the enclave’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes, many several times.
Gaza authorities buried 80 unidentified Palestinians on Dec 26 whose bodies were handed over by Israel through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, the health ministry said.
According to the Islamic Waqf, or religious affairs ministry, the bodies were collected from the northern part of the Gaza Strip. They were buried in a long ditch at a Rafah cemetery in the south.
“Pictures are being taken to identify them later,” a representative of the Gaza Islamic Waqf said during the burials.
Israel says it is doing what it can to protect civilians, and blames Hamas for putting them in harm’s way by operating among them, which Hamas denies.
But even Israel’s closest ally the United States has said it should do more to reduce civilian deaths from what President Joe Biden has called “indiscriminate bombing”.
Spread threat
There are growing signs the conflict is starting to spread.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia claimed responsibility for a missile attack on Dec 26 on a container ship in the Red Sea and for an attempt to attack Israel with drones.
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2023-12-26 23:41:51Z
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