Israelis and Palestinians end dark year, with no end in sight to war
Israelis and Palestinians end a dark year on Sunday, with no end in sight to the deadliest military offensive on Gaza, triggered by Hamas’ bloodiest attack on Israel, Agence France Presse reports.
There has been no respite from Israel’s air raids, artillery fire or ground fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, to the despair of Palestinians surviving the onslaught.
“We were hoping that 2024 would arrive under better auspices and that we would be able to celebrate the New Year at home with our families,” said Mahmoud Abou Shahma in a camp for displaced people in Rafah, on the Egyptian border.
Children embrace in Rafah on the southern Gaza Strip. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
“We hope that the war will end and that we will be able to return to our homes and live in peace”, said the 33-year-old from southern Khan Yunis.
Gaza’s health ministry says the Israeli military campaign has killed at least 21,672 people, mostly women and children.
The fighting began with Hamas’s bloody 7 October attacks, which left about 1,140 people dead in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also took about 250 people hostage, and Israel says 129 of them remain in captivity.
The Israeli army says 170 soldiers have been killed in combat inside Gaza.
An Israeli siege imposed after 7 October, after years of crippling blockade, has led to dire shortages of food, safe water, fuel and medicine in Gaza, with aid convoys able to offer only sporadic relief.
The UN says more than 85% of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have fled their homes.
An American destroyer shot down two anti-ship ballistic missiles fired from Yemen Saturday as it responded to a call for help from a container ship that was hit separately, the US Central Command (Centcom) said.
Centcom said the US destroyers Gravely and Laboon responded to a request for assistance from the Maersk Hangzhou, a Singapore-flagged, Denmark-owned and operated container ship that reported being struck by a missile while transiting the Red Sea.
While responding, missiles were launched toward the ships from territory controlled by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, Centcom said.
The Houthis have targeted vessels in the vital Red Sea shipping lane with strikes they say are in support of Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel is waging war to root out the militant group Hamas.
The Yemeni rebels have said they are targeting Israel and Israeli-linked vessels.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retake control of the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt, expanding Israel’s mission to neutralise Hamas in a conflict it says it expects to last for months, Reuters reports.
Netanyahu said “the war is at its height” and the Philadelphi corridor buffer zone that runs along Gaza’s border with Egypt must be in Israeli hands. “It must be shut,” Netanyahu said. “It is clear that any other arrangement would not ensure the demilitarisation that we seek.”
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photograph: Reuters
Netanyahu’s comments about the buffer zone came as Israeli military forces pressed ahead with an offensive that the prime minister reiterated will last “for many months”.
“The war will continue for many months until Hamas is eliminated and the hostages are returned,” Netanyahu told a news conference. “We will guarantee that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel.”
Welcome back to our continuing live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war, I’m Yang Tian bringing you the latest news. It’s just past 9am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv on New Year’s Eve, here’s a rundown of recent developments.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war against Hamas will last “many months” and pledged to retake control of the border zone between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
“The war will continue for many months until Hamas is eliminated and the hostages are returned,” Netanyahu told a news conference. “We will guarantee that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel.”
Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip. Photograph: Israel Defense Forces/Reuters
More details coming shortly. In other news:
The Organization for Islamic Cooperation has “welcomed” South Africa’s decision to launch a case at the International Court of Justice in which it accuses Israel of carrying out “genocidal” acts across Gaza. According to Qatari news agency QNA, the 57-member OIC, which Qatar is a part of, stressed that Israel is “committing a genocide by its indiscriminate targeting of civilian population … forcibly displacing them, preventing them from obtaining basic needs and humanitarian aid, and destroying buildings and health, educational and religious facilities”.
Tim Kaine, a US Democratic senator representing Virginia, has condemned the Biden administration’s arms transfer to Israel, joining a handful of other Democrats who are criticizing Biden for bypassing congressional review in the foreign transfer of weapons. Kaine’s criticism comes as Israeli strikes have killed more than 21,600 Palestinians across Gaza since 7 October, while internally displacing more than 1.9 million survivors from their homes.
In a tweet ahead, the World Food Programme warned that “there is a different kind of countdown in Gaza”, pointing to an impending famine across the strip as a result of Israel’s attacks. “We are racing against time to avert a complete collapse of even the most basic services and starvation for millions,” the WFP said.
Israeli forces shot and killed a 22-year-old Palestinian man in the West Bank on Saturday, the Palestinian health ministry announced. The man, identified by Palestinian news agency WAFA as Mohammad Hussein Masalma, was killed by Israeli forces who fired live ammunition at the entrance of the al-Fawwar refugee camp in the south of Hebron, WAFA reports.
Palestine’s ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, has hailed South Africa’s decision to launch a case against Israel in the International Court of Justice in which it accused Israel of carrying out “genocidal” acts in Gaza. In a tweet on Saturday, Zomlot wrote: “Justice must be served and the #genocide must stop.”
The Palestinian Liberation Front’s armed wing announced on Saturday that an Israeli soldier it was holding captive had been killed in an Israeli airstrike, which also injured some of his captors, Reuters reports. According to an audio speech broadcast by Al Araby television, an Abu Ali Mustafa brigades spokesperson said that the Israeli airstrike occurred after a failed attempt by Israeli forces to rescue the soldier.
Forty percent of Gaza’s population is at risk of famine, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency said on Saturday. “Every day is a struggle for survival, finding food and water,” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees added.
