Sara Gomez Armas
Jerusalem, Jan 15 (EFE). – Israel announced Monday that it is downgrading the intensity of the war in the north of the Gaza Strip and will soon do the same in Khan Yunis, in the south, where it is trying to hunt down the Hamas leadership.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced on Monday announced the end of the “intensive phase” of the war in the north “after defeating all the Hamas battalions in the area.”
He added that the same would happen soon in the south, in Khan Yunis, where fighting has been raging since December.
Gallant explained that in Khan Yunis, the strategy is focused on the “head of the snake,” hunting down the Hamas leadership, which is allegedly hiding in tunnels under the city.
The operation aims to track down Yahya Sinwar and Mohamed Deif, the heads of Hamas’ military wing, who are supposedly the masterminds behind the brutal attack on Israeli soil on Oct. 7 that left more than 1,200 people dead and some 250 kidnapped.
The minister’s comments coincide with the Israeli army’s announcement of the withdrawal of the 36th Division, one of the four operating in the Strip, which will enter a period of recovery and training.
Israel is moving toward a long-term campaign against Hamas, which it predicts could last “through 2024,” and which includes reinforcing troops in the West Bank, where violence is on the rise, and on the northern border, where there have been daily clashes with the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah.
As Israel withdraws from the north, it is expanding its ground offensive in the center of the Strip toward the Nuseirat area after several weeks of stalled fighting in the nearby Maghazi refugee camp.
“Forces from the 646th Brigade operating in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza uncovered a mortar shells manufacturing facility, a rocket manufacturing factory, and weapons hidden in the building of a humanitarian organization,” the military said in a statement.
The al-Qassam Brigades and al-Quds, the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, respectively, confirmed armed clashes with Israeli troops in central Gaza and in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Strip, where fighting has raged for more than a month.
In the past 24 hours, the Hamas government has confirmed more than 130 deaths, bringing the death toll to more than 24,100 – in addition to some 8,000 bodies missing under the rubble – and the number of wounded to 60,800.
Most of these deaths were caused by Israeli airstrikes, often against residential buildings in the center and south of the enclave, although some 30 people were killed in bombings in two suburbs of Gaza City in the north.
In the Maghazi camp, in the center, the bombings took place near a girls’ high school where “a large number of displaced persons” are sheltering, Palestinian sources told EFE.
In addition, communications and Internet services remain cut for the fourth consecutive day, due in part to the lack of fuel and the destruction of more than 80% of the Strip’s infrastructure,
This is the seventh communications blackout suffered by the enclave since the beginning of the land invasion by Israeli forces.
On Sunday, the director of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, denounced more than 300 attacks on the health network and humanitarian organizations in 100 days of war.
“Following over 300 attacks on health and continuous lack of safe access to critical aid, the majority of hospitals in the Strip have stopped working. The 15 facilities that are still working can only provide limited health care,” said the WHO director on X (formerly Twitter).
“Patients facing avoidable amputations due to the health system’s destruction. Those with serious chronic conditions are dying due to the lack of care. Diseases are spreading among a population forced to crowd into ever smaller spaces, with little clean water or access to sanitation,” he added
As fighting against Israeli troops continues, Hamas released a propaganda video Monday announcing the deaths of two hostages, Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itay Svirsky, 38, in bombings, although Israel has not confirmed the information.
Hamas also celebrated, but did not claim, a multiple stabbing and hit-and-run attack by two Palestinians in the Israeli town of Ranana, north of Tel Aviv, that killed a woman in her 70s and wounded 17 others, including 7minors.
The attackers were two relatives who entered Israel illegally from Hebron in the occupied West Bank, where two other Palestinians were killed Monday by Israeli gunfire during an army raid in the nearby town of Dura. EFE
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