GAZA: Israel launched new bombing strikes on Hamas militants Sunday, with hospital officials saying at least 35 people were killed in Gaza City and no signs that the fighting will end soon as the calendar turns to 2024.
Israeli forces targeted the central part of the Gaza Strip, the narrow Palestinian territory along the Mediterranean Sea, while also carrying out operations in Khan Younis, Gaza’s second largest city in the south toward the border with Egypt.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicted Saturday that the Jewish state’s offensive, sparked by the shock October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, will last for “many more months” despite increasing international calls for a cease-fire.
The Hamas-run health ministry said 18 bodies had been recovered in the overnight bombing of Gaza City with many more believed buried under the rubble.
“After the explosion we arrived at the scene of the strike and saw martyrs everywhere,” one local man told Agence France-Presse after a building was hit. “Children are still missing, we can’t find them.”
The Israeli army said it killed about a dozen enemy fighters in multiple ground battles, air and tank strikes and said it had located more Hamas tunnels, and explosives planted in a kindergarten.
As the conflict neared the three-month mark, about 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced, according to the United Nations. The U.N. has warned of the increased risk of hunger and disease as desperate families shelter in makeshift tents against the winter cold.
(VOA)
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