Israeli military forces advanced further into the besieged Gaza Strip and battled Palestinian fighters near Gaza City, as United Nations and medical staff expressed fears over airstrikes closer to hospitals.
Israeli soldiers and tanks carried out attacks from two sides of Gaza City in the northern part of the Strip on Monday, with Palestinian armed groups claiming to have pushed back Israeli tanks to the east of the city.
“Our duty today is to fight and fight,” the Palestinian Islamic Jihad armed group said in a statement, adding that it was not the right time to discuss a possible ceasefire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also rejected growing calls for a ceasefire, saying such action would constitute a “capitulation to terrorism.”
Israeli forces said they had “killed dozens of terrorists who barricaded themselves in buildings and tunnels and attempted to attack troops.”
Israel also announced that it had freed a female Israeli soldier held captive by the Palestinian armed group Hamas during its ground raids, which have intensified in recent days alongside continued air attacks.
More than 8,300 people, including more than 3,400 children, have been killed in the bombings, Gaza officials say, and U.N. officials and aid organizations have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe as Israel continues to impose a “complete siege” on the territory.
Numerous strikes lit up the sky over northern Gaza on Monday. Colin Clarke, research director at the Soufan Group, an intelligence and security consultancy, told Al Jazeera that the latest strikes could include large bombs intended to destroy a network of underground tunnels used by Hamas.
“It could be the use of bunkers, where the Israelis drop bombs intended to penetrate what we call hard, deeply buried targets,” Clarke said, adding that it was impossible to be certain.
A small amount of aid has begun flowing into the besieged strip, with the Palestinian Red Crescent reporting that 26 trucks carrying aid entered through the Rafah crossing with Egypt on Monday.
No sign of ceasefire
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flatly rejected calls for a ceasefire, saying “it is time for war.”
The embattled prime minister also dismissed questions about his resignation, as he faces widespread outrage from the Israeli public who hold his government responsible for the failure to stop a Hamas attack on 7 October which killed more than 1,400 people, most of them. civilians.
“They (the Israeli public) will not forgive the failure of the Israeli security apparatus,” Abdelhamid Siyam, a political science professor at Rutgers University, told Al Jazeera, adding that the public “believes in the army, but not in the army.” to Netanyahu.”
Speaking in a televised address on Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Hamas had two options: “die in combat or surrender without any conditions.”
The UN Security Council was holding an emergency meeting to deliberate on Israeli ground raids, with Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo saying the session would receive a briefing from Philippe Lazzarini, director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
“This was a meeting where members of the UN Security Council want to get a direct assessment of the situation in Gaza at the moment, and that is what we hope they will hear” , Elizondo said.
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman Al Saud in Washington, DC, on Monday to discuss regional tensions.
Russian president says US is responsible for ‘chaos’ in Middle East
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States of being responsible for “deadly chaos” in the Middle East in a televised speech, calling it a beneficiary of “global instability.”
Putin also blamed Ukraine and Western countries for the outbreak of violence in the Russian republic of Dagestan on Sunday evening, in which an angry mob stormed an airport in search of passengers due to arrive on a flight from Israel.
Russian forces have themselves been active in the Middle East for years, aiding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the country’s bloody civil war and sending proxy forces such as the Wagner Group to Libya.
Turkey condemns targeting of hospital in Gaza
The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned “in the strongest terms” an Israeli strike on the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in Gaza, saying it had previously shared the hospital’s coordinates with Israeli authorities.
Sobhi Skeik, director of the Turkish-funded cancer treatment hospital, called the attack “the first direct blow against a medical facility.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) also warned that it was unable to help resupply hospitals in Al-Shifa and Al-Quds due to the high risks.
“It’s a disaster on top of a disaster. Health care needs are skyrocketing and our ability to meet them is rapidly diminishing,” said Rick Brennan, the agency’s regional emergency director.
Brennan called for a ceasefire and said that a third of Gaza’s hospitals and more than 70 percent of clinics are no longer operating.