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More than 200 Palestinians have been killed following the resumption of hostilities between Israel and Hamas after a week-long ceasefire.
Images from Gaza showed the horrifying extent of civilian casualties as Palestinians clutched loved ones at the central Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
The director-general of the Red Cross has said that ‘Gaza is at breaking point’ – and the renewed violence is making it challenging to get food and water to civilians bearing the brunt of the conflict.
‘We continue to urge all parties to allow (aid) access for all civilians … hospitals, medical teams and humanitarian workers so that they can continue with their life-saving work,’ Hisham Mhanna of the International Committee of the Red Cross told Al Jazeera from Gaza today.Â
Israel meanwhile claims to have hit more than 400 targets overnight, including many in the southern Khan Yunis area, a city of 200,000 where tens of thousands have flocked in recent weeks to escape the aerial bombardment of the north.
People in the east of the region are now also being told to move to Rafah, where the enclave borders Egypt, which a rights group called an indication Israeli forces are looking to further displace civilians.Â
Injured people are brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital for treatment in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on December 2, 2023
Injured people, including children, are brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital for treatment after an Israeli attack in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on December 2, 2023
Children pictured in a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on December 2 following an Israeli airstrike
A picture taken from southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on December 2, 2023, shows an explosion and smoke billowing over the Palestinian territory during an Israeli strike
Explosions and smoke in Gaza City amid Israeli airstrikes on December 2, 2023
Two million people – almost Gaza’s entire population – are crammed into the territory’s south, where Israel urged people to relocate at the war’s start and has since vowed to extend its ground assault.
The death toll in the Gaza Strip during fighting with Israel has passed 15,200 and about 70 per cent were women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.Â
Unable to go into north Gaza or neighbouring Egypt, their only escape is to move around within the 85 square mile area as Israeli strikes continue to devastate residential areas from above.
Hostilities resumed in Gaza on Friday after a six-day truce was extended by 24 hours in a last-minute deal made on Thursday in an effort to free the remaining hostages.Â
Israel dropped leaflets over the Gaza Strip the night before, urging civilians to seek shelter, but by the evening there were no reports of any significant evacuation efforts.Â
‘There is no place to go,’ explained Emad Hajar, who fled with his wife and three children from the northern town of Beit Lahia a month ago to seek refuge in Khan Younis.
‘They expelled us from the north, and now they are pushing us to leave the south.’
Some 1.7mn Palestinians have been displaced from their homes, the UN said late in November, with 900,000 packing into crowded UN-run shelters.Â
Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, Chief Executive Officer of humanitarian aid NGO Mercy Corps, said today: ‘Reports of leaflets dropped in Khan Younis urging people to move further south to Rafah are deeply concerning. We are already seeing the consequences of severe overcrowding in the south – where 80% of the population has evacuated.Â
‘Many of our own team members are reporting that they and their families are suffering from gastrointestinal and skin ailments, with children most affected, due to the lack of clean water. They are rationing salty water for laundry and bathing.
‘One team member who journeyed south shared, ‘I saw death as I walked through this ‘safe’ corridor more than ever before. I wished I could die at that moment and not smell the scent of blood, not see the dead body parts, not see death everywhere in my homeland. I wish I had never left my home, instead of living in this false safety they sent us to.’
‘Further reports of maps published to advise Palestinians of so-called ‘safe areas’ for evacuation in Gaza are equally troubling. No place in Gaza is safe, and any attempts to signal safe zones to civilians does not absolve parties to the conflict from adhering to International Humanitarian Law and protecting civilians anywhere they are. Unilateral creation of safe zones would risk harm and large-scale loss of life as concentrating civilians in zones during active hostilities can lead to further danger.
McKenna urged aid be ‘significantly increased’ to meet the demands of the spiralling humanitarian crisis. ‘Aid and aid access must not be used as a bargaining chip for any ongoing negotiations.’
