12/12/2023–|Last updated: 12/13/202312:58 AM (Mecca time)
On the 67th day of the devastating Israeli war on Gaza, corresponding to December 12, 2023, the Israeli aggression continued on the Gaza Strip as well as areas in the West Bank, while the political level witnessed remarkable American statements criticizing Israel.
The aggression continues
In the Gaza Strip, the main arena of the Israeli occupation’s aggression, clashes continued in various areas, most notably the Jabalia camp, which was targeted by the occupation with dozens of artillery shells, and Khan Yunis, which witnessed simultaneous clashes with artillery shelling.
Leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), Osama Hamdan, said that the Israeli occupation committed 25 massacres in Gaza within 48 hours, adding that it has become necessary for the West to declare its innocence of this entity, which has failed to achieve any military or political achievement.
In turn, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, said on Tuesday that it clashed with occupation soldiers, and targeted Israeli gatherings and vehicles in al-Qarara in Khan Yunis, as well as in the Sheikh Radwan area, and also targeted Israeli sites in southern Gaza.
The Al-Qassam Brigades revealed the details of an ambush it set up for an infantry faction of the occupation forces in western Jabalia last Tuesday, killing and wounding dozens of soldiers, adding that two days after the ambush an Israeli foot force advanced towards a building and was targeted and 15 of its soldiers were killed.
Meanwhile, Abu Hamza, spokesman for the Al-Quds Brigades – the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement – revealed that the brigades’ fighters clashed with the Israeli forces from zero distance, and said that they killed dozens and wounded hundreds of them, in addition to continuing to bomb Israeli cities with missiles and military crowds with mortar shells. .
Politically, Abu Hamza said – in a recorded speech broadcast by Tel Aviv Tribune – that the liberation of the Israeli prisoners in the Gaza Strip will only happen through indirect negotiation and under the umbrella of a complete ceasefire, or they will be killed under the continuing Israeli bombing.
He pointed out that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows his fate after the current war, “and he is working to evade to remain in power.”
West Bank
In the West Bank, confrontations broke out between the occupation and the resistance in Hebron and Jenin, and the occupation launched an arrest campaign south of Nablus, and Hezbollah announced the targeting of eight Israeli sites near the border with Lebanon.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent reported an exchange of fire between resistance fighters and occupation forces near Al-Shifa Hospital in the vicinity of Jenin camp in the West Bank.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah announced that it bombed the deployment points of occupation soldiers in the vicinity of the Al-Asi site and achieved direct hits, bringing the number of Israeli military sites it targeted on Tuesday off the southern Lebanese border to 8, while Israel bombed the vicinity of Lebanese towns and one of its missiles landed near a school.
Remarkable statements
Tuesday was a day of remarkable political statements and positions, the most prominent of which was what US President Joe Biden said that Israel had begun to lose international support with its indiscriminate bombing of the Gaza Strip, adding that the safety of the Jewish people was literally at stake, he said.
Biden criticized the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, considering it the most extremist in Israel’s history, indicating that it does not want a two-state solution.
The American newspaper The New York Times commented on these statements, considering that they indicate that the division between the United States and Israel is exploding into the open, and that Biden’s statements represent the largest change in the language of the United States regarding Israel since the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood.
In other important statements, the Prime Ministers of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand said in a statement that they support urgent international efforts to reach a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, stressing their opposition to any reoccupation of the Strip, reducing its area, or imposing forced displacement of Palestinians, and stressing their support for the right of the Palestinians. In self-determination.
Also in terms of statements, the Palestinian presidency denounced Netanyahu’s statements in which he expressed his far-right government’s readiness to potentially wage war against the Palestinian security forces in the West Bank, and considered them evidence of his intention to ignite the West Bank.
In the same context, Hamas considered that Netanyahu’s statements confirm “the occupation army’s readiness to attack the Palestinian Authority and its intention to target our people in Gaza and the West Bank.”
Israeli losses
On Tuesday, Israel revealed more of its military losses as a result of its war on the Gaza Strip, as it announced that the number of soldiers and officers killed since the flood of Al-Aqsa on October 7 last year had risen to 435, including 105 who were killed since the start of the ground operation on October 27 last year.
Then the occupation army returned to announce that the number of casualties among its soldiers and officers had risen to 600 since the start of the ground war, bringing the number of wounded among soldiers since the beginning of the war to 1,683, including 263 in serious condition, 465 in moderate condition, and 955 in minor condition.
In losses of a different kind, Israeli Channel 12 said that many Israelis submitted requests for asylum in Portugal in the wake of the Al-Aqsa Flood Battle.
Data from the Immigration and Population Authority in Israel showed that about 370,000 Israelis left since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa flood battle until the end of last November.
American officials: The Israeli army has begun pumping seawater into Hamas tunnels
Flooding tunnels
The suffering of the Israeli occupation army in Gaza apparently prompted it to take unusual steps, as the Wall Street Journal quoted American officials, whom it described as well-informed, that the Israeli occupation army began pumping seawater into “Hamas’ tunnel complex in Gaza.”
According to officials, it could take weeks for Hamas tunnels in Gaza to be flooded with seawater.
The Israeli Defense Minister’s spokesman refused to comment on what the newspaper said, noting that “the tunnel operation is secret and cannot be commented on.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation forces again targeted medical teams, arresting the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, Ahmed Al-Kahlot, and taking him to an unknown destination, after storming the hospital and detaining medical teams.
The Ministry stated in a statement that the occupation forces released 5 doctors as well as women from the health teams, explaining that they took more than 70 health teams to an unknown destination.
Bab al-Mandab
Far from Gaza, the Ansar Allah group (Houthis) announced that it had raised its readiness to confront all possibilities against Israel, after the latter threatened to use force against the group.
On the other hand, the US Department of Defense said that the Houthi attacks on Israeli ships or those heading to Israel in Bab al-Mandab are an international problem that requires an international solution.