Israel intensifies attacks on the southern Gaza Strip

The Israeli military announced on Sunday that five Hamas fighters had been "eliminated" by a drone. In addition, fighter jets and helicopters hit "tunnel shafts, command centers and weapons depots".

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) reported at least 160 Palestinians dead in attacks on Saturday on a six-storey building in the Jabaliya refugee camp and a block of houses in the city of Gaza in the northern Gaza Strip. According to Hamas, at least seven people were killed in an Israeli attack near the Egyptian border in the south of the Gaza Strip on Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that there was "no other way to win" than to continue the ground offensive. The war would continue until Israel had achieved "all its goals", including the release of the hostages.

While Israeli attacks had been concentrated on the north of the Palestinian territory for weeks, the south also came under heavy fire at the weekend, including the area around the town of Chan Junis. The army called on the civilian population to seek safe areas "if necessary".

UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk warned that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were crowding into ever smaller areas in the southern Gaza Strip as a result of repeated evacuation calls by the Israeli army. "I repeat: there is no safe place in the Gaza Strip," he said.

According to a recent United Nations estimate, three quarters of the population in the Gaza Strip have been displaced from their homes since the beginning of the war. A large proportion have been housed in completely overcrowded and unhygienic accommodation.

While most Palestinians are stuck in the Gaza Strip, according to UN figures, 880 foreigners and people with dual citizenship as well as 13 injured people were able to leave the Palestinian territory via the Rafah border crossing to Egypt at the weekend.

US Vice President Kamala Harris called on Israel to do more to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip. "Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed," said Harris at the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin expressed similar sentiments. A war in "urban areas" can only be won by protecting civilians, he emphasized.

In Dubai, French President Emmanuel Macron warned of a war in the Middle East that could last for years. The "total destruction of Hamas" that Israel has set as its goal would require at least "ten years of war", he said.

Meanwhile, Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad continued their attacks on Israel. They declared that they had taken numerous cities under "continuous rocket fire", including Tel Aviv. The deputy head of Hamas, Saleh al-Aruri, declared that the price for the release of the Israeli hostages was the "release of all our prisoners - after a ceasefire".

The Israeli army stated that the majority of the 250 rockets from the Gaza Strip had been intercepted. Two of its soldiers were killed in the shelling.

Meanwhile, hopes for a possible renewal of the ceasefire that expired on Friday receded into the distant future: the Israeli government declared that the talks were at an "impasse" and withdrew its negotiators from Qatar.

The seven-day ceasefire brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the USA had led to the release of 80 Israeli hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners. The ceasefire was also used to bring aid supplies to the Gaza Strip.

According to Israeli information, 137 hostages are still being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The British Ministry of Defense declared that it would help in the search for the remaining hostages with surveillance flights over the Gaza Strip.

The war between Israel and Hamas has now been going on for more than eight weeks. On 7 October, hundreds of fighters from Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the USA and the EU, invaded Israel and committed atrocities, mainly against civilians. According to Israeli reports, around 1,200 people were killed in Israel and around 240 people were taken hostage.

In response, Israel began a massive attack on targets in the densely populated Gaza Strip. According to the latest information from Hamas, which cannot be independently verified, more than 15,500 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since then, including more than 6,000 children and young people.

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