Israel continues attacks in Gaza Strip - four dead also in West Bank
Israeli soldiers killed "dozens" of "terrorists", some of whom were armed with explosives, the army announced on Tuesday. The troops had stormed a weapons depot in Chan Junis and discovered launching pads for long-range rockets. At the same time, the military said it had opened an investigation into an Israeli soldier suspected of shooting dead a "suspected terrorist" under his care in the Gaza Strip.
Israel and Hamas have been at war for almost three months. This was triggered by a major attack on Israel by Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the USA and the EU, in which around 1,140 people were killed on 7 October and around 250 others were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip. On Monday evening, the government in Budapest announced the death of Ilan Weiss, a citizen of Israel who was abducted on October 7 and whose body has since been discovered.
In response to the large-scale Hamas attack, Israel has been bombing targets in the Gaza Strip since 9 October and has also launched a ground offensive - with the aim of destroying the radical Islamic organization. According to the latest figures from the Hamas Ministry of Health, which cannot be independently verified, at least 22,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since then. The Israeli military, for its part, reports 173 soldiers killed.
According to the United Nations, 85 percent of the 2.4 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip are on the run because of the fighting. The risk of disease and famine is growing. The situation is "simply hopeless", said 43-year-old Mostafa Schennar, who fled from Gaza City to Rafah.
According to his spokesman Daniel Hagari, Israel's army is preparing to continue its war against Hamas for months to come. For this reason, two brigades and thus around 8,000 of the 300,000 reservists in the Gaza Strip will take a break from fighting and return to their families and their work this week, Hagari said on Sunday evening. This would allow them to gather strength and at the same time help the Israeli economy.
Qatar and Egypt, which had negotiated a week-long ceasefire between Israel and Hamas at the end of November, are currently seeking a further ceasefire and the release of more hostages. As the US news site Axios reported, citing Israeli sources, Hamas submitted a proposal for a new hostage exchange on Sunday.
In return for the release of some hostages, the plan envisages three phases, each with a pause in fighting lasting more than a month, during which Israeli troops would withdraw from the Gaza Strip. According to the plan, the last phase would then herald the end of the war. An Israeli representative told Axios that the war cabinet had discussed the proposal and rejected it as unacceptable. However, improvements are always possible.
Meanwhile, violence continues in the occupied West Bank governed by the Palestinian Fatah movement. Israeli soldiers killed four Palestinians during raids in the city of Assun on Tuesday, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa. The Israeli army explained that the soldiers had been shot at and attacked with explosive devices and had then returned fire.
According to the Palestinian Authority, more than 320 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or radical settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the beginning of the Gaza war.
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Source: www.stern.de
