Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry claimed on Sunday that the dead toll in the war-torn Palestinian territory has surpassed 25,000 as Israel continued its southerly onslaught and renewed airstrikes in the north.
Israel is intensifying its campaign against Hamas in southern Gaza, aiming to eradicate the Islamist militant group guilty for the country’s bloodiest strike in history.
In early January, Israel’s military announced that the Hamas leadership system in northern Gaza had been decimated, leaving only lone fighters.
However, witnesses told AFP. Israeli vessels bombarded Gaza City and other northern locations early Sunday. Hamas has reportedly reported intense fighting in the north.
“Dozens are still under the rubble,” the Hamas government’s media office said, adding that the dead and injured “could not be transferred to hospitals due to the continued artillery shelling on… Khan Yunis and the Tal al-Hawa area in Gaza City and the north”.
The Israeli army said it “eliminated a number of terrorists” in Khan Yunis, the largest southern city, and killed 15 militants in northern Gaza during the course of the day.
AFP journalists witnessed thick plumes of smoke billowing above Khan Yunis on Sunday morning.
According to an AFP assessment based on official Israeli data, Hamas’ assaults on October 7 killed around 1,140 persons, the majority of whom were civilians.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry, Israel’s continuous shelling and military offensive have killed at least 25,105 individuals in Gaza, the vast majority of whom are women and children.
‘Difficult conditions’ in tunnel
Militants also seized about 250 hostages during the October attacks.
According to an AFP calculation based on Israeli numbers, Israel claims that approximately 132 people remain in Gaza, with at least 27 prisoners believed to have died.
In a briefing on Saturday evening, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari stated that troops discovered a tunnel in Khan Yunis where some captives had previously been held.
Among the evidence of their presence were paintings, including by a five-year-old captive, he said.
“About 20 hostages” had been held there at different times “in difficult conditions without daylight… with little oxygen and terrible humidity”.
Soldiers entered the tunnel and engaged in a combat with militants, “eliminating the terrorists,” according to Hagari.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under great pressure to return the captives and take responsibility for the security failures that occurred during the October assault.
Thousands rallied around Israel on Saturday evening, demanding the release of the hostages and early elections to replace Netanyahu.
Avi Lulu Shamriz, the father of Alon Shamriz, a hostage who was accidentally slain by Israeli troops earlier in the war, told AFP in Tel Aviv that Netanyahu’s war cabinet was headed for tragedy.
“The way we’re going, all the hostages are going to die. It’s not too late to free them.”
Devastating West Bank raid
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says about 1.7 million people have been displaced in Gaza, with about one million crowded into the Rafah area.
UN agencies have warned better aid access is needed urgently as famine and disease loom.
Diplomatic efforts have aimed to obtain more assistance delivery to Gaza and a truce, following a week-long cease-fire in November that saw Hamas release dozens of captives in exchange for Palestinian inmates held by Israel.
Hamas’ Qatar-based leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was in Turkey on Saturday for meetings with the foreign minister, diplomatic sources said, repairing ties with the key regional power that urged the group’s leaders to leave the nation following the October attacks.
Violence has meanwhile surged in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since October 7.
The Israeli military claimed it razed two houses in Hebron owned by two Palestinian militants who carried out an attack on a road connecting Jerusalem and Bethlehem in November.
An AFP journalist witnessed a fireball erupt and smoke rising from a home on Sunday as Israeli armoured vehicles drove through Hebron’s streets during the operation.
On Sunday, Palestinians gathered outside the crumpled remnants of one of the homes, with young boys navigating a tangle of metal and rubble.
One man removed a banner that Israeli forces had put to a demolished house, reading “terrorism has no home”.
Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, reported fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters in a village south of Jenin, as well as in the towns of Arura and Qalqilya.
Rising tensions and violence in the Middle East have raised fears of a larger conflict including Iran-backed organizations in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.
Iranian media reported that an Israeli strike on Damascus on Saturday killed the Revolutionary Guards’ espionage commander in Syria and four other Guards members, provoking a vow of revenge.