Israeli forces were yesterday battling Palestinian militants across the Gaza Strip, including in parts of the devastated north that the military said it had cleared months ago, where Hamas has exploited a security vacuum to regroup.
Israel has portrayed the southern Gaza city of Rafah as Hamas’ last stronghold, saying it must invade to succeed in its goals of dismantling the group and returning scores of hostages. A limited operation there has expanded in the past few days, forcing about 300,000 people to flee.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected postwar plans proposed by the US for the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to govern Gaza with support from Arab and Muslim countries.
Photo: Reuters
With the two close allies divided, Gaza has been left without a functioning government, leading to a breakdown in public order and allowing Hamas to reconstitute itself in even the hardest-hit areas.
Palestinians reported heavy Israeli bombardment overnight in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp and other areas in the northern Gaza Strip, which has suffered widespread devastation and been largely isolated by Israeli forces for months.
UN officials have said there is a “full-blown famine” there.
Residents said Israeli warplanes and artillery struck across the camp and the Zeitoun area east of Gaza City, where troops have been battling Palestinian militants for more than a week.
They have called on tens of thousands of people to relocate to nearby areas.
“It was a very difficult night,” said Abdel-Kareem Radwan, a 48-year-old Palestinian from Jabaliya. He said they could hear intense and constant bombing from midday on Saturday. “This is madness.”
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that in addition to Jabaliya and Zeitoun, forces were also operating in Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun.
The two towns near Gaza’s northern border with Israel were heavily bombed in the opening days of the war.
The military “is now going into Jabaliya for the second time and into Zeitoun for the third time, and it will continue to go in and out,” columnist Ben Caspit wrote in Israel’s Maariv daily.
“Hamas’ regime cannot be toppled without preparing an alternative to that regime,” he wrote, drawing comparisons with the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “The only people who can govern Gaza after the war are Gazans, with a lot of support and help from the outside.”
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