Smoke rising from buildings after being hit by Israeli strikes, after battles resumed between Israel and Hamas militants, on December 2, 2023
A view of damage in the street between Rafah and Khan Yunis cities due to Israeli attacks after the end of the humanitarian pause in Khan Yunis, Gaza on December 2, 2023
The aftermath of Israeli strikes in a street between Rafah and Khan Younis, southern GazaÂ
Israeli soldiers with their armoured fighting vehicles gather at a position near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, 2 December 2023
Smoke rising from buildings after being hit by Israeli strikes, after battles resumed between Israel and Hamas militants, on December 2, 2023
People mourn as they collect the bodies of Palestinians killed in an airstrike on December 2, 2023 in Khan Yunis, Gaza
People mourn as they collect the bodies of Palestinians killed in an airstrike on December 02, 2023 in Khan Yunis, Gaza
As the hostilities open up once more, Israel’s main ally in the United States has urged the country to show restraint an avoid the unnecessary killing of civilians in its retaliatory attacks.
‘This is going to be very important going forward,’ secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Friday after meetings with Arab foreign ministers in Dubai. ‘It’s something we’re going to be looking at very closely.’
But Israel is now reported to be planning an intensified and extended campaign in the Gaza Strip lasting potentially more than a year as hostilities resume in the beleaguered Palestinian enclave.
‘This will be a very long war … we’re currently not near halfway to achieving our objectives,’ said one source, as reported by the Financial Times.Â
A multiphase strategy is expected to see Israeli forces sweep south from their forward bases around Gaza City in an effort to kill Hamas’ top officials, according to sources familiar with Israeli operations.
Israel will look to target Hamas’ three top leaders in a bid to displace Hamas from its de facto governance of the Gaza Strip.
Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Marwan Issa were identified as top targets for Israel by sources speaking to the FT. Between them, they form a secretive triumvirate responsible for planning and executing the October 7 assault into Israel.
SInwar, 61, is suspected to be based in a Hamas command and control centre under the Al Shifa hospital, which Israel has been steadily navigating since its raid last month.
As the Head of Hamas in Gaza, he is the second most powerful member of Hamas after Ismail Haniyeh. The latter now lives in Doha, Qatar and has been suggested as another main target for assassination, as reported in October.
Sinwar is believed to be a key planner of the October 7 attacks that left some 1,200 Israelis dead. He set up Hamas’ armed outfit, the IQB, but the division has since been taken over by chiefs Mohammed Deif and Marwan Issa.
The whereabouts of Deif, 58, are unknown, though he is most likely in Gaza in the maze of tunnels under the enclave. An Israeli security source said in October he was directly involved in the planning and operational aspects of the attack.
‘There are two brains, but there is one mastermind,’ the source said, referring to Sinwar and Deif without elaborating.Â
Marwan Issa, 58, is the deputy leader of Hamas’ IQB military wing.Â
Two military experts told Reuters that killing Sinwar, Deif and Issa would allow Israel to claim an important symbolic victory. But achieving even that goal would be long and costly, with no guarantee of success.Â
Israel’s operations over the next year or so will be flexible, resilient to pressure from international onlookers and adaptive to opportunities to free hostages, a source told the FT today.
Looking ahead, Israel will seek a ‘security envelope’ with special zones and arrangements that will prevent Hamas from being positioned on its border after the war in Gaza is over, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday.
Asked whether Israel was seeking a buffer zone between itself and Gaza to prevent future attacks, senior adviser Mark Regev told reporters: ‘Israel will have to have a security envelope. We can never again allow terrorists to cross the border and butcher our people the way they did on October 7.’
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‘If you ask me about a buffer zone, let me be clear; you won’t have a situation in the future where you can have Hamas terrorists on the border, directly on the border, positioned just to cross over and kill our people again,’ Regev said.
‘That is not Israel taking territory from Gaza,’ said Regev. ‘On the contrary, that is creating security zones where you have a special situation on the ground which limits the ability of people to enter Israel to kill our people. It’s common sense.’
US Vice President Kamala Harris meanwhile said today they would like to see a ‘unified Gaza and West Bank under the Palestinian Authority’.
She urged today that there must be regional consensus and support to a post-conflict Gaza in any outcome.Â
Ms Harris said Israel has a legitimate military objective against Hamas but must do more to protect innocent people in Gaza.
‘Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering, and the images and videos coming from Gaza are devastating,’ Ms Harris told reporters.
‘So we all want this conflict to end as soon as possible, and to ensure Israel’s security and ensure security for the Palestinian people. We must accelerate efforts to build an enduring peace.’
Pictured: Yahya Sinwar (left) and Mohammed Deif (right)Â
Palestinians flee from east to west of Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, during the ongoing Israeli bombardment, Saturday, December 2, 2023
Palestinians were told on Thursday to flee – but warn there is nowhere left for them to go
Israeli troops on the ground in the northern Gaza Strip on December 2
Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip, after a temporary truce expired between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in this handout picture released on December 2, 2023
Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip in this handout picture released on December 2, 2023
Israel and Hamas have returned to fighting after a week’s ceasefire.Â
A total of 110 hostages taken prisoner during the October 7 attacks on Israel were released during the truce after extensive negotiations.
Seventy-eight of them were Israeli woman and children, freed as part of a deal between Israel and Gaza mediated by Qatar.
Three Russian-Israelis, two women and one man were also released outside of the deal. The freeing of Yelena Trupanov, and her mother Irena Tati, were understood to be part of a gesture to Russian President Vladimir Putin from Hamas.
Under the main deal, 180 Palestinians were also released from Israeli jails.Â
The Palestinian Prisoners Society said that as of November 22, two days before the truce began, 7,200 prisoners were being held by Israel, among them 88 women and 250 children 17 and under.
Most on Israel’s list of prisoners to be released were from the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Jerusalem and were held for incidents such as attempted stabbings, hurling stones at Israeli soldiers, making explosives, damaging property and having contacts with hostile organisations. None are accused of murder.Â
Many were held under administrative detention, meaning they were held without trial.
Lord Ricketts, who served as the UK’s first national security adviser, has said Israel is in danger of causing ‘massive civilian casualties’ if it takes the fight to Hamas in southern Gaza.
The peer told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘They’ve got an increasing dilemma.
‘They ordered a million people from the north to leave into the south.
‘They now have two million people there, many of them displaced, many of them living out in the open.
‘They simply can’t use the same kind of armoured all-out assault that they used in the north without massive civilian casualties.’
He said Tel Aviv’s plan to destroy Hamas ‘seems to me to be impossible’ due to the political and social nature of the organisation.
Khan Younis has been devastated by Israeli airstrikes as forces refocus on targets in the southÂ
A view of damaged buildings in Gaza, after a temporary truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas expired, as seen from southern Israel, December 2, 2023
Palestinians carry their belongings following Israeli strikes on residential buildings at the Qatari-funded Hamad City, December 2, 2023
Mediators continue bold efforts to coordinate another ceasefire despite the clashes.
Qatar, which led talks culminating in last week’s ceasefire, said it will persist in seeking a renewed agreement – but shared the sentiment that the conflict is making it harder.
Many have condemned the end of the ceasefire, urging top officials to find any way to avoid bringing further death and destruction to the lives of civilians caught up in the conflict.
A United Nations official said: ‘Those in power have decided that the killing of children would recommence.’
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron said he would travel to Qatar to help carve out a new peace deal.
He said on Saturday France was ‘very concerned’ by the resumption of violence in Gaza.
Macron also told a press conference at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai that the situation required the doubling down on efforts to obtain a lasting ceasefire and the freeing of all hostages – and urged Israel to lay out clear goals for the operation.
‘We are at a moment when Israeli authorities must more precisely define their objectives and their final goal: the total destruction of Hamas, does anyone think it is possible? If this is the case, the war will last 10 years,’ he said.
‘There is no lasting security for Israel in the region if its security is achieved at the cost of Palestinian lives and thus of the resentment of public opinions in the region. Let’s be collectively lucid,’ Macron added.
Asked for a response to that remark, Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told reporters Israel does not want to see Gaza civilians caught in the crossfire as battles resume.Â
‘Israel is targeting Hamas, a brutal terrorist organization that has committed the most horrific violence against innocent civilians. Israel is making a maximum effort to safeguard Gaza’s civilians,’ said Regev.
Residential buildings lie in ruin following Israeli strikes at the Qatari-funded Hamad City in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip December 2, 2023
Palestinians flee from east to west of Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, during the ongoing Israeli bombardment, Saturday, December 2, 2023
Some 1.7mn Palestinians have been displaced from their homes, the UN said late in November
More than 15,000 Gazans have now been killed in the conflict since October 7, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Among them, prominent scientist Sufyan Tayeh was killed in an Israeli airstike targeting the town of Al-Faluja, the Palestinian Higher Education ministry announced on Saturday.
Tayeh, who was president of the Islamic University of Gaza, was a leading researcher in physics and applied mathematics.
