Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that Israel’s war against Hamas will last for “many months”, until the Palestinian militant group has been eliminated.
“We will guarantee that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel,” he told a news conference, adding that the military was involved in a “complex fight” and needed time to achieve its goals.
The fighting began with Hamas’s bloody Oct 7 attacks, which left about 1,140 people dead in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also took about 250 people hostage, and Israel says 129 of them remain in captivity.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the Israeli military campaign has killed at least 21,672 people, mostly women and children.
A ministry statement on Saturday said 165 Gazans were killed over the previous 24 hours.
The Israeli army says 170 soldiers have been killed in combat inside Gaza.
An AFP correspondent reported continuous shelling of Rafah and Khan Younis overnight, and the health ministry said “multiple” people had died in a strike on a house in Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza.
‘Year of destruction’
Medics in Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said they were facing severe shortages.
“The hospital is receiving a lot more (patients) than its capacity, in fact we are functioning at 300 percent of our…capacity,” doctor Ahmad Abu Mustafa said in footage shared by the World Health Organization.
“The beds are full… and we are basically short on all sorts of medicine supplies.”
The health ministry appealed to the international community for increased support, including assistance in evacuating patients.
The fighting has put 23 hospitals and 53 health centres out of service, while 104 ambulances have been destroyed, the ministry said.
In central Gaza’s Zawayda, Palestinians pulled the body of a child from under the rubble after an Israeli strike.
“We pulled (out) nine martyrs, who were members of a very peaceful family. Two adjacent houses were targeted,” said the area’s civil defence director, Rami al-Aidi.
Source: CNA
