HATEM ALI / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Palestinians surround an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza Strip, on Saturday.
RAFAH, Gaza Strip >. The Palestinian death toll from the war between Israel and Hamas has soared past 25,000, the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said today, while Israel announced the death of another hostage and appeared far from achieving its goals of freeing over 100 others and crushing the militant group.
The death, destruction and displacement caused by the war are unprecedented in the decades-long standoff between Israelis and Palestinians. The war has divided Israelis, while the offensive threatens to provoke a broader confrontation involving Iranian-backed teams in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen than the Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during his verbal exchange with U. S. President Joe Biden on Friday that he rejected Hamas’ demands for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the release of Palestinians held through Israel in exchange for the remaining hostages. He said a deal meant that another devastating attack by Hamas “would only be a matter of time. “
Netanyahu also rejects calls from U.S, its closest ally, for postwar plans that would include a path to Palestinian statehood. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the refusal to accept a two-state solution unacceptable.
“The Middle East is a tinderbox. We must do all we can to prevent conflict igniting across the region,” Guterres added. “And that starts with an immediate humanitarian cease-fire to relieve the suffering in Gaza.”
In the latest of the near-daily clashes between Hezbollah forces and Israeli troops along the Lebanese border, an Israeli airstrike hit a car near a Lebanese army checkpoint in southern Kafra town, killing one user and wounding several others. Lebanese state media reported. . . The Israeli military said its planes and tanks had struck several Hezbollah targets and that an anti-tank missile introduced from Lebanon had hit an area in Avivim, northern Israel. No injuries were reported.
Death toll rises in Gaza
The war began with Hamas’ attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7. Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages back to Gaza.
The Israeli military announced the death of Sergeant Shay Levinson, who was among the hostages. The date of his death was October 7, but there were no further details. According to Israeli media, his body remains in Gaza.
Israel responded to the Oct. 7 onslaught with a bombing crusade and ground invasion that devastated entire neighborhoods in northern Gaza and spread southward, reaching some spaces where it called on civilians to seek shelter. Ground operations are now aimed south of the town of Khan Younis and refugee camps built in central Gaza since the 1948 war that surrounded Israel’s creation.
“Plumes of smoke from tanks, artillery and air force aircraft will continue to cover the skies over the Gaza Strip until we succeed in our targets,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said.
The Israeli military said it was reviewing last week’s demolition of a key construction site at the Israel University in Gaza, and said initial findings indicated Hamas had used the compound for military purposes. The university said the “attack” took place weeks after Israeli forces occupied the building.
Since the start of the war, 25,105 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, while 62,681 have been wounded, the Health Ministry said. The death toll includes 178 bodies transported to Gaza hospitals since Saturday, Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said.
The overall toll is thought to be higher because many casualties remain buried under rubble or in areas that medics cannot reach, Al-Qidra said.
The Health Ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its figures, but says about two-thirds of those killed in Gaza were women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas-led government, but the casualty figures from past wars largely fit with those of U. N. agencies and even those of the Israeli military.
The Israeli military says it has killed around 9,000 militants, without providing evidence, and blames the high civilian death toll on Hamas because it positions fighters, tunnels and other militant infrastructure in dense neighborhoods. The military released footage of a tunnel under a residential neighborhood in Khan Younis where the army believes at least 20 hostages were kept at different times.
The war has displaced about 85 percent of Gaza’s residents, and hundreds of thousands have moved to UN-run shelters and camps in the south. Officials say a quarter of the country’s 2. 3 million people are starving to death as a trickle of humanitarian aid arrives due to Israeli fighting and restrictions.
Israel said 260 trucks of aid entered Gaza on Sunday, the highest number since the war began. About 500 entered daily before that, according to the U.N.
“Bread does not suffice for one hour,” said Ahmad Al-Nashawi, who accepted donated food at a tent camp in the southern city of Rafah. “You can see how many children we have other than women and men. What matters most for a child is to eat.”
Israelis divided
Some senior Israeli officials have begun to recognize that Netanyahu’s goals of a “complete victory” over Hamas and the return of the remaining hostages would likely be mutually exclusive.
A member of Israel’s war cabinet, former army leader Gadi Eisenkot, said last week that the only way to free the hostages is a ceasefire.
But Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners are pressuring him to step up the offensive, with some calling for the “voluntary” emigration of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza and the re-establishment of Jewish settlements there.
Hamas is believed to be using the hostages as shields for its top leaders. Israel has rescued one hostage, and Hamas says several have been killed in Israeli airstrikes or during failed rescue operations.
The Israeli government is facing increasing pressure from the families of the hostages, who need an exchange like the one that led to the week-long ceasefire in November. Other Israelis are frustrated by security issues ahead of the Oct. 7 attack and Netanyahu’s handling of the war.
Near the site of the Oct. 7 massacre, at a music festival, families of Israeli victims planted trees.
“What happened after 109 days?” We are waiting,” Father Idan Bahat said.
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