GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel said on Tuesday it had killed dozens of Hamas fighters overnight in strikes on Gaza and indicated it had no intention of reducing its bombing of the besieged Palestinian enclave.
The United States urged Israel to allow more aid into Gaza, which is suffering from a humanitarian crisis after two weeks of intense Israeli attacks.
But there appears little prospect of a ceasefire any time soon in the bloodiest episode of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in decades.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that more than 5,000 people were killed in Gaza during two weeks of Israeli air strikes in response to the Hamas attack. The Islamist militant group killed more than 1,400 people – most of them civilians – in one day.
Hamas on Monday released two Israeli women who were among more than 200 hostages taken during the movement’s attack on southern Israel on October 7. They were the third and fourth hostages to be released.
Israeli tanks and troops are massing on the border between Israel and the Hamas-ruled Strip awaiting orders for an expected ground invasion – an operation that will be complicated by concerns about the hostages.
The Israeli army said it struck more than 400 activist targets in Gaza overnight and killed dozens of Hamas fighters, including three deputy commanders of the battalions.
He added that among the targets that were struck were a tunnel that allowed Hamas to infiltrate Israel from the sea and Hamas leadership centers in mosques. Reuters was not immediately able to verify the report.
Israeli bombs have flattened large areas of Gaza, forcing more than a million residents to seek shelter elsewhere in the Strip.
With food, clean water, medicine and fuel rapidly running out, the United Nations and relief agencies have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe and demanded that supplies be allowed in.
Earlier, Israeli Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevy indicated that Israel has no intention of limiting its strikes.
“We want to bring Hamas to a state of complete dismantling,” Halevy said in a statement.
He added: “We are well prepared for ground operations in the south.” He added, “Forces that have more time are more prepared, and this is what we are doing now.”
Medical officials in Gaza said that dozens of Palestinians were killed or injured overnight across the Strip, most of them in southern Gaza, due to Israeli bombing. Officials said at least 15 homes were destroyed.
[1/12]A general view of a gas station that was hit in an Israeli raid, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 24, 2023. REUTERS/Ibrahim Abu Mustafa Obtaining licensing rights
Residents said that an Israeli missile hit a gas station in Khan Yunis, where workers, families and others who had fled from the eastern side of the city were gathered. They added that many of them were killed or injured.
“This is a gas station and there is solar power here, so people come to charge their devices and fill up with water,” said Abdullah Abu Al-Atta, who lives next to the gas station. “They bombed them while they were sleeping.”
Ashraf Al-Qudra, spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, said that more than 40 medical centers stopped their operations after running out of fuel, and some of them were damaged as a result of the Israeli bombing.
No green light
Foreign governments expressed concern that the conflict could ignite the entire Middle East region. Clashes have already occurred in the West Bank and along the Lebanese-Israeli border.
The Emir of Qatar, who tried to mediate between Israel and Hamas, urged the international community to restrain Israel in its war against Hamas.
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said in a speech he delivered before the Shura Council of the Gulf state, “We say enough is enough. Israel should not be given an unconditional green light and an unrestricted mandate to kill.”
Support for Israel came from French President Emmanuel Macron, who arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday and will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of Israel’s war cabinet.
“We are connected to Israel through mourning,” Macron said on social media, adding that 30 French nationals were killed in the October 7 attacks and nine were still missing or being held hostage.
The White House said that US President Joe Biden welcomed the release of the two hostages and also stressed the need to continue the “continuous flow” of humanitarian aid to Gaza in a phone call with Netanyahu.
The United States has said publicly that Israel has the right to defend itself, but two sources said the White House, Pentagon and State Department had intensified their own appeals for caution in talks with the Israelis.
The sources who spoke before announcing the release of the hostages on Monday said that the American priority is to gain time to conduct negotiations to release the other hostages.
In response to a question about the possibility of a ceasefire, Biden said: “These hostages must be released and then we can talk.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday planned to attend a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East, although it was not clear what action, if any, the council, which has five veto powers (the United States and Russia), might take. China, Britain and France – divided.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem – Prepared by Muhammad for the Arab Bulletin – Preparing by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza) (Additional reporting by Matt Spitalnick, Steve Holland, Rami Ayoub and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington – Prepared by Muhammad for the Arab Bulletin) Dan Williams and Emily Rose in Jerusalem; Moaz Abdel Aziz in Cairo; Writing by Michael Perry and Angus McSwan. Edited by Miral Fahmy and Toby Chopra
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