(Updated with Netanyahu)
by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Arafat Barbakh and Dan Williams
CAIRO/GAZA/JERUSALEM, Dec 30 (Reuters) – Israeli tanks pushed deeper into central and southern Gaza neighborhoods on Saturday backed by heavy air and artillery fire, residents said, launching an offensive murder which razed a large part of the enclave and which Benjamin Netanyahu repeated on Saturday evening that it would last for months.
In a televised address as the war entered its 13th week, Israel’s prime minister said the army was fighting “on all fronts” and that it would take months to achieve victory.
He also declared that at the end of the conflict, the “Philadelphia Corridor”, a narrow 14km-long buffer zone between the south of the Gaza Strip and the Egyptian border, should be under Israeli control.
The fighting was concentrated on Saturday in Al Boureij, Nouseirat, Maghazi and Khan Younès, in the center and south of Gaza, where the Israeli army is advancing under the cover of intense aerial bombardments.
According to Gaza health authorities, the bombings killed 165 Palestinians and injured 250 others in 24 hours. Since the start of the war, the death toll has risen to 21,672 and more than 56,000 wounded.
The Israeli army, for its part, says it has lost 170 soldiers since the start of its ground offensive on October 20.
The Israeli government pledged to destroy Hamas after the attack on the Palestinian Islamist movement, which left around 1,200 dead on October 7 in the south of the Jewish state. The Israeli army then launched a vast air and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip which, according to the authorities of the Hamas-led enclave, has now killed more than 21,000 Palestinians in two and a half months.
The Israeli army said Saturday it destroyed tunnels and killed several Palestinian fighters during assaults on a Hamas military intelligence center and an Islamic Jihad command center in Khan Younes.
She also reported in a press release on fighting in the north of the Gaza Strip, where according to her 15 Palestinian fighters were killed and stocks of weapons seized.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad separately said they had destroyed or damaged more Israeli tanks and other armored vehicles. (French version Nicolas Delame and Tangi Salaün)
©2023 Thomson Reuters, all rights reserved. Reuters content is the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters or its third party content providers. Any copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. “Reuters” and the Reuters Logo are trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies.