Heavy fighting raged overnight and into yesterday in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, as Israel pressed ahead with its offensive after the US blocked the latest international efforts to halt the fighting and rushed more munitions to its close ally.
Israel has faced rising international outrage and calls for a ceasefire after the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians and the displacement of nearly 85 precent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people in the besieged territory, where UN agencies say there is no safe place to flee.
The US has lent vital support to the offensive again in the past few days, by vetoing UN Security Council efforts to end the fighting that had wide support, and by pushing through an emergency sale of more than US$100 million worth of tank ammunition to Israel.
Photo: AFP
Israeli forces continue to face heavy resistance, even in northern Gaza, where entire neighborhoods have been flattened by air strikes and where troops have been operating for more than six weeks.
In Khan Younis, where ground forces moved in earlier this month, residents said they heard constant gunfire and explosions through the night as warplanes bombarded areas in and around the southern city, Gaza’s second largest.
“It doesn’t stop,” said Radwa Abu Frayeh, who lives close to the European Hospital in Khan Younis. “There’s bombing, and then the ambulances head out to bring back victims.”
In the past few days, videos and photographs have emerged showing the detention of dozens of men who were stripped to their underwear, bound and blindfolded.
The Israeli military says it is detaining people as it searches for remaining pockets of Hamas fighters.
Israel’s Channel 13 TV broadcast footage showing dozens of detainees stripped to their underwear with their hands in the air. Several held assault rifles above their heads, and one man could be seen slowly walking forward and placing a gun on the ground before returning to the group.
Israeli media pointed to such scenes as evidence that Hamas was collapsing in the north.
Men from a separate group of detainees who were released on Saturday said that they had been beaten and denied food and water.
Osama Oula said Israeli troops had ordered him and others out of a building in Gaza City before bounding their hands with zip ties, beating them for several days and giving them little water to drink.
He said the troops asked if they were with Hamas.
“We say: ‘no,’ then they would slap us or kick us,” Salman said adding that his 17-year-old son Amjad is still held by the troops.
Meanwhile, mediation efforts are continuing to secure a new Gaza ceasefire and free more hostages held by Hamas, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said yesterday.
“Our efforts as the state of Qatar along with our partners are continuing. We are not going to give up,” he told the Doha Forum, adding that “the continuation of the bombardment is just narrowing this window for us.”
“We are going to continue, we are committed to have hostages released, but we are also committed to stop the war,” he said.
However, he added that “we are not seeing the same willingness from both parties.”
Addressing the Doha Forum earlier, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the Security Council was “paralyzed by geostrategic divisions” that were undermining solutions to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The body’s “authority and credibility were severely undermined” by its delayed response to the war, he said.
“I reiterated my appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared,” he said. “Regrettably, the Security Council failed to do it... I can promise, I will not give up.”
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