TEL AVIV, Israel, 23 Dec: Fourteen Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in the Gaza Strip over the weekend, the Israeli military said Sunday, in some of the bloodiest days of battle since the start of the ground offensive and a sign that Hamas is still putting up a fight despite weeks of brutal war.
\nThe mounting death toll among Israeli troops is likely to play an important factor in Israeli public support for the war, which was sparked when Hamas-led militants stormed communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 and taking 240 hostage. The war has devastated parts of the Gaza Strip, killed roughly 20,400 Palestinians and displaced nearly 85% of Gaza\u2019s 2.3 million people.
\nThe Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza said 166 people were killed in the coastal enclave over the past day.
\nIsraelis still stand firmly behind the country\u2019s stated goals of crushing Hamas\u2019 governing and military capabilities and releasing the remaining 129 captives. That support has stayed mostly steady despite rising international pressure against Israel\u2019s offensive and the soaring death toll and unprecedented suffering among Palestinians.
\nBut the growing number of dead soldiers could undermine that support. Soldiers\u2019 deaths are a sensitive and emotional topic in Israel, a country with compulsory military service for most Jews.
\nThe names of fallen soldiers are announced at the top of hourly newscasts, and in a small country of about 9 million people, virtually every family knows a relative, friend or co-worker who has lost a family member in war.
\nThe 14 Israeli soldiers killed on Friday and Saturday died in battles in central and southern Gaza, an indication of how Hamas is still putting up tough resistance against advancing Israeli troops, even as Israel claims to have dealt a serious blow to the militant group.
\nAccording to Israeli Army Radio, four soldiers were killed when their vehicle was struck by an anti-tank missile. The others were killed in separate, sporadic fighting.
\nAnother soldier was killed in northern Israel by fire from the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which has kept up low-level fighting with Israel since the war with Hamas erupted, raising fears of a wider regional conflict.
\nTheir deaths bring the number of Israeli soldiers killed since the ground offensive began to 153.
\n\u201cThe war exacts a very heavy price from us but we have no choice but to continue fighting,\u201d Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a meeting of his Cabinet Sunday. \u201cWe are continuing with all the force, until the end, until victory, until we reach all our goals.\u201d
\nEven if Israelis have been supportive of the war effort, there has been widespread anger against Netanyahu\u2019s government, which many criticize for failing to protect civilians on Oct. 7 and promoting policies that allowed Hamas to gain strength over the years.
\nOn Saturday night, thousands of people demonstrated in pouring rain in Tel Aviv, chanting \u201cBibi, Bibi, we don\u2019t want you anymore,\u201d referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.
\nNetanyahu has avoided accepting responsibility for the military and policy failures leading up to Oct. 7, saying he would answer tough questions once the fighting is over.
\nOn Saturday, Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said forces were expanding their offensive in northern and southern Gaza and troops were fighting in \u201ccomplex areas\u201d in Khan Younis, Gaza\u2019s second-largest city, where Israel believes Hamas leaders are hiding.
\nIsrael\u2019s offensive has been one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history and has claimed a staggering toll on Palestinian civilians. More than two-thirds of the 20,000 killed were women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
\nThe Palestinian Red Crescent said Sunday morning that a 13-year-old boy was shot and killed by an Israeli drone attack while inside the building of al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis. It provided no further details.
\nAn Israeli strike overnight hit a house in a refugee camp west of the city of Rafah, on Gaza\u2019s borders with Egypt. AP<\/p>\n
At least two men were killed and their bodies taken to the Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital, according to Associated Press journalists in the hospital.
\nPalestinians reported heavy Israeli bombardment and gunfire Sunday morning in the town of Jabaliya, an area north of Gaza City that Israel had previously claimed to control. Sounds of explosions and gunfire echoed across the town with Israeli warplanes flying over the area, they said. Hamas\u2019 military arm said its fighters shelled Israeli troops in Jabaliya and Jabaliya refugee camp.
\n\u201cThere are bombings and fierce battles during the night,\u201d said Assad Radwan, a Palestinian fisherman from Jabaliya. \u201cSounds of explosions and gunfire never stopped.\u201d
\nOn Saturday, rescuers and hospital officials said that more than 90 Palestinians, including dozens from an extended family, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on two homes in Gaza.
\nIsrael has come under heavy international criticism for the rising civilian death toll, widespread damage and deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza.
\nIsrael blames Hamas for the high civilian death toll, citing the militants\u2019 use of crowded residential areas and tunnels. Israel has launched thousands of airstrikes since Oct. 7, and has largely refrained from commenting on specific attacks.
\nIsrael says it has killed thousands of Hamas militants, including about 2,000 in the past three weeks since expanding its offensive to southern Gaza, but has not presented evidence. It says it is dismantling Hamas\u2019 vast underground tunnel network and killing off top Hamas commanders \u2014 an operation that leaders have said could take months.
\nINTERNATIONAL PRESSURE
\nThe mounting casualties on both sides came days after the United Nations Security Council passed a watered-down resolution calling for the speedy delivery of humanitarian aid for hungry and desperate Palestinians and the release of all the hostages, but not for a cease-fire.
\nFollowing the U.N. resolution, it was not immediately clear how and when aid deliveries would accelerate. Trucks enter through two crossings \u2014 Rafah on the border with Egypt and Kerem Shalom on the border with Israel. On Friday, fewer than 100 trucks entered, the U.N. said \u2014 far below the daily average of 500 before the war.
\nBoth crossings were closed Saturday by mutual agreement among Israel, Egypt and the U.N., Israeli officials said.
\nFilippo Grandi, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, on Sunday reiterated calls by other top U.N. officials for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza to allow the delivery of aid, and help release hostages.
\n\u201cFor aid to reach people in need, hostages to be released, more displacement to be avoided and above all the devastating loss of lives to stop a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza is the only way forward,\u201d he wrote on X.
\nIsrael\u2019s allies in Europe have also stepped up calls for a stop to the fighting. But the U.S., Israel\u2019s top ally, appeared to remain firmly behind Israel even though it has intensified its calls for greater protection for civilians in Gaza.
\nU.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Netanyahu on Saturday, a day after Washington shielded Israel from a harsher U.N. resolution. Biden said he did not ask for a cease-fire, while Netanyahu\u2019s office said the prime minister \u201cmade clear that Israel would continue the war until achieving all its goals.\u201d AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TEL AVIV, Israel, 23 Dec: Fourteen Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in the Gaza Strip over the weekend, the Israeli military said Sunday, in some of the bloodiest days of battle since the start of the ground offensive and a sign that Hamas is still putting up a fight despite weeks of brutal war. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-231479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}