Hunger torments people in the Gaza Strip – Israel sees Hamas counted out
Published: Sunday, Dec 10th 2023, 16:31
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In view of the increasingly catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip, there is growing pressure on Israel to show more consideration for the civilian population in its fight against the Islamist Hamas. The Israeli army spread reports of success. "We are closing in on the Hamas command centers," said Israel's National Security Advisor Zachi Hanegbi. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed the goal of destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages. To this end, the war will continue "with greater intensity".
However, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called for a new ceasefire at a special meeting of the WHO Executive Board in Geneva on Sunday. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) emphasized that it was barely able to provide humanitarian aid to the population. And Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned of the consequences. "We are not only seeing suffering in a dramatic way, but hunger is also feeding further terrorism," she said in Dubai. In an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio, she called on Arab states to persuade Hamas to lay down its arms.
The war was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel's history, carried out by terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups on October 7 in Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip. More than 1200 people were killed. According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, 17,700 people have died as a result of the subsequent Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
OCHA: Surroundings of the European Gaza hospital under fire
Targets near the European Gaza Hospital and the Al-Amal Hospital in the south of the coastal strip have been repeatedly shelled, according to information from the UN emergency aid office OCHA. Dozens of injured people were therefore unable to reach the emergency rooms, OCHA reported on Sunday. Like other hospitals, the two hospitals are completely overcrowded. According to estimates by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), 85 percent of the once approximately 2.2 million inhabitants had to flee their homes because they were damaged or destroyed or because Israel had called for the evacuation of areas due to the fighting.
Palestinians: More than 30 dead in airstrike on building
According to Palestinian reports, at least 31 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in the refugee district of Jabalia in the north of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army did not initially comment on the incident. Meanwhile, the Hamas-controlled health authority announced that 45 bodies killed in Israeli attacks had been brought to the Al-Aksa hospital in the central part of the Gaza Strip since Saturday evening.
Israeli artillery units now also in the Gaza Strip
The Israeli army announced on Sunday that for the first time since the start of the war more than two months ago, artillery troops were also being deployed inside the Gaza Strip, in addition to tank and ground troops. Until now, the artillery troops have been deployed from the border line. More than 20 targets have been attacked during operations in the area of Shejaiya. These were weapons depots, booby-trapped houses and infrastructure belonging to the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas.
The army has been posting videos and photos of the risky house-to-house fighting against Hamas on Telegram for days. In the sometimes narrow alleyways of towns in the Gaza Strip, there is hand-to-hand combat from door to door with submachine guns, hand grenades and bazookas. Again and again, entrances to Hamas tunnels in schools or residential buildings are shown, as well as extensive weapon finds. There were even reports of weapons hidden in stuffed animals. The information could not initially be independently verified.
Hamas leader Sinwar not yet apprehended
The Israelis have not yet been able to track down the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Jihia Sinwar. He is said to have left in an aid convoy to the south of the sealed-off coastal strip shortly after the war began, Israeli newspapers reported, citing information from the Kan channel. Israel's army is in the process of publicly conveying the impression that Hamas has begun to waver. Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said that terrorists who had surrendered had stated that the fighters were in a "difficult situation" and that the Hamas leadership under Sinwar was "denying reality". None of these statements can be independently verified.
On Sunday night, a video from the northern Gaza Strip circulated on the internet in which, according to the Times of Israel, a suspected Hamas fighter can be seen. The man emerges from a row of other men, who like him are dressed only in their underpants, with his weapon raised, walks past a tank and lays it down in front of an Israeli soldier. The scene shows the men surrendering to Israeli troops, the report said. However, their identities could not initially be independently verified. Meanwhile, Israeli units had moved very close to Hamas command centers in Jabalia and Shejaiya, Hanegbi said. He added that 7,000 Hamas terrorists had already been killed. A total defeat of Hamas would also clear the way for the liberation of 138 hostages still held by the Islamists.
However, extremist Palestinians continued their rocket attacks on Israeli border towns on Sunday.
Egypt election overshadowed by war
The Gaza war is also overshadowing Egypt's presidential election, which began on Sunday. The incumbent Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is expected to win the election again. There are concerns in Egypt that the Sinai Peninsula, which belongs to the country and borders Gaza, could become the starting point for new attacks on Israel if residents of the coastal strip flee there because of the war. At the same time, the government in Cairo fears that a mass exodus could turn into a permanent expulsion.
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