GAZA STRIP (Palestinian Territories): Israelis and Palestinians end a dark year on Sunday, with no end in sight to the deadliest military offensive on Gaza, triggered by Hamas’ bloodiest attack on Israel.
There has been no respite from Israel’s air raids, artillery fire or ground fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, to the despair of Palestinians surviving the onslaught.
“We were hoping that 2024 would arrive under better auspices and that we would be able to celebrate the New Year at home with our families,” said Mahmoud Abou Shahma in a camp for displaced people in Rafah, on the Egyptian border.
“We hope that the war will end and that we will be able to return to our homes and live in peace”, said the 33-year-old from southern Khan Yunis, an epicentre of the conflict.
Gaza’s health ministry says the Israeli military campaign has killed at least 21,672 people, mostly women and children.
The fighting began with Hamas’s bloody October 7 attacks, which left about 1,140 people dead in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Hamas also took about 250 people hostage, and Israel says 129 of them remain in captivity. The Israeli army says 170 soldiers have been killed in combat inside Gaza.
An Israeli siege imposed after October 7, following years of crippling blockade, has led to dire shortages of food, safe water, fuel and medicine in Gaza, with aid convoys able to offer only sporadic relief. The UN says more than 85 per cent of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have fled their homes.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that Israel’s war against Hamas will last for “many months” — until the Palestinian militant group has been eliminated.
As Netanyahu spoke, more than a thousand relatives and supporters of the hostages demonstrated in Tel Aviv to maintain pressure on his government to bring their loved ones home.
“I hope there’s going to be another deal, even a partial deal or some will be released. I’m trying to hold on to every shred of hope,” said Nir Shafran, 45.
In southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis, medics at Nasser hospital described 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 Organisation (WHO).
“The beds are full… and we are basically short on all sorts of medicine supplies.”
The fighting has put 23 hospitals and 53 health centres out of service, while 104 ambulances have been destroyed, the health ministry said.
In central Gaza’s Zawayda, Palestinians pulled the body of a child from under the rubble on Saturday after an Israeli strike. – AFP
