by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Emily Rose
CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel bombarded Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, overnight, and fighting continued throughout the morning on Sunday, according to residents and Palestinian media.
Israel claims to have achieved almost total operational control of the northern Gaza Strip and is preparing to expand its ground offensive to other areas of the enclave.
A spokesperson for the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry on Sunday reported 166 Palestinians killed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 20,424. Tens of thousands of people were injured, and many bodies are still believed to be trapped under the rubble.
For its part, the Israeli army announced the death of eight of its soldiers, bringing to 154 the number of its combat losses since the start of its ground incursion into Gaza, in response to the Hamas attack against Israel on 7 october.
Separately, the White House said that US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the Israeli campaign.
Joe Biden “stressed the critical need to protect the civilian population, including those coordinating the humanitarian assistance operation, and the importance of allowing civilians to safely move away from areas where fighting is taking place” , the White House said in a statement.
“The leaders discussed the importance of securing the release of all remaining hostages.”
Israel’s main ally reiterated its support for the Jewish state while expressing concern about the number of victims and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. U.S. officials have said they expect Israel to soon move to a lower-intensity offensive phase.
Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at a weekly meeting on Sunday, dismissed reports that the United States had convinced Israel not to expand its military campaign.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that Joe Biden had persuaded the Israeli Prime Minister not to attack Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon.
“Israel is a sovereign state,” said Benjamin Netanyahu. “Our decisions in war are based on our operational considerations, and I will not dwell on this subject.”
The UN Security Council avoided the threat of an American veto on Friday, after several days of debate, by removing a call for a ceasefire from a draft resolution. The United States and Israel believe a ceasefire would allow Iran-backed Hamas to regroup and rearm.
POWERLESS WORLD
Six Palestinians were killed and several others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. The Israeli army ordered residents to evacuate and head west toward the town of Deir el Balah, doctors said.
Joudat Imad, 55, father of six children, had to leave the area of the Nusseirat refugee camp where he was, in the center of the Gaza Strip, after the army announced that it was necessary to evacuate.
“I was lucky to find a tent in Rafah,” he told Reuters by telephone. “From owner of two buildings to refugee in a tent waiting for help, this is what this brutal war has made of us. The world is sick and inhumane for not seeing the brutality of Israel and it is powerless to stop this war of destruction and famine.”
In Rafah, on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, an Israeli airstrike on a house killed two people, Palestinian doctors said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported an attack on one of its main bases in Khan Younes, in the south of the Gaza Strip. A 13-year-old child was killed by an Israeli drone while inside el Amal hospital, the Red Crescent added.
The Israeli army has regretted the civilian deaths, but it accuses Hamas of operating in densely populated areas or using civilians as human shields, which the group rejects.
A LOT OF LOSSES
Yiftah Ron-Tal, former commander of Israeli ground forces, described the Gaza battlefield as “the most complicated and fortified” in the world, requiring infantry, tanks, artillery and engineers.
“I think what is happening now is the result of a difficult battle in a dense area and in this kind of battle there are unfortunately a lot of casualties,” he told Army Radio .
The conflict has spread, with Yemen’s Houthi rebels, allied with Iran, disrupting global trade with missile and drone attacks on ships in the Red Sea in retaliation for Israel’s assault on Gaza.
The United States on Saturday shot down four drones launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen towards a US destroyer in the southern Red Sea, bringing the number of such attacks on ships to 15 of commerce, US Central Command said.
Separately, a drone launched from Iran struck a ship in the Indian Ocean on Saturday, the US Department of Defense said.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo and Emily Rose in Jerusalem, with contributions from Bassam Masoud in Gaza, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Dan Williams in Jerusalem, Nafisa Eltahir in Cairo and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington, writing by William Mallard and Nick Macfie; French version Kate Entringer)
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