by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Emily Rose
CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Sunday to continue fighting in the Gaza Strip, as the IDF suffered its heaviest losses since the start of the war, while the Palestinian Jihad group Islamic group sent a delegation to take part in the discussions in Cairo, a sign that the diplomatic channel is not closed.
The arrival in Cairo of a delegation led by the exiled leader of Islamic Jihad, Ziad al Nakhlala, comes days after the head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, visited the Egyptian capital to take part to diplomatic talks.
Smaller than Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, Islamic Jihad has also held hostages in the Palestinian enclave since the October 7 attack in Israel which left 1,200 dead. Around a hundred hostages are still believed to be held by Palestinian groups, out of the 240 kidnapped during the attack, following the releases carried out as part of the one-week truce sealed at the end of November.
So far, Hamas and Islamic Jihad repeat that no more hostages will be released until Israel stops its aggression against Gaza, while the Jewish state says it is only willing to discuss temporary pauses in the fighting. .
None of the parties involved in the conflict, however, have publicly turned their backs on the talks presented last week by the United States as “very serious”, despite an offensive which has intensified in Gaza since the beginning of the month and the failure of discussions aimed at extending the truce.
A representative of Islamic Jihad recalled on Sunday the position of the Palestinian armed group, whose delegation is traveling to Cairo to discuss “ways to end Israeli aggression against our people.” Any hostage release must guarantee the release of all Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, he said, and this “after a ceasefire”.
In retaliation for the October 7 attack, Israel declared a siege on the Gaza Strip, killing more than 20,400 people, ravaging entire neighborhoods of the narrow, mostly urban territory, and displacing the vast majority of the 2.3 million residents. and causing, according to the UN, a catastrophic humanitarian situation. Thousands of people are also believed to have died under the rubble.
EXPANDED OPERATIONS IN THE SOUTHERN ENCLAVE
Since the truce expired on December 1, clashes in the Gaza Strip have intensified, spreading to the entire enclave, while the Israeli army initially focused its offensive in the north of the territory.
The IDF said ten of its soldiers were killed in the past 24 hours. With the five soldiers killed the day before, this is the heaviest death toll over two days for the Israeli army since the beginning of November.
“The war is taking a very heavy toll on us. However, we have no choice but to continue fighting,” Benjamin Netanyahu declared in the council of ministers on Sunday.
The Israeli leader later said in a video message that the IDF would enter further into the Gaza Strip until “total victory” over Hamas, adding that everything was being done to “protect the lives of our fighters.”
Israel’s main ally, the United States, has been pushing in recent weeks for the military campaign in Gaza to be less imposing and limit civilian casualties.
Washington refrained on Friday, for the first time, from vetoing a draft UN Security Council resolution on the war in Gaza, allowing the text to be adopted after softening its rhetoric on an immediate end to the fighting.
The Israeli army general staff said on Saturday that the IDF had taken overall operational control of the northern Gaza Strip and that troops would expand their operations in the south.
However, residents in the north of the enclave reported that fighting had intensified recently, mainly in Jabalia, which was hit by heavy Israeli bombardment and where tanks continued to advance.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported an attack on one of its camps in Khan Yunis in the south of the territory, reporting that a 13-year-old boy was killed by an Israeli drone in Al Amal hospital.
The IDF expressed regret for the civilian losses but blamed Hamas, accusing it of operating in densely populated areas or using civilians as shields – accusations the Palestinian group rejects.
(Reporting Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo and Emily Rose in Jerusalem, with Bassam Masoud in Gaza, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Dan Williams in Jerusalem, Nafisa Eltahir in Cairo, Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; French version Jean Terzian)
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