The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Thursday that it has taken full “operational control” in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood, dismantling Hamas’ “core capabilities” in the area. Within 24 hours, the IDF announced the destruction of 230 targets of the Palestinian terrorist group, including a tunnel complex in central Gaza housing offices of its leaders. Since the end of the ceasefire on December 1, Israel says it has killed more than 2,000 fighters.
The dead included four of the seven Hamas brigade commanders, according to IDF Arab spokesman Aichay Adraee. “The IDF continues to dismantle Hamas brigades in Gaza,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Of the seven senior commanders, four have already been liquidated, leaving only three senior commanders in the chain of command,” he added. However, Israel has still not been able to capture those it says are its main targets, namely the leader of the Gaza terrorist group, Yahya Sinwar, or the commander of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif.
“The choice I offer Hamas is very simple: surrender or die,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in yet another video message published on X. “They have and will have no other choice,” he added. Netanyahu also insists that neither Hamas nor Fatah, the party of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmud Abbas, will rule the Gaza Strip after the end of Israeli military operations, insisting that the fighting will not stop until Hamas is “eliminated” .
For his part, Al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Oeida indicated in a statement quoted by Al-Jazeera that if Israel wants its prisoners alive, “it has no choice but to stop the aggression.” There is news of a new deal for the release of Hamas hostages, but Israel denies any negotiations. “Right now we have no negotiations, but there is some progress in the fact that we have met twice with the Qataris in the last week, and we have made it clear to everyone in Israel and outside Israel that it is time to renew configuration of a new structure [de libertação] of hostages,” an official told the foreign press, quoted by The Times of Israel.
The Al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson also recalled that “the enemy has murdered leaders and resistance fighters in the past and this only increases the group’s determination to “avenge their crimes.” And he thanked the fighters who “distracted the enemy” in Lebanon and Yemen. In Lebanon, firefights between the IDF and Hezbollah along the border continue – at least two Israeli civilians were injured on Thursday – while in Yemen, Houthi rebels attack ships in the Red Sea. Hamas’s armed wing also claimed responsibility for the rocket attack on Tel Aviv.
Vote at the UN?
Since Monday, the United Nations Security Council has postponed daily voting on a resolution calling for the “urgent suspension” of fighting in the Gaza Strip to allow the safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in the Palestinian enclave. This Thursday, the US, Israel’s allies, continued to block a vote, disagreeing with the language of the text and threatening to use the veto, but a vote was still scheduled for early this morning in Lisbon. On average, 300 people die in Gaza every day – there have already been more than 20,000 deaths – and the UN warned that more than two million people are going hungry.
The US obstacles related to the creation of a United Nations monitoring system that would replace current inspections of goods entering Gaza. The US insists that Israel should be involved in the inspections, while the United Arab Emirates and Egypt – the former backing the resolution and the latter controlling the border at Rafah – want the UN to take control to bring in more aid to let.
U.S. Mission to the United Nations spokesman Nate Evans said Thursday that Washington had “serious concerns” that the resolution, as drafted, would “delay the delivery of humanitarian assistance with impractical oversight.” And he stressed that the most important thing is to “ensure that any resolution helps and does not harm the situation on the ground.”
During the week, the resolution had already been amended in response to US requests, calling for, for example, the “suspension” of hostilities rather than “cessation”. The Security Council met behind closed doors on Thursday evening to see if it would still be possible to unblock the situation and avoid another North American veto. The vote was scheduled for early today. Diplomats spoke in important paragraphs about “progress”. On December 8, the US used its veto to block the final text, as it was the only one to vote against it.
Source: DN
