2024-01-02 09:52:18
At Gaza Strip the year began with the bombing continuing unabated and his army Israel to declare that the war against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas will continue “throughout” 2024.
Against this backdrop, compounded by New Year’s Eve rocket launches against Tel Aviv, Israel’s Homeland Security Minister, the far-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir, said on Monday that he would favor “a solution that would encourage the immigration of Gazans.” ” and in favor of the return of Jewish settlers to the Palestinian enclave after the war ends.
Last Sunday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, another representative of the extreme right in the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, made a practically identical position.
In Israel’s domestic political scene, the Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the indulgently controversial judicial reform being pushed by Mr. Netanyahu’s government — a decision denounced by Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who he says goes against the “unity necessary for success ” of Chahal, the Israeli army, in the war with Hamas.
“Protracted Battles”
Nearly three months after the outbreak of war, which was triggered by an unprecedented attack by Hamas against southern sectors of Israeli territory on October 7, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari announced on Sunday evening that reserves would be “pausing” to prepare for “prolonged battles”.
Chahal is urged to “make plans in advance because we will be asked for further duties and battles throughout the year,” he added.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallad, who visited soldiers in the Gaza Strip yesterday, assured for his part that the residents of the communities closest to the Palestinian enclave, who were displaced after the October 7 attack, will “soon” be able to return to their homes. .
Israel’s civil-military leadership has vowed to “eliminate” Hamas following its military arm’s unprecedented attack on southern sectors of Israeli territory on October 7. The Palestinian Islamic Movement’s Ministry of Health announced yesterday that since then 21,978 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas attack killed some 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli statements. Another 250 or so people were abducted and taken to the Gaza Strip, where more than 120 remain in captivity, according to Israeli authorities.
As the year turned, Israeli army artillery and aircraft pounded mainly the cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah (south). At least 24 people were killed, according to Hamas’ health ministry.
‘Desperate images’ from central Gaza
Agence France-Presse television cameras captured relatives of victims searching through the rubble after the bombings in Khan Younis, by the light of a few flashlights and mobile phones, before carrying survivors to ambulances.
The pictures were equally desperate in Deir al-Bala, in the central Gaza Strip, as residents and paramedics tried to pull out wounded people trapped under huge blocks of cement after an airstrike.
On the other side, the rhythm of the new year was given by the air defense sirens.
AFP reporters in Tel Aviv saw rockets intercepted by Israel’s air defense systems at midnight on New Year’s Eve. The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas, claimed responsibility.
Alarm sirens continued to sound yesterday in sectors of Israel.
The hostilities forced 1.9 million residents of the Palestinian enclave—or, in other words, 85% of the population—to flee their homes. The small area, under total siege since October 9, is now threatened by famine, while most hospitals have been shut down.
Last Sunday, some 120 aid trucks entered the narrow strip of land, a number that looks like a drop in the ocean of needs.
“Living conditions in the Gaza Strip are desperate,” said Mustafa Senar, 43, from Gaza City, who has now taken refuge in Rafah, citing skyrocketing prices for basic goods.
Iranian military
After a week-long truce in late November that allowed more than 100 hostages to be released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners while allowing some more aid to enter the Gaza Strip, calls for a new ceasefire have multiplied, so far unanswered. despite the efforts of Qatar and Egypt.
Today the Israeli army announced that its men killed in the occupied West Bank four Palestinian gunmen in the village of Azoun and another in the city of Qalqilya during raids. An Israeli soldier was injured in the first of the two operations, according to the same source.
After the war broke out, violence in the West Bank also escalated. The Israeli non-governmental organization for the defense of human rights Ges Din emphasized yesterday that acts of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied territories reached a record level in 2023, speaking of at least 10 deaths.
The war has also reignited tensions on the Lebanon/Israeli border, the scene of almost daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, an ally of Iran and Hamas.
Israeli warplanes today launched strikes against positions on the outskirts of Damascus, causing material damage, the Syrian Ministry of Defense announced.
Moreover, yesterday an Iranian warship sailed into the Red Sea, where the attacks of the Shia Houthi rebels, adjacent to Tehran, have multiplied in recent weeks targeting commercial ships that they say are connected to Israel.
The US and other countries conduct naval patrols in this “highway of the sea” to protect international shipping, as part of an international coalition they have established for it, amid ongoing scenarios for possible wider operations against the Houthis.
Source: APE, AFP, Reuters
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