Khan Younis (Gaza Strip) : The entire world was jolted when the Hamas militant group launched a surprise attack on Israel leaving 1,400 dead on October 7. Ever since, Israel began retaliatory strikes which have completed one month now. Though the world leaders and UN are pressing for a cease-fire, Israel is putting the release of hostages taken by Hamas as a precondition for any truce. So far, over 10,000 Palestinians have lost their lives in the ongoing attacks by Israel on Gaza.
Amidst this, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that their country will take overall security responsibility in Gaza indefinitely after its war with Hamas, the clearest indication yet that Israel plans to maintain control there one month into a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives and levelled swaths of the territory.
In an interview with ABC News that aired late Monday, Netanyahu expressed openness to little pauses in the fighting to facilitate delivery of aid to Gaza or the release of some of the more than 240 hostages seized by Hamas in its October 7 attack into Israel that triggered the war.
More than 10,000 Palestinians killed- Israeli troops have been battling Palestinian militants inside Gaza for over a week, and have succeeded in cutting the territory in half and encircling Gaza City. Food, medicine, fuel and water are running low, and United Nations-run schools-turned-shelters are overflowing.
The Palestinian death toll has surpassed 10,300, two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the the Health Ministry of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. More than 2,300 people are missing and believed to be buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings, the ministry said. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, and Israel says it has killed thousands of fighters.
About 1,400 people in Israel have died, mostly civilians killed during the October 7 incursion by Hamas. Israelis observed a moment of silence Tuesday in memory of the victims. The 30th day is a milestone in Jewish mourning, and memorial events are planned in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The military says 30 Israeli troops have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began.
In southern Gaza, where Palestinians have been told to seek refuge, an Israeli airstrike destroyed several homes early Tuesday in the town of Khan Younis. An Associated Press journalist at the scene saw first responders pulling out five bodies including three dead children from the rubble. One man wept as he carried a bloodied young girl, until a rescue worker pried her from his arms, saying, Let her go, let her go, to rush her to an ambulance.
Israel to maintain control- Israel has vowed to remove Hamas from power and crush its military capabilities but neither Israel nor its main ally, the United States, has said what would come next. Netanyahu told ABC News that Gaza should be governed by those who don't want to continue the way of Hamas, without elaborating.
"I think Israel will, for an indefinite period, will have the overall security responsibility because we've seen what happens when we don't have it. When we don't have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn't imagine," Netanyahu said. However, he did not make clear what shape that security control would take. US officials have advised that Israel should not re-occupy Gaza. Israel withdrew troops and settlers in 2005 but kept control over Gaza's airspace, coastline, population registry and border crossings, excepting one into Egypt.
Heavy fighting in the north- For now, Israel's troops are focused on northern Gaza, including Gaza City, which before the war was home to some 650,000 people. Israel says Hamas has extensive militant infrastructure within residential areas, including a vast tunnel network, and accuses it of using civilians as human shields.
Several hundred thousand people are believed to remain in the north in the assault's path. Thousands have travelled south in recent days on a corridor Israel has told residents to use to evacuate. But many are afraid to use the route, part of which is held by Israeli troops.
Residents in northern Gaza reported heavy battles overnight into Tuesday morning on the outskirts of Gaza City. The Shati refugee camp, a built-up district housing refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation and their descendants, has been heavily bombarded over the past two days, residents said.
Marwan Abdullah, who is among thousands of people sheltering at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, said they heard constant explosions overnight as ambulances brought in dead and wounded from the Shati camp, about a mile away (1.6 kilometers). We couldn't sleep. Things get worse day by day, he said. (with agency inputs)
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