Israel bombs northern Gaza, reports mounting military losses

CAIRO/JERUSALEM – Israel bombed areas of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip overnight, with fighting throughout Dec 24 morning, residents and Palestinian media said, as the Israeli military announced a mounting death toll in clashes with Hamas militants.

Israel said it has achieved almost complete operational control over northern Gaza and is preparing to expand a ground offensive to other areas. But Jabalia residents reported persistent aerial bombardment and shelling from Israeli tanks, which they said had moved further into the town on Dec 23.

The Israeli military appeared to be meeting stiff resistance. It said on Dec 24 that eight soldiers had been killed in the Strip, bringing its published combat losses to 154 since it began its ground incursion in response to

Hamas’ Oct 7 rampage into Israel

in which militants killed 1,200 and took 240 hostages.

The White House said United States President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

had discussed the Israeli campaign.

Mr Biden “emphasised the critical need to protect the civilian population including those supporting the humanitarian aid operation, and the importance of allowing civilians to move safely away from areas of ongoing fighting”, the White House said in a statement.

“The leaders discussed the importance of securing the release of all remaining hostages,” it added.

Israel’s main ally has maintained its support while expressing concern over the casualty toll and humanitarian crisis in Gaza. US officials have said they expect Israel to shift soon to a lower-intensity phase.

Mr Netanyahu, speaking at a weekly Cabinet meeting on Dec 24, dismissed reports that the US had convinced Israel not to expand its military campaign.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Dec 23 that Mr Netanyahu was persuaded by Mr Biden not to attack the militant Hezbollah group in neighbouring Lebanon out of concerns it would launch an attack on Israel.

“Israel is a sovereign state,” Mr Netanyahu said. “Our decisions in the war are based on our operational considerations, and I will not elaborate on that.”

The United Nations Security Council averted a threatened US veto on Dec 22 after days of wrangling, by removing from a draft resolution a call for an immediate end to the war and diluting Israeli control over aid deliveries.

The US and Israel oppose a ceasefire, contending that it would let Iran-backed Hamas regroup and rearm.

Washington abstained from the final statement, which urges steps to allow “safe, unhindered, and expanded humanitarian access” to Gaza and “conditions for a sustainable cessation” of fighting.

The Palestinian death toll reached 20,258, the Palestinian health ministry said on Dec 23, with thousands more bodies believed trapped under rubble. Almost all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced.

Mr Yiftah Ron-Tal, a former commander of the Israeli ground forces, described the Gaza battlefield in a built-up area as “the most complicated and fortified” in the world, requiring infantry, tanks, artillery and engineer corps.

“I think what’s happening now is a product of a tough battle in a condensed area and in this kind of battle, sadly, there are many losses,” he told army radio.

Israel has long urged residents to leave northern areas of Gaza, but its forces have been bombarding targets in central and southern parts of the tiny coastal enclave.

In Rafah, on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, an Israeli air strike on a house killed two people, Palestinian medics said.

“They ask people to head to Deir al-Balah (in central Gaza), where they bomb day and night,” Mr Ziad, a medic and father of six, told Reuters by phone.

“International law has collapsed,” said Mr Ramzy Aidy, a Gaza resident with a doctorate in law. “If Israel were in the Palestinians’ position, the world would not stand still and would act.”

Hamas’ armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades said on Dec 23 it destroyed five Israeli tanks around Jabalia, killing and wounding their crews after reusing two undetonated missiles launched by Israel. Reuters could not independently verify the report.

The Israeli Defence Forces said it had fired decoy shots in the area of Issa in Gaza City that lured dozens of militants from a building that served as a Hamas headquarters in the north of the enclave, “eliminating the terrorists”.

The army released a video it said showed Hamas tunnels in the Issa area. Reuters could not independently verify the location or the date.

Israel accuses the militant group of using civilians as human shields by placing tunnels and other military infrastructure among them, something Hamas denies.

The conflict has spread, as Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi forces disrupt global trade with

missile and drone attacks on vessels in the Red Sea

in retaliation for Israel’s assault on Gaza.

The US shot down four drones

launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen towards a US destroyer in the southern Red Sea on Dec 23, bringing the number of such attacks on commercial shipping,to 15, US Central Command said.

A drone launched from Iran struck a chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean on Dec 23, the US Defence Department said.

An Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said the Mediterranean Sea could be closed if the US and its allies kept committing “crimes” in Gaza, Iranian media reported, without elaborating. REUTERS