Netanyahu announces intensification of fighting in the Gaza Strip
The war will be "long" and is "not close to the end", Netanyahu said at a meeting with Likud MPs, according to his party. The head of government had previously traveled to the Gaza Strip himself.
During a speech in parliament, Netanyahu later promised to free the hostages of the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas still in the Gaza Strip. However, the Israeli army needs "more time" to increase the military pressure on Hamas.
Relatives of the hostages booed Netanyahu several times during his speech and chanted "Now! Now!" to underline their demands for more efforts to speed up the release of the hostages. On Monday evening, relatives gathered for a rally in front of the Ministry of Defense and demanded that the hostages be freed "at any cost".
The Israeli army continued its attacks on targets in the Gaza Strip with undiminished ferocity on Monday. Meanwhile, several rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip, but most of them were intercepted by air defenses.
The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the Islamist Hamas, stated that twelve people were killed in an attack on the village of Al-Sawaida in the center of the Palestinian territory on Monday night. At least 18 people were killed in an attack on the town of Chan Junis in the south of the Gaza Strip.
On Sunday, the Ministry of Health stated that at least 70 people had been killed in an airstrike on the al-Maghasi refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip. The figures cannot be independently verified. The Israeli army announced that it would investigate the incident.
The World Health Organization(WHO) stated that its staff had heard "harrowing accounts" of the attack on the refugee camp from health workers and survivors during a visit to a hospital. "One child lost his entire family in the attack on the camp. A nurse at the hospital suffered the same loss," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on Monday on the online service X, formerly Twitter.
The war between Israel and Hamas has now been going on for 80 days. It was triggered by a large-scale Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. According to Israeli figures, around 1,140 people, mostly civilians, were killed and around 250 others were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip. According to Israeli information, 129 of them are still being held by Hamas.
Since then, Israel has been carrying out massive attacks in the Palestinian territory - with the declared aim of destroying Hamas. According to the latest figures from the Hamas Ministry of Health, which cannot be independently verified, more than 20,670 people have been killed so far.
In his Christmas message on Monday, the Pope denounced the "desperate humanitarian situation" of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and called for the release of the Israeli hostages still being held. "I carry in my heart the pain for the victims of the despicable attack of October 7 and I renew an urgent appeal for the release of those who are still being held hostage," Francis said.
The Pope also called for an end to the military operations "with their appalling toll of innocent civilian victims". The desperate humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip must be remedied by opening it up to humanitarian aid shipments, he said. According to UN estimates, the war has turned around 1.9 of the 2.4 million people in the Gaza Strip into internally displaced persons.
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Source: www.stern.de
