The Israel Government is determined to
press ahead with the Gaza Strip war against Hamas, despite coming under
increasing international pressure, including from key ally United States, said Israeli
leaders.
The war, now in its third month, was
launched after the unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel by Palestinian
Hamas terrorist group that Israeli officials say killed 1,200 people, mostly
civilians.
It has left Gaza in ruins, killing more
than 18,600 people, mainly women and children, according to the Hamas-run
health ministry, and causing “unparallelled” damage to roads, schools and
hospitals.
The day after the UN General Assembly
overwhelmingly supported a non-binding resolution for a ceasefire, more strikes
hit Gaza and battles raged, especially in Gaza City, the biggest urban centre,
and Khan Yunis and Rafah in the south, AFP correspondents said.
Winter rain lashed the territory, where
the UN estimates 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million population have been
displaced, living in makeshift tents as supplies of food, drinking water,
medicines and fuel run low.
The UN warned the spread of diseases –
including meningitis, jaundice and upper respiratory tract infections – had
intensified.
Ameen Edwan said his family was camped
out with thousands in the grounds of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in central
Gaza.
“Rainwater seeped in. We couldn’t sleep.
We tried to find nylon covers but couldn’t find any, so we resorted to stones
and sand” to keep the water out, he said.
The World Health Organization said 107
humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza from Egypt, well below the daily average
of 500 before October 7.
Nothing Will Stop Us
Despite the US criticism, Israel vowed
to pursue its war.
“Israel will continue the war against
Hamas with or without international support,” said Foreign Minister Eli Cohen.
“A ceasefire at the current stage is a
gift to the terrorist organisation Hamas, and will allow it to return and
threaten the residents of Israel.”
Netanyahu also said, “We will continue
until the end. There is no question at all. I say this in light of great pain,
but also in light of international pressure. Nothing will stop us. We are going
until the end, until victory, nothing less than that.”
Biden’s national security advisor, Jake
Sullivan, will travel to Israel on Thursday, to meet Netanyahu, who has said
there is “disagreement” with Washington over how a post-conflict Gaza would be
governed.
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said any plan
for post-war Gaza that does not involve the Palestinian Hamas group “or the
resistance factions is a delusion”.
He said Hamas was ready for talks that
could lead to a “political path that secures the right of the Palestinian
people to their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital”.
Washington and London announced further
sanctions on Wednesday against Hamas, targeting “key officials who perpetuate
Hamas’s violent agenda”.
Tuesday’s UN vote came as Philippe
Lazzarini, head of its Palestinian refugee agency, said Gazans were “running
out of time and options”.
AFP
