Israel declared its commitment to continue its Gaza campaign “with or without international support” on Wednesday, despite rising criticism from even its most ardent supporter, the United States.
The war, which is now in its third month, was initiated in response to the extraordinary October 7 bombings on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which officials believe killed 1,200 people, largely civilians.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry, it has left Gaza in ruins, killing around 18,600 people, predominantly women and children, and leaving “unparalleled” damage to roads, schools, and hospitals.
More attacks hit Gaza as battles continued the day after the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly endorsed a non-binding ceasefire resolution, according to AFP correspondents, particularly in Gaza City, the largest urban center, and Khan Yunis and Rafah in the south.
Cold winter rains battered the enclave, where the UN estimates that 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced and are living in temporary tents while crucial supplies of food, drinking water, medicines, and fuel run low.
Ameen Edwan, who was camping with thousands of others on the grounds of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in downtown Gaza, claimed his family was unable to sleep.
“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 rain out, he told AFP.
The UN warned that the spread of diseases such as meningitis, jaundice, impetigo, chickenpox, and upper respiratory tract infections had accelerated.
According to the World Health Organization, 107 trucks bringing humanitarian goods reached the besieged zone from Egypt, far fewer than the daily average of 500 prior to October 7.
Gaza rocket fire
As Palestinian militants fired missiles, most of which were intercepted, air raid sirens screamed in Sderot and other southern Israeli communities near Gaza.
According to the Israeli military, sirens were heard in Ashdod, north of Gaza, and in the Lakhish area. A huge component of an intercepted missile hit a shop, according to social media footage.
According to the IDF, an air strike destroyed a militant cell in Gaza City’s Shejaiya district “on its way to launch rockets toward Israel.”
Fayez al-Taramsi, the father of seven children, was killed in a strike in Khan Yunis.
“How are we going to live after him?” one of his daughters said, crying and clutching his bloodied shirt. “He brought us to life.”
Hamas also took 240 captives in the October 7 attack, the bloodiest in Israel’s 75-year history.
Israel launched a deadly aerial and ground offensive to eliminate Hamas and return the captives.
It has lost 115 soldiers, 10 of whom were killed in northern Gaza on Tuesday, the bloodiest day since the ground offensive began on October 27.
The United Nations General Assembly voted a resolution demanding a cease-fire on Tuesday, which was supported by 153 of 193 nations, surpassing the 140 or so that had frequently denounced Russia for invading Ukraine.
While Washington voted against the resolution, allies Australia, Canada, and New Zealand backed it, saying they were “alarmed at the diminishing safe space for civilians in Gaza” in a rare unified statement.
‘Nothing will stop us’
Immediately after October 7, Israel enjoyed “most of the world’s support,” US President Joe Biden said at a campaign rally, but “they’re starting to lose that support because of the indiscriminate bombing that takes place.”
Biden, who later backtracked on his remarks, visited with families of American hostages taken by militants on Wednesday.
Despite the criticism from its main ally, 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,” Cohen told a visiting diplomat, quoted by his ministry.
Netanyahu later said Israel would persevere.
“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,” he said in a video statement.
Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security advisor, will fly to Israel on Thursday to speak with Netanyahu, who has stated that there is “disagreement” with Washington on how a post-conflict Gaza would be managed.
According to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, any plan for post-war Gaza that does not include the Palestinian terrorist group “or the resistance factions” is a fiction.
The UN vote came as the head of its Palestinian refugee agency, Philippe Lazzarini, warned that Gazans were “running out of time and options.”
The United States and the United Kingdom announced fresh sanctions against Hamas in response to the October 7 incident, targeting “key officials who perpetuate Hamas’s violent agenda.”
Gaza City hospital raid
Gaza’s hospital system is in shambles, and Hamas officials warned of “catastrophic health repercussions” if immunizations for youngsters ran out.
In a new report, the World Bank cautioned that “the loss of life, the speed and extent of damage… are unprecedented.”
According to the Hamas-controlled health ministry, Israeli forces opened fire on wards at the Kamal Adwan hospital in north Gaza, endangering the lives of 12 children under paediatric care.
The army has yet to respond, but Israel has often accused Hamas of utilizing hospitals, schools, mosques, and massive tunnel networks beneath them as military sites, something the group has denied.
With daily exchanges of fire along Israel’s border with Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based, and other Iran-backed groups striking US and ally soldiers in Iraq and Syria, fears of the conflict spreading remained.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels, said Israeli President Isaac Herzog, have “crossed a red line” by routinely shooting missiles and drones toward Israel and cargo ships in the Red Sea.