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NO SIGN OF SCALING DOWN ISRAELI ASSAULT
Twelve weeks after Hamas militants stormed Israeli towns, killing 1,200 people and seizing 240 hostages, Israeli forces have laid much of the Gaza Strip to waste. Nearly all of its 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes at least once, and many are now fleeing for the third or fourth time.
Gaza health authorities say more than 21,000 people are confirmed killed – about 1 per cent of the enclave’s population – with thousands more bodies feared unrecovered in the ruins. The United Nations says many thousands more may die from severe shortages of food, medicine, clean water and adequate shelter.
Israel says it is doing what it can to protect civilians and blames Hamas fighters for harm to them, and for operating among them, which Hamas denies.
Israel’s closest ally the United States has publicly called this month for it to scale down the full-blown war in the coming weeks and transition to targeted operations against Hamas leaders.
But so far Israel shows no sign of doing so, launching a new assault in the final week of the year that began with intense bombing of central areas. Israel issued a rare apology on Thursday for killing civilians in a huge air strike on Christmas Eve that Palestinian authorities say killed scores of people and triggered one of the biggest mass exoduses of the war so far.
Residents say Israeli forces have fought their way deep into Bureij in the battle in central Gaza in the past two days, with intense fighting still taking place on the eastern outskirts. Bombing has been particularly intense there and in adjacent Nusseirat and Maghazi.
Footage filmed by a Palestinian Red Crescent volunteer in Maghazi showed dead and wounded being carried from ruined buildings there. Palestinian media reported strikes in Nusseirat had killed at least 35 people overnight.
In the south, Israeli forces have also been pounding Khan Younis, in preparation for an anticipated further advance into the main southern city, swathes of which they captured in early December.
Gallant, the Israeli defence minister, described the advance there as “a task that has never been done before” and said troops were reaching Hamas command centres and arms depots.
“Our operations are essential to achieving the goals of the war. We see the results and the destruction of enemy forces.”
Israel says it will fight on until it annihilates Hamas, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction. Palestinians say such an aim is unachievable because of the militant group’s diffuse structure and deep roots in a territory it has ruled since 2007.
Israel’s Western allies, led by Washington, have defended its right to defend itself by retaliating against Hamas, but have grown increasingly alarmed by the high death toll and humanitarian devastation.
Efforts by mediators Egypt and Qatar to negotiate a ceasefire have so far been fruitless since a week-long truce collapsed at the end of November. Egypt, which hosted the leaders of Hamas and the smaller militant group Islamic Jihad in the past week, said on Thursday it was awaiting responses from both sides to a proposed peace plan.
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