Violent fighting in Gaza… and America stresses the need for Palestinians to govern the Strip
According to Reuters, violent clashes broke out in the streets of Gaza City, where Hamas fighters used tunnels to ambush Israeli forces.
At the same time, Washington has said the Palestinians should rule Gaza after the war, following Israel’s claims that it would control security in the Strip indefinitely.
The Israeli army said its forces advanced towards the center of Gaza City, Hamas’ main stronghold and the largest city in the coastal strip, while the movement said its fighters inflicted heavy casualties on Israeli forces.
Yesterday (Wednesday), the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, released a video clip apparently showing fierce street battles between bombed-out buildings in Gaza City.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad Movement sources said the Israeli tanks faced fierce resistance from Hamas fighters who used the tunnels to set up ambushes.
Israel is bombing Gaza in response to an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas fighters across the border in southern Israel, in which they killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 hostage, according to the Israeli census.
Palestinian officials said that as of yesterday (Wednesday), 10,569 people had been killed by Israeli shelling, 40 percent of whom were children. Israel says 33 of its soldiers have been killed.
Palestinian-led government
As the war between Israel and Hamas entered its second month, Washington began discussing with Israeli and Arab leaders the future of the Gaza Strip without the movement’s rule.
While a plan has not yet emerged, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken outlined Washington’s expectations for the besieged coastal region.
Yesterday Blinken said at a press conference in Tokyo: “There will be no reoccupation of Gaza after the end of the conflict. There is no attempt to limit or blockade Gaza. “No reduction of Gaza territory.”
Blinken added that a “transition period” may be needed at the end of the conflict, but governance after the end of the crisis in Gaza must include “a Palestinian-led government and a union of Gaza with the West Bank under the control of Palestinian leadership. ‘Palestinian Authority’.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News on Monday that Israel will take responsibility for security in Gaza after the war “indefinitely.”
Israeli officials have since tried to make clear that they do not intend to occupy Gaza after the war, but have not yet explained how they will ensure security without maintaining a military presence there. Israel withdrew its forces from Gaza in 2005.
Khalil Al-Hayya, a Hamas leader, told the New York Times that the movement’s attack on Israel aimed to eliminate the status quo and open a new chapter in the war with Israel.
The newspaper quoted him as saying yesterday: “We managed to put the Palestinian issue back on the table, and now no one in the region feels comfortable.”
Saleh Al-Arouri, deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau, explained on Al-Aqsa television yesterday that the movement’s fighters are determined to inflict casualties on Israeli forces in ground battles in Gaza.
He added: “The more the occupation extends and expands over the territory, the greater its losses will be.”
Footage from a video released yesterday by Hamas showed fighters in Gaza running through piles of rubble and stopping to fire shoulder-fired rockets at Israeli tanks.
Other footage showed them firing rifles from behind buildings. Reuters was unable to verify the authenticity of the footage.
Israel bombs the tunnels
Israeli army spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said yesterday that “Hamas has lost control of the north” of the Gaza Strip.
He added that Engineers soldiers are using explosive devices to destroy the tunnel network built by Hamas that extends for hundreds of kilometers under the Strip. The army said it had destroyed 130 tunnels so far.
Israel accuses Hamas of being responsible for the killing of civilians in Gaza, saying it uses the Strip’s residents as human shields and hides weapons and operations centers in residential areas.
Yesterday, Israeli forces escorted foreign journalists to the outskirts of Gaza City. Journalists saw widespread devastation, as battles scarred every building in sight, with walls knocked down, bullet holes and shrapnel scattered across facades and palm stems broken.
The deputy commander of the 401st Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Edo, who gave only his first name, said that when the soldiers arrived at these buildings, all the families had left.
“So we know that they are all our enemies here,” he added, standing in a badly damaged pink-painted children’s room. We didn’t see any civilians here, only Hamas.”
The soldiers said during the press tour that under the family’s apartment there were two floors of workshops used to make weapons, including drones, which they found in 5 wooden boxes. This story could not be verified.
50 thousand Palestinians head south
Hagari said around 50,000 Palestinian civilians left the northern Gaza Strip yesterday within the four-hour deadline announced by Israel.
The Israeli army has repeatedly asked residents to evacuate the north or risk being trapped in a spiral of violence. But the central and southern parts of the Strip were also under fire.
The Gaza Strip’s Interior Ministry said at least 19 people were killed yesterday in an Israeli airstrike on a house near a hospital in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
There was no immediate Israeli comment or detail on the attack, which, if confirmed, would be the third on Gaza’s largest refugee camp in the space of a week.
United Nations officials and G7 countries have stepped up their calls for a humanitarian truce in the war to help civilians in Gaza. They are running out of basic necessities, including food, medicine and fuel.
An informed source said yesterday that there are negotiations mediated by Qatar. Where some Hamas political leaders reside, with the aim of releasing 10 to 15 hostages in exchange for a humanitarian truce for a day or two in Gaza.