The number of martyrs of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip rose today to 20,000 martyrs, and the occupation army continued its raids and intense bombing of various areas of the Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the bombing would continue “with massive fire until Hamas is eliminated.”
According to the government media office in Gaza, the number of victims of the Israeli aggression on Gaza reached 20,000 martyrs, including 8,000 children and 6,200 women, while the number of wounded rose to 52,600.
No safe areas
Various areas of the Gaza Strip witnessed intense Israeli raids and bombardment from Jabalia and Gaza City in the north to Khan Yunis and Rafah in the south, resulting in dozens of martyrs and wounded.
A number of martyrs and wounded fell in the Israeli bombing of homes in Jabalia, the number of whom is not yet known, and the bodies of 70 martyrs were recovered, after the occupation forces withdrew from the Thalatheen area in Gaza City.
In Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, which the Israeli army claimed was safe, at least 12 people were martyred and dozens injured in Israeli air strikes. The Gaza Ministry of Health announced that 12 martyrs and dozens of injured people, including children and women, had been recovered from under the rubble.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent said that an Israeli bombing targeted two houses and a mosque near the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah. While Tel Aviv Tribune correspondent Hani Mahmoud was providing information about the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip in a live broadcast, an explosion was heard in the area and columns of smoke began rising near the Kuwaiti Hospital in the city of Rafah.
Seconds after the first attack, at least 3 more air strikes occurred in the same area. The scenes showed a state of panic among Palestinian civilians and children were seen running left and right amid the sounds of explosions.
Eyewitnesses in the city reported that there were more than 10 successive air strikes that hit several homes, and footage showed rising columns of thick smoke, bodies lying on the ground, people calling for ambulance, and others trying to save those under the rubble.
The Israeli occupation army also bombed the Shaboura camp in the city of Rafah on the border with Egypt, where tens of thousands of Palestinians who were displaced from the northern areas of the Gaza Strip are gathered in light of the battles.
The Israeli occupation army announced that it was “expanding and deepening the scope of its operations” in Khan Yunis, the largest city in the southern Gaza Strip, and that it had carried out more than 300 raids. He said he carried out “land, air and sea operations against dozens of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure,” including missile launch sites and command and control centers in Khan Yunis.
Netanyahu pledges to continue the aggression
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged that his government would continue the war on the Gaza Strip “until the end,” and said in a statement today, “We will continue the war until the end. The war will continue until Hamas is eliminated, until victory is achieved,” as he put it.
Netanyahu added, “Anyone who believes that we will stop is deluded and has no relation to reality. We will not stop the fighting, except after we achieve all the goals that we have set: eliminating Hamas, releasing our kidnappers, and removing the threat posed by Gaza.” Referring to the leaders of the Hamas movement, Netanyahu said, “They have “Only two options: surrender or death.”
Israeli reports indicated contacts to explore opportunities to reach an agreement for a new humanitarian truce, including an exchange for the release of Israeli prisoners in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
On the other hand, a source close to Hamas said, “The main entry point for discussing anything is a comprehensive ceasefire and the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces from the Gaza Strip to enter into serious negotiations to complete a prisoner exchange deal.”
A temporary truce that lasted for a week between Israel and the Hamas movement ended in early December, during which prisoners and detainees were exchanged between the two parties, and a small amount of relief aid and limited quantities of fuel were brought into the Gaza Strip.
Since last October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, which as of this evening has left 20,000 martyrs, and the number of wounded has risen to 52,600, most of them children and women. It has also caused massive destruction to the infrastructure and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to the Gaza Strip authorities. And the United Nations.