“Don’t leave Gaza alive”
Israel attacks massively despite threat of hostages
December 11, 2023, 9:58 a.m
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Israel says it has attacked more than 22,000 targets in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war. The army is now concentrating its attacks on Khan Yunis and Gaza City. President Netanyahu calls on the terrorists to surrender, who in turn threaten to kill the remaining hostages.
The Israeli army has continued its military offensive in the Gaza Strip with undiminished severity despite new threats from Hamas. An AFP reporter reported massive airstrikes on the town of Khan Yunis in the southern Palestinian territory. The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad reported heavy fighting in the city of Gaza. Hamas warned that the hostages it was holding could only leave the Gaza Strip alive if Israel agreed to a prisoner exchange and negotiations.
Israel’s army reported new rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip this morning. On Sunday, Israeli soldiers fought “fierce battles” with Palestinian fighters in the city of Gaza and in Khan Yunis. “I don’t want to say that we are using our full force, but we are using significant force and achieving significant results,” said Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on fighters from the radical Islamic group Hamas to immediately lay down their weapons. Numerous capitulations in recent days indicate that the radical Islamic Palestinian organization is nearing its end, Netanyahu said on Sunday. “I say to the Hamas terrorists: This is the end. Don’t die for Sinwar,” the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip. “Surrender – now,” Netanyahu added.
Hamas threatens to kill hostages
The spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing, Abu Obeida, had previously announced that fighting against Israeli troops would continue. Despite all attempts, the soldiers were unable to break Hamas’s “resistance,” Obeida said on television.
At the same time, he announced that no hostage would leave the Gaza Strip alive if his organization’s demands were not met. According to Israeli information, 137 prisoners are still in the hands of Hamas and its allies. At the end of November, a Hamas representative said that the Islamists would be willing to release hostages, including Israeli soldiers, if in return all Palestinian prisoners in Israel were released.
“More than 22,000 targets attacked in Gaza”
The Israeli military says it has attacked more than 22,000 targets since the war in the Gaza Strip began a good two months ago. The coastal area on the Mediterranean sealed off by Israel is only slightly larger in area than the city of Munich. The Israeli army said on Sunday evening that several commanders from two northern Hamas brigades had been killed. The army published the names of the “eliminated” men.
According to the army, more than 100 Israeli soldiers have been killed so far. After the deaths of three more soldiers, the death toll in the ranks of the armed forces has increased to 101, the army said.
The fighting has displaced around 1.9 million people in the Gaza Strip – around 85 percent of the population. Most of them have now fled south. The Rafah region on the border with Egypt has become a huge refugee camp.
WHO calls for immediate emergency aid for Gaza Strip
World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that there were worrying signs of epidemic disease in the Gaza Strip. At the same time, the health system there is on the verge of complete collapse. Of 36 hospitals, only 14 are still partially functional, including only two in the north. The 34 member states of the WHO Executive Board called for the “immediate, sustained and unimpeded flow of humanitarian assistance” to the Palestinian territory in a resolution passed unanimously on Sunday.
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) also called for more aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip on Sunday. At the same time, Israel must better protect civilians in the Palestinian territory. “It is not enough to say theoretically that they should go to shelter if in fact no protection on site is possible.” This is also in Israeli security interests.
UN resolution fails due to US veto
On Friday, a resolution in the UN Security Council for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip failed due to the US veto. An immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip was “out of touch with reality” and “would not have changed anything on the ground,” said US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood.
In a rare move, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the meeting himself. On Sunday he complained that the UN Security Council was “paralysed” and unable to find solutions to end the Gaza war.
Qatar seeks new ceasefire
Qatar announced on Sunday that it would continue its efforts for a new ceasefire in the Gaza war. Qatar was a key broker of a week-long ceasefire that allowed for the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and humanitarian aid deliveries by December 1.
The Gaza war was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel’s history, carried out by terrorists from Hamas and other groups on October 7th in Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip. That day, hundreds of fighters from the Palestinian organization, which the US and the EU have classified as a terrorist organization, entered Israel from the Gaza Strip and committed atrocities, mostly against civilians. According to Israeli information, around 1,200 people were killed and around 240 people were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip. Israel then began massive air strikes and, since the end of October, a ground offensive in the area.