Israel expands its Hamas offensive into southern Gaza strip

The Gaza Strip confronted heavy bombardment for a 3rd night time because the seven-day pause in preventing ended on Friday, because the Israeli offensive shifts to the refugee-packed south of the enclave.

“We fought strongly and thoroughly in the northern Gaza Strip, and we are also doing it now in the southern Gaza Strip,” Israel Protection Forces Chief of Workers Herzi Halevi informed reservists on Sunday. That is the clearest sign up to now {that a} much-feared Israeli offensive is about to envelop the south of the Gaza territories, the place a whole lot of hundreds of displaced Palestinian folks have been compelled to evacuate at Israel’s directions.

“Wherever there is a stronghold, the IDF operates. The Israeli forces are fighting terrorists face-to-face and killing them,” IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari informed reporters in a late Sunday press briefing.

The Israeli navy, whose said aim is to dismantle Palestinian militant group Hamas and recuperate all hostages in its custody, mentioned in an in a single day Telegram replace that it has struck roughly 200 Hamas targets, individually reporting it killed a senior Hamas commander, Haitham Khuwajari, head of the Shati Battalion. CNBC couldn’t independently confirm the experiences.

The IDF estimates that 137 hostages stay held by Hamas within the Gaza Strip in circumstances unknown, following hostage swaps for the discharge of detained Palestinian civilians that had been carried out in the course of the cease-fire. Israel has individually begun to declare among the lacking as lifeless in captivity in an try and grant closure to grieving family, Reuters reported, saying {that a} three-person medical committee has been finding out and cross-referencing video footage from the Oct. 7 terror assaults and the testimonies of launched hostages.

These measures might help decide the standing of a captive, even when no physician has formally pronounced a loss of life, mentioned Hagar Mizrahi, the top of the panel and a well being ministry official.

Within the Gaza Strip, Israeli assaults have coalesced across the southern metropolis of Khan Younis, the place Israel suspects that Hamas management is entrenched in a spiderweb of underground tunnels. The IDF has been urging Palestinian civilians to evacuate sure components of the town, in accordance with a Google-translated update from spokesperson for Arab media Avichay Adraee.

The south of the Gaza enclave was beforehand thought-about protected territory for refugees and residential to the strip’s few remaining absolutely practical hospitals, following relentless bombardment within the north.

Torrential fusillades now engulf Khan Younis, with the IDF claiming on Telegram that the Israeli air pressure struck over 50 targets regionally on Dec. 2

“A night of utterly relentless bombardments. I cannot stop thinking about the 1.8 million people in the south. I don’t think there was more than a five or 10 minute-period throughout the course of the night, and I really didn’t sleep, where something wasn’t flying overhead or the sky being lit up,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who’s on web site, said in a voice note.

“Despite what has been assured, attacks in the south of #Gaza are every bit as vicious as what the north endured,” he added on social media.

The focusing on of Khan Younis comes mere weeks after the IDF urged Palestinian folks to take refuge south of the Wadi Gaza wetlands within the strip amid decimation within the north of the enclave — and raises questions of the place subsequent civilians can search shelter. The U.S. has beforehand mentioned that the battle can’t lead to forceful Palestinian displacements.

Washington itself has been drawn into the fireplace. The U.S. Command Heart on Sunday reported that three business ships — the Unity Explorer, the Quantity 9 and the Sophie II — got here underneath hearth within the in style Pink Sea transit route from missiles deployed from Yemeni areas managed by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. The offensives prompted the patrolling U.S. navy destroyer, the Carney, to shoot down a number of Houthi drones, with solely minor injury and no casualties reported, according to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).

Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree claimed responsibility for the attacks in opposition to the Unity Explorer and the Quantity 9 on behalf of the group, saying the previous vessel was focused by an anti-ship missile, with the second ship pursued by a sea drone. The Houthis claimed that each vessels had rejected warnings from Yemeni naval forces, reiterating that “all Israeli vessels or those linked to Israelis” will grow to be a “legitimate target” — a menace first levied when the militants seized the Galaxy Chief cargo ship, which is unaffiliated with Israel, in November.

“These attacks represent a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security,” CENTCOM mentioned. “We also have every reason to believe that these attacks, while launched by the Houthis in Yemen, are fully enabled by Iran. The United States will consider all appropriate responses in full coordination with its international allies and partners.”

Repeated anti-Israel offensives from Houthi operatives, Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime and Lebanese Hezbollah militants — all of whom are sponsored by Iran and thought to be Tehran’s proxies by some within the worldwide group — have fueled considerations that the Israel-Hamas battle may spill into the broader Center East. Tehran has repeatedly mentioned that these forces of “resistance” act independently